I don’t know about you, but if I come home and find a
thousand ants stampeding across my kitchen counter, the first thing I wanna
know is: Where’d they come from? I know I’m about to kill them all, but I also
know once that’s done, if I don’t know their source, they’re gonna keep coming
back. The ants are not actually the problem; they’re the result of the problem,
and the problem has a cause. My
system is, if I see one or two ants, I wait to kill them. Instead, I watch for
a while; I wait until I see them crawl to their entrance so I know exactly what
spot to “blow up.” So let’s say they came from a crack in the wall. This is the
formula: Crack in wall = cause/source,
entryway into house = problem, ants
= result. If I focus on eliminating
the cause (fix the crack), I can successfully alleviate the problem, which ends
the result. But if I get sidetracked and overwhelmed by the ants and only focus
on getting rid of them, then I’m off track because I’m under the delusion that
I can cure my problem by trying to remedy the result. The best that will happen
is that the ants will leave temporarily;
but as long as that crack is still in the wall, sooner or later they’ll return
because the cause and problem still exist.
It’s the same situation if you have a rash from an allergic
reaction. You can put medicine on it all you want, and you may get temporary
relief. But until you, for example, stop eating seafood (cause), your allergic
reaction (problem) will continue to be the itchy rash (result).
Sometimes, if a cause isn’t dealt with immediately and
properly, your problem can spread and produce more than one result. I like to
use the tree analogy here. Root (cause), trunk (problem), branches (results). Say
emotional trauma is your root, insomnia is your trunk, and your branches are
crankiness, lack of energy, inability to focus, and clumsiness. You try to
stamp out the effects in different ways, as if you have four separate problems,
but never truly get the relief you need because your focus is in the wrong
place. Insomnia is your only
problem, but even that won’t disappear until you conquer its root: trauma.
I’ll admit that pinpointing the cause of a problem can
sometimes be tricky because it may not be as obvious as an action, words, a
specific event, or something visible. Many times, the cause stems from
unhealthy or misguided thoughts and beliefs about ourselves or certain
situations. In that case, we have to work on mastering our minds, balancing our
spirits, and making conscious efforts to do whatever it takes to transform on
the deepest level so we can quell the problem and deliver new, desirable
results to ourselves. Understand that when the results change, it’s because we’ve changed. Our upgraded environment
is simply a reflection of the inner work we’ve done.
Getting to the other side of challenges, especially complex
ones, may not always be easy. But remembering that [lasting] result elimination
will be futile unless the cause is destroyed, will put you in the right
position to end your suffering … permanently.
