The $64m Question or Why Questions Are Good For You.

Posted by on Thursday, 28th April 2016 in Blog, Clinical Hypnotherapy, Empowerment, Healing, Hypnotherapy, Reiki, Shamanism, Spiritual Development, Tarot | Comments Off on The $64m Question or Why Questions Are Good For You.

Green swirl lrIf you are a follower of The Hitchhiker’s Guide, I guess that you already know that the magic answer is 42, although of course,  the real issue is ‘What is the Question?’  But for those of you who aren’t au fait with Douglas Adam’s work, there are a number of questions that may routinely trouble us in life:

The spiritual may be struck by this question: “What am I here for?” which can also be reframed as “What is my soul’s true purpose?”

Romantics might wonder, “Is this the one?”

Others might have more practical concerns like, “How do I make ends meet?” or “How do I get through this?”

And stock market crashes could have been avoided, if investors had known the answer to “Is this a safe bet?”

So why with all the questions, I hear you ask?  Well, questions have been on my mind recently and I guess it’s a good thing to routinely question life, what we want out of it, how we can make life easier and how we can improve and develop ourselves.  It is sometimes by failing to ask ourselves questions that we can find ourselves in a rut. Of course, the rut can relate to our emotions, behaviours, careers, relationships or any aspect of our lives.

Before I became a therapist, I had worked in market research for some time. Knowing what questions to ask and which avenues to pursue provided insight. This was more than a scientific process as often, one had to trust one’s intuition in pursuing a course of questioning. Probing a hunch was often successful and insightful.  And of course, there were sometimes great questions, that could be repeated to different clients (both small and large organisations).  These included such gems as:

“If your business was an animal, what animal would it be?” – Nowadays, I often see Facebook quizzes on a similar theme.

“What business are you really in?”– This was always a great question.  Was a fashion brand really selling confidence or reassurance? Was a hairdresser really selling ‘me time’? And sadly, what about all those alcohol and tobacco brands that sold ‘sex appeal and a sense of coolness, or social acceptability?’

Within a therapeutic context, asking the right questions can be profound and also unlock the key to clearing, healing and transformation.  At times, the question can be as important as the answer, as a client starts to think of new ways of looking at a particular issue or concern. This in itself can set the stage for positive change. Questions can enable us to understand what the body is trying to communicate to us, through a particular disease or illness. Questions can enable us to understand the depth of an issue and the possible routes to healing. Questions can reveal whether an issue is flagged in our conciousness, or carefully hidden within the mind or the body, waiting for the right time to reveal itself.

So what is the $64m question? It is one or more questions that are totally right for you and that will enable you to move forward.  The mark of a good therapist is his or her talent to ask the right questions in a caring, sensitive and non-judgemental way.  For my own practice, this art of questioning is just as important for a Reiki, Shamanic healing, clinical hypnotherapy, past life or Tarot session.