Questions Worth Exploring
We encounter questions throughout life for which there may be no single or final answer.
Spread Harmony does not offer the questions below because we believe we have settled answers.
They are simply invitations to pause, reflect, question, discuss and explore.
You may wish to consider them privately, discuss them with family or friends, explore different perspectives, or simply leave aside those that are not useful to you. There is no expectation that everyone will reach the same conclusions.
About Ourselves
Questions about who we are, what influences us and whether we can continue to change and develop.
- What makes us the people we become?
- How much of who we are has been influenced by our parents, family, education, community and circumstances?
- Can we change patterns of thought and behaviour that we have developed over time?
- What does it mean to live with integrity of intent?
- Can we be honest with ourselves about our own behaviour as well as our intentions?
About Other People
Questions about understanding other people’s circumstances, intentions, behaviour, perspectives and differences.
- Can another person’s behaviour make sense when we understand their circumstances and experiences?
- Can we disagree with someone while still respecting them?
- Can disagreement exist without creating disharmony?
- How often do we judge ourselves by our intentions while judging others by their behaviour?
- What might change if we tried to understand another person’s intentions before judging their behaviour?
- Can every person’s perspective contain something potentially true, even when we disagree with it?
- Does anyone have a monopoly on truth?
About Relationships
Questions about love, compassion, kindness, listening, disagreement and genuinely caring about another person’s wellbeing.
- What does it really mean to love another person?
- What is the relationship between compassion and kindness?
- Can understanding another person’s circumstances change the way we respond to them?
- When is listening more valuable than speaking?
- How can we express disagreement without creating unnecessary disharmony?
- What does it mean to genuinely care about another person’s wellbeing?
About Gratitude & Life
Questions about gratitude, aspiration, service, wellbeing and what it may mean to live a good life.
- Can gratitude change our experience of what we already have without reducing our desire to grow?
- Can appreciating what we have and aspiring for something better coexist?
- What does a good life mean to different people?
- Can serving others contribute to our own wellbeing?
- What is the relationship between love, compassion, kindness and gratitude?
About Helping Others
Questions about helping without controlling, supporting human agency, providing support and turning good intentions into useful action.
- When we want to help someone, should we give them answers or help them find their own path?
- How can we support someone without taking away their agency?
- When does guidance become control?
- Can providing the right resources be more valuable than providing the right answer?
- Is helping one person meaningfully better than designing a large scheme that may never reach anyone?
About Society
Questions about the environments in which people develop, our shared resp
- What responsibility do we have for the environments in which people develop?
- If people are influenced by their environments, what responsibility do communities have for creating those environments?
- Can changing conditions help people flourish without telling them what they must become?
- Can a more harmonious world emerge from people becoming more harmonious within themselves and in their relationships with others?
About Spread Harmony
Questions that Spread Harmony should also be willing to ask of itself – including questions about purpose, recognition, evidence, difficult truths, helping without imposing and remaining open to improvement.
- What should an organisation do when it does not have all the answers?
- Can an organisation serve a purpose without becoming more important than the purpose itself?
- Can good work remain valuable when nobody knows who performed it?
- Can recognition become a distraction from service?
- How do we know when we are helping rather than unintentionally imposing?
- What should we do when evidence challenges something we strongly believe?
- Can we remain open to difficult truths without losing compassion?
- What would happen if more people simply tried to do what they believed was right and good, without needing recognition for doing it?
No Answers Required
You do not need to answer every question. You do not need to agree with any particular perspective.
A worthwhile question may sometimes be valuable simply because it causes us to consider something we had not considered before.
If you would like to share a perspective, suggest another question worth exploring, or challenge something you find here, we would be pleased to hear from you.