More often than I care to admit, I bump into a problem that shakes the very core of my being and challenges the heart of my belief system. At such times, I feel the world closing in around me and a tendency toward desperation begins to raise its ugly head. My first impulse is to fight back, to attack the attacker, to react by either running from or toward the problem.
But I do not follow my first impulse any longer. I now stand back and look at the problem for a while. I observe it from different points of view, all the while realizing that I am not the problem but that the problem is just an indication of a small adjustment I have to make in my thinking.
No problem is bigger and more powerful than we are. We are all children of the Infinite. The Universe is biased on our side. We have within us untapped strength and wisdom to deal with all challenges that come our way.
All problems have within them the seeds of their solution. We must learn to listen to the Silence, to hear the instructions from within and to follow the “still small voice.” Life whispers to us all the time. It tells us to go this way or that, to take this road or the other. When we are frightened by what appears to be major problems, we block the “still, small voice” from our consciousness and only hear the howling winds and the thunder of the storm.
Find a quiet spot in the middle of the turbulence. Go to a quiet place within your soul and stay there for a short while. Do not rant and rave at the problem. Just go to this spot and let your fears be calmed, even for a moment. Don’t listen to the call of the problem but, rather, listen for a few seconds to the song of your soul.
I often say that it’s not what’s happening around you that causes anxiety, but what you think about what’s happening around you. Remove your thoughts from the problem for a short while. Don’t try NOT to think about the problem. That doesn’t work. Just remove your focus from the problem and think of something else. With a little practice, it becomes second nature.
Know that you’re bigger and stronger than anything that seems to annoy you. Look away, for a short while, from your problem and know that its solution is coming to you. Trust the force that created you and placed you in this part of the universe. Trust the process that has sustained you until now. Let go of the problem. Remember that it is not the problem that’s holding on to you, but that it’s you who are holding on to it.
Let it go. Don’t be like the man who was frantically rowing away from shore while his boat was firmly tied to the dock. If you want to get to the other side of the problem, you must cut the rope that’s holding you to the dock.
Soon you’ll begin to see signs that you’re on your way to success. Don’t stop what you’re doing and look around all day for such signs. You WILL see them. Ideas will come to you. You’ll have strange urges to take action by calling someone, writing a letter, sending an email. This is the “still, small voice” speaking to you.
Your problems are not more powerful than you are. You have the key to success. It is your birthright. No one can ever take it away from you. Be still and know who you are. Be calm and feel the countless tides of the centuries running through your mind. Know that you’re unique and that there is not another human being on this earth that has the combination of talents and abilities you have. You are as valid as the sun and the stars.
As Commander Spock would say…”Live long and prosper.”
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