Ever feel stuck?
Ever feel that despite all the effort of looking for answers, to whatever
challenge currently dominates your life, solutions remain elusive? It may be time
to consider asking some thoughtful questions.
Questions are
like keys that unlock doors in our lives—they inspire curiosity and wonder,
loosen old ways of perceiving a situation and create space where new and
innovative answers can make an appearance.
The challenge,
then, is to find the right questions to release what is locked up in our minds
and hearts in terms of a solution.
One good way to
start is by brainstorming an exhaustive list of questions. Take a few minutes,
for example, to develop a page full of questions about your current challenge
and pay attention to the ones that hold an emotional charge—those are the ones
likely to be provocative and lead to innovative answers and/or solutions.
Also, examine
your pattern of thinking as revealed in the type of questions you ask, and consider
what that reveals.
I would also
urge that this should be done more than once and in a state of focused
presence. Spend a few minutes just being quiet and still—breathe—then when you
feel a little more centered, begin.
Be ready for not
just one answer to appear, but a few. Also be ready for the appearance of more
questions.
Remember this is
a process, that the answers to our dilemmas are worthy of our time and patience.
It takes as long
as it takes.
Feeling stuck is
indicative of being in a liminal space (a sacred space in between where we were
before and where we hope, eventually, to be), and although it can be
uncomfortable, this space in-between is fertile and full of possibility. It is
worthy of our respect and reverence.
In the end,
cultivating the ability to ask good questions, fosters the ability to find good
answers.
Ask good
questions.
