Who, What, When, Where, and Why?: The Benefits of Asking Questions

What is the one thing that drives you to live a better life and helps you to progress in thought and knowledge? Albert Einstein did it, so did Oscar Wilde, Dr. King, Nietzsche…

It’s what you were encouraged to do in class and what you use in everyday situations to get you by. It’s what you do to banish confusion, protect yourself, and be all you can be.

Asking questions is the answer. Questioning everything has many benefits and zero disadvantages. While watching home videos, I saw myself as a child asking my dad every single little thing that came to mind. Of course, I had that never-ending, unsatisfiable toddler curiosity, but who says that has to go away?

“What is the hull on a ship?…What is a radiator?… What is this bug called?…  What’s the difference between a fruit and a vegetable?… Why do I have to go to school?”

The answers to my questions stuck to me, and at a very young age, I already had a small bank of knowledge I was able to take into my later years.

Though it’s been proven that it is easier to learn at a younger age, it doesn’t mean that you should give up as you get older.

Surely there has to be something you come across every single day that you are confused about or are interested in.

On the first day of class, my Statistics professor told us flatly,

“I will not guide you through these problems unless you show the drive to want to know. Ask me questions… even when the slightest tinge of confusion pops into your head.”

It makes sense, what he said. If you have the resources and need to know something, why not just ask?

Asking questions:

• fosters your creativity
• foster critical thinking skills
• can help you advance in your field
• increases your knowledge and aids your memory
• can help you discover new ideas and information
• can help you make better decisions
• and can help you to identify the unknown

Be Careful!

Besides the benefit of learning whatever you want whenever you want, asking questions is a tool we all have in our arsenal to protect ourselves from false claims.

Don’t believe everything that’s fed to you without first questioning it. Any one – and I mean anyone - has the ability to alter stories to however they see fit.

I’m not saying everyone does this, but you should be open to the possibility that it can happen, and does happen, and it can severely alter the way a large number of people think, act, and even live, which leads to greater problems.

It doesn’t just happen in the news. Commercials have been known to give false claims, businesses give false claims, magazines, product labels, and even advertising on anything should be questioned.

We can’t always tell what’s true, but here’s what we can do:

• Always be skeptical about new products, stories, and statistics that haven’t had much time to be researched and analyzed.
• Know that anyone can be biased or can give out false information.
• If any statistics or claims have been made, look for a quoted source.

• Do your own research. My doctor never told me that my medication would sometimes cause me to sleep eat, and it was only after doing some searching online that I found out that this is a fairly common symptom!
• Search for reviews of the product in question or essays and articles of the topic in question. People post reviews of everything on line, from books on Amazon to laptops on Cnet.
• There are also official statistic websites on many products and services, which display actual results and if products claim to do what they say they do.
• You don’t have to question literally everything, but you should lay some standards on what or who you feel you can trust and what you feel you should question.
• Of course, there are standard administrations like the FDA that help filter claims, but even administrations like this can be bypassed. Every month, there are recalled products found to be some kind of danger to consumers or found to give false claims.
• It may take a while, but doing research will help you to identify a trusted source in the field of the topic you are researching.

And to close, here’s a small, but handy resource I use daily for those random questions that pop in my head from time to time!

ChaCha answers any questions you send to them (#242242) via text message (or a phone call). It’s a free service, and you can ask for literally anything. You may have seen a similar service,  KGB, on commercials, but this service does cost you.

You can ask for the nearest and cheapest  gas station or you can ask them to send you a joke. ChaCha will help you to name your pets, and even look something up online for you when you don’t have internet!

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

-Albert Einstein

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I know it’s been a while, readers. School has started up again, and my schedule is as busy as ever. I’ve always dreamed of keeping this blog up to date every week with long and intricate posts, but I realized that it’s better to have sporadic small posts with bigger posts in between than no posts at all! So I’m going to stop trying to be a “perfectionist” and at least get some content out to you!

photo credit: Marco Belluci | kretyan

Learning of Life From Death

Given the recent deaths of many known faces, I felt it necessary to remind us of what we can learn from our inevitable fates. Death is a scary subject, but why? The thought of one day losing your loved ones or embarking from your present life may sit in your stomach like a stone and send chills though your nerves.

