Bridging our thinking without a thought bridge, by imagining one instead
@innertalks (22238)
Australia
August 7, 2017 6:54pm CST
“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”
Albert Einstein, the renowned German physicist, (1879 to 1955) said this.
Actually, I could extend his quote even further like this:
"Thinking about a problem is the worst way to find the solution to it."
Is that "way-out there" idea right then, or not?
As Einstein said above, we cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that we created it with.
Thinking about the problem usually just involves you overthinking again and again in the same ways, unless you allow the thoughts to come to you spontaneously, by your using some thinking out of the box technique, such as a meditative repause, a shower link replay, or even from in a dream.
All of these things can put us in a responsive settled state. Meditation certainly can achieve this for you. When you are in the shower, thinking about nothing else in particular, an answer might come to you then too, and even in a nightly dream, a solution might present itself to you then too.
We need to still the mind, to distil the right answers.
How do you find solutions to your problems??
Imagination is another way, which Einstein himself often used. He created imaginative thought journeys for himself, to find answers to his questions.
4 people like this
5 responses
@innertalks (22238)
• Australia
8 Aug 17
Yes, when we are hanging onto the problem, gripping it hard with our mind, the answer will seldom come then. We need to relax our hold on it, and open up our hands and our minds, to receive the answers.
2 people like this
@velvet53 (22546)
• Palisade, Colorado
8 Aug 17
@innertalks You are so right. There is a lot going on in my life and I finally had to call it quits cause I wasn't coming up with answers.
2 people like this
@innertalks (22238)
• Australia
8 Aug 17
@velvet53 Unfortunately, sometimes we need to be broken apart sometimes by life to open our hands, so firm is our grip on our current position, that we won't let go of.
And yet, sometimes, the more loving thing, is to hold on, especially if we are someone's carer.
We need to balance the potential losses with the gains, but to think this way, we still need to relax our hold on our problem, even if the answer is just to take the same problem on board again, but now in a different way, a better way, with a greater perspective, wider appreciative view of it.
Most problems are also serving us in some way too. They are often a stepping stone along the way to something else.
2 people like this
@innertalks (22238)
• Australia
8 Aug 17
Yes, otherwise we are just hitting our heads against the wall of our problems.
We need to create a window, a door, a gate, in our problem wall, or adopt/take on, a new way of thinking that might lift us right over that wall then too.
1 person likes this
@vandana7 (100948)
• India
8 Aug 17
I am one of those who tends to get obsessed with the problem, and it keeps on like the spoiled vinyl record..you are right about overthinking same thing again and again getting us nowhere. I now have two simple ways of doing it...I change what I am doing so that I have something more engaging with me. Then I also tell me, I have handled tougher problems than that, I can manage.
2 people like this
@innertalks (22238)
• Australia
8 Aug 17
Yes, doing something else is a good idea.
Telling myself to forget it for now, and forcing myself to let it go, then sleeping on it that night, the problem nearly always shrinks for me overnight, and is smaller in the morning.
And yes, putting a problem in perspective with other problems or even other potential problems can be an effective strategy too.
I have heard it called catastrophizing when you escalate the scale of your problem. Most of our everyday problems wouldn't really be on the scale of some major catastrophes, when you compare them with these.
Losing your job, is bigger than losing a file on your computer, for example, no matter how annoying it is, and how hard you try to get it back again, obsessing over the loss, and your stupidity of having done that. I do this a lot too. I hate losing my writing, when my computer freezes sometimes.
2 people like this
@Shavkat (140178)
• Philippines
8 Aug 17
@innertalks Thank you for the recommended book. I think it is nice to know the basic principles of imagination. It can be a guide to be a better person and to explore what I can do beyond my imagination.
2 people like this
@innertalks (22238)
• Australia
8 Aug 17
Yes, it's a good habit to develop.
"Live out of your imagination, not your history."
Stephen Covey, American writer, (1932 to 2012).
This guy wrote a best seller called, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."
It's a good book to read. He describes imagination as the ability to envision, to create with our imaginative thinking mind something that we cannot as yet see with our direct thinking, or that which we can't yet see that is right in front of our eyes, but right now we are blind to it, because we are thinking only in a certain way, with blinders on.
Our imagination releases us to our potential.
2 people like this
@innertalks (22238)
• Australia
8 Aug 17
@Shavkat The book is more business orientated, and so has been overlooked by some people because of that. Imagination can help us in every field of our lives. If we imagine the grass to be greener, it might just do so, if we imagine it to be so....LOL...
2 people like this
@smileyhema (4606)
• United States
29 Aug 17
Yeah as you've answered it - "out-of-the-box" thinking is all that we need. I imagine those who are having problems to be in a box and to solve a problem we need a foreign element who comes out of the box .. I relate this to the task of Judge or referee in matches .. when you are one among the problem you will never give neutral solution, it will be biased and you will beat around the bush to find solution for the never ending problems.
Meditation really helps and I also believe in one more concept of "yoga" which is "ground state". Whenever you are in happy or bad mood you will never decide clearly on a situation. We will have to come down to ground state - the state where you are "0" value person with no pride, ego, head weight etc...
1 person likes this
@smileyhema (4606)
• United States
29 Aug 17
@innertalks : very true words.. allowing light is really required and we should leave all our ego to get solutions from people.. we should never stop any person from commenting .. we should just allow all those criticism and pick what is needed ..
1 person likes this
@innertalks (22238)
• Australia
29 Aug 17
@smileyhema I agree. You never know where the solution is going to come from, and if we block off criticism because of our ego, we might just miss receiving the right solution then for us.
There is an answer to every question, but the solution sometimes appears in ways that we might not expect to receive it. Better keep the lid open on our box, and so be always ready to receive the answer when it comes towards us, no matter in what form it does so.
@innertalks (22238)
• Australia
29 Aug 17
Yes, our light can never shine fully in a closed box, which tends to make any candle stop burning too, and it stops any outer light from entering as well.
We need to remain open to all light, to see the answer which often comes shining distantly at first, but there is always a new shining light that appears in our sight, when we stay open to seeing it there.
