Teatime with Elsa - Episode 160

Chatting about: It doesn’t matter why…

In this episode I talk about the question why. As a teacher, people ask me why all the time, and as a researcher I love the question why. We can simplify the question “why” versus the question “what” by looking at our time frame. What is an in the moment question. “With the information that I have, what are we going to do now?” Why is a reflective question. “Why did my horse do that?” When we have all the time in the world we can ponder “why” forever. But when we are in the moment we ask what response do I take to best suit this situation. When we question “why” too much we can find ourselves analyzing the past. When we think about what, we often find ourselves in the present, ready to respond to our horse in that moment, to show them we are listening. When our relationship with our horse feels like it’s getting better, on an improving scale, the question why doesn’t matter. When our relationship feels like it’s getting worse, on a degrading scale, we can ask why to understand what is not working and then what we can do to improve the situation.

Originally aired on: February 7th, 2024