If you were asked to name a major crisis facing humanity right now, most people would include the environment at the top or near the top of the list. Thinking about climate change, how do you feel personally? The range of responses for most people is dominated by anxiety, a fear that Nature is approaching a disaster that seems inevitable. You might also feel depressed, helpless, and fatigued.
Yet if you reflect on this crisis, obviously fear isn’t going to lead to a solution. Creativity is needed, and fear is a poor motivator for creative ideas. The mix of negative feelings surrounding this crisis is unhelpful, which is true in any crisis. And the answer is the same as with any crisis: Act from the level of the solution, not the level of the problem. We realize this in everyday situations all the time. A crying baby in distress is behaving at the level of the problem, while a mother comforting her baby is acting from the level of the solution.
What you are looking for is a simple feeling, the same feeling you have anytime you say, “Don’t worry. I know what to do.” Reaching this feeling occurs in your awareness because all solutions arise in consciousness. The active mind filled with thoughts, impulses, sensations, and feelings is a jumble without clarity of awareness. Clarity isn’t a thought or impulse. It is a deeper state of awareness but also a simpler one.
Step away from the active mind and find this simple state of awareness, which is known for calm, peace, and quiet. Those are good qualities on their own, but what we are really seeking is the level of solutions, which requires more than inner calmness and quiet. The level of solutions is designed into human consciousness as part of our nature.
Trusting in your nature comes first, but how do you do that? Experience tells us that human nature is polarized and divided. We bounce between one pole (creative, loving, intelligent, and positive) and its opposite (selfish, afraid, hostile, insecure, and negative). Relying on human nature seems like the most untrustworthy and unreliable way to find a solution to anything as alarming as the environmental crisis. Yet there is a way.
One of the most profound findings in quantum physics is this: Nature responds to the questions we ask and the problems we pose. Being the source of infinite possibilities, the quantum field creates physical reality out of overlapping ripples that are pure potential. The same is true of human nature. It is a kind of feedback loop that gives you a mirror reflection of the state of awareness you experience. That’s why two similar children arouse different emotions if one is a stranger and the other is your own child. Your love for your own child automatically creates the reflection you receive from the child, while a stranger’s child isn’t the same.
Once you absorb this profound idea, you realize something immensely powerful. You are a co-creator standing at the center of your personal reality. The core of your creativity lies within. If you live like a co-creator, life becomes much more fascinating, while if you live like a victim bounced around by external forces, life contracts and shuts down. Living like a co-creator means that you align yourself with Nature “out there” and human nature “in here.”
There is a long tradition of separation that affects everyone. To judge by appearances, we are outsiders. Other living creatures act out of instinct and self-preservation, caught up in the life-and-death struggle of Darwinian competition. Humans long ago stepped outside this automatic framework. We can live in accord with Nature or not, as we choose. At the same time, we can draw upon the reservoir of creative intelligence that exists inside us or not.
No matter how bad our history of choices looks—and when it comes to the environment, our choices look destructive, reckless, and heedless—nothing changes one fundamental truth. The flow of creative intelligence is always present. Every cell in your body makes thousands of choices per second, exhibiting enormous intelligence and creativity in order to survive. This isn’t a huge challenge for a cell; it’s a fact of everyday existence.
This brings us to a second major realization. Creative intelligence in our own lives fails to support us because we block it. There is no innate reason for not solving a crisis, including in hopelessness, or living at the level of the problem. All of these things are blockages, and ultimately, we as co-creators of our reality, made the situation we find ourselves in. Whatever we made we can unmake. That’s the last major realization that is needed to solve climate change, or any crisis.
First comes the knowledge that you are a co-creator, endowed with infinite possibilities that come from the flow of creative intelligence. Next is the realization that any failure of creative intelligence is due to blockages you created. Finally comes the realization that whatever choices you have made to block your creative intelligence can be unmade.
These three insights pave the way to living at the level of solutions, not just when it comes to the climate crisis but in every aspect of life. Insights aren’t the same as everyday ideas. They are part of your core vision of who you are and why you are here. They fuel purpose and meaning. They make you feel secure and ready to face the future. Reflect on the three realizations I’ve described, and as you do, let them affect you in your deepest awareness. Your active mind will bring up doubt and skepticism. When this happens, don’t try to refute your doubts. Instead, center yourself, relax, and be in a simple state of awareness. By its very nature consciousness is simple, just because it is whole. It contains every possibility, and therefore it has supreme self-confidence and self-reliance. The more these qualities become part of your everyday life, the closer you are aligning yourself with creative intelligence. There is no better way to live either in Nature or with your own nature.
