Solve Your Biggest Problem

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Problems are part of life – we all experience them. Some are bigger than others and press us for a solution. Your biggest problem right now is likely to be frustrating and stressful. This post is all about your natural ability to create a solution.

As an example, let’s use a typical problem from the work context – a difficult boss (although what follows applies to any problem). The first thing to notice is a crucial distinction. The behaviour that your boss shows is a fact while the problem you experience with that behaviour is individual to you. In other words, problems are not objective facts; they are subjective experiences.

Because all our experiences are created first by the thoughts we are thinking at the time, for a problem to exist means that you have to be thinking a certain way. You already know that when something ‘takes your mind off it’ the experience of your problem temporarily goes away. Only when you start to think about it again does the problem become real once more.

The solution cannot lie within the thinking that creates the experience of a problem; keep thinking problem thoughts and the problem just gets bigger! This is at the heart of the well-known quote from Albert Einstein:

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it 

The solution can only come from new thinking – inspiration. So the question is: how do we get new thinking?

Well, this is where you can rely on your natural ability because new thoughts will always come when you stop crowding your mind with old thoughts. So if you want a solution to your problem, give your mind a break. This means a proper break, not simply moving on to think about another problem.

Start the break by framing a question such as: how can I best deal with the behaviour my boss is showing? And then leave it alone; go and do something completely different, preferably something you know does not need lots of thinking.

As your mind becomes less busy, new thoughts will begin to occur to you. Let them arrive without over-analysing them, as if you’re watching them pass by. You will recognise the solution thoughts by the good feelings that come with them – feelings often referred to as heart-warming or gut instinct.

Perhaps, as you have been reading this, you have remembered a previous occasion when you found a solution to a problem. At the time you may not have been aware that you were using the mechanism described here but you can be sure that all the ‘circuits’ are present. Your natural gift for creating a solution is just waiting to be activated!

Inspiration Is An Inside Job

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Have you ever been inspired in the presence of natural beauty, a piece of music, or a work of art? Or maybe you’ve been inspired by a particular quote, some grand architecture or a special companion?

I can say yes to all the above and, of course, there are hundreds of other possibilities. Yet, paradoxically, we can learn more from the anomalies – the times we are inspired for no apparent reason. Has this ever happened to you? Here’s a story of how it happened to me.

It was a dull, wet morning and I was attending a course in London. This was the third day that I had been commuting and because it was now Saturday, instead of the weekday crowds, there were just a handful of people waiting for the train.

Collar up, I sheltered under the canopy. Outside its reach was a dirty puddle, its surface pock-marked by each raindrop. On the opposite platform, the greenery that clung to the fence was soaked and bedraggled and, in the gulf between, the tracks lay dark and greasy.

Then, completely unexpectedly, I was overwhelmed with the joy of being alive. It was if my senses were suddenly switched to full volume – I was thrilled by the scent of freshness; I was able to hear the exquisite singing of a blackbird; I could feel energy surge through my body. My eyes welled at the sheer beauty of the scene; I felt so glad to be part of it.

At the time, I couldn’t explain how this happened and for many years afterwards it remained one of those anomalies. While it ‘made sense’ to be inspired at the top of a mountain, this didn’t apply to an ordinary railway station!

But over the last year or so, I’ve come to realise that whatever experience I have is created first by my thinking. Whether this is conscious or not doesn’t matter – my thoughts are the origin of my experience. This is true for you too and every other human being.

As being inspired is a particular type of experience (a very rewarding and life-affirming one) this too must come from our thinking. Somehow, at that rain-soaked station, my thinking led me to the inspiring experience.

Now comes a tempting but ultimately fruitless folly – to attempt to control the thoughts we have. We can’t – by the time we realise they are thoughts, we’ve already thought them! Neither can we think ourselves into inspiration by will-power – I guess you’ve already proved this to yourself – becoming inspired is not an intellectual process.

Fortunately we have another priceless human characteristic – a built-in bias towards inspiration. Whenever our thinking gets less busy, our nature is to find inspiration, just like a compass needle will naturally find north when interfering magnetic forces are removed.

This is what happened to me waiting for the train – my interfering thinking died down enough for my natural bias towards inspiration to be revealed. Whenever you are inspired, the same is true.

Remember that you are the creator of inspiration. Rather than your world inspiring you, you inspire your world!

 

The Ultimate New Year Resolution

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All around the world people have been making resolutions for the New Year. You may even have been one of them. If we reckon the global population is 7 billion, how many different resolutions do you guess have been made?

Think for a moment about the variety – resolutions to lose weight and to gain money; to start relationships and to end relationships; to move forward in a career or to move back to a simpler life; to take on a fresh challenge or to find a nourishing retreat, and so on.

But behind every goal and resolution, there is the same ultimate aim.

The reason behind all of them is to get more good feelings (which is equivalent to less bad feelings). Look at your own life – if you pick one of your goals and trace the reason why you chose it in the first place, isn’t it because ultimately you want to feel good?

This being so, where do feelings actually come from?

In fact, they can only come from one source – they are a direct result of what we are thinking at the time. You can prove this anytime you like – if you think sad thoughts you will feel sad; if you think happy thoughts you will feel happy.

Because feelings come from what we are thinking, then resolutions and goals are only helpful when the thoughts we have about them are positive. Only then will we get the good feelings we want.

For example, if a goal gives you a sense of purpose, energy and enthusiasm, it is because you are having purposeful, energizing and enthusiastic thoughts.

