How to Make Your Life Problem-Free

A problem-free life: don’t we all like the sound of that! There is a very real way to achieve this, but likely not the way you’re thinking.

For a while now, people with the intention to motivate others (or themselves) have said the Chinese word for crisis – weiji – also means opportunity. Come to find out, that’s not precisely accurate (sorry, folks). However, the well-intentioned premise is still just as valuable to us, whether or not the meaning of the word we were told is accurate or not.

You see, what the premise delivers to us like a special gift is that each moment presents us with the choice as to whether we will perceive and act from the mindset that something is a problem or an opportunity. The actual event or moment is neither; it’s just an event or moment. It’s all about what WE think, speak, and do at and after that moment of choice.

Now, maybe we need to pacify the ego-aspect a bit, because when a problem shows up or smacks us hard, it doesn’t feel authentic to call it an opportunity. We aren’t always able to rapidly move out of feelings or emotions that come up at such times. It’s too big of a leap for many of us, which, by the way, knowing and owning up to this fact is more authentic than trying to fake being okay and calling something we’re not happy about an opportunity when we’re still grappling or struggling with what we feel. An example of such authenticity comes from a friend of mine who asked her three and a half-year-old niece how she was doing. The child answered, “I lost my sunshine,” and told her aunt what had happened to cause this. My friend replied, “Well, maybe you’ll find your sunshine again later this afternoon.” The child responded with an emphatic "No, not today... tomorrow!"

There may be times when a problem happens and “opportunity” does feel like the word we could work with, but maybe “challenge” or some other word fits the bill better. That’s okay, too. The thing to consider as important here is to choose a word better than “problem” (or any of its first cousins), which tends to bog us down, and makes our energy vibration not one we really want matched by Law of Attraction.

I don’t know about you, but the word “problem” has a lot of not-so-happy connotations attached to it for me. I cringe a bit when anyone says, “There’s a problem,” because to me, that’s telling me I should expect struggle, anxiety, stress, and possibly some other things I’m not eager to experience, whether about the situation or from the person and their attitude about it. I also need to get over myself about this.

We tell ourselves we want a problem-free life, which doesn’t really serve us. Do you really, really know anyone, anywhere on the planet, who has a genuinely problem-free life? I was thinking about this and got the mental image of life resembling an obstacle course we’ve chosen to practice on for strength training of our emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects. Each obstacle is there to challenge us to use what we’ve learned so far and to learn even more, not to defeat us. And we aren’t given just one chance to run the course, we run it as long as we’re alive. It’s never about doing the course perfectly, but about strength, skills, wisdom, enlightenment, and empowerment practice and building.

And this leads me to something I heard Abraham-Hicks say – something that sent a rocket off in my awareness about “The Path of Least Resistance”. I’ll get to what Abraham said in a moment. First, I want to offer that the phrase is a really catchy one that tends to resonate with most of us. But, in my thoughts, it doesn’t only mean the “obstacle course” of life is mostly clear and therefore easier, but also that WE are clear or mostly clear of resistance, as well. (Food for thought: Abraham says the path of least resistance isn’t always easy.)

Back to what Abraham said. Abraham explained that the Source within us is ALWAYS focused on the path of least resistance. If you’ll pause right now and think about that, it makes perfect sense. Source never stresses or strains – because IT KNOWS the paths of least resistance and follows them. However, we each have the right to choose the thoughts we think. And here’s the rocket-launcher statement (for me, at least): “When you choose a thought that doesn’t feel good, you have not chosen the path of least resistance.” I add this: at the very least, when you can’t honestly in a moment choose a thought that makes you feel good, choose one that doesn’t make you feel worse, until you’re able to choose one that makes you feel better or really good. In my opinion, that is the clearest, most concise statement about how we self-sabotage how we feel, what we experience, and outcomes we create that I’ve ever come across. It’s so darn simple and all-encompassing!

The Source within us is always with us, ready to provide the path of least resistance all of the time, every time. We choose a thought that doesn’t feel good, and – wham! – we throw an obstacle onto the course or a boulder into the stream that blocks the flow. No wonder Abraham keeps “beating the drum” about our choosing to feel good and to match the vibration of what we desire.

And, it might help you to consider it easier to match a vibration, if you choose a thought that makes you feel good then quickly lock into the feeling and let go of the thought. The feeling is more important than the thought that got you there. In fact, feeling the feeling will help you stay in the feeling. Thoughts have a way of becoming like the engine on a train that starts chugging forward slowly then builds momentum. Next thing you know, you’re mind is following that train of thought down one or more tracks you hadn’t intended to travel. That thought train becomes an obstacle to holding a feeling that makes you feel good.

Obstacles on the life course are there for us, from us, even if our ego-aspect doesn’t agree with or understand this. Every contrast (another word for “problem” that might feel better to us), causes us to desire something different and better and aim at it; at least, that’s what contrasts are meant to inspire in us. Therefore, we can no more put a halt to contrasts, problems, obstacles – call them what you will – from showing up than we can halt the tide. But we can learn from them. We can learn how to find a place of harmony within us about this fact. And as with the tide, we can learn to look for the gifts that are carried onto the shore by the waves, as well as how the waves can cleanse the sand.

Am I saying we just have to accept “problems”, whatever we decide to call them, and just live with that? Yes and no. Yes, because life is dynamic so stuff is going to happen. No, because when you choose more thoughts that do not create resistance in you, life begins to feel different in a good way. You create less to feel resistant about. When something does happen that feels challenging, you’re better positioned to choose what you think, say, and do about it, which affects everything that follows the pivot-point moment of the event.

So, yes, you can make your life problem-free with an attitude adjustment, by exchanging the word “problem” with one that works better for you energy-wise, and by deliberately choosing to feel good or at least not worse as often as you possibly can, in order to travel the path of least resistance. It’s a good practice, one you’ll appreciate.           

Practice makes progress.

© Joyce Shafer