A few weeks ago, I was cleaning my bathroom and dropped my glass candle that sits on top of the toilet into the bowl. The glass candle was intact, but the toilet bowl looked like a bomb had gone through.  I couldn’t believe it.  For a moment, I had a huge problem. A few hours later I had a brand-new toilet. The problem was addressed, because it had to be.

Looking back at this event, I see I had a temporary problem, for about an hour as I frantically tried to find a handyman. But as soon as he came and fixed my toilet, the problem was solved.

We all have problems that linger much longer than an hour, often weeks, months, even years. They are still just circumstances, but maybe because we can’t find a quick and easy fix, we call them problems. And once we label the situation a problem, it perpetuates – we keep thinking about it, talking about it with our friends, spending energy and maybe even losing sleep over it.

So we decide, consciously or not, what is a problem in our life and what isn’t. It’s personal, because others with the exact same circumstance may not think they have a problem at all. The problems in our life are experiences we don’t want to have. We battle with them in our hearts and in our minds. We try to figure out how to solve them.

Think of five of your closest friends. I bet you could tell me a problem each one of them is dealing with at the moment. Maybe a complicated marriage, money issues, a health scare they can’t stop thinking about, or a career that no longer feels meaningful.

I’d like to offer a different perspective for the “problems” that aren’t easily solved with money or time. The word problem itself indicates that something is not right. It brings all this negative energy with it, it makes us feel separate from others, and it keeps us contracted and fearful. I see it with my coaching clients all the time. They cannot move forward because of this “huge problem” that’s keeping them stuck.

What if nothing has actually gone wrong? What if we could see these unpleasant experiences not as problems, but as part of our journey — our personal training course in life? My toilet had to be fixed; I had no choice. I handled the event as best as I could. We can do the same with every experience in life. Instead of allowing it to hold us back, pull us down, keep us stuck, why don’t we move through it, step by step, like a syllabus in a college course takes us through a semester of learning and growing?

Take one problem you have been carrying around and claim it fully. It is not a burden, but an experience that belongs to your journey. Try opening your heart a little and ask yourself:

• If this was given to me on purpose, for my growth and my liberation as a human being, what is one thing I can do today to deal with it?
• Allow this experience to pull you up instead of down.
• Appreciate it, welcome it, honor and respect it, and try saying: thank you for the teaching.

If you want to practice welcoming your experiences with an open heart, come write with us. Every journaling session is an opportunity to explore what’s alive inside us and bring Heart to Paper. We meet again on July 15. Details and tickets via our website
https://questforyou.com/writing/heart-on-paper/

Warmly,
Janine