The Hidden Treasure

Where Ancient Wisdom Meets Contemporary Psychology

Some Problems Can’t Be Solved!

Written By: Vic Rebman Ph.D - Sep• 24•09

1180616_mountains[1]I came across a quote the other day from the great psychologist Carl Jung:

   ” Our most important problems can’t be solved, they must be outgrown.”

What a profound observation! In my life, as well as the thousands I’ve had the privilege of counseling and coaching, I have found this to be absolutely true.  Psychologist Abraham Maslow spent a great deal of his life studying those who were highly successful individuals. One of his observations was that highly successful people are those who are constantly striving to improve themselves, and not for the tangible rewards such striving brings.  They were driven simply because they could imagine it. They envisioned themselves as  being a certain way in the world and could not accept anything less. They always looked on the hardest issues of their life as their greatest opportunity.

I believe this is what Carl Jung is addressing in the above quote. If we are honest we all have some issue in life we just can’t seem to solve-no matter how much we struggle with it.  At some point, we are forced to give up struggling and accept that it is what it is. Paradoxically, as we come to accept our issue and quit struggling with it, we become open to seeing  it as an opportuinty to grow.  We come to see that it is in our life by Divine design- to challenge us to become more than we currently are.

Truth always come to us in  paradox. If you are willing to stop struggling to change that issue you have been wrestling with for so long ( possible years) and surrender it to a greater wisdom, while asking to be shown the opportunity it provides for growth-a window for change opens. It’s a tremendous paradox: when we accept what we have been struggling with and instead embrace it as a gift (an opportunity to become more than what we currently are), that’s when insight often comes and a whole new world opens up to us.

Any thoughts?

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Comment

  1. James Thomas Jr. says:

    If all things are possible to one who believes, and there are no degrees of difficulty in miracles, how can there be any problem that cannot be solved? It seems to me that if the problem still hasn’t been solved, it is because there is something in us which is blocking it from occuring (as it says in the Course, purification is necesary first). Lesson 130 and 132 in the Workbook seem very relevant to this. I believe with the Holy Spirit we can solve any problem.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *