Serendipity, dreams, and intuitions, how can they help you?

Some times, some things that happen to you are not favorable. You call them problems. Some of you will see a problem as a challenge, an exiting opportunity to prove yourself and to put your creativity and other talents in to test, some others will take a problem for a temporary draw back, a necessary evil, and once settled, everything will be back to the way it always had been. A problem can even be a tremendous obstacle of life for some of you. It all depends on how you look at and react to the problem, rather than severity of the problem. My intention right now is to discuss how you should go about solving a problem.

When a problem occurs, you may study it, gather facts and tools for solving it, and get help from others too. You might take a trial and error approach too, and it’s a possibility that some of you will even get depressed, and try to run away from it.

But there are some very powerful tools that can be used to solve problems, but they are taken for granted by most people. Can you recall a time, when you had a problem, that some coincident occurred that solved it even with out much of your own effort. Every body has that kind of experience and I will tell you about one of my own. I wanted to start an online business, but I got stuck because I was a complete newbie and there were a lot of things that I couldn’t understand. But my past experience told me help was on the way somewhere, and was I correct!!! A good friend and a colleague of mine gave me an instructional CD, which he had come to possess by accident. It gave me all the fundamental information I needed and links to all other information which wasn’t there. This phenomenon is called serendipity.

The other is called intuition, or instinct. There again I can give an example of my own. When I just finished schooling, I didn’t exactly know which way to go. But I had an interest in learning languages. My instinct told me that this interest was the way to go. So I decided to learn some English, that being a much used second language in my country and an international language. So I took a course that went on for two years, and I got selected for a two-year diploma in speech therapy, conducted mainly by a team of British professionals, and I’m now happily employed in the government health sector in my country, having completed that training successfully. A working knowledge of English was one of the essential qualifications for the recruitment of the course.

I don’t have any personal experience of the third phenomenon, but I know of people who have used it to solve their problems. Have you ever had a dream with a clue to solve a problem in it? Help comes in that way for some people when they are a sleep.

So, how could you optimize the use of serendipity, intuition, and dreams? Think back and make a list of such situations that you have experienced. Go through the list and pick the most frequent and apparent type/types out of it. That’s the particular thing for you. From now on, be alert and sensitive to such occurrences in your life and put them in to use. The more you use them, the more frequent and apparent their occurrence will be.

I told you his so that it will save you much hassle in solving your problems. By all means continue to apply your own problem solving techniques that have worked, just