Solving Life’s Problems

If you had one prayer, what would it be? How about praying you could solve all your life’s problems? The question to ask is: Do you know what your solution is when solving your problems? Do you know a new solution if you do not have the right solution? Would you know how to use the new solution even if you know what it was?

What solution do you use when you have a problem to solve? Most people do not even know they are using a solution. It really does not matter as long as the solution works. However, what do you do when your solution does not work? The answer for many people is to try harder. Mental illness is doing the same thing a second time and expecting a different answer. Einstein once said we cannot rely on the same thinking that got us into the mess to get us out.

The good news is there are only three psychological solutions for any problem.

• There are the Behaviorists who change the event to change the feeling. A person may have Agoraphobia, fear of the market place. The treatment would be to take a few steps toward the mall until the fear arises. This would be repeated with a few more steps each time until the mall would be reached. By feeling good about the mall, they then could become a shopaholic with no barriers.
• There are the Analysts. They would change the way a person was thinking. If the person is filled with anger, the treatment would be to discover the thought of the original event that created the anger in one’s childhood. Once the event was discovered they would change the thought of the event to feel better about it.
• The third solution can be called Spirituality. It is about living life from the inside out. Here one uses their conscious faculty to access the inner Peace Presence of Wisdom. A woman on Ophrah’s show had been married several times and had other partners. Recently her last partner had dumped her. She said, “I need a man!” The therapist relied, “You need to find what you are looking for inside, not outside yourself.”

The Behaviorists and the Analysts problems come when they cannot change the feelings about the event or the thought about the event. There are some events that no one can feel good about. The advantage of Spiritual approach is one can feel good not about the event, but in the event. The problem with Spirituality is when one does not know how to consciously access the inner Wisdom of the Peace Presence.

We use all three of these solutions at one time or another. If we have had a problem for more than a few weeks, it is a sign we have the wrong solution. Knowing when to use one of the solutions and when to change to another can prove to be an answer to prayer.

If one knows how to access the Presence and does it, their response to the event or the thought of the event will be entirely changed. They start from being in the Presence, rather than trying to feel good about the event.