Are you stuck on a problem with seemingly no way to solve it? Have you been looking at an issue for so long that you can’t see any viable alternatives? Is your problem actually… unsolvable?
How would you like to know how to solve it, and any other problems just like it, effortlessly, from here on in? If that sounds like an intriguing proposition, then please read on…
As a consultant who has helped hundreds of my clients break through seemingly unsolvable problems, I get asked (a lot) about ‘how’ I do it, so I wanted to write and share an article with as many of you as possible, and you could also see a way out of your own current ‘stuck’ dilemma and break into new thinking about it – and a new reality as a result. But I should warn you, like anything new, this is going to feel a little strange at first, so bear with me as I introduce you to an entirely new way to look at your experience of life.
What is a problem?
As Shakespeare so eloquently penned: ’Tis nothing either good nor bad but thinking makes it so’. Which means a problem, is a thought. Not sure about this? Well, let’s examine it further: Take any issue in your own life and ask yourself this question: Does it always look exactly the same to you? If the answer is yes, then think a little deeper about this. Does it look EXACTLY the same, ALL of the time? It can’t. Let’s take a real life (and much touted) example and put it to the test. Let’s talk about… ’money’.
One day, money (or lack thereof) looks pretty bleak, but the next, it’s an opportunity. One day you argue about it with your significant other and the next, you’re getting creative together. One day it’s depressing and another it’s the ‘least of your worries’. How come? Money is always the same thing. Money itself never changes. Look at the quote above again. That’s right, the money is not the ‘problem’, it’s your thinking ‘about’ the money that’s the problem. In fact, even simpler than that, it’s your thinking… period.
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are” – Anais Nin
You see, you can’t actually experience anything in the outside world without thinking involved in the equation, and your thinking fluctuates. Thinking is, in fact, the missing link between the world out there and your own experience of the world. No thought, no experience. No thought, no feeling (of depression or elation). No thought, no anything in fact… and thinking changes. Which is why your experience about everything changes too. You don’t ‘do’ anything to make this happen, it happens automatically. Your experience of life fluctuates because your thinking fluctuates.
Are you with me so far?
OK, so ‘thought’ is important. For now, let’s just agree on this. But if thinking changes without you having to do anything about it, what’s actually happening here?
Thoughts are like the clouds in the sky, they shift and change without our having to do anything to them, without any intervention. The weather changes without us having to make it happen. So too our thoughts come and go. It’s the ones we pay attention to which get us into difficulties, which keep us stuck. Which brings us nicely onto the next part of the problem-solving puzzle.
What or who is paying attention to these thoughts?
Answer: Consciousness.
What we are conscious of becomes part of our experience. But consciousness is also something far greater than this. Without consciousness, we would not even be aware of our own existence. Without consciousness, we would not ‘feel’ our thinking. Without consciousness, we would not be human. Consciousness brings our thoughts… to life.
Consciousness is the canvas on which our thoughts paint the story of our lives. Consciousness makes our thoughts into reality. Consciousness is life itself. It’s pretty big. In fact, in scientific circles, it’s the slippery part of life’s equation which causes the most arguments and consternation. So for now, let’s just agree that you have this thing which allows you to experience and feel life in all its forms. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be experiencing this right now, so QED.
But here’s the interesting thing with thought and consciousness: Nothing we ‘think’ is actually real. It’s ALL made up. It’s just our ‘version’ of reality brought to life by our consciousness, but it’s not real reality. It’s not even real life. It just ‘looks’ like it.
Reality does not even exist unless you look at it and all that you are seeing is an optical illusion anyway.
Those ‘unsolvable problems’ you’ve been mulling over for what seems like forever… they’re actually an Illusion, made up by your own thinking and brought to life by consciousness, and they’re not even real!
OK, calm down, calm down. I can almost hear you screaming at the computer/phone! What do you mean my – divorce/bankruptcy/cancer diagnosis/death of a loved one – is an illusion – HOW DARE YOU?!?! But wait, not so fast… your version of life is one version, it’s YOUR version… but it doesn’t mean to say it’s the ONLY version. Take anything from that (seemingly) black bucket list of events… yours (and indeed everyone else’s) thinking ‘about’ these events still fluctuates over time.
