Obstacle Minded
Have you ever noticed that our brain comes up with "answers" for whatever we put to it?It's curious that many otherwise intelligent and creative people abuse this natural tendency of their minds to hobble themselves.
If we ask ourselves why we are so screwed up, our brains will shift into gear coming up with all sorts of reasons that it thinks we are asking for. If we ask, instead, how best to deal with situation "x", or how easily we can resolve "y", it will go to work on that thread instead.
To be careful what we ask for, may strike a chord much closer to home than we typically realize. And there seems to be an art to asking questions skillfully, to both ourselves and others, in a way that brings out resources and capabilities rather than judgments and indictments; the way we frame our questions in life seems fundamentally linked to the type of answers we are receiving; and yet, how quickly the question fades from our awareness, leaving us only with its result. Sneaky little suckers. I wonder just how skillfully I can learn to use questions to get more from life that magnifies my soul and less of that which lessens it?
In spite of what they say, I believe there *are* stupid questions (or at least ones that make us stupid.)
very thought provoking
ReplyDeleteI think the very way we frame our questions speaks volumes about our approach to things. For example, "why am I screwed up" doesn't show any acceptance of our own part in it or show an interest in a solution. "What can I do to correct this situation" shows ownership and a motivation towards resolution. So we can see a trend in solving issues simply in the way we ask the question before our brain even has a chance to answer.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I would even phrase it as "a trend in creating issues simply by the questions we ask."
ReplyDeleteTo dig these out, we can ask, "what's limiting about that question?" even when it seems like a good one (and those are particularly tricky, and fun, cause we're all usually comfortable with our own questions) And besides, it just annoys people when you ask this about theirs :-)
My question about all this would be how much control does one really have over their ability to frame a question? If, for example, you're consciously attempting to put a question to yourself in a different manner than is your natural reaction. Your brain will undoubtedly see through the ploy to the real source of your curiousity and will go to answering that despite how you may try and frame the question.
ReplyDelete- Jace
J-Meister! What's this, a spy from MySpace?!
ReplyDeleteFirst off, that's a very good question in itself. What did you come up with for that?
Once you start "outframing" questions though, you may never be able to go back. It's a dangerous step towards the exploration of just how much control we have over our "own" thoughts. So if the real source of your curiosity is indeed seeing how much control we have over those suckers, then the brain figuring this 'real' motivation out, may just lend a hand; it might just strike that chord of novelty that the brain seems wired to attend to. And how cool would that be?
It seems to me the difference between ie..Why is my life screwed up? and ...How do I fix my need for blazburgers?...is about as different as math and history. So if my brain is working on a math problem...i just don't see that it would be a guise for a history problem...Like "Why does an apple fall from a tree?" is quite different from "How do I keep the apple from falling?"...however tempting it would be to solve it thru first analyzing the why...it seems relatively simple to slide the apple into a leg of pantyhose and tie it to the limb, and go on your way without ever researching the why even a bit further. But maybe I'm not understanding the problem.
ReplyDeleteI think you got it. Questions "directionalize" thought; they aren't neutral. They suggest certain things are happening and constrain the awareness to certain factors the question deems relevant.
ReplyDeleteEvery question comes with a point of view; so, just like we are warned not to "jump to conclusions" a more subtle caveat is not to settle on the first question that pops into mind and thereby set-off for solutions on what could be a fool's quest(!)