The Heartful Inquiry: Continued...
1. Are you happy?
I mean, really?
I was on the phone with a client a few weeks ago, and asked her is she was happy. She said yes. I insisted then: "Happy, or just content?"
She hesitated a moment before answering: "What is the difference?"
That raised an interesting point for me. Nothing wrong with contentment, but what might you be missing on when you just settle for less. Where do you sacrifice happiness for contentment, excellence for comfortable mediocrity, success for safety, the risks of the unknown for the predictability of the status quo.
Beyond that, it also has to do with our ability to discern the finer nuances of emotional life, which signals how deeply our needs are being met.
Do you know what the difference is for you?
2. If money were not an issue, what would you be doing with your life?
This usually engenders a very interesting reaction. After a brief pause, people respond - react, rather - with: "Yes, but..." - as if I am asking them whether they'll quit working tomorrow to start traveling the world...
I have noticed that very few people will give themselves permission to dream like that anymore.
Do you remember what it was like as a young child, what dreaming like that was ALL we did, before life and responsibility and education hit us hard? Let me tell you that starting again to really "dream" like that, even without changing anything externally in how you live, could lead to some profound transformations.
Those of you familiar with the Law of Attraction know what I am talking about. Those of you who are not, it might help you to find out.
This is often a pathway into your Passion & Purpose, or uncovering your unique gifts.
3. What if I told you that you're 100% responsible for everything that is happening in your life?
This one is a challenge for most I pose the question to. People will do everything they can to deny that they have a choice in how their life unfolds, and blame everything and everybody other than themselves. However, even the most seemingly "accidental" happenings seem to fit a larger picture once you learn to see things on a different scale. A picture that we paint... It requires a change of perspective and a higher degree of responsibility and mindfulness.
In the words of Aldous Huxley: “Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you.”
Here is the fulcrum to change the world - your world.
Some of the greatest success stories are born out of remarkable misery, challenge or failure.
4. If you were to die tomorrow, what would be your biggest regret?
And I do not mean by this: what would you regret anyway no matter when you die?
I mean: what would you really like to take care of if you had more time, but are now putting off because you think you've still got a good while longer to live? It could be a whole "bucket list", or a very simple act, a forgiveness, a goodbye... Most often what gets in the way is inertia, habits, patterns - and just never looking at things this way.
What keeps you from starting right now?
5. Do you know how to really listen?
I know this sounds different from all the previous questions, but it comes up a lot, whether I ask it or not. Mainly, when people come to me with issues around their relationship, and communications. When it turns out that they are so triggered that they completely miss the story under the words, the message that the emotions, and the body language communicate - that often has almost nothing to do with the words say...
.
.
.
. . . This is just a thin sliver of what may come up. In truth, sometimes we work a lot less with the worded answers and a lot more with the wordless ones, the emotional and somatic reactions that reveal what truly matters or affects you.
Questions like: How do you make decisions? or How easy is it for you to trust? tend to get people there pretty fast... In fact, what often happens is that we reach a point where the linear mind can no longer process the inquiry, and falls silent, and in that quiet space, a different intelligence emerges - and you give yourself some surprising answers...
So, let's begin!
I mean, really?
I was on the phone with a client a few weeks ago, and asked her is she was happy. She said yes. I insisted then: "Happy, or just content?"
She hesitated a moment before answering: "What is the difference?"
That raised an interesting point for me. Nothing wrong with contentment, but what might you be missing on when you just settle for less. Where do you sacrifice happiness for contentment, excellence for comfortable mediocrity, success for safety, the risks of the unknown for the predictability of the status quo.
Beyond that, it also has to do with our ability to discern the finer nuances of emotional life, which signals how deeply our needs are being met.
Do you know what the difference is for you?
2. If money were not an issue, what would you be doing with your life?
This usually engenders a very interesting reaction. After a brief pause, people respond - react, rather - with: "Yes, but..." - as if I am asking them whether they'll quit working tomorrow to start traveling the world...
I have noticed that very few people will give themselves permission to dream like that anymore.
Do you remember what it was like as a young child, what dreaming like that was ALL we did, before life and responsibility and education hit us hard? Let me tell you that starting again to really "dream" like that, even without changing anything externally in how you live, could lead to some profound transformations.
Those of you familiar with the Law of Attraction know what I am talking about. Those of you who are not, it might help you to find out.
This is often a pathway into your Passion & Purpose, or uncovering your unique gifts.
3. What if I told you that you're 100% responsible for everything that is happening in your life?
This one is a challenge for most I pose the question to. People will do everything they can to deny that they have a choice in how their life unfolds, and blame everything and everybody other than themselves. However, even the most seemingly "accidental" happenings seem to fit a larger picture once you learn to see things on a different scale. A picture that we paint... It requires a change of perspective and a higher degree of responsibility and mindfulness.
In the words of Aldous Huxley: “Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you.”
Here is the fulcrum to change the world - your world.
Some of the greatest success stories are born out of remarkable misery, challenge or failure.
4. If you were to die tomorrow, what would be your biggest regret?
And I do not mean by this: what would you regret anyway no matter when you die?
I mean: what would you really like to take care of if you had more time, but are now putting off because you think you've still got a good while longer to live? It could be a whole "bucket list", or a very simple act, a forgiveness, a goodbye... Most often what gets in the way is inertia, habits, patterns - and just never looking at things this way.
What keeps you from starting right now?
5. Do you know how to really listen?
I know this sounds different from all the previous questions, but it comes up a lot, whether I ask it or not. Mainly, when people come to me with issues around their relationship, and communications. When it turns out that they are so triggered that they completely miss the story under the words, the message that the emotions, and the body language communicate - that often has almost nothing to do with the words say...
.
.
.
. . . This is just a thin sliver of what may come up. In truth, sometimes we work a lot less with the worded answers and a lot more with the wordless ones, the emotional and somatic reactions that reveal what truly matters or affects you.
Questions like: How do you make decisions? or How easy is it for you to trust? tend to get people there pretty fast... In fact, what often happens is that we reach a point where the linear mind can no longer process the inquiry, and falls silent, and in that quiet space, a different intelligence emerges - and you give yourself some surprising answers...
So, let's begin!
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"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." |
