The Power of Inquiry ~ The Key to Tapping Universal Wisdom

Posted on May 02, 2013 by Jennifer Starr, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

The real answers lie within each of us, and inquiry based learning and collaboration is a magical way to tap the Soul’s wisdom and the collective Universal Mind. I have been using inquiry with my clients and groups for years, witnessing amazing progress and even miraculous results in all areas of their lives.

Inquiry is a special kind of question that is powerful, open-ended and that provokes introspection and self discovery over time. It opens the door to deeper questions, rather than leading to a specific answer. In fact, it requires no answer since its purpose is to deepen awareness and expand possibilities.

Optimally, the inquiry is crafted by you in order for you to receive maximum benefit from it in the context of what’s going on in your life and what you’d like more clarity or change around. It can be used throughout the day in various situations. An example of an inquiry is: “How can I let go and trust the process?” or “What’s possible here than hasn’t occurred to me?”

It puts us in a state of curiosity and openness that allows greater access to deeper wisdom, insight and inspiration. Children are naturally open and curious, always asking questions and leaning. As we step out of “what we think we know” and into curiosity, i.e. areas unknown to us, the doors open fly open and magnetic for further information to come in, in a variety of ways, often like magic.

Another benefit of being in inquiry is that whatever we are questioning is what we are paying attention to. What do we want to focus on? What do we want to grow in our experience? It’s usually not the limiting story that we may be telling ourselves or the cultural absolutes that we’ve fallen in the habit of believing. We get to choose.

I invite my clients to make good use of the question mark throughout the week in order to turn their statements into questions. Be willing to be curious, open and in wonder about what there is to learn and see what happens. They are often amazed at the depth of learning and new perspectives they’ve gained with the use of inquiries in little time.

There are many ways to work with an inquiry — you can explore it in your journal writing or in discussion with a friend or post it visibly as a reminder to ponder it. Many have found that as they begin asking questions in writing, another part of them provides more questions and layers of answers that seem to come out of the blue. This is the tapping of the Universal that I call magic. The point is to keep the question in mind as you go about your life, and see where it leads you.

Helpful Resources:
Books:
The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks
Appreciative Living: The Principles of Appreciative Inquiry in Personal Life by Jacqueline Kelm The Joy of Appreciative Living by Jackie Kelm
Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry by Sue Annis Hammond (Thin Book Series)
Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change by David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney.