Fixing Things Through Thought

Written by Gina Lake

A lot of our thinking is an attempt to fix things that can’t be fixed. For example, we might try to fix the past by trying to do it over mentally—imagining other ways it could or should have gone—or by trying to defend what we did by thinking about it. We replay the past as if doing so can change it. The mind tries to fix what it cannot fix.

We do a similar thing with the future. We might try to plan something down to the last detail, as if doing so can cause the future to go the way we imagine or want it to go. Although some planning has value, the mind overdoes it, as this planning is often driven by needless worries and fears. The mind runs “what if” scenarios and tries, through thought, to avoid the messiness and unpredictability of life, however impossible that may be.

The mind also spends a lot of time trying to fix things that don’t need fixing. It imagines, or anticipates, problems where none exist and, as a result, spends precious energy trying to fix something mentally that isn’t even real. For example, you might imagine that you will “fall on your face” while speaking to a group, when you have never had this difficulty before. Even if you’ve had this difficulty before, thinking about speaking to a group in the future can’t change what has happened in the past or what will happen. This is called needless worrying.

The trouble with trying to fix something by thinking about it is that doing this doesn’t work! We can’t change the past by thinking about it. And to learn from it, we don’t even need to think about it. Whatever we learned is already “in our bones.” We already just know it. The reality is that we can only “fix,” or affect, real life—what is happening right now—by doing something in the present. We don’t affect real life by thinking about it. We can think and imagine all we want, but thinking won’t change the past or affect the future or even change what’s happening now, because it’s already too late to change what’s happening now.

The other problem with trying to fix something by thinking about it, besides the fact that it doesn’t work, is that doing this affects our experience of the present because it take us out of real life and put us into our own made-up mental world, which for many people is full of worry, fear, and other negativity. We try to manage and control life through thought, and we are programmed to believe we can do this, but the truth is we can’t. Being able to see this is our ticket out of hell and to freedom, and to realizing that life is already fine the way it is and that nothing ever needed fixing.

The egoic mind imagines a problem, and then it imagines a solution. When we get caught up in these thoughts, we feel like we have a problem that has to be solved before we can be happy. But the problem is just imagined! When we drop out of involvement with these thoughts and into the simple experience of this moment, we discover that everything is fine just the way it is. Life never had to be any different than it is, nor do we. We can be the “imperfect” human that we are. In fact, we weren’t designed to be anything other than the human being that we are. We are doing this human being thing perfectly!

The beauty is that we are all evolving toward being more loving and more aligned with the spiritual being we actually are, whether we realize that or not. So we can just relax and enjoy the ride that Life is taking us on. All that Life asks is that we choose love over fear and hatred. Fortunately, we all learn that being loving is the only sane choice, since the opposite only leads to suffering. We can’t really make a mistake, so nothing needs fixing, because we are all being swept along toward seeing the truth about ourselves and about life—that we are all One and that life is good!

7 Comments

Ralph makes this comment

Wednesday, 16 December 2009

Yes, there is so much energy and time put into our thinking mind that keeps us out of the present moment. All we truly have is THIS moment. True freedom arises from living in the present moment instead of dwelling in thoughts that creates our suffering.
Always enjoy reading your blog posts, keeps me grounded in the present moment. Thank you Gina.
Rando makes this comment

Thursday, 17 December 2009

There must be a fine balance between "creating our future" (LOA) and trying to get what the ego wants and to "fix" things. Is there then any meaning in seeing what we don't want and from there see what we do want - and then concnetrate "17 sek of pure thoutht" on that, thus creating it and maybe receiving it in our experiende (e.g. Abraham).
I feel sort of a contradiction here between what you write in this post and the thought of us as "concious creators" of our life - or are you just talkiing about "worrying" and "fixing" and not accepting what is...
Gina Lake makes this comment

Thursday, 17 December 2009

We are co-creators with Essence of our life. "The Secret" seems to imply that we create our entire reality with thought. Thought is only one aspect of the creation process. Action is much more important. I've written a lot about desire and creating our reality in "Anatomy of Desire." From what I can gather, Abraham and "The Secret" are teaching principles to egos to help them create what they want. My teachings are about seeing what is here beyond the ego and the ego's desires and co-creating with that--with Essence--more consciously, which happens by being present in the moment and discovering where the flow is going, not trying to make the flow go where you want. Love...Gina
maica makes this comment

Saturday, 19 December 2009

Hi Gina,

Thanks as always to your blog posts. They are such great reminders in living a life that is really simple and going with the flow of what we truly are..

Can you expand more on this phrase "Whatever we learned is already “in our bones.” " ?

This strongly resonates to me, but somehow would like for you to speak more about it.

Thank You Gina.
Gina Lake makes this comment

Sunday, 20 December 2009

Hi Maica, I didn't mean anything esoteric by this, really, just that when we learn something from life, we have that learning, we own it. We may think and talk about it, but the learning exists within us, not because we can think and talk about it. It's already there. We tend to think we know something when we can talk about knowing it, but we grow in many ways that are never articulated by us. We may not even be aware of the ways we've grown and what we've learned. Life's experiences change us, whether we are consciously aware of these changes or not, and we respond to life differently as a result. Love...Gina
Rev. Craig makes this comment

Saturday, 02 January 2010

I went through a breakup a few months ago and did some very unconscious things toward my ex as a result. I have been weighted by regret and guilt and trying to "fix" what I did. Reading your blog really resonated with me and kind of woke me up out of the emotional violence I have been perpetrating on myself (despite doing all I could do to atone for my actions). I to really felt the power of your statement that what we already learned is, "in our bones." So very true. and perhaps those lessons are the very reason i performed those actions in the first place? That's what it feels like. Thank you Gina. Very Powerful.
Gina Lake makes this comment

Sunday, 03 January 2010

The truth is so obvious once it is pointed out, isn't it--how we create our own suffering. How wonderful that you were able to see this! Thank you for writing. Blessings...Gina

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If you are enjoying these blog posts, you will enjoy Embracing the Now and Living in the Now.

These books by Gina Lake are composed of short articles and former (and some current) blog posts.

Radical Happiness, another book by Gina, will give you a foundation for understanding these posts.