Yesterday we recognized that our only problem is listening to and believing mental chatter. When we carefully examine our mental chatter, we find it is full of untruths.
I remember once when I was going through a lot of fear regarding stories in my mind about what would happen if I quit my job, which was my guidance at the time. One day, during my daily journaling process, I was guided to list things I had feared in the past. All of the things I wrote down had caused significant fear for me. Next, I was guided to look at that list and notice how many of those fears had come true. Amazingly in my case, not one of them had ever actually occurred.
This was a big eye opener for me. Why was I listening to my mind like it was a wise counselor? It was literally making stuff up!
A few months later I had quit my job and sold my house. I was in North Carolina looking for a new house. I couldn’t find anything that I could afford that didn’t need significant work, and I didn’t have the money for significant work. I began to really fear that I had messed up my entire life by listening to this guidance to quit my job. It was one of the greatest fear episodes I ever experienced. A friend from high school happened to come by that day and see my condition. When I told him my story he responded gently, “There’s nothing wrong. You just don’t know that yet.”
He was right. There would be a solution. I just didn’t know it yet, and I had slipped into believing my mind’s made up stories again.
Have you ever noticed that not a single problem lasts forever? Everything that has a beginning has an end, and that is true for problems too. As John Lennon sang in his song, Watching the Wheels, “There’s no problem, only solutions.”
What if we knew this? Wouldn’t we relax and enjoy the ride?
“You are entitled to peace today. A problem that has been resolved cannot trouble you. Only be certain that you do not forget that all problems are the same. Their many forms will not deceive you while you remember this. [The only ‘problem’ is believing your mind. Remember not to believe it today.] One problem, one solution. Accept the peace this simple statement brings.”
We bring the problem to the answer when we remain aware that the mind’s chatter is the problem. The answer is our awareness.
Awareness is that which does not come and go. It was not born and does not die. It is our truth. Our wisdom resides in awareness, not in the mind. Remain the gentle presence of awareness today.
