Going Beyond Problems

“You and I are not here to suffer. We are not here to struggle. But those are always available if you want to pick them up.” – Lola Wright

It’s a near universally acknowledged truth that everyone has problems. Or do they? This week, I challenge you to interrupt your assumptions and step into a present moment acceptance.

It’s tempting to find problems everywhere. In our personal lives, communities, and the world at large, it seems like you can’t go through a day without seeing roadblocks in your way. But while it’s easy to find issues, you cannot solve problems at the level of consciousness that created that problem.

This week on Find Your Fierce & Loving, we’re deconstructing the way that we perceive issues in our lives. It is possible to move through the present moment with curiosity and grace. Are you willing to accept that just maybe, every problem we perceive is manufactured by fear in the human condition?

• (00:54) – Looking for problems
• (06:30) – Present moment acceptance
• (13:42) – What if there are no problems?

Do you want to unleash your inherent love and goodness, liberate yourself, and free humanity from the oppressive systems and structures we have created? We are here to support you in finding your fierce and loving life. Join us in Our Circle, a vibrant membership community rich in opportunities for engagement and transformation. Find out more at lolawright.com/our-circle.

You can follow Lola Wright, on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and learn more about my work at lolawright.com.

Chicago born and built, Lola grew up in wealth and privilege, yet always sensed something was missing. She sought out aliveness and freedom in music, immersing herself in the hip hop and house music scenes of 90s Chicago. After finding herself on her own at 23, as the mother of two young children, she became determined to create a new experience.

Lola is an ordained minister with a gift for weaving together the mystical and material, she served for many years as the CEO of Bodhi Center, an organization committed to personal transformation, collective awakening, conscious activism, and community-building. 

This podcast is produced by Quinn Rose with theme music by independent producer Trey Royal.

If you’d like to receive new episodes as they’re published, please subscribe to Find Your Fierce & Loving in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help others find the show.

Lola Wright (00:01): Something is stirring. Maybe you’ve felt it. We are reckoning with the reality of injustice and binary thinking that feeds the political machine. Humanity is in the midst of a heartbreaking and painful paradigm shift. That is a good thing. My name is Lola Wright, and this is Find Your Fierce & Loving. This podcast is intended to help you disrupt, untangle, and free your mind of personal and collective agreements, patterns and beliefs that are holding you back and weighing you down. We desperately need your fierce and loving purpose, now more than ever.

Lola Wright (00:41): One of the things I’ve been noticing now more than ever, is this relentless, ongoing perpetual focus on problems. If you open your phone, if you turn on your TV, if you pick up a newspaper, you will be inundated with sense perception.

Lola Wright (01:18): What I mean by that is that more than ever, we have gotten seduced into the material realm, into the world. And, I think it is a really important time to remember that our freedom is not found in the world of form, in circumstances and conditions.

Lola Wright (01:41): I’ve been talking a lot about change lately. I’m going through a significant amount of change myself, and I find that when I focus on the circumstances and conditions which oftentimes I perceive as limitations and problems, my energy is diminished.

Lola Wright (02:01): I feel a sense of overwhelm. I begin to see all that’s not possible. And so, really the opportunity at this time in the evolution of human consciousness is to cultivate the capacity to go beyond condition and circumstance, to go beyond sensory perception.

Lola Wright (02:23): Our individualism, our thinking mind, our ego, our identity exists by way of sense perception. What you can see, what you can hear, what you can feel, what you can taste.

Lola Wright (02:42): There is a limitation to that, and there’s importance and value in remembering that you are this extraordinary creature that has an intuitive sensibility about you that goes well beyond the finite nature of your senses.

Lola Wright (02:58): So, I’m reminded of the work of Paul Ferrini. And, in Paul Ferrini’s work, he talks about really three states of consciousness. He talks about subconscious knowledge, and this is sort of our primal sensibility.

Lola Wright (03:12): This is when we’re driven by instinct and emotion. It’s really what we would call the state of the ancient human. And then, we could bring our attention to where most of us are located most of the time at this moment, which is the self-conscious knowledge.