Thinking about your divorce, your bankruptcy, your cancer diagnosis, the death of a loved one… still, changes. So the event itself is not giving you the experience… it’s your thinking brought to life by consciousness which is still doing this – albeit sneakily and surreptitiously:
“Thought creates the World and then says, I didn’t do it” – Quantum Physicist David Bohm.
The missing link in your experience of life is thought… and thought changes. You don’t need to ‘make’ this happen, in the same way, that you don’t need to (and couldn’t even if you did want to) make the weather change. The system is designed to do this for you already, which is why I don’t get my clients to ‘change their thinking’. It’s unnecessary. It’s wasted energy. And it’s actually messing with the system which is already designed to do the job perfectly well on your behalf.
If you cut your finger, do you need to do anything to make the cut heal? No. In fact, if you do decide to get involved, you might even slow down the process. It was only a few generations ago when the thinking of the time was to pour water on drying wounds. Medics would wet the scab because they believed it wasn’t healing properly if it dried out. Same applies to the current thinking about thought. There’s no need to change/alter/stop something which is already going to change anyway on its own, without intervention.
So there are now three things to consider with your seemingly unsolvable problem:
All problems are thought.
All thoughts are an illusion.
There is nothing to do to change it.
Now let’s introduce the Ace in the pack: The ‘problem solver’.
If our problems are simply the way we look at things and the thoughts we have ‘about them’… and this is an illusion… and the reason we see it as a problem is because our illusion (thinking) is stuck… and we don’t have to change our thoughts for new thinking to emerge… could it be… could it possibly just be… that the reason we’re stuck in the first instance is because we’re trying to do something which doesn’t need doing at all…?!
I did mention the word effortless in the title after all.
OK, before we continue, let’s just quickly recap. We’ve already covered significant ground here and you might even be feeling a little strange right now. Most people don’t even know that thought is so intrinsically involved in everything they do, let alone that it is their entire reality… and this is all an illusion!
When we ‘choose’ our version of reality, we are essentially choosing one of infinite options available. We choose to make the one we believe, through thought, the reality of the situation. But this reality is self-created and not even true.
So what is true? What is real?
Now, this is where you might want to get quiet and try to listen from a place of ‘not knowing’ and leave your intellect and common sense at the door.
“Common sense is completely useless and irrelevant when trying to understand reality” – Professor Brian Cox from ‘The Human Universe’.
What is real, what is true, is that this is all happening. You are having thoughts and these thoughts are being brought to life by your consciousness. The power of both of these ‘principles’ is what is constant and true. What is creating these constants? Who knows? Some people will call it God, but as an atheist and an amateur scientist, I’ll call it infinite intelligence or essence. And here’s the thing. This essence seems to be constructed in a rather beautiful and elegant way.
The Fibonacci sequence – can be found everywhere in nature and is a beautiful mathematical design. It would appear that some sort of intelligence is inherent within the system.
“All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force… We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind.” – Max Planck, Father of Quantum physics
Now, if you were looking for a decent problem solver, wouldn’t this be a good place to find one…?
The system in which this problem solver is contained in a complex one, yet we don’t need to do anything to access it, as it is already within us. We (as humans) are a drop in the sea of essence, but even as one drop, we are connected with the entire ocean. We are that infinite intelligence. We have at our disposal the most powerful and creative force in the entire universe.
‘We’… are the problem solver.
This is why, whatever my clients bring to the table as the ‘problem’, I already know they have the answer. I already know that they have within them the capability to see the reality of the situation by firstly seeing the illusion of it, and then how the system itself operates.
I know they can solve anything, effortlessly.
The solutions within come by understanding how the system works and allowing the system itself to do the heavy lifting. Which is why meditation and mindfulness are so popular because they are tools which point towards this truth. But they don’t in any way explain why this could or does work.
Understanding the Human Operating System will teach you ‘how’ to fish, not just give you fish.
If you would like to know more about the Human Operating System and how you can solve any problem effortlessly and consistently, go to www.rethinkingbusiness.biz