Why Choose The Creative Questions Approach?

“WHY DO I CHOOSE?” was the question that propelled Monica Garaycoechea and Arne Rantzén to each other and to the birth of their business, Creative Questions. Their journey is an inspiration to anyone who wants to connect to a life that actually works, and their service – www.CreativeQuestions.com – specifically helps people achieve the state of clarity and aliveness that we all, so much long for.

What is a Creative Question and why should we be asking them? Monica and Arne demonstrate this in kaleidoscopic ways, from the elegant Creative Questions Card set to their interactive website, their international workshops, individual coaching, to the year-long Online Advanced Coaching program. Their individual energy is at once vibrant and contagious and they are dedicated to “light you on fire”.

Monica and Arne have both worked intensively with affirmations over the years, an important tool used in many New Age and self-help circles to create a supportive frame of mind. “I am grateful to this step of evolution and to Louise Hay, Leonard Orr and Sondra Ray, the originators of much of the body of work around the use of affirmations,” Arne said. Creative Questions is the next step in evolution. Tapping into this level, results are accelerated and deepened at the same time. “With affirmations, it’s a little more flat, continued Monica. You can use the affirmation “I am grateful”, but when you switch to the Creative Question “WHY AM I GRATEFUL?” you have the full power of the Universe with you”.

The life paths of Monica and Arne intersected because they both decided to take charge of their destiny and get first-hand knowledge about the process of becoming conscious creators. After having been a medical doctor in her home country of Spain for 14 years, Monica Garaycoechea realized that although she had the success most people only dreamed of, she was still missing something. Swedish born Arne Rantzen, on the other hand, was frustrated, that his life wasn’t going anywhere.

Arne’s hunger for the meaning of life led him to Tibetan Buddhism and their common sense approach to life. Practicing the Tibetan way, whereof 5 years as a Tibetan Buddhist Monk, Arne held the honor of being the 24-hour personal assistant to the Tibetan Master Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, while learning the Tibetan language and being part of the initial effort to translate many Tibetan books into English.

Arne was amazed when he realized that our lives are fueled by questions, and that most of them are not conducive to making the kind of permanent positive change we long to make. “Many of the questions people ask are negating a positive outcome like “Why is this always happening to me?”, “Why do I have so many bills?” or “Why do I have to work so hard?” “I’ll tell you why”, Arne laughs, “It’s because you’re asking,” pointing to the power of questions.

Because we are not aware of the power of questions we keep asking questions that are limiting; in fact, we ask more unconscious than conscious questions. That’s why the Creative Questions Cards are of such a valuable support to help identify and practice good questions. For example, your car gets rear-ended and you ask “Why did that car rear-end me?” The effect of that innocent question, leads to answers like, “because the other guy is a bad driver,” “because I’m unlucky” making a whole mountain of negativity out of that one unsupportive question. Most of the time we are not even aware of asking questions and automatically and unconsciously respond to answers. It would be better to ask, “WHAT CAN I LEARN FROM THE ACCIDENT?” and conclude that my car was rear-ended “because I need to learn to speed up,” or “I need to wake up and be more alert”.

The Creative Question Approach is an invitation to turn around your whole life and point it in the direction that you really want to go. There are 52 Creative Question cards in the Creative Question set, addressing the 52 most important aspects of your life. The Creative Questions Guidebook that comes with the set thoroughly acquaints you with how to play with the Creative Questions cards, and even suggests party games using them.

There is a little stand included for you to clip a card in so you can put it on your bedroom bureau, desk at work, etc., and the idea is so transportable. You can use them in the office, before doing your homework, right before the big ball game, to guide students in a weekend workshop, with your coaching clients – the uses are endless and the inspiration is evident.

Monica had established her own medical clinic in Spain, a history she now refers to as her “unconscious way of living.” “The deepest call that I have in my heart is to support human beings, myself to start with and the rest included! I loved my profession, but when facing my daily life and my intimate relationships – everything was upside down. So, my inner inquiry became more important than practicing as a medical doctor,” Monica said. The Creative Question “WHY DO I CHOOSE?” spurred Monica to pursue her spiritual calling rather than remain in her familiar world as a medical doctor.

