“What is a problem?”

“That which believes it is.”

Someone recently asked me to do a reading on what was wrong with him.  He was very earnest in his desire to improve his life, and knew improvement had to come from within.  So he directed me to hold nothing back and really delve into what he needed to fix.

The very clear, very precise, channeled answer was “nothing”.

The root of a problem is the belief that something is wrong.  It arises independent of events and has its own motives.  Usually it’s related to a trauma or feeling – embarrassment, loneliness, vulnerability – that we have a deep aversion to experiencing.  When these feelings are triggered we’ll disconnect and start looking for what’s wrong and how to fix it.

It’s a very core form of self-protection, and happens on an almost instinctive level.  We hit a wall in our lives and want to get rid of the wall.  This becomes an almost impossible quest, however, because the truth is there is no wall.  Nothing is stopping us except the thought that we are being stopped.  The strange truth is, there is no magic key that fits the lock, because there is no lock.

Figuring this out has been a confusing and somewhat unwelcome journey for me.  I had to quit my favorite hobby of finding out what was wrong with me, and why I couldn’t just do things that seemed so easy for other people.  I had to let go of the idea that I was somehow “different” from normal people, and that a certain level of happiness would always elude me.

In order to do this I let myself feel the feelings underneath my fear, so I could get a better sense of what was really going on without a story.  Doing so gave me the clarity that I was deeply okay, so when my old story arose I was no longer its prisoner.  I could recognize and detach from it, and consciously place my focus on ideas that served me better.  Strangely, the circumstances of my life rapidly improved, since they were no longer handicapped by trying to solve my problem.  I now had a lot more energy for other things.

As I told my client, if you orient your life around trying to fix a problem, you will always find a problem to fix.  Healing therefore is not about finding a “cure”.  Rather, it is about letting go of the need to be cured.  It can feel subtle, but the results are powerful.

You are free.  Question any belief that says otherwise, and you will discover a whole new life for yourself.

I will be teach a class on July 27th that delves more fully into this concept.  Learn more here.