How can I use humor and paradox to question my own assumptions about life?

Nasreddin Hodja spent his life asking sideways questions—not to get answers, but to crack open the certainties we carry. He'd do something foolish that revealed something wise, or say something logical that made no sense. That's the method: find where your thinking goes rigid, then introduce a contradiction. Start small. When you catch yourself saying "that's just how it is," pause. Ask the opposite as a genuine question, not a joke. What if it weren't? What if the person you disagree with has a point you haven't considered? Hodja's genius was treating paradox as a tool for living, not just thinking. The examined life isn't solemn. It's playful. Notice when you're taking yourself too seriously—that's often when you're most asleep. Humor is the canary in the coal mine of your own rigidity. If something makes you uncomfortable to laugh at, there's usually something worth examining underneath. Try this week: tell yourself one story about who you are, then genuinely ask: what's the opposite also true about me? Sit with both. That discomfort is where growth happens.