Arne says, “Creative Questions are specific questions. “What work shall I do?”, “How shall I deal with my relationship?” and “Should I buy this new Car?” are not creative questions. Creative Questions train your mind, by choosing the questions that will give you the answer that you want. When you ask yourself “How shall I deal with my relationship?” you are not guided in any particular direction. This question can give you a variety of answers. Creative Questions are precise, only allowing answers that promote the result that you want, like “How does my relationship support me?” makes you realize how supportive your relationship is. Whatever you dwell on in your mind will have an impact on your life, and Creative Questions take you in a supportive direction. There’s no supportive Creativity in most of the questions people ask. Their daily actions are still built on questions, but they are generally not good questions and thus do not lead to positive changes.”

Creative Questions are designed to direct you to the attitude that will manifest the life that you want. “WHY DO I CHOOSE?” is one of the 52 Creative Questions explored, in depth, in the enlightening 80-page Creative Questions Guidebook, included with the Creative Questions Card set. This Creative Question guides you away from procrastinating to taking charge of your life. The Guidebook describes this with, “Choosing is a gift of freedom that you have been given to further evolution.”

In 1982 Arne sought for ways to bring Tibetan Buddhism, hands-on healing, therapeutic breathing techniques and the New Age worlds together. He worked as a trainer with such key figures in the consciousness movement as Sondra Ray, the creator of the Loving Relationships Training, Bob and Mallie Mandel, the leaders in Rebirthing and The International Seminar Leadership Program and Don McFarland, the founder of Body Harmony. And no matter how strong his credentials grow, he still brings that sparkling and humble presence to his events.

Monica started her spiritual journey with Zen Meditation and spiritual psychology. Then she explored, in depth, A Course in Miracles, yoga, Rebirthing with the founder Leonard Orr and became a teacher of Louise Hay’s “You Can Heal Your Life” program. She began to understand the bridge between our physical and spiritual lives, and that we are really creating our own lives. And today she follows the footsteps of such teachers as Gangaji, Eckhart Tolle and David Deida.

Monica and Arne are intimate partners, living and working together in a way that honors joy and aliveness as priorities. They return to the use of Creative Questions as part of their daily lives, starting at breakfast time with picking a Creative Question card as the inspiration for that day.

Monica Garaycoechea readily admits it took her awhile to really “get them”. “The day that I got the Creative Questions was when I realized that the creativity of the Universe is IN the question. The question itself opens you to discovering new possibilities.

Monica points out that “the first answers we may get from asking a Creative Question like “WHY CAN I HAVE EXTRA MONEY?” will usually be the ones that are familiar to us, like “that’s not true!” or “I don’t have any money.” But, if we return to the question we eventually get to a place where we tap into a feeling of the Creative Question that is connected to our hearts.”

Now, Monica has founded “Goddess Inspiration”, a way to inspire women to discover the “conscious feminine”. She has created the “Loving Presence” modality and is a “For a Conscious Life Coach” that emphasizes self-discovery and personal growth, bringing people to use their daily life to expand and transcend their limitations.

Arne Rantzen founded Unlimited Network in 1997 to distribute workshops “For a Conscious Life”. He is the creator of the amazing healing modalities Unlimited Body and Unlimited Breath and in 2001, he discovered the Creative Questions Approach.

Their focus since 1988 was teaching Unlimited Body, Unlimited Breath and Goddess Inspiration workshops “but what has happened naturally is that the Creative Question Approach has permeated everything. We haven’t erased the other stuff, but the Creative Questions have transformed everything. Creative Questions are everywhere. Where we used to do affirmations, we now use Creative Questions,” Arne explained.

In 2007 Monica and Arne ushered in the rebirth of the new Creative Questions Card set, a sleek and sexy black and silver redesign sparked by a vision Monica had around the original yellow and blue deck, then called “Question Cards For A Better Life.”

Creative Questions are becoming a fantastic and almost fundamental tool used by committed healers, coaches, counselors and teachers who are already doing remarkable work. It is commonly accepted today that “good thinking is important,” said Arne. There are hundreds of success affirmation cards on the market. “What is starting to happen is that more and more people are realizing that when an affirmation is put into the Creative Question format, it naturally gets energized. If you work with the affirmation “I am successful.” many people have to work hard to get into the feeling of that, and for the affirmation to really work in their lives, they have to feel it. But when they turn it into the Creative Question ‘WHY AM I SUCCESSFUL?’ or “HOW DO I FEEL WHEN I AMSUCCESSFUL? they move immediately into the feeling space.”

What is called intentional awareness is also escalated by Creative Questions, like the Creative Question, “HOW DO I FEEL WHEN I AM FULFILLED?” immediately makes you live in that reality.

