Navigating with Powerful Questions
Expanding our fields of vision with the Vitality Triangle
The Vitality Triangle recognizes that question marks are often more valuable than directional arrows; powerful questions can help us get “unstuck” when linear arrows can keep us stuck in a rut. To test this in your own experience, I invite you to experiment with this contemplative exercise I designed with Jodi Lane and presented with Patricia Wilson in a workshop on the Vitality Triangle hosted by the Presencing Institute and Elef Trust in February 2022.
Getting started….
We invite you to find a comfortable and quiet place to sit. You may want to bring a journal (or some paper), a pen, and perhaps some colored pencils to jot down thoughts as they arise in the course of the excerise. Once you find your sitting spot, take a few moments to ground yourself — in this place, this moment, your body. Enjoy a few deep inhales and exhales. Perhaps you may want to move through a somatic centering practice — like this one from Staci Haines, or this one from the Vitality Triangle.
Now, from this centered space, consider a place in your life where you have felt inspiration to act and connect, yet you currently experience constraint or restriction.
Next, moving slowly through three different gazes of the Vitality Triangle, we invite you to bring each set of powerful questions to your challenge. Please note: The order in which I presented the three gazes and their sets of questions is not meant to be binding or prescriptive; one can start anywhere and follow whichever questions sparks curiosity and aliveness in your body.
Seeing with gratitude
Coming from gratitude, in the spirit of reciprocity, we invite you to bring an appreciative gaze to your current challenge.
Bringing an appreciative gaze to your challenge, allow yourself to ground yourself in the expiring of being well, and inviting yourself to cultivate reciprocity. Ask yourself:
Who — or what — could I thank, right now for contributing to my wellbeing?
Who might give me the support I need right now?
How could I contribute to wellbeing, right now?
Seeing with compassion
Now, embracing your whole, integral self, we invite you to bring a compassionate gaze to your current challenge.
Bringing a compassionate gaze to your challenge, hold the space for being whole and complete, for restoring integrity such that aliveness can arise again. Ask yourself:
What tension can I embrace to welcome aliveness? Where do I feel this in my body? Where do I notice tension in my relationships with others?
What whole do I belong to? What “whole” can welcome and hold all parts of me, and all tensions I am experiencing?
What role can I play inside of a flourishing whole? What enabling structures and boundaries are needed to allow me to play my role and give of my gifts, as others strive to do the same?
Seeing with an Open Mind, Heart, and Will
Now, grounded and free in the present, we invite you to bring an open gaze to your current challenge.
Bringing an open gaze and an intention to cultivate liberty for you and the whole, ask yourself, one by one, as the spirit moves you:
What can I let go of, to welcome freedom and renewed vitality?
What do I long for?
What possibility inspires me into action?
Closing and Commencing
Having explored these questions, take some time to breathe and feel into your body… Perhaps you may want to take some time if you haven’t already, to draw, sketch, or write in your journal. Perhaps you might glance over the complete set of nine prompts and notice what insights rise first to your attention.
As you feel into this moment and witness whatever is arising, Ask yourself….
“How do I feel? What sensations, thoughts, and/or possibilities are emerging within me?”
“What next small step can I take going forward, to embody a possibility that inspires me?
“Who can I share this inspiring possibility and next step with?”
As you close, thank yourself for taking the time and space to slow down and explore some powerful questions, and go forth with your next small steps, trusting your path, and living your questions…
