More on “asking the right questions”

I was puzzling over what to blog about today, asking myself “I wonder what I should write about today?”  What popped into my head was a comment I received from my wonderful friend,Paulette, about that article.  Her comment follows:  “Excellent article. The challenge is to practice, practice, practice till we can get new paths in our thinking patterns. Perhaps you have an article in you on specific practices to do that!”

So there was my answer:)

As I wrote in the last article on “Asking the right questions”, I explained that in order to receive “great” answers we need to ask “great” questions.  I am going to write about two ways that we can work with questions.

Our minds are so busy chattering all day that, of course, we constantly are putting questions out into the ethers.   Once we put a question out, we need to be aware or quiet enough to “hear” the answer.  Once we hear it, we need to learn to trust and ACT on it.

I had my first experience with this kind of “sending a question off into the ethers”  many years ago when I still lived on our farm near Arlington, Mn.  At that time, I LOVED to cook and we would often have friends from the cities come out for the weekend.  On Monday or so I would begin casually wondering “what should I prepare for dinner this weekend?”  Perhaps a thought or two would come in but nothing that really resonated and I would just let it go.  I had plenty of time to think about it.  A day or so would go by and SUDDENLY a whole menu would just drop into my mind with a little “zing” and I would think, “perfect!”.  And that would be my meal.

I didn’t put this all together at first.  But it didn’t take long before I realized that my “question” triggered a “response”  and I didn’t have to angst and agonise over it!  it was FUN and EASY!

As I developed my spiritual practice I “upleveled” my “practice of asking questions”.  I like to look at the different areas of my life and get a sense of how I feel they are going.  When I come to an area that I feel unclear or stuck, I will figure out the question that I need to pose to get a great answer.  Once I have cleared my energy, settled into my meditation, I will pose my questions and let them go.  Now I just wait for the answers to come back to me.

Sounds easy doesn’t it!!

I have found that some questions are answered RAPIDLY like the “what should I serve for dinner” but other questions take their own sweet time in being responded to:)

Here is an example of that.  I have compiled a great deal of material to teach over the last 15 years.  Really good material that I don’t just want to sit on.  I want to share it with students.  I was confused as to how I could organize it and present it in a cohesive manner.  So day after day I took this question to my meditation.  I would simply ask, “What is the best way to organize and present this material to my students?”

It took TWO years for the answer to show up!

I was working on my website last year about this time.  I started getting some ideas of how I wanted to organize my material and present it on my website and I suddenly saw that THIS was the answer to my question!!  I needed my website to put it all together.  The answer didn’t show up until I was actually working on my website and then it all came together very quickly:)  A very fun moment for me.

So, two ways to consider.  1.  Just the random questions that we put out throughout the day.  The key is paying enough attention to your thoughts that you catch the answer and then trust it.  You will usually feel a body sensation that says, “oh, yeah THAT is it!”  2.  Posing very specific and focused questions after careful consideration.  Take these questions and put them out during your quiet time.  Again, the answers can come in at any time.  Often they come in when we are doing something repetitive or non-thinking…..doing dishes, taking a shower, driving, staring out the window.  In those more non-doing, non-thinking times we are more open to receive.

I hope this is helpful.  I always love your comments and your questions.  Have fun preparing your questions and then have fun to see the answers that show up!

Great love, Melanie