Please note that Current of Life was previously published under the title: Living Your Potential
(#4 of 7) from the series: Does Positive Thinking Really Work? All Those Masters Can't Be Wrong Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle used questions to challenge their philosophy students. Albert Einstein believed that formulating the question was more critical than calculating the actual solution. Rabbis and other spiritual teachers impart wisdom through skillful questioning. When presented with a question, the human brain responds by performing an automatic “search” for the answer. So, if you’re going to ask yourself a question... Make it a Good One A good question causes you to think creatively. It points you toward possibilities and action, often resulting in an improved and empowered emotional state. Catch yourself from asking questions that yield fruitless answers (e.g., Why does this always happen to me? How am I ever going to get all this done?). Here are some examples of productive questions:
Notice that most of these questions begin with What instead of Why. “What” evokes specific answers that are geared toward solutions (vs. taking you deeper into problems). This week, try using the questions above, in addition to crafting your own productive questions. Remember: If you’re going to ask a leading question, make sure it’s leading in the right direction. Next Issue: So far in this series, we’ve discussed:
Now, by incorporating the practice of asking productive questions, you are ready for another level of positive thinking: Intention. We’ll address this topic next time. Here's to you, Additional Resources — the Art of Questions In a previous issue of Living Your Potential, I introduced a trio of questions to move you from Overwhelm to Momentum: Tony Robbins teaches how to use “Power Questions” in his Personal Power II program: Laura Berman Fortgang speaks of “Wisdom Access Questions” to stimulate productive ideas: Byron Katie suggests four questions to examine thoughts that may be limiting you: Rick Carson uses a series of simple questions to diffuse your fears: |
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