Following a question can power up your day. How so? To choose a pathway of possibilities through questions – says researcher Ibrahim Senay – is to encounter unexpected benefits. I agree.
Ask questions, like open-minded people do, and you’ll stir up motivation as well as cultivate curiosity. The kind of curiosity that spots a rainbow where others see only storms on the horizon.
At the MITA International Brain Center, we often start the day with a two-footed question – to unleash both sides of the brain. We then pop the query – Where to from here? at day’s end.
Today I asked: How can a day off prepare me for a high pressured week to come? Because I know the power of two-footed questions – I went after a response like ducks chase after water.
First, I carried coffee, and the latest copy of Scientific American Mind, outside to the cabana and breathed in warm summer air. Awakening birds told each other about their plans for the day, while my own concerns slipped into their carefree harmonies.
Second, I weeded a flower bed just beyond my patio. Before I tossed a country garden seed mix into freshly furrowed soil, I set aside rocks that would prevent their growth. Then later, I added these shapely stones alongside my creek to curtail crabgrass that demands dominance there.
Third, I emailed suggestions ahead from my back patio, to several people who would benefit from clarify to simplify the week’s agenda before it starts.
Still outside, I relaxed over a leisurely lunch, then fed the koy fish where I lingered to watch their playful antics under a fast moving water spray.
In late afternoon, I replaced screens on my cabana so that new touches will further enhance my busy week. Now, after a high pressured day at work, I can sip a glass of wine or iced tea to relax in my newly renovated garden.
That’s how one straightforward question stirred multiple intelligences for unexpected melodies on my day off. While I love my work, it takes a fair-to-middlin‘ brainpower reboot to conquer challenges of a tough week.
What enables you to catch the winds of the upper air – for that pot of gold found only at the peaks?
These whole brain questioning tools at secondary, college and beyond help learners to form teams, complete projects, test prep, raise character, write well, interview peers and experts, and analyze.
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