Arne predicts, ”the affirmation world is quickly transforming into the Creative Question language. There are already books coming out that talk about the importance of questions, even though, it’s still rare that they actually talk about what we call Creative Questions.”

Creative Questions direct you to investigate many aspects of your life, not just improving your material world although they can certainly be used for that. They help point you to where you want to go in every area of your life, from your personal relationships, to your health, spiritual quest, life’s work. “WHY AM I GOOD ENOUGH? WHY AM I WEALTHY? WHY AM I ADMIRED? WHY AM I INTIMATE? are just a handful of the 52 Creative Questions Cards deeply integrated in their one-of-a-kind Creative Questions card set.

How would the world be different if we spoke to our children with Creative Questions? “Why are you so demanding?” is not a question to ask your children. “Parents wonder why their children keep doing the same thing, and it’s because they keep asking them the same kind of limiting questions,” Monica says, and continuous “If they asked them “WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SO COOPERATIVE?” they would really change their teenager. It would be better to ask children Creative Questions that will empower them like “WHY ARE YOU SUCH A GIFT?” or “HOW ARE YOU IMPORTANT?” These kinds of questions will open up a whole new level of dialogue in families.”

In a world where the majority of people want the quick fix or easy answer, Creative Questions are a very attractive tool because they have an immediate impact. Monica uses the term “Showering Yourself with Creative Question”. There is a free online audio where she showers and guides you through listening to and feeling the experience of a Creative Question. “Try to focus on the Creative Question”, she instructs. The creative part is the question itself, not in the answers. You can get rational with “WHY AM I HAPPY?” such as “because it is sunny” and because my bills are paid. But if you keep asking the Creative Question, you start to detach from the mental answers, and you begin to feel happy. Go back to the Creative Question until you see how unlimited you really are. You will feel it in your physical and in your emotional body. “I feel the Creative Question in my heart,” said Monica. “It’s a little more experiential than a thought.”

Another great impact of the Creative Question approach is that we can impact the world. Until now we often impact the world in a negative way, not supporting the world around us, when we ask with good intent things like, “Why do you look so tired?” and “Why are they against us?” There was good intent with those questions but a lack of understanding behind what you’re doing. “Mind must answer or it goes crazy,” Arne said, so the person who didn’t feel tired until we asked them why they looked tired begins to find reasons why they are tired and the person who didn’t feel threatened starts to find reasons for threat. We need to learn to say “no” to unsupportive questions and consciously choose Creative Questions.

Monica is the creator of the powerful Online Advanced Coaching program “Expand Yourself and Change Your Life.” “I created this year-long Online Advanced Coaching program to support people who want to truly understand and experience the power of Creative Questions”, Monica shared with pride and continued “Through this advanced coaching you will go deep and learn how to embrace subconscious material, feelings and thoughts, that oppose your expansion, opening up "space" for you to be able to think, feel and be, more of who you truly are. This investigation is a profound and easy way to promote the qualities of your Natural State, such as gratitude, success and abundance.”

The 52 Online Advanced Coaching sessions are designed for you to thoroughly integrate the 52 vital Creative Questions by being guided to focus a whole week on each, so you can really expand and change your life.

Working with Creative Questions you connect with your own unlimited potential that already exists inside you. Then, in the advanced study of the power of questions, you learn how interconnected you are to the whole world. Monica offers a practice in her Online Advanced Coaching where she encourages participants to “offer their creative question to the world.” For example, if you ask a waitress in a restaurant “WHY ARE YOU SO HAPPY?” or “WHY ARE YOU SO GOOD AT YOUR JOB?” you would see a 30-second transformation in that stranger’s attitude and aura. This is a powerful way you can shift and transform the whole world.

“Be patient with yourself. You’ll get it and lose it and get it again until you have practiced it enough so it becomes part of you,” said Monica, which is why the 1-year support of the Online Advanced Coaching is so valuable.

After you read this article, try to give a Creative Question to someone that you meet? Next time you go into a store, ask someone “WHY ARE YOU SO GOOD AT THIS?” or “WHY ARE YOU SO KIND?” Observe how people immediately change their frequency when you ask the Creative Question and notice your own elation in making someone else feel good.

Arne says, “We have to start listening to what questions we are asking ourselves, which for many, is a revelation of what kind of questions are usually running them. The very act of asking ourselves a Creative Question allows the mind to generate supportive answers for us.” This Creative Questions Approach is a thoughtfully crafted life education in transforming your life presented on the www.CreativeQuestion.com website, by two conscious living trainers who walk their talk.

By freelance reporter Patti Greco

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