The power of good questions
In my work as a coach and psychotherapist, I’m lucky to regularly witness the power of inquiry: the way in which deeper questions work their magic on our psyche and help us gain perspective or get unstuck. Some questions, and the heartfelt answers they call for, can even expand our sense of self by creating new neural pathways in the brain.
The questions or journaling prompts I’m about to share with you have been inspired not only by my work, but also by my teachers, my mentors and by my daughter of course. I selected the ones which have proven useful when called to honour endings and step into beginnings.
How-to
You can sit with them now or later. You can pick one and let it work its way through you over a period of time. You can revisit these questions every now and then to keep your intentions clear and give you a sense of direction. Or maybe you can use them as part of an end of year / new year journaling ritual.
One request I’d like to make is that you try to let the answers find you…As Byron Katie says: “when the mind asks sincerely, the heart will respond.”
What are you being called to shed, to put to rest, in order to bring greater peace into your life?
What have you been carrying that is not yours to carry?
Where in your life are you going to the butcher for bread?
What do you need to stop doing?
Where in your life are you holding yourself back from trying something new / from change for fear of making a mistake or for fear of failure?
What are you learning about yourself?
If you knew that your needs were as important as anyone else’s / if no one was watching, what would you prioritise right now?
To whom can you say thank you, and what for?
What is growing in your life right now? What do you need in order to support this growth?
Where in your life do you need to say yes more?
What are you truly longing for?
Reminder
Questions often beget questions. If you find yourself with more questions at the end of this reflection practice, remind yourself that questions don’t necessarily call for an immediate answer.
If you’re keen to dive deeper with guidance and support, you can find out more about my work here.
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
Rainer Maria Rilke