“How are you?” has become more of a greeting than a question. We often find ourselves asking this as we pass by an acquaintance, knowing that we aren’t sticking around to hear the answer. If we are the one being asked this question, our immediate response is, “fine” or “good.” But why do we stop there? We are no longer being intentional with our questions. Don’t be afraid to dive into intentional question-asking, you may find commonalities you never would have known existed between you and a neighbor.
Listening is healing. Being asked questions is mutually healing. There’s something that happens when we experience a deeper level of understanding others.
Kindness cares to ask.
Kindness pulls back the initial comfort layer and peers deeper.
Kindness asks questions like, “How are you today (really)?” “What’s going on in your life?” Kindness remembers the answers people share once they have been asked.
Here are three questions we can be aware of as we seek to be intentionally kind:
- How is your heart?
- What are you learning?
- What are you excited about?
Specific questions funnel into helping people have space to process and pay attention. Even if they don’t have immediate answers, questions offer something to chew on as we go about our day. As Georg Cantor said, “The art of proposing a question must be held of higher value than solving it.”
Intentional questions are like songs that stay with us, a good movie plot, or a moment with our children. Lasting. Memorable. Thought-provoking.
Caring to ask questions plants seeds of kindness.
We encourage you to ask kind questions. Be intentional and stick around to listen to the answers you are given.
