Why Ask Why?

I used to play the why game as a kid. If my mother made a statement or a command such as "I want you to eat those greens off that plate" my response was "why?" This continued on until finally she got to "because I said so!"

I would make an effort to eat those greens just as long as mommy was standing there. As long as I knew she was hovering behind me, I felt I didn't have an option (well, at least not one that I would prefer to face anyway).

Somewhere along the journey of life, I stopped questioning "why." I think many of us have. We do things, simply because someone else said so. Have you ever stopped to think about why you do the things that you do...the thoughts that you formulate and focus on in your mind...the associations and assumptions that you make, the biases that you hold and the conclusions that you come to? why?

Have you ever thought about how the terms happiness and love have been defined in your life? What about the terms of friendship, and other relationships (familial, romantic and business)? Have YOU defined these terms, or has someone or something else defined them FOR you? Why?

We grow up, and proclaim to be intelligent, capable adults. There is a reality that demonstrates that while we may not have anyone literally hovering behind us, we still carry out the conditioning of doing what someone else has told us to do, simply because they said so, instead of questioning why things have to be done that way and trusting ourselves to make the best decision for ourselves.

The point of this post is to encourage mindful living; to rejuvenate the spirit of curiosity you once held as a child of questioning "why?" Questioning why as an adult has taken me out of the lane of the mundane and into the lane of the extraordinary, because now I am empowered to be that intelligent, capable being inside and out.