Lola Wright (03:30): It’s driven by a quest for information, for guilt and fear. That really drives us. We’re built by the ego. It doesn’t establish happiness or peace, but it is the present state of the modern human.

Lola Wright (03:47): We’re in this evolutionary expansion. Life is always evolving, but we’ll go through these sort of evolutionary triggers and that’s what we’re living in the midst of. And it can feel daunting. It can feel overwhelming.

Lola Wright (04:02): You’ll talk a lot about, or rather you’ll hear people talking so much about the devastation and destruction that human beings are invoking on the planet. And, you could say we’re living in apocalyptic times.

Lola Wright (04:17): But, apocalypse does not only include death. It actually infers the formation of something new. So, when we are located inside of our ego, inside of our identity, inside of our individualism, when we go back to those early states of our ancient primal, tribal tendencies where we are located in survival, we will perceive that which is occurring on the planet right now as one big problem to solve.

Lola Wright (04:50): But, you and I are very familiar with one of the well-regarded Einstein quotes. You cannot solve the problem at the level of consciousness that created the problem.

Lola Wright (05:01): So, when we are looking at the devastation in Afghanistan, when we are looking at the state of climate change, when we are looking at economic upheaval, when we are looking at these polarities in our political environment, we are only ever focused on the problem at the level of consciousness that created it.

Lola Wright (05:28): Now, what Paul Ferrini goes on to talk about is what he calls this God conscious knowledge. It’s when you and I begin to relinquish our intellectual solutions. We let go of being mobilized, perpetuated and moved by guilt and fear.

Lola Wright (05:48): It really is the kind of consciousness that is rooted in present acceptance to allow the experience of life to unfold as it does. It is really when we become to know of ourselves as the expression of the infinite, of the divine.

Lola Wright (06:08): When we come to realize our co-creative capacity, when you and I become aware of our co-creative capacity, and we are faced with seeming obstacles, struggle, challenge, change, transformation.

Lola Wright (06:23): Our perception, our ability to move through it is wholly different. I’ll never forget many, many years ago when I first started teaching at Bodhi, my good friend, mentor, founder of Bodhi, a brilliant man named Mark Anthony said to me, “There will be students that go through this curriculum, and they go through transformation and change fighting, kicking, and screaming.

Lola Wright (06:51): And then, there will be those that go through this experience of change and transformation with a different propensity. A propensity for ease and acceptance, curiosity, and willingness.” And so, I am inviting you to join me to move through this evolutionary trigger that we are in the midst of that can look like severe dysfunction and devastation.

Lola Wright (07:19): And, I’m asking you to consider that something else is actually possible, that we really can move through with a present moment acceptance, with a curiosity and a willingness, with a grace. See, when I focus on the problem that is before me, my energy goes down.

Lola Wright (07:46): I feel fatigued, overwhelmed, and exhausted. This is the basic premise of my work and of much of the conversation I suspect you find yourself in. How could it be true that all of life is for you or for us?

Lola Wright (08:08): What are we needing and wanting to wake up to? What is the devastation, the destruction, the drama on the planet here to shift us out of? I can look at my life, and Nathan brought this to my attention last night.

Lola Wright (08:28): He was like, “Lola, there are times when I’m watching you move through this change and this transition, this transformation of who you know yourself to be, and it is easeful. It is graceful. It is kind, and it is gentle. And then, there are times when I watch you go through this transition, this transformation and this change, and it’s like, you’re fighting against it.”

Lola Wright (08:51): And, he’s absolutely right. What’s different? What’s different is I either perceive a problem or I perceive a gift, an opportunity. It sounds really simple, but it’s so seductive.

Lola Wright (09:09): It’s so incredibly seductive to get taken out by the problems of the world. And, may I just remind us that when we are in a loop where we are focusing on the problems, we create more problems. We are a vibratory match for problems.

Lola Wright (09:31): Now, couple of weeks ago, you heard me talk with my friend Anita Kopacz, and we talked about the idea of spiritual bypass. That’s not what I’m inviting. We were out to dinner the other night with a couple, and we were talking about this very concept.

Lola Wright (09:45): And they said, “Well, it sounds a little bit like you’re just wanting to go through life like airy fairy, like pollyanna, not really looking at that which is occurring.” And, I would say not at all the case.

