Problem Solving?

“We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”

“In an hour, I’d spend fifty-five minutes on the problem and five minutes on solutions.”

~Albert Einstein

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For the longest time, like many of us, I thought problem solving was largely to be focused on the external world. Then one day, I realized that many of our challenges with problems in our lives are internal ones.

· Difficulty in relationships often traces to relatability, or relationally, or even personality types.

· Career problems are so often a matter of fit, i.e. a good match between a person’s attributes and the work.

· Political challenges so often revolve around the persons and personalities involved in the politics.

What if we can’t solve our worldly problems without a change in our interior orientations including what we believe, our values, or how we perceive?

What if we do not really even know or understand our own beliefs, values and perceptions, much less those of other people, who may very well not know themselves either?

What if the so-called problems in our lives cannot be addressed without a change in our level of awareness or consciousness?

No wonder so many of us would struggle with any number of challenges. Changing our views and viewpoints, or the values and beliefs that underlie them is no small matter.

This brings us into the realm of what the Greeks called “metanoia,” which some would translate as “change of mind” though in practice it might be more accurate to reframe that as a “profound change of heart.” Notable change in thinking is most often caused by changes in heart.