Ask the Right Question

I ask a lot of questions, but maybe you’d never notice. I don’t ask them out loud. I ask them in my own head.

“Is this the right thing to do?”

“Do they think I’m crazy?”

“Is this the best way to go about this?”

“What did she mean when she said that?”

Most often, when my head asks the questions, my heart comes up with the answer. Sometimes my heart soothes me and my worried mind. Sometimes my heart kicks me in the butt with tough love. Sometimes, life presents an answer to my question. Sometimes it takes a few days, sometimes it happens immediately.

Lately, I’ve been struggling with a question. A lot. Every day I’d hold the question in my mind and beg for the answer from my heart.

“Why is this issue such a problem for me?!”

I have a practice where I take my questions to my heart. It is prayer journalling. It’s not a typical, “Dear diary,” type journalling. It’s more like I write letters to God. I write my letters with appreciation, hope, and anticipation. I ask for help and guidance. And I ask for answers to be revealed in my heart.

“Why is this issue such a problem for me?!” has been written in my prayers more times than I can count. Not always worded the same way, but always the same theme.

One day last week, it hit me.

Everyday I’d ask the question, “Why is this such a problem for me?” and life would show me the answer; everyday, I’d see up close and personal, exactly why it’s a problem for me and I’d keep seeing the problem. Problem. Problem.

It’s not that my question wasn’t being answered. Au contraire, it was being answered very thoroughly when everyday I’d be face to face with the problem. I’d see all the reasons it was a problem for me.

It’s not that the question wasn’t being answered. It’s that I was asking the wrong question.

The next morning, settling into my chair to write another letter to God, I wrote, “Here’s the question: what is a possible solution to my problem?”

I closed the journal and went about my day as usual.

Within 4 hours, the answer to my new question presented itself. The solution to the problem that I’d been struggling with for months stared me square in the face after 4 hours of asking the right question.

It’s not that the question wasn’t being answered. It’s that I was asking the wrong question.

Ask the questions that you want the answer to.

What questions are you holding in your mind?

Are you listening to the answers from your heart?

Are you asking the right questions?

Are you asking the questions that you want the answers to?

Here’s to Conquering Stress,

The Stress Experts