Spiritual Power Questions
“Good questions challenge your thinking. They reframe and redefine the problem. They throw cold water on our most dearly held assumptions, and force us out of our traditional thinking. They motivate us to learn and discover more. They remind us of what is in important in our lives.”
–Andrew Sobel & Jerold Panas
In my years as a meditation teacher and spiritual consultant I’ve watched mindfulness and meditation go from being something weird and fringe to mainstream. The idea of being spiritual but not religious has taken on a life of its own with many people wishing to embrace their own very unique and personal spiritual journey. It often starts with meditation or yoga. It may have been prompted by the need to destress and take a break from our digital always connected world. Or by the niggling voice in the back of one’s head that is looking for meaning, purpose and what we can uniquely contribute to this world.
People start a practice of mindfulness or meditation and are told to become more “aware” of who they are and cultivate a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them. Apps have made it easy for people to take up meditation and still the question I get the most from people who already meditate is how do I become more aware in my meditation practice and life? How do I cultivate compassion and non-judgement? Awareness, compassion and non-judgment are often talked about as important parts of a spiritual practice. Yet people are often left wondering how to go from sitting and listening to their breath, or visualizing peaceful surroundings, to living these concepts.
There are many different ways that we can practice deepening our spiritual understanding and practice. One of tools that I’ve found helpful is using these spiritual power questions as prompts and guideposts.
I once heard author and speaker Dr. Roger Teel say that, “The most profound spiritual truths are often elemental but it’s in our return to them over and over that we find deep meaning.”
This is because every time we interact with something it changes us even if it’s minutely. We change and peel back another layer of understanding and perspective as we delve deeper into the truth of our present moment. Who you are in the morning is going to be different than who you are by the end of the day. Your perspective will be different, how you experienced your day will feel different even if you think your life is monotonous. The same can be said for these spiritual power questions. The more often you interact with them the more you will see how your answers change and the more insight you’ll gain from asking the question.
How do we become more aware? I believe we do that by entering into a relationship and conversation with ourselves. It can be as simple as declaring our intention to lovingly cultivate awareness and non-judgment that opens the door for our journey to begin. The best conversationalists know how to listen and ask powerful questions. Decide to enter into a sacred, spiritual conversation with yourself. Become aware of your life in a new way. Discover the parts of yourself that often stay in the shadows but run your life without you consciously realizing it. Remember what’s most important to you when life is busy and chaotic. Find meaning and profound value in your daily life. Ask yourself about your life and pay attention to what changes and what stays the same.
These spiritual power questions are conversation starters for you to explore your consciousness. There are no wrong or right answers. Ask and answer them without any judgment of who you think you should be, or what you think your answers say about you. I suggest entering this sacred dialogue with yourself with compassion, kindness, non-judgment and profound gratitude for the journey itself.
Question 1
Am I conscious of the effect my thoughts have on myself and others?
“You will never speak to anyone more than you speak to yourself in your head.
Be kind to yourself.” –Unknown
Our thoughts shape our world. They determine our reactions to the challenges in our lives and greatly impact our mood and emotions. We truly do talk to ourselves more than anyone else does. Your thoughts create the foundation of how you talk to yourself, view yourself and treat yourself.
When you enter into any kind of contemplative practice — meditation, affirmative prayer, kayaking, running — one of the things you will begin to be aware of is all the different thoughts racing around your busy mind. Once you begin to be more aware of your thoughts you will probably begin to notice certain patterns. Our thoughts don’t tend to stay exclusively in our heads. We verbalize what we’re thinking all the time. Even then we still might not be aware of the default route our thoughts take. If you’ve had people say things to you along the lines of you’re so negative or you’re so hard on yourself or the flip side you’re always so positive, you might discover that, in general, your thoughts fall into one of these patterns. It may be surprising to you when someone points out one of these patterns because to you it’s just who you are on the inside. It’s just the shape your inner thoughts seem to take. You may have never noticed for instance that you always downplay your accomplishments until a friend points it out to you. Once they do, you may begin to notice all the ways your inner thought process diminishes your achievements.
Growing up my mom used to tell me that I was lazy because I spent a lot of time in my room reading and I didn’t like doing chores. That thought, that I’m lazy lodged itself in my head. To this day no matter how much I get done during the day I find that my thoughts about whether I’ve been productive or not, cluster back around the idea that I’m lazy. So I tend to think that no matter how much I get done that it’s not enough. Or the flipside it also becomes a self-fulfilling behavior when I can say to myself why bother. The reality is that like anyone else I have my days when I’m very productive and days when I’m not. I try to pay attention to how I think about being productive because I’m predisposed to thinking that I’m lazy and this doesn’t feel very positive. It leads to thoughts about being disappointed in myself and can devolve into feeling like I’m a terrible person because I’m not taking care of things in my life enough. It’s a slippery slope that can bring my mood down low. It can also all happen in mere moments in the back burner of my brain. I may not even be aware that a part of me has gone down that road while I’m focusing on another activity. Ultimately though it does affect me, my mood, energy level, how I feel about myself and how I interact with other people.
When our thoughts weigh us down it’s much easier to feel irritated or triggered by other people’s behavior because we’re already irritated with ourselves. The outside world will often reflect our own thinking back to us. Out thoughts greatly affect the shape and direction of what we focus on and experience moment by moment. Your thoughts build your world. That is powerful stuff which is why this question is so important.
Author JK Rowling said, “Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”
The words you use and think about yourself can inflict injury or remedy it. In order to find healing and move past injury you must first become conscious of what your thinking says about how you approach and treat yourself. Another way to explore this is to ask, based on your own thoughts and how you talk to yourself, what kind of boss would you be to yourself? Are you a kind, supportive boss who gives praise easily and is always there to support and guide you? Or are you a nasty, dysfunctional boss that is never satisfied with what you do, constantly critical and thinks you get what you deserve? Which boss would you rather work for? Looking at yourself through this lens can help you begin to be consciously aware of how your thoughts affect your attitude and approach to life.
When we start on a spiritual journey part of what we seek is an understanding and acceptance of the you that has taken on this exploration. Becoming aware of the effect our thoughts have on ourselves and others gives us the opportunity to change course as needed. As we become aware of the thoughts that we use to break ourselves down, or old ideas about ourselves that just aren’t true, we can practice redirecting the direction our thoughts take. We can stop ourselves and reframe our thoughts entirely or remind ourselves that they are not helpful and move on to something else.
The Practice
If you find yourself thinking that you are not ___________ enough. That blank could be filled in with words like smart, good, fast, or careful. Notice what happens when you think like that. What emotions it brings up. How motivated you feel to move forward. When you find yourself thinking in ways that are not supportive or helpful stop that train of thought and replace or reframe it with more productive words.
If you find yourself feeling down, agitated or upset, bring awareness to what triggered those feelings. Sometimes it’s like a game of connect-the-dots. We have to unravel the thoughts that led us to where we ended up. Notice whether there was a particular thought process or train of thought that ultimately led to you feeling unhappy. The next time that same train of thought begins you will have more awareness about where it will lead and can decided to turn your mind to other more supportive thinking.
Sit in meditation and just observe your busy mind and thoughts. Notice what ideas and thoughts pop up that you didn’t even realize were top of mind until you saw them spring forward. Notice what thoughts your mind moves to without judgment and let them pass through you and away.
Power statements
I am not my thoughts, I am a soul filled with love and acceptance.
My thoughts come and go, my connection to the oneness of the universe is constant.
Over the next eight weeks I’ll publish one power question per week.
