Asking the right questions



Don’t you sometimes wish you had a quarter for every little question you answer during the day?

How many more days to my birthday?
How many teeth do sharks have?
How long does it take to count to a million?
Who would win in a battle between a ninja and spiderman?
Why does it look like you still have a baby in your tummy?

One time my four year old asked me “Do scientists have smoke coming out of their ears that smells like toast?”   HUH???  How do I even begin to answer that?

While sometimes I feel like I might just explode if I have to answer one more question, the truth is that asking questions is a healthy and important part of a child’s brain development. 

Even as adults… our brains love to answer questions!  One of the brain’s main functions is to find answers to questions and solutions to problems.  Our brains will either find evidence or create evidence for anything we tell them to look for.

That is why it is so crucial that we ask our brains the right questions!

For example, I recently became aware that I was constantly asking myself, “Why am I so tired all the time?”  So my brain was always on the lookout for reasons that I should be tired. The result, of course, was that I was always tired!  I felt like being tired was something that was happening to me, and out of my control.

I decided to tweak it a little and ask the question “What can I do today to feel more energetic?”  That question was a lot more fun to answer, and led to the result of me feeling better!

Another tweak I’ve made recently is switching from the question “Why can’t Ifigure this out?” to “How can Ifigure this out?”  Do you see how the second question will yield answers that are so much more helpful??
What are some of the questions you have been asking yourself? I invite you to take a look and see if those questions could be changed to get some more useful answers.

Christi


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