You may not be here tomorrow. Anyone you interact with and see on a daily basis may not be here tomorrow. It is fact that many people living now will not be around the next day.

After the initial shock of fully realizing my own mortality, I have been teaching myself not to fear death. It is painfully difficult to accept, but I feel we must in order to appreciate life – and the word’s very meaning – wholly.

We are extremely lucky to be able to experience this complex array of emotions from love to hate to generosity and jealousy. As William Faulkner once said,

“Between grief and nothing I will take grief”

To be able to meet unique people of different colors and personalities, to see all the wonders and horrors we see, to even be given a chance at love and even loss is far greater than not to be able to experience it at all.

Your most valuable thing is not your house, your car, your mother’s ring, or even your children. Your most valuable thing is your life. Everything you know, love, and cherish falls under this. So instead of wasting your most valuable thing worrying about the inevitable, focus on how great it is to even have it at all!

Cherishing Life Now

If you’ve been taking your life for granted in the past, it’s not too late. I won’t tell you that you shouldn’t smoke cigarettes and that you should start exercising more, but I do highly recommend these things. However, living a healthy lifestyle is a separate topic plastered all over the internet already.

What I want to give you are some small, non-conventional ways for you to begin or to continue cherishing your life and focusing on the journey and not the final destination.

Laugh at Life
Laughing is a good medicine and great comedy keeps your mind down to Earth and in the present.

• Find a new comedian that you like (there are many out there!) and share them with your friends.
• Go to local comedy shows.

Be Silly and Have Fun
Life doesn’t have to be serious 24/7. You can do whatever you want with your most valuable possession so have fun with it.

• Write fake journal entries about crazy adventures you went on and the people you met.
• Mute the television and do voice-overs with your friends.
• For a day, dress as someone different, take a new identity, and visit a town where no one knows you.

Observe and Appreciate Beauty

• Sit in a public place and observe your surroundings. What kinds of people do you see? What are their lives like? What are they feeling?
• Notice different types of architecture, different color palettes in art, and how much work and thought was put into everything you see.
• Read up on the history of technology, art, or the country you live in. See how far we’ve come in such a short time. We’re still advancing.

Ask Why
Questioning the world around you can create appreciation for what is already here.

• Why do we do what we do?
• Why do we work?
• Why do we take photographs?
• Why do we celebrate?

Appreciate Yourself

• Find your identity and what makes you you.
• Take dozens of pictures of yourself doing anything anywhere and everywhere for a day. Don’t delete any of them and pick out only something you like in each.
• This may seem morbid, but write an obituary for yourself stating your accomplishments. This can help you realize how much you’ve done already and what you want to do in the future.
• Interview your friends and family and ask them what their favorite trait of yours is.

Other Ways

• Celebrate anything – big or small- like reaching a goal, getting a day off, making it to Friday, or just a nice and sunny day.
• Talk to people. We humans share the same world so share your life experiences. Have a conversation about anything, and dig deeper than the norm. Ask for their opinion, tell them what you know, and keep it flowing. The world is filled with endless conversation topics.
• Treat others as if they will be gone tomorrow. It is possible and unpredictable, so watch what you do and say and how you treat people and do not do anything you feel you will regret.
• Take in life through all five senses. Our senses are the doors we use to take in life as it is so take advantage of them and experience as many smells, feels, tastes, sights, and sounds as you can!

photo credit: allyaubry | 23am | L. Marie | EdenPictures

Hello!

Readers, readers, readers! It’s been a while, but I finally feel I can dedicate more time to Deliciae. My laptop completely fried so unfortunately I’ve lost some content planned for the past month. Also in the past few months, I have taken a vacation to Cleveland (where I saw the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!), visited my family in Kentucky, became a counsel member of a Philanthropy club at my college, and worked hard at my new job.

Now I have a small, but steady income, and I feel comfortable enough to continue growing my blog and maybe getting it hosted on my own server at some point.

In order to do this, however, I’ve gotta continue with my articles, right? That’s why I’m back, and I’ll be delivering to you the same quality articles I’ve been dishing out long ago.

I’m back with a new, refreshed motivation and a huge yearning to write and help so please tune in and look for more and more content coming soon!

