You see, the problem in life isn’t in receiving answers.
The problem is in identifying your current questions.
Once you get the questions right, the answers always come….
Let your perception of beauty and iridescence lead your way.
Places and people who have answers for you
will appear more luminous and attractive.
The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield.

Asking the Right Questions

What if asking the right questions was the key to changing your life experience?

What if instead of asking; “what is wrong with me?” or “why am I not _____” (fill in the blank…i.e. happy, healthy, prosperous, etc…) you asked yourself how can I change my point of view to see what is right with me or you asked yourself what steps do I need to take to create a more fulfilling experience?

So often we are not even aware of the questions we are asking or that they might not be helpful questions or that they might be leading us to answers that are less than desirable in manifesting our true intention.

I love Douglas Adams’ book Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy partly because he humorously addresses the concept of asking the Ultimate Question. There is a point where the author describes a super computer (named Deep Thought) designed to answer the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. Deep Thought ran a 7.5 million year program to come up with the Ultimate Answer. The answer turned out to be “42”.

What? 42? What does that mean? What kind of answer is that?

When asked, Deep Thought said – to understand the Ultimate Answer it is essential to have exactly the ‘right’ question. When asked, Deep Thought did not know what the ‘right’ question was – so he offered to help build an even more powerful computer to find the Ultimate Question that would help everyone understand the Ultimate Answer.

Hitchhiker’s Guide goes onto to explain that this new computer incorporated living beings into the “computational matrix” on a planet called Earth. As fate would have it, the computer program was just five minutes from completing its 10 million year program when Earth was blown out of the sky by the Vogons. Sounds like a cosmic joke, maybe Pluto and Uranus acting together, right?

Anyway, the reminder is this – finding the Ultimate Questions help us understand the meaning of life or more importantly the meaning of our own life. We don’t need an ‘out-there’ super computer to find the answers. Rather it is up to us to keep asking the questions that lead us to answers that may lead us to more questions. In many ways, it is not about having the answers but about being willing to live the questions or as stated in the movie “What the Bleep” the real trick to life is not to be in the know… but to be in the mystery!

Questions are Powerful Tools

Intentional questions have the power to lead us to powerful and supportive new insights in how we co-create our life experience. This is because when we ask questions our mind immediately begins searching for answers. So the questions we ask are important because our questions always lead us to answers.

That is why if we are asking questions like what is wrong with me, what did I do to deserve this, why can’t I do anything right, or where did I go wrong….then what we will find are answers that tell us what is wrong with us, why we can’t do anything right and where we went wrong.

This often has the effect of confirming what we already are assuming about ourselves and further strengthens any limiting point of view we may have about who we are. Remember, it is our point of view that creates our reality, not the other way around.

These assumptions are often rooted in beliefs that were ingrained in us by our parents, religion, and/or culture. In some rare cases a person might have an assumption that they already have all the answers so they aren’t curious or willing to do personal inquiry. 

However, it is more likely that the ingrained assumptions like NOT being smart enough, or good enough, or patient enough, or being lazy and never amounting to anything are uncomfortable and holding us back from our true self. The beauty of letting go of assumptions, and adopting a sense of curiosity and willingness to ask intentional questions, is that it can lead us to unexpected and wondrous results.

So if we are choosing our questions with specific intention to activate answers that will help us grow and evolve then we are using the power of questions to create a new reality. Again, this is because the questions we ask lead us to answers and it is how we ask the questions that will determine the kind of answers that show up. Even the bible tell us, Ask and Ye Shall Receive.

So instead of asking what you did wrong in a situation – change the question to ask; “what have I learned and how can I make better choices going forward?” Another question might be; “what would it take for me to let go of the limiting beliefs that are holding me back from experiencing the truth of who I am?”

Instead of asking “What’s wrong with me?” you might ask “what are my talents, abilities and gifts that have gotten me to where I am today?” Another question might be: “how can I learn from the challenges of my life so they become a gift or asset that I have to offer myself and others?”

Constructive well-designed questions empower new possibilities that lead to new actions and these actions lead to more enjoyable results.

You can train yourself to ask empowering questions by having the intent to ask questions that will lead you to beneficial and helpful results. You might even ask yourself; “Is this a good question? Is there a better question I could ask be asking?”

Possible Results of NOT asking Intentional Questions?

Mythically speaking, NOT asking questions has been known to be disastrous. Consider what happened to Percival, one of King Arthur’s Knights who was in search of the Holy Grail. Unexpectedly, Percival finds himself in the Grail Castle, in the presence of the Grail King and he sees the Grail (described variously as a plate, cup, or stone) being carried from one room to another.

Percival desperately wanted to ask the Grail King the question burning in his heart: “Whom does the Grail Serve?”

However, Percival didn’t ask the question, because he had been trained to believe it wasn’t polite to ask questions. The next day the Grail King, the Grail and the Grail Castle had all vanished. Later Percival learned that the entire land was now under a terrible blight because he had failed to ask the question that would have set everyone free. Many, many years of great hardship passed before Percival was able to correct this awful mistake.

The moral of this story includes the importance of asking heart-felt questions intended to support our life journey. The questions below are a place to start. Perhaps work with one or two questions that resonant with you and go from there.

Here are some questions to get at deeper issues.
If fear was NOT holding me back what would I do right now?
If fear was NOT holding me back what would I do next week, next month, next year?
If I could do, or be, or create anything that I was able to imagine what would I do, be, or create?
How can I let go of everything and anything that is NOT an expression of my my divine essence and true brilliance?
How can I allow myself to fully receive and embrace what is mine to divinely experience?
How can I learn to fully trust myself to not only receive my divine inheritance but to assimilate it in a way that is nourishing and supportive?

“What If” Questions are a great way to begin an inquiry?
What if I already have everything I need to live a fulfilling and joyful life?
And What if I have simply forgotten what those tools are? What if I could remember them?
What if what I believe is true is NOT really true?
What if my reality is based on what I believe and I could change it by changing my point of view?
What if the “right way,” to live, to act, and to be, is only determined by my point of view?
What if there is no right or wrong way to be in this world?
What if I am already more brilliant and amazing than anything I anything I have ever imagined?
What if I have always been loved and cherished by the Universe and the Universe always has my back no matter what? What if I could truly know and remember this IS TRUE?

What is your why?
Why are you doing what you are doing? or Why am I doing what I am doing?
Why are you living the way you are living? or Why am I living the way I am living?
Why do you believe what you believe? or Why do I believe what I believe? Is it really true?
Why do you feel the way you feel? or Why do I feel the way I feel?
Why do you say what you say? or Why am I saying that?
Why is it important to know why? or Why is it important for me to know why?

More Why Questions?
Why am I living such a joyfully fun and fullfilling life?
Why am I feeling healthier and more alive than ever before?
Why is my life always so amazing that it exceeds all my expectations?
Why am I always the person that magically changes the world around me?
Why am I experiencing more success in all the things I love and its growing each day?
Why am I always surrounded by people that love, support and respect me at all times?
Why am I always so good at learning and growing from all my experiences and being a better person as a result?
Why do I always do what is best for me in experiencing radiant health and well-being, enhancing all my relationships?
Why am I always surrounded by incredibly kind, caring and creatively successful people that I  feel a deep bond with and love so much?

May the questions you ask bring you the answers you seek in ways that are liberating, joyful and fulfilling.