Laurie Phillips asks: What will it cost you not to fix your problem?

A public artist and life-coach, but so much more than that. My first introduction to Laurie Phillips reminds me of where I hope I'm going. A life of dedicated seeking combined with action. She asks three simple questions:

What is the problem? What if it were solved? If you don't fix it, what will it cost you?

Our anxieties can torment us even though we often don't tend to study them very closely. It's as if anxiety is a kind of trauma we've never had. Kind of like a Pre-Traumatic Stress. Friedemann Schaub approaches anxiety this way in his book The Fear and Anxiety Solution. Play it out. Spend some time stalking the fear. Anxiety can go away, even if the situation doesn't change much.

After chatting some more about this, Laurie says, plainly:

We learn by contrast. We don't know cold until we feel hot.

Last gem today: nobody has a problem that isn't one of these: 

Health, Relationships, Finances

We're motivated by our problems. We're saved by our existing capacities to notice them. But it's always a spiritual solution.