While I start this bad boy up again, I’ll leave you with a quote I love from Austrian psychologist Viktor E. Frankl:

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom“

Hiatus Update

Due to some small unforseen events, Deliciae will be on hiatus for a few more days. I apologize for the long wait, but I assure you that I’ll be back and posting regularly as soon as possible.

There have been a few small incidences (that seemingly all came up at once!) and once things have settled down, I’ll be back.

Sorry again, readers! Keep tuning in. Keep smiling.

Unleashing the Mind’s Potential with Stream of Consciousness Writing pt. I

I’m one known to think too much about matters I shouldn’t burden myself with. I tend to have a lot on my mind and it becomes overwhelming!

What my boyfriend suggested to me was some stream of conscious writing. I was confused. I did this type of writing every morning for my Creative Writing class in high school and it never really helped me. But in class I realized we had a time limit and were sometimes told what to write about. So what happens when we don’t have these limits?

This is the first post of a two part series on stream of consciousness writing. In today’s post, I’ll be touching on:

• What stream of consciousness writing is…
• …and how to do it!

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll get into the mind of stream writing and see what exactly it’s doing and how it benefits you.

What is it? And what is it good for?

Stream of conscious writing is a technique circled around release. Sure our mind has the capacity to think about and carry all of our problems, feelings, and thoughts, but when there comes to be too many facts and stored information, our minds are clouded and we tend to lose our ability to quickly reason through our problems.

Who is it for?

• those who are stressed on a day-to-day basis
• those who seem to have one problem after the other
• those who have too much on their mind and unsolved problems
• those who are looking for inspiration or that creative spark
• those with writer’s block or those who are looking for some new ideas
• those who want to improve their memory, vocabulary, and reasoning

How to stream write

What you’ll need:

• a computer or
• pen and paper or
• a typewriter
• basically something to write with – preferably one you’re fastest with!

Here’s the key: don’t limit yourself at all. The only way your mind can uncover ideas, repressed thoughts, and thousands of other possibilities is if you just let your writing flow freely. Don’t worry about typos, leave them there unless it’s absolutely vital to the meaning of your writing.

Let go of any inhibitions and write. No matter how profound, no matter how sad, no matter how taboo, no matter how repressed and deep into your mind it is, no matter how shallow, seemingly pointless, unimportant, trivial, no matter anything.

Write. Write. Write. CAPITALIZE. don’t capitalize. who cares about punctuation. Show your thoughts.

Give yourself about an hour. After writing for a bit, you’ll feel refreshed and unburdened. As if the accumulated thoughts you’ve been sweeping aside for months have been lifted from your shoulders and tucked away into one place.

Now save your document or hide away your journal. If you want it to be private, save it as an email draft or rename it to something no one will suspect.

When you’re ready to write more, open up the same document and continue from where you left off. Just make sure it’s all in one place. It’s easier to go back to and reference. You’ll be surprised at the phases you go through and twists and turns you take to get to where you ended. Don’t be shocked when you realize that your stream writing is a vault of new ideas for projects and other things.

My Experience

I took my boyfriend’s advice and did a little writing of my own. Surprisingly, I found I went through a few phases.

I began by writing about what happened earlier in the day, typical journal stuff. Then it moved to a critique of a movie I had seen earlier and some thoughts on how society may have viewed that movie. (By now, I had already come up with a few ideas for future blog posts!) Then I wrote about stream of conscious writing itself, and how, after a while, my hands just flowed freely, my thoughts translated from my brain through my arm to the keys of my keyboard so fluently and uninterrupted.

Every thought somehow connected to the other like a puzzle. One thing lured my mind to the next, and soon I delved into deeper topics about my feelings towards a few friends who have caused me much repressed mental strain. I came to clear, crisp conclusions about what I should do and how I should react when certain situations arise with these friends.

These are conclusions that, unfortunately, my boyfriend has been telling me about for months! For some reason, though, I had to come to these conclusions myself, and stream of conscious writing allowed me to do that with ease (and unknowingly until afterward!).

Try it out and tell me how it goes in the comments!

Tomorrow’s post: Stream of Consciousness Writing Psychology and Benefits

photo credit: CreativeArtistry | ntxpeach68 | darkmatte