Aspire Magazine: Inspiration for a Woman's Soul.(TM) April/May 2017 Aspire Mag Full Issue | Page 44

away the layers of your past judgments, assumptions, and conclusions, and journey to the heart of who you are and what you came here to do. More, you need to be prepared to throw away all of the empty shells in your consciousness so you can focus on the shimmering pearls. You can do all of this by re-learning how to ask a few simple but profound questions. The most powerful questions you will ever ask begin with why and what if. Here are just a few simple examples of where these three little words can take you. “  Why do I think this is the right path for me?” “ Why do I believe that I am unworthy?”  “ Why do I accept less than I know I deserve?”  “ What if I said what I feel, instead of what so-and-so wants to hear?”  “ What if I simply believed my partner when s/he says ‘I love you’?”  “ What if I spent more time doing what makes me happy?”  “ What if I took full responsibility for what I’m feeling and experiencing right now?” The Power of WHY and WHAT IF Each of us holds a kernel of divine truth within us. That kernel can be hard to access when it is buried under years or decades of assumptions, conclusions, and experiences, but it never disappears, and its light never gutters. When we go back to our original set of questions―the open-ended, exploratory questions we asked as children―we can circumnavigate even our most powerful or traumatic life experiences and strongly-held beliefs and dive into that brilliant, illuminated core of our own higher knowing. 44 www.AspireMAG.net | April / May 2017 Questions that start with why invite deeper understanding and clarity. Questions that start with what if open the door to new possibilities. The more you ask these questions―and the less you judge the answers―the more you will invite new possibilities, experiences, relationships, and feelings into your reality. One of the paradoxes of the human experience is that just because something feels true in a particular moment doesn’t mean it’s actually true. When we apply open- ended questions to our feelings as well as our beliefs, actions, and conclusions, we can bypass our conditioned responses and invite a new, more expansive way of being. Asking powerful questions takes practice, and the answers may not always feel good. If your prior judgments, assumptions, and