Hello and welcome to the shortest month of the year. While it''s often considered a "heart" month for various reasons, I'd like to continue the practice of the fine art of conversation that we began last time.

How often have you, how many times have we all, found Our Selves chatting with someone, biding our time until it's our turn to talk again? You know the moment. We've asked a standard issue question: "How are you?" "What do you do for a living?" "Where do you live?" and the answers are often terse and monosyllabic. "OK; given profession; certain neighborhood."

And then what? Even when we've "waited our turn" to talk, there isn't much to go on, is there? Maybe we'll "compare notes" re: our careers or where we live, and then what?

What if we choose to foster deeper connections and truly engage in conversation? How? By asking open-ended questions. This is often a 

practice in therapy sessions and allows for so many more options than just a simple response that tends towards either / or.

So let's go back to the tried and true options above: "How has life been treating you these days?" instead of 'how are you? "How do you spend your time?" instead of 'what do you do for a living?'; "What brought you here?" instead of 'where do you live?' 

Each "rewrite" opens up several possibilities: "life been treating you" calls to mind much more than 'OK'; "spend your time" doesn't limit options to just work; "brought you here" might include something as basic as a mode of transportation or as complex as the winding path that the person took in their lives to get to this very moment.

The point is to go beyond the been there/ done that cursory examples of what we tend to consider "conversation" and dare to deepen and broaden our experience with someone. 

How are you with "Open-Ended Questions" (2:08)?