Asking Questions Questioning Assumptions
Have you got a question you’re pondering now?
When I’m in a place of confusion or ignorance or questioning what my next step is, I find that if I can come up with a question that sums up what I’m dealing with, things often start to move more freely. New information is likely to come forward to help me on my way.
Opening to inner guidance
At the beginning of this year, so long ago, I wrote about a series of four short questions that can be used to guide inner explores with drawing. While you need no artistic ability to apply this method, you can also explore the questions with poetry or dance or any other expression that feels comfortable for you.
Facing the difficulty
A lot of this process of asking questions and questioning assumptions is ultimately about how to trust ourselves and discovering what sorts of information from inside we can trust. Say your question is What’s the next step in healing for me? Maybe the answer won’t come as a clear thought-out sentence. Maybe it will be an edgy visceral feeling. Our bodies are steadily communicating with us through sensations. Can we have the courage to notice what they’re saying, to be willing to pay attention?
Or the answer may come as a mood, a feeling. For me, can I hold with this, not run wild with it? See where it takes me without making anyone wrong.
What am I ignoring here?
This question is a toughie. Often it takes a while of denial and ignoring (and unexplained pain) to even come to this question. The inner organs I ignore, the movement patterns I repeat without awareness, the assumptions I live my life by – oye.
As the state legislature met earlier this year, local Santa Fe physical therapist Katie Dewar wrote a great article, Behind the Desk: A Conversation That Matters for Every Body. It appeared in the ‘Round the Roundhouse newsletter for state employees, (No, I’m not a state employee nor a legislator, yet I do sit at a desk.) I loved her practical insights. She was basically inviting her readers to ask this same question, what am I ignoring here?
As we sit glued to our computers hours on end, pressure builds up in the pelvic floor. Our diaphragms can contract. Our cores can destabilize, contributing to pain, lower back ache, constipation, increased urination or urgency. Do you give yourself 45 to 60 minute reminders to stand, walk, stretch? As Dewar points out, this alone can begin to rebalance the contracted muscles, joints, ligaments, and tendons. We still have bodies, despite all the changes of the last few decades.
Trust and Connections
Being honest with ourselves establishes trust in our inner wisdom, even if it means first acknowledging our inner stupidity.
What are my healing connections? The answers to this can be surprising. Who are the ones in your life who offer this? How do you connect with people you trust as you heal? Sometimes the answer is not what you expect.
Inner and Outer Connections
I listen to many fascinating stories as I work. It amazes me how blocked paths on the outside can block energetic paths on the inside. The liver meridian that runs up from the big toes to the legs to the torso – how can it shut down in response to impaired movement opportunities? Get stagnant in the face of lack of adventure? How bizarre. Yet if I say, walking can help our cholesterol balance, this is not surprising at all. Talking about the same energy, the same dynamic.
Yet obstacles on the outside can also lead to new innovations, inside our bodies and around the planet. The situation of the blocked Strait of Hormuz is creating much pain, struggle, and economic predation. Yet there must be huge amounts of new connections being forged right now, some of them creative and healthy, around ways to look at resources and how to handle them more responsibly. More attention is being paid to the Netherlands’ move away from fossil fuels and how they’re doing it..
Is war practical? Who does it harm?
The assumption is often that war is undertaken for resources. Yet since the US’s illegal war began in the Middle East, the controversial resource of oil has become more difficult to obtain, not less. The power grab has been messy and tragically deadly.
Intergenerationsl trauma from war affects both civilians and the military personnel perpetuating combat. It can be passed down through families, impacting family communication styles, family conflict, and harmful behaviors.
In recent weeks I notice many people around me here in the US are in physical pain. It makes sense. It’s painful to even think of all those being harmed in our names, and not yet being able to stop it.
It helps me to remember the unseen inner connections with millions of other people who are focussing on love and respect across the planet, not war.
Have you heard about May 1?
There is a nationwide economic boycott and strike scheduled for May 1 called May Day Strong: no work, no school, no shopping. If you’re interested in finding out more about this, here’s a link.
Image: Amadea, screenshot 2026
Bio: I’m a Polarity Therapist and Ayurveda health educator practicing online and in person in Santa Fe, NM. My most recent seasonal cookbook Easy Healing Drinks from the Wisdom of Ayurveda is on special here.