If you’re like many of us, at some point you’ve visited a bookstore hoping to find the answer to a problem in your life. Self-help books and recordings abound and, predictably, they define the source of our problems several different ways.

Let’s narrow down our focus to the five main causes for our problems that most self-help writers cite. Those are: physiology, behaviors, thinking patterns, emotions, and conscious beliefs. What you’ll find offered by most writers as a root cause to life’s difficulties falls into those five categories.

A second opinion

Another school of thought says that while it’s true you may be able to change yourself to some extent by addressing deficiencies in those areas, those inadequacies are actually symptoms of a much deeper problem.

What that means is that lasting change cannot be accomplished in life until you recognize the true source of your problems, rather than simply identifying the symptoms. Unless we’re able to go directly to the root of problem areas in our lives, we continue to deal with symptoms which tend to return.

Think of it as a tree with a deep taproot. If the tree becomes diseased, you can choose to cut it off at the ground (get rid of the obvious symptom), but new shoots will probably appear from what’s unseen under the ground. You can, however, dig out the taproot as well as cutting down the tree and completely remove the disease.

Lasting change – the true goal

Here’s another way to think of it: we’ve heard a great deal recently about “conscious intention” and its power to bring about change. Unfortunately, conscious intention or “willpower” doesn’t always bring about lasting change. If it did, we’d all be skinny, happy, and rich!

The reason conscious intentions alone don’t bring permanent change is that they seek to overcome symptoms, not cure the root source. When that fails to make us happy, we usually move on to any number of negative behaviors that move us further away from peace and satisfaction.

When all else fails…blame!

One of the things we tend to do when our conscious intentions don’t overcome damaging behavior is to turn the spotlight on someone else’s behavior. Blaming someone else for our life’s failures is much easier than looking for the root causes of them. Becoming judgmental, however, actually just adds another layer of pain in our relationships instead of solving our problems. Whether we blame a politician, a spouse, or even God for our pain, it’s still a negative behavior that moves us farther away from solutions.

Intentions – Conscious or Unconscious?

Doesn’t it make sense to instead find and deal with the root causes? To begin to do that, we must first identify the things that are blocking us from life and health. Those stumbling blocks are our “unconscious intentions.” If those unconscious intentions don’t match the efforts of our willpower, we’re doomed to failure!

As Dr. Alex Loyd, founder of The Healing Codes reports, scientific research has already proven that basing your future happiness on conscious intention almost never brings the results you desire. The key to lasting happiness in life is in aligning what we really want (our unconscious intentions) with what we say we want (our conscious intentions). Only then can all our energy be focused on improving our lives.

Once we’re willing to stop blaming others and stop focusing on the symptoms, rather than the source, of our problems, we’ve taken the first step to finding health, peace, and happiness in our lives.What do you think of this website? Let us know your thoughts and comments by leaving a reply on our entries or by sending us an email. We would love to hear from you.

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