What Is Our Real Problem?

We have many thoughts all day long about how we believe we are supposed to be spending our time. Meanwhile, we are always spending our time some way. Alongside this, we feel like we have many problems. One of the themes of our problems is that the ways we spend our time don’t match up with our beliefs.

So where is the real problem? The problem is never with what we are doing. How we spend our time can never be a problem; it is what is. How we don’t spend our time can also never be a problem because it means our body is busy in some other capacity. There is never a conflict with what we do except in our mind. Hence, the messages of our thoughts are the problem.

I know I have addressed this in other posts. I am always attacking the issue from a different angle since our mind cleverly tries to get out of whatever reality check it is put up against. Test it out. Look at what your body is doing right now. Just stare at your activity (remember to include your head as part of the whole). See your body on whatever surface it is on (floor or piece of furniture) and your other bodily movements interacting with other objects of matter, if any (computer, phone, cup of tea, cooking utensil, another person, eating utensil, food, bed sheets, etc.). Now notice what you “think” about your present physical status. Are you okay with it or do you have some other mental agenda that is not getting met? Now stare at your thoughts. If they are not okay with what you are currently doing, acknowledge where your problem is. Observe the activity and observe the thoughts. Which one is in conflict?

I am not going to give you a remedy for your thoughts and feelings; let them be what they are. There is no need to fix anything. Instead, allow these two conditions (the content of your thoughts and the isness of your physical activity) to co-exist. That is fine. What is not fine (only because it makes us frustrated, sad, guilty, uncomfortable, angry, depressed, upset, fill in the blank) is the belief in the message of our thoughts telling us our physical activity is wrong. This is an untruth. It can’t be wrong because it is happening. Only that belief can be wrong because it is not comprehending reality.

I know this is hard to swallow, especially when looking at behavior we do not like, or behavior in others we do not like (knowing it also cannot be wrong). But the mind suffers horribly when it is at odds with what is. And, since we cannot change what we see ourself doing (because that particular movement/action is already over), there is no point believing this false record. There is nothing more to do than recognize the misguided information in our thought processes. Everything else will do itself.