Join Chopra for the Journey to Well-being, a brand new guided experience in self-discovery, with free monthly programs for mind, body, and spirit. Register now!
Yet if you reflect on this crisis, obviously fear isn’t going to lead to a solution. Creativity is needed, and fear is a poor motivator for creative ideas. The mix of negative feelings surrounding this crisis is unhelpful, which is true in any crisis. And the answer is the same as with any crisis: Act from the level of the solution, not the level of the problem. We realize this in everyday situations all the time. A crying baby in distress is behaving at the level of the problem, while a mother comforting her baby is acting from the level of the solution.
The Level of Solution is Part of Our Nature
What you are looking for is a simple feeling, the same feeling you have anytime you say, “Don’t worry. I know what to do.” Reaching this feeling occurs in your awareness because all solutions arise in consciousness. The active mind filled with thoughts, impulses, sensations, and feelings is a jumble without clarity of awareness. Clarity isn’t a thought or impulse. It is a deeper state of awareness but also a simpler one.
Step away from the active mind and find this simple state of awareness, which is known for calm, peace, and quiet. Those are good qualities on their own, but what we are really seeking is the level of solutions, which requires more than inner calmness and quiet. The level of solutions is designed into human consciousness as part of our nature.
Trusting in your nature comes first, but how do you do that? Experience tells us that human nature is polarized and divided. We bounce between one pole (creative, loving, intelligent, and positive) and its opposite (selfish, afraid, hostile, insecure, and negative). Relying on human nature seems like the most untrustworthy and unreliable way to find a solution to anything as alarming as the environmental crisis. Yet there is a way.
Live Like a Co-Creator of Your Personal Reality
One of the most profound findings in quantum physics is this: Nature responds to the questions we ask and the problems we pose. Being the source of infinite possibilities, the quantum field creates physical reality out of overlapping ripples that are pure potential. The same is true of human nature. It is a kind of feedback loop that gives you a mirror reflection of the state of awareness you experience. That’s why two similar children arouse different emotions if one is a stranger and the other is your own child. Your love for your own child automatically creates the reflection you receive from the child, while a stranger’s child isn’t the same.
Once you absorb this profound idea, you realize something immensely powerful. You are a co-creator standing at the center of your personal reality. The core of your creativity lies within. If you live like a co-creator, life becomes much more fascinating, while if you live like a victim bounced around by external forces, life contracts and shuts down. Living like a co-creator means that you align yourself with Nature “out there” and human nature “in here.”
There is a long tradition of separation that affects everyone. To judge by appearances, we are outsiders. Other living creatures act out of instinct and self-preservation, caught up in the life-and-death struggle of Darwinian competition. Humans long ago stepped outside this automatic framework. We can live in accord with Nature or not, as we choose. At the same time, we can draw upon the reservoir of creative intelligence that exists inside us or not.
Embracing Creative Intelligence
No matter how bad our history of choices looks—and when it comes to the environment, our choices look destructive, reckless, and heedless—nothing changes one fundamental truth. The flow of creative intelligence is always present. Every cell in your body makes thousands of choices per second, exhibiting enormous intelligence and creativity in order to survive. This isn’t a huge challenge for a cell; it’s a fact of everyday existence.
This brings us to a second major realization. Creative intelligence in our own lives fails to support us because we block it. There is no innate reason for not solving a crisis, including in hopelessness, or living at the level of the problem. All of these things are blockages, and ultimately, we as co-creators of our reality, made the situation we find ourselves in. Whatever we made we can unmake. That’s the last major realization that is needed to solve climate change, or any crisis.
First comes the knowledge that you are a co-creator, endowed with infinite possibilities that come from the flow of creative intelligence. Next is the realization that any failure of creative intelligence is due to blockages you created. Finally comes the realization that whatever choices you have made to block your creative intelligence can be unmade.
These three insights pave the way to living at the level of solutions, not just when it comes to the climate crisis but in every aspect of life. Insights aren’t the same as everyday ideas. They are part of your core vision of who you are and why you are here. They fuel purpose and meaning. They make you feel secure and ready to face the future. Reflect on the three realizations I’ve described, and as you do, let them affect you in your deepest awareness. Your active mind will bring up doubt and skepticism. When this happens, don’t try to refute your doubts. Instead, center yourself, relax, and be in a simple state of awareness. By its very nature consciousness is simple, just because it is whole. It contains every possibility, and therefore it has supreme self-confidence and self-reliance. The more these qualities become part of your everyday life, the closer you are aligning yourself with creative intelligence. There is no better way to live either in Nature or with your own nature.
Join Chopra for the Journey to Well-being, a brand new guided experience in self-discovery, with free monthly programs for mind, body, and spirit. Register now!
