
TO REFLECT
The word “question” contains a “quest” within. Your question can take you on a quest into unknown territories, into awe inspiring revelations and sense-felt treasures. The question takes you beyond what you thought was possible. Finding the right question, sets you in the right direction. Thus, the question needs to be honed, sharpened and refined. When you form your question, give preference to open ended, “how” questions rather than closed, yes and no questions. Experiment with the scope of your question: how broad or how focused it is? Is it helpful to downscale or scale it up? Invite your friends to play the “question game,” that Claudia Hill and I developed. Simply ask the question you have in mind, and invite your friends to rephrase it. See which articulation of the question resonates with you the most. Write it down! You may also simply ask your dreaming what your true question is. Whatever way you choose, make sure the question resonates with you, and it is clear, simple and short.
Close your eyes and imagine stepping into a meadow. With an exhale, catch a ray of sun, and draw a circle of light above you and to your right. Above that circle write your question, and see what image appears inside of the circle. Once you have seen, breathe out, and open your eyes.
Follow up: Draw that image or make it into a collage. Use a creative, tangible way to give it a material form.
Create a quiet space for yourself. Assemble newspapers, old magazines, books that you don’t need. Do not go extra shopping, work with what you find around, at home. Set a time for yourself, e.g. 30 minutes. With your question in the back of your head, start making a collage. Intuitively choose images, words, fragments of articles and then compose them together until it feels right in your body. You will know when this moment comes, maybe through a “click”, or a sense of expansion, or a sensation of arriving. You will have your own, unique way of recognizing that. Once you have done it, take a look at your collage as if you were looking at a dream. Notice all the details. Describe the images. Name repeating patterns. What clues do you receive about your question? What are the new curiosities that tickle your inside?
Follow up: You can do it with your friends, as an inspiring session of collaging your questions together.
With your question in the back of your head, take a walk. Do not try to get anywhere, nor aim at arriving somewhere. You are just walking, following the signs that are presencing themselves to you. If there is a green light, you go forward, if there is a red light, you change direction. If something attracts your attention, you move towards it. It may be a sound, a situation, or a smell. Follow what calls you and see where it takes you. One clue at a time. You will know when to stop by a sensation within your body that you have seen, felt, or heard what you needed to hear. It may be a sense of expansion, arriving, an intense light within or a voice that tells you to stop.
Follow up: Take time to write down your journey in the present tense. Write down sensations, emotions and feelings, actions and understandings that came to you.
Similarly to “walking your question”, your question can be danced. You can do it individually or with a partner. One person asks the question into the open space and dances it with their eyes closed, allowing whatever needs to come up to manifest through the body. The other person is a witness. After the dance is done, first the doer speaks what they notice on the level of sensations, emotions and feelings, actions and understandings. Then the witness speaks to what they have noticed. You can change roles.
Variation: The person with a question asks the question, and the partner dances it. After the dance is done, the dancer speaks what they have noticed on the level of sensations, emotions and feelings, actions and understandings. The witness replies what resonates with them, and what they have noticed for themselves.
Take a pen and paper. Set a time frame for this exercise. As in the first psychological experiments conducted at the turn of the XX century, engage with automatic writing. Keep your question in the back of your head and start writing whatever comes up for you. Do not stop, do not censor, nor edit. Allow the words to flow through you. When the time is up, read what you wrote to someone or read it aloud to yourself. Listen carefully. Circle the words that repeat and /or stand out for you. Read only these words. What do you hear?
Experiment with asking others your question. Do not wait for their advice, just curiously interrogate how they perceive it, for themselves. If you are wondering about your future, have a conversation about the future. You do not have to come to a conclusion or solution to a situation. Let the words of the other flow through you, igniting your desire to know more. Ask open ended questions, and listen if something your dialogue partners say lightens up your inside. After the talk, note down some of these words. Do not try to make them into a logical whole. Allow them to be as they are, for a dreaming image to emerge.
With your question in the back of your head, pull a tarot card and ask yourself what do you see? Describe the image. Who is on the card? What are they doing? What is attracting your attention? What happened before, and what will happen afterwards? What is beyond the frame? What repeats in this card: numbers, images, shapes, colours? What challenges do you perceive? What opportunities do you notice? Staying present to the details of the card, what do you learn about your own situation? Do not rely on the answers on the internet, nor in the booklet. Read the card as your own story, the story you see.
With your question in mind, find a quiet place in nature. Sit and attune yourself to nature’s rhythm. Listen to the sounds of nature, those loud and quiet, those far and close to you. Find the quietest sound. Observe sensations in your body. And sit quietly, being present to what is. See what arises for you: images, sensations, feelings, understandings. After you have done it, note down what you have noticed. What have you learnt?
Variation: With your question in the back of the head, observe a plant or a river, a rock or a leaf. First, notice their features. Later, with your eyes closed, tune in to it. What do you see with your eyes closed? What do you hear, sense, feel and understand?