I always thought the definition of baffled was “perplexed” or some other synonym that meant perplexed.

It can also mean a dampening of sound or a diffusion of light or a diminishment of anything else that’s attempting to get through in stronger measure.

A long time ago my late teacher Dr. Dave Dobson stated that we are our own best therapist. Part of what he meant by that was that we had a part of us that “knew” what the answer to our dilemma was. Problem is, we don’t know we have that part of us or we are cut off from it. Being cut off is what I’m calling “baffled.”

The noise in our head is the most baffling substance we’ll ever encounter. It’s thicker than mountain fog. It baffles our innate wisdom from coming through. What to do?

The first step is to stop doing what we normally do: going into think mode and staying there until we exhaust ourselves looking for an answer that remains elusive.

Did you ever notice that when you stop thinking about something, answers have a tendency to come through more often? Notice that your “ah-ha” moments don’t arrive as a result of your thinking. It’s the absence of thought that allows the “unthought of” answer to cut through the fog.

The next step is to find something that interrupts your train of thought. Any form of meditation is helpful but not necessary. Just the noticing of your thought machine in action is enough to stop the train. Think of it as a big cow on the tracks.

When we notice that we’re thinking, we go from being a participant in our thoughts to becoming an observer of our thoughts. It’s from the point of observation that our thoughts have spaces show up between them and that makes room for wisdom to fill the void.

If you’re talking to yourself inside your head about your problem, you’re baffled – cut off from your creativity. Could it be that the answer you’re looking for is just an observation away?

All the best,

John