We know more than we think we know.
Many wise people talk about this. And I believe it too.
Then, how come we so often think we know things that we are actually clueless about? Things we can’t know. Yet.
Perhaps we are too “lost in the energy of the problem”?
As Michael Singer wrote in The Untethered Soul:
No solution can possibly exist while you’re lost in the energy of the problem. And…generally problems are not what they appear to be.
Well, that’s the truth, isn’t it?
Problems need to calm down. They need to breath.
They need space so that one can get to the heart of what’s actually going on. What actually needs to be overcome.
When my bike hydroplaned on the wet rail tracks and my knee slammed into the concrete three Sundays ago, I knew immediately that my knee was a problem.
Week One:
- Within the hour it swelled up and I couldn’t bend it to climb even one stair. Uh oh.
- On advice from a friend with First Aid experience and my trusty Healthwise Handbook, I waited for the swelling to settle down.
Week Two:
- Then, I went in to get x-rays that confirmed no break, fracture or sprain.
- But, still I could barely walk. My knee was too swollen for the docs to really know what was going on.
Week Three:
- I saw the physical therapist (PT) a few days ago and now we know: it’s a strained MCL (ligament that runs along the inside of the knee) and knee cap contusion (which is a fancy name for bruising, but I like it because it sounds as bad as it hurts).
- My PT nodded when I asked: “On a scale of 1 to 5 for knee injuries, this is a 1, huh?”
Not that bad, all things considered.
Still a problem right now.
But, one that she could not have diagnosed this specifically when she had so little information to work with 12 days ago.
“No solution can possibly exist while you’re lost in the energy of the problem.”
When I first read this in April, I wondered: what problems do I need to settle into deeper?
Which might be a question that’s echoing in the back of your mind right now.
I see now that it’s not a matter of me going deeper into a problem—that’s just getting more lost in the energy of the problem.
It’s the energy that needs to settle. The energy is protecting something.
Something pretty important, probably. What are you protecting?
Once the energy dissipates, then we can see what it’s protecting and why it flared up.
We have to move past being consumed in the energy of the problem in order to get back to a place of wholeness, to a calm, creative place of seeing things the way they actually are.
So that we can see the many—specific and useful—ways they could be different.
And that is how we stay whole even, and especially, as we heal.
After all, the whole cannot be whole without all of you.
May this week bring you extra space and discovery,
Jules