How Questions Become Empowering When Posed the Right Way

The questions we ask ourselves every day quietly shape how we think, feel, and respond to life. Some questions expand our awareness, help us find solutions, and place us in an empowered state of mind. Others, when framed negatively, can reinforce doubt, fear, and limitation without us even realizing it. Becoming aware of the questions we consistently ask ourselves is one of the simplest — and most powerful — ways to change how we experience our daily lives.

I often ask myself questions daily. Typically, I use them to focus my thoughts and attention on solutions or simply to create an empowering state of mind.

“What can I learn from this situation?”
This is one of my favorite questions to ask myself when things are not going the way I intended.

“What am I feeling in this moment?”
I use this question to center in on my emotional guidance system, because our emotions can give us subtle clues and signals before we fully understand their meaning. This allows us to recognize patterns in our habits that may need to be reframed or thought of differently.

It is vitally important to know that when we use questions that stimulate doubt, fear, and negative emotions, we create an environment that place us in a state where we are not able to do the things we need to do effectively.

Positive questions can have the opposite effect and be very powerful in helping us feel better, see more opportunities, or even find solutions with less friction or stress.

I didn’t always think this way, but over time I’ve learned to pose questions in a way that makes me far more resourceful, more likely to brush off unfortunate situations, and give myself the fortitude to push through until things are going my way.

I allow my experiences to teach me lessons instead of making me replay them from a victim mentality, unlike this question:

“Why is this happening to me all the time?”

What questions are you consistently asking yourself daily?

Oftentimes, we don’t realize that we are doing this in real time, but when you take the time to reflect on yourself, you can start to notice just how you are operating day to day.

When we take responsibility by being accountable for our thoughts and actions, we can change so much of what happens in our lives.

Today, I encourage you to ask some key questions that will help you move past challenges and view them differently.

“Why am I so lucky?”

This is another question that has been incredibly impactful for me to use, even when I’m not sure why I’m asking it. There are powerful ways that the mind reacts to things we place emotional emphasis on or give continuous importance to.

I won’t go too deep into the reticular activating system in this post, but essentially, it’s how our brains notice things of importance or things that bring up strong emotions.

When you notice the new car you just purchased everywhere, this is one way the reticular activating system filters information based on what we place our attention on.

Learn to use questions to take advantage of this powerful way our brains focus attention by asking empowering questions daily.

Write them down, but don’t look to answer them, and notice how things begin to occur differently from day to day.

Ask yourself some powerful questions today.

Take a moment today to notice the questions you’re asking yourself in real time. Write down a few empowering ones and allow them to guide your awareness without forcing answers. You may be surprised by what begins to shift.