“How are you?” I don’t know about the rest of the world but in Ireland it’s a question that’s asked a lot with the expectation of a one or two word reply such as, I’m good, thanks. I’m great, everything’s okay and the occasional “not too bad,” I’ll go into more detail about that response later in the post.
So, how are you? Is an interesting question. If the question is being asked by someone in the medical profession, you’d probably give an honest answer. If the question is being asked anyone else, the answer will be dependent upon the relationship between you and the person asking the question.
If it’s a man asking another man, how are you? That’s nearly always a rhetorical question. Why? Men in general don’t like discussing their feelings.
If it’s a woman asking a man, how are you? Please see the previous paragraph, same rule applies.
If a man is asking woman, how are you? That’s a different story altogether. If the woman replies with the expected positive response, that’s okay, the question will continued to be asked, however, if the woman goes into detail about why she’s not okay and there’s nothing the man can do to fix the situation, the question will only be asked once.
If a woman is asking another woman, how are you? I don’t know the answer to that one because that’s when a man leaves the room. Although I’ve heard many of the world’s problems have been resolved after that question has been asked.
How are you may be a rhetorical question a lot of the time, however, your reply should always be positive. The example below explains why.
One of the answers I used to give was, “not too bad,” however, as I delved more into self-fulfilling prophecies I changed it to, “I’m good, thanks.” The reasoning behind the change was, feeling not too bad is still feeling bad, and I didn’t want that message being sent to my subconscious mind to help create my future.
I’ll leave you with one final thought.
So, how are you today?