Lola Wright (09:58): Very comfortable having a sober view of the condition that is the human experience right now. And, when I am in the drama of the human condition, I’m actually not able to contribute to the kind of change and transformation that I know to be possible.

Lola Wright (10:22): So, I would invite you to look at an area of life that you’re struggling with. Perhaps, it’s a relationship that you’re in. Perhaps, it’s an experience in your place of employment or in your finances, in your physical body or your health.

Lola Wright (10:35): When you relate to that challenge as a problem, your ego amplifies, your identity expands, and your perceiving opposition and obstacle. When you meet that challenge, that struggle, that change, that transition from a place of, I almost want to say humility.

Lola Wright (11:05): What if you don’t know? What if you don’t know what’s going on? Would you be willing to lay down the sense perception of a problem that needs to be solved? Could you and I be humble enough to say step towards something that feels challenging, difficult, uncomfortable, unknown, and invoke wonder?

Lola Wright (11:38): What is wanting to come forward from this transition in Afghanistan? I am not saying that to be delusional. I am not saying that to be naive. I’m saying that to actually consider another possible solution.

Lola Wright (11:57): We have so much evidence, and I suspect you have so much evidence in your own life of how doing the same thing over and over and over again really does not produce a different result.

Lola Wright (12:13): It’s like that argument that you have with your spouse over and over and over and over and over again, and sort of the absurdity in thinking that it’s actually going to produce something different.

Lola Wright (12:22): And meanwhile, you just hit your head on a brick wall again and again and again. In order for transformation to occur, in order for you and I both at the level of the individual, at the level of the personal, and at the level of collective consciousness, in order for something new to be made possible, we actually have to imagine a new outcome.

Lola Wright (12:48): We actually have to stop perceiving life as a perpetual problem. You want to be more alive. You want to unleash your inherent love and goodness, liberate yourself, and free humanity from the oppressive systems and structures we have created. We are here to support you in finding your fierce and loving life. Join us in Our Circle. This is an affirming and radical space that will gather weekly, on-demand or live, whatever works best for your life. For more information on how you can engage in Our Circle, visit lolawright.com/our-circle. I’d love to have you with us. So, I map that onto my own experience right now, and I look at my own tension, irritability, and nervousness.

Lola Wright (13:53): And, all of that is inside of my need to control a particular outcome because it does seem that there was a problem before us, and that problem can be like the timeline that I’m working against that problem.

Lola Wright (14:06): So, this for me is like a great practice to over and over and over again notice that to which I am perceiving as a problem and consider interrupting the inertia of that assumption. Would you be willing to consider that in fact there are no problems?

Lola Wright (14:30): Would you be willing to consider that there are no problems? What if all of reality is perfectly organized and orchestrated, and at any moment, we could interrupt our own experience of suffering with a new way of being?

Lola Wright (14:50): So, as we were talking with this couple the other night what I said is, “Look, if we keep trying to do social change from this drama-based reality, where we got to swoop in and fix the problem and find the opponent, we will perpetuate more of the same thing.”

Lola Wright (15:09): So, look at your life, look at this world and see how easily it is for you to place your awareness on an opponent. I talked a couple of weeks ago about life does not have to be a fight. It really doesn’t. It really doesn’t.

Lola Wright (15:28): What if there is no problem? We’ll look at these big global issues, and we’ll wonder how in the world could we change these big, significant breakdowns in our global economy and international policy and economic whatever, right?

Lola Wright (15:51): But, we can’t figure out how to just be in our own little world and not perceive problems everywhere. It could be as simple as we go out to dinner, our reservation is for six o’clock. It turns out that the restaurant industry is understaffed and overwhelmed with demand.

Lola Wright (16:14): What if that’s just what’s so? What if that’s not a problem? I understand it’s uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable for the restaurant. It’s uncomfortable for the patron.

Lola Wright (16:30): And so, this happened to us recently where we had a six o’clock reservation, and I could sense the tension in the restaurant. They were overwhelmed by the demand. People weren’t moving through their meals as quickly as they had anticipated.