Obviously, being human, we have fluctuations in our feelings because there is a constant flow of thought in our minds. But if you frequently feel good about a particular goal, it’s a pretty clear indicator that the goal is worthwhile. The opposite is also true; a goal that frequently feels draining or like a chore may well have outlived its usefulness.

But the best bit of being aware that our feelings come from our thinking is that we do not need goals or resolutions to feel good. We will have good feelings whenever our thinking is positive. However, this is not an invitation to set a goal to ‘think positive’ because this is counter-productive.  You see, we already have a natural bias towards good feelings whenever we have less thinking going on.

So over the next few weeks, join me in an experiment. Simply notice the times when you feel good for no obvious reason. The ‘no obvious reason’ will be because your mind is quieter and your natural gift for feeling good will be revealed.

True Freedom

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What would you do if you were completely free to choose?

When I played this question in my mind recently, I thought of myself lying in a hammock slung between two beachside palm trees. Pina Colada in one hand, I could feel the heat of the tropical sun, tempered by the gentlest of breezes, and I could hear the waves lapping the golden sand.

I realise that this must be my version of escape from a freezing winter’s day in the UK. Yet I have a friend in New Zealand who longs to spend Christmas here. Even though he can easily drive to half a dozen gorgeous beaches, he wants to escape in order to feel the invigorating cold and to experience frost and snow!

When we think about escaping our circumstances, whatever they are, we often confuse two things. We blame our external situation for how we are feeling. It’s an easy mistake to make. It appears that a grey day in London makes me feel low and a sunny day on a tropical beach makes me feel great.

But hang on a minute. Not everyone in winter-grey London is low – what about those that have just had some good news – a promotion perhaps or the birth of a new child? And not everyone on a tropical beach feels great either, such as those who are worried or lonely.

When we see it like this, it seems obvious that our feelings are not caused by our physical surroundings. Looking more closely, we can see that it is our thinking that causes our feelings. Think worried thoughts and you feel worried; think happy thoughts and you feel happy.

So let’s revisit the original question. It would actually make more sense to ask: what feelings would you like if you were completely free to choose?

Typically, people reply with feelings like happiness, peace of mind, hope, contentment, fulfillment and love. In fact, all our dreams and longings spring from the desire for feelings such as these.

When we see that our feelings come from our thinking, we have the key to true freedom. We can see that it is not the external circumstances that create our feelings but rather it is our internal mental landscape.

So if I deliberately think ‘palm tree hammock’ thoughts, will it work for me? Yes, up to a point. If I vividly imagine I’m on the beach, and I work on the sights, sounds, sensations, tastes and smells, I can create quite a realistic experience in my ‘mind’s eye’.

Yet it’s as fragile as an egg shell; it can be cracked by any intrusive thought. New thoughts can materialise at any time and disrupt the tightest mental regime.

But if I know that any thought of freedom creates a feeling of freedom, I don’t have to restrict myself to ‘palm tree hammock’ thoughts. The scope becomes much wider and this is how true freedom is attainable. I can watch out for whenever the thoughts I’m thinking create a feeling of freedom.

There’s no limit on how many ‘freedom thoughts’ I can feed by giving them my attention. By the same token, I can drop imprisoning thoughts by withdrawing my attention from them. I find this simple shift in emphasis works wonders – it is truly liberating. It works for me and it can work for you!

Seeing With New Eyes

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Life is like shopping; sometimes it’s inspiring and sometimes it’s frustrating. Understanding what makes the difference is life-changing.

When I go shopping, I like to visit a range of stores. Each has its own characteristics, some more enjoyable than others. There’s one budget supermarket where you can get some good quality produce at bargain prices. But I’ve always found the experience rather frustrating, until recently.

The thing is that the layout of the store seemed to defy logic. I could never find what I wanted, so I wandered around until either I struck lucky or gave up. Many times I would get really annoyed at what I saw as the disorganised system. It got to the point when I only went to that store if I had plenty of time to spare.

Last week, I called in for a few items. The herbal tea bags were easy, check. The houmous should be in the refrigerator … but it doesn’t seem to be there. OK, don’t give up. Let’s look again, along every shelf. There’s a lot of shelves… ah, finally, there it is! It wasn’t right up there last time. Now, what about the custard?

The custard turned out to be much more elusive. I could feel the frustration beginning to take hold. Surely, it should be easier than this. Who designed this ridiculous system anyway? Perhaps the joke is on the customer – maybe there are hidden cameras and someone is having a good laugh. No, be serious. But where on earth is the custard?

I could feel the tension building and it was then I fortunately remembered. Our feelings always come from our thinking, so my frustration and annoyance must be coming from my thoughts. An internal light-bulb switched on – I was thinking myself into a paddy! The supermarket had nothing to do with it!

If the supermarket was the cause of frustration then every customer would be equally frustrated. When I looked around at my fellow shoppers, I could see no signs. Besides I don’t get annoyed myself on every visit. No, the frustration was coming from my thinking.

Somehow, realizing this, standing there in the aisle, I could feel the tension dissolve. Knowing that it was my thinking gave me a choice – I could feed those thoughts or not. I chose not to and as those thoughts shrivelled, new thoughts were able to flow in. Immediately I began to feel better.

Notice I did not make myself think positive. Neither did I reframe the situation. The store had not changed one iota; the layout was still the same and I never did find the custard. But simply knowing that my experience was coming from my thinking, as indeed it always does, was enough to change my feelings and change my behavior. I was able smile again.