In my mentoring of individuals or in guiding groups I have come to appreciate the importance of asking the most penetrating questions.
Instead of offering answers or sage advice, the right questions are much, much more effective in helping clients awaken to the truth of who they are; or to move a group forward in their functioning and evolution.
i.e. What are the individual or group shadows that are blocking this group?
How are you living on your edge? What challenges do you face most right now?
And if trust and safety are already established between us, these inquiries have the capacity to bypass layers of self-denial and break long established dysfunctional patterns.
Often the first answer to a penetrating inquiry is a ‘throw away’, meaning that it is a patterned or superficial answer. Asking the question again may trigger an opportunity to go deeper to discover what may be hidden. Truth is elusive for almost everyone I know, including me.
Crafting the exact, right words comes from a compassionate curiosity of wanting. Often the question will not come a thinking function, but from feeling or intuitive functionings. I will listen to my own body and feel the question myself first.
Taking your relationships to a deeper and more soul satisfying place may require asking the right questions and a commitment to Truth.