As a kid, I was the annoying one with tons of questions. I didn't come into this world just taking everyone's word for it. I wanted to know why, who, how, what and more. I wanted to understand.
As a kid I was also taught to stop asking questions. "Just take my word for it. Because I said so. Shut up. Be quiet. Children should be seen, not heard." I was even taught that children being seen and not heard was biblical. It's not. I questioned it. It's actually the opposite. If you don't believe me, look it up. :)
I spent a good part of my life believing I should be quiet though and that everyone knew better than I did. That's a whole different blog. Let's get back to the subject at hand.
When I was 19, I joined the Air Force. I went in to be a nurse, but they had a different idea for me. I was assigned to public affairs, where I was mainly trained to be a journalist. As a trained journalist, we operated on facts only. We didn't print anything that wasn't based on a fact that could be proven, or a quote that someone said. We tape recorded. We verified. We proofread and we didn't report based on our biased opinions (those were called editorials, opinions or what we now call blogs.) We reported facts. If we didn't, we understood we could be sued and we could cause a lot of trouble for ourselves.
When I was 27, I was out of the military, back to pursuing my nursing dreams and graduating from college as an RN. As a nurse, we operated on science. We were taught how the human body works. We were taught how to administer care and always look out for the best interest of our patients. Sometimes that meant we even questioned the doctor or others in authority. We represented the patient and if we didn't question or understand, we could lose our license for our own negligence in the process. We could also lose our patient, which is even worse.
When I was 32, my then husband decided he wanted to pursue business ownership. I was a tired, shift-working nurse with two young daughters and a newborn son. I accepted in hopes it would give me more time at home with my children. I left floor nursing and tabled my active nursing career, all the while maintaining my license. In the meantime, I went into business, where I focused on the marketing side. As a marketer, I was trained how to influence, reach and persuade people to buy products. The easiest way to sell products is thru emotions. If you can activate love or fear, you've entered an easy portal that weakens or strengthens every human. It just depends on how you decide to use it.
When I was 43, that business collapsed. It wasn't able to survive a devastating divorce. So, I decided to reinvent myself. Though I still remain in marketing at different levels, I picked back up my love for medicine and nursing and also went into human development coaching. As a life coach, I was trained to ask powerful questions. Questions to make people see things for themselves and find their own answers. When we find our own answers; when we understand; that's when things stick. That's when things change. Ironic that I've circled back to being that annoying kid who can't stop asking questions, isn't it?!
So, what am I trying to get at? We need to question everything. Don't take anyone's word for it. We are all living by our own set of influenced bias', beliefs, experiences and perceptions. The right answer for me is going to look different for you, but yet we are being told that the right answer is the same for all. It isn't and that is why you must start questioning everything.
Journalism isn't what it used to be. We've entered bias reporting, instead of fact reporting. If you don't believe me, question that. Question your search engines. Remember encyclopedias? I trusted them, but unfortunately they often didn't tell the whole story. Google is our current encyclopedia, but they are ripping out pages and we can't see it. Algorithms are showing you what you want to see. You aren't seeing the whole picture. Question everything.
Social media is just one big marketplace of biased opinions. We have too many choices now. The complexity of it causes confusion. We've lost our simplicity. Don't believe every video. Don't believe every post. Don't believe me. QUESTION EVERYTHING!!!
I believe, I was made for such a time as this. God orchestrated my life and brought me here with all my background because he knew I would need all those pieces to question everything. This blog isn't factual journalism. It's a blog. It's my opinion and all I want you to gain from it is a different perspective. A perspective that makes you question everything.
Right now, our world is in a cataclysm of fear. Covid has occupied every morsel of our well-being, and behind it is a vaccine campaign they are guaranteeing will save the day. Question that. As a journalist, I have been fact-checking all the statistics, and finding the unreported ones also. As a nurse, I am questioning the science behind their reports, understanding the physical aspects of all of it, and making decisions for the best welfare of me and those I love. As a marketer, I am watching how the media and those in authority are using our emotions to sell their message and all the products behind it. As a coach, I am asking powerful questions because that's how I learn my truth and how I see things for myself.
I want to leave you with one last thought. When we are scared; when fear enters our body; we diminish our ability to critically think. Our amygdala takes over, our emotions activate and the front part of our brain stops thinking. It's a physical survival strategy God equipped us with, to elicit a quick action. When a snake is ready to attack you, it's not time to overthink. It's time to run. It's time to freeze or it's time to fight. It's why we often ask ourselves later, "What was I thinking?" You weren't! You were surviving.
We have time to think all this thru. We have time to research and get our facts straight. We have time to take a big breath and calm ourselves down. We have time to understand. We've never had a better time. We are fully loaded with all the resources and knowledge at our fingertips, if you just go looking. This is about your survival. Question everything. Your life literally depends on this. Please, go see for yourself...
Angela Miller is a "Wholistic" RN and a Human Potential Professional Life Coach passionately pursuing her purpose to help others remember who they are and how to become their best self, emotionally and physically. For more information, visit www.soaringforward.com.