Problematize: to make into or regard as a problem requiring a solution.
Think about it. You experience a rough night’s sleep and before you get out of bed in the morning, you’ve convinced yourself that “it is going to be a bad day.” Or, you express your desires to a friend and they don’t react the way you’d hoped. Immediately you assume something is wrong and then try to smooth the waters. Maybe your favorite problematizing is around just about everything you undertake! You compare yourself to others and always come up short. You are never good enough and you better fix yourself now!
Imagine a different scenario –> Whatever it is, it just is.
It just is suspends judgment, allows what is to be. It just is is neither right nor wrong. With it just is in your previously reactive energy, when something “happens”, you smile and say to yourself:
It just is. How interesting. Or even, how fascinating!
And from here you eventually wonder, “Now what?”
We return to that rough night of sleep. You waken at midnight, and say, “Huh. How fascinating. Okay.” and return to sleep. You repeat this at 1:00 am, 2:00 am, 2:20 am, 3:10 am and eventually when the alarm rings, you notice you are tired! And again, it just is.
“I am tired in this moment. It isn’t good or bad.”
You take in a deep breath, think about what lies ahead in this day, and consider if anything can be or needs to be cancelled. If so, it just is. Cancel it. Perhaps you really don’t believe anything can be cancelled and you choose to proceed with the day as it is. You do the best you can – for today. You let that be. It just is. Regardless of how anything turns out or what others may think, you know, it just is – for today.
Try it! Start by asking yourself where you practice problematizing. Pick an area and experiment with this idea of withholding judgment, of letting life be what it is. Then:
What do you notice about your personal energy
when you practice it just is?
Where do you experience more acceptance?
What impact does it just is have on those around you?
What is the power in problematizing?
What is the power in it just is?
Immediately you assume something is wrong and then try to smooth the waters. You compare yourself to others and always come up short. You are never good enough and you better fix yourself now!
These comments are right on—it just is! I love it
Ah Tim … I’d love to hear from you how practicing “it just is” lightens any burden of not-good-enough-ness!