How to Use Questioning to Battle Anxiety

It is so easy to ask questions about other people or get other to ask questions to you but what about asking them to yourself? We can go through life just plodding along, taking things for what they are and how we are and not really thinking about what we can do to change, why we do the things we do and how it is we got to where we are today. Without this insight to ourselves we can’t develop personally and will hold ourselves back in every area of our lives whether no matter who we are.

If you don’t question yourself you will probably not realise how much time you spend blaming others for the problems in your life. It is so much easier to do this as you don’t have to take accountability for the issues you have to face, so you can kind of ignore them and you give away the control. However, by doing this you will leave your self with lower levels of confidence and your life in one place, not reaching your ultimate goals. How honest are you with yourself? How often do you ask your self questions about what you are doing in life? Have a little think about it, like most of us it is probably not very much. It is so important we do this as losing control over our lives can lead to excessive worry, fear and phobias which can then induce conditions such as anxiety. Questioning is a common technique used within various therapies and NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) is an example of this. However, questioning is something you can start right now and get that ball rolling towards getting what you want out of life.

One way we question ourselves is listening to our inner voices. This may sound a little crazy and at some point if you said ‘I listen to the voices in my head’ you probably would have been locked away. But we all have these voices. Have you ever sat there debating whether to eat that last chocolate? Should you take that promotion or move house? If you have, you have probably heard this voice or voices which try and reason what you are doing. This is a form of questioning yourself whether you realise it or not, but unfortunately sometimes it is the wrong voice that is listened to, so the way to make the right decisions is to tune into the voices and weigh up the options with an open mind and ask yourself the right questions.

By being honest and open with your questions and answers you will be able to make decisions that you didn’t think were possible. Ask both open and closed ended questions to your self that you know will prompt the most accurate answer possible for you to gain an insight to what you are struggling with. Who, when, why, what and how is always a good place to start and then from this hone in on what it is you really need the answer for and be specific. Eventually you will find the answer you need, if you need to write it down so you can see it in black and white and avoid confusion, obviously you probably won’t need to do this if you are debating what to eat at lunch but for bigger things it is definitely worth doing.

When you have asked yourself the questions you feel you need to finish with the big question such as ‘Should I move?’, ‘Should I break up with him?’, ‘Should I get that boob job?’, ‘Shall I go for that job?’, ‘Do I want to start a family now?’ and then lead onto ‘What do I need to do now, tomorrow and next week?’. Questioning is a process that can take you from your past, to your present, to your future. Anxiety, stress, depression or general fear can become part and parcel of life and we can spend our days accepting it, not thinking to question why, when, and how your emotions and behaviours are how they are and the idea of fixing them is ignored. If there is anything is your life that you are not happy with try using the questioning technique and take yourself through a self discovery journey and combat any negative you want to change for the better. life is for the taking and it is there if you want it.

This process might take a little practicing especially when you only just become aware of it consciously rather than subconsciously but it will help you take the right paths in life and take control and responsibility for yourself giving so much self esteem and confidence that you will begin to ejoy life more and be happy. You will learn to ask yourself the right questions that get to the point and reflect what it is you are trying to achieve.

One key thing to getting this right is being a good listener. Listening is a major part of communication and even though you will be asking yourself these questions its vital you listen to yourself and your answers and fully understand them. It is easy to misunderstand things even when doing this by yourself as you may have been telling yourself one thing for years like I need to lose weight but can’t but then when you ask yourself questions you may feel so low about the way you look, and you don’t actually know what you should be eating and you have no confidence to go to the gym and not sure what to do now. By finding this out you have gained a huge insight to you life and a puts you onto a path that will help you fix the problem.