Lola Wright (16:48): Now, they had a line backing up of reservations. They weren’t making good on their commitment to accommodate these reservations. Now, in that moment, I have a choice. You have a choice. You can get it all worked up.

Lola Wright (17:04): You can start looking at all the problems that are before you, or it can be an opportunity. It can be an opportunity to say, “Hey, would you be willing to just text us when it’s easy for you all to seat us? We’re going to go on a walk.”

Lola Wright (17:20): That’s exactly what we did. We went on a walk with my brother, with my sister-in-law, with my husband. Nathan was fuming. He was hungry. He wanted it to be other than it was, but it was what it was.

Lola Wright (17:37): So, how long will it take for us to surrender to what’s so? To stop looking and perceiving and solving for the perpetual problem? Remember, your ego has to know of itself through problem.

Lola Wright (18:00): If there are no problems to be solved, the ego, the identity is out of work. What if there are no problems? What if all of the suffering that exists in the human condition, all of the suffering that exists in your life, is manufactured by the human perception of problem?

Lola Wright (18:25): But, so long as we perceive opposition, so long as we perceive a threat, so long as we perceive an enemy, we will organize ourselves in a particular way.

Lola Wright (18:39): And, in my experience, when I organize myself, expecting an opponent, expecting an enemy, there is a pretty predictable outcome, war, devastation, drama. You can see that at the level of the individual, and you can see that at the level of the collective.

Lola Wright (19:00): You can look at your life and say, “When I walk through life expecting a problem, expecting a challenge, expecting a fight, I get more of that.” That’s because you are consciousness in form.

Lola Wright (19:17): You are resonating, vibrating at a particular frequency. So, if your life experience is reflecting back to you a particular set of circumstances that are sort of taking you out, then we have to always look at ourselves and go, “Hmm, I wonder what’s going on over here.

Lola Wright (19:39): What is it that I am perceiving as a problem? What if there are no problems?” And again, that’s an upsetting thing to hear when you are in the midst of struggle. But, for me, it is the great paradox of life.

Lola Wright (19:55): Every great challenge that I have gone through, I really had to surrender to it as my ally, as my teacher, as a gift, as a sacred appointment, as an opportunity for growth, for change, for transformation, for transition, for my expansion, for my awakening.

Lola Wright (20:11): You’ve heard me say this before, I love this Ram Dass quote. “What if you are an entity in a life and this entire drama is an invitation for your awakening?”

Lola Wright (20:26): What if this entire drama in the human condition, this drama called COVID, this drama called your mother-in-law, this drama called the IRS, this drama called your neighbor, is an invitation for your awakening?

Lola Wright (20:48): You and I are not here to suffer. We are not here to struggle, but those are always available if you want to pick them up. So, last week I invited you to change with me, to expand, to grow, to evolve, to move beyond your expectations and assumptions of how life should be for, as, through, and in you.

Lola Wright (21:14): What if you are part of a generous universe? What if there is a higher order to existence? What if that what you may be struggling or butting up against is your greatest ally, is your necessary agent for change?

Lola Wright (21:28): So, wherever you are right now, if you find yourself being brought to your knees, welcome. If you find yourself in a kind of irritability or nervousness or tension, what if you could welcome that? What if you could surrender to it?

Lola Wright (21:47): What if you don’t have to butt up against it? Nathan recently asked me, “When you’re not feeling great, what do you do to get out of that?” And, I thought for a second, I didn’t really have a good response. I realized I don’t actually try to get away from it.

Lola Wright (22:08): I be with it. I befriend it. I allow myself to be sort of cuddled up against it. What are you here to teach me? Rather than screaming at it, shaming it, criticizing it. What is wanting to be known? What is wanting to be shifted?

Lola Wright (22:34): So, change with me again. Expand. Grow. See that which is occurring in your life as an invitation for your awakening. If you enjoyed this show and would like to receive new episodes as they’re published, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. Your review helps others find this show. You can follow me at Lola P. Wright on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and learn more about my work at lolawright.com. This episode was produced by Quinn Rose with theme music from independent music producer, Trey Royal.

Lola Wright (23:34): I said to myself, “Self.” Just kidding. My dad used to say that. “I said to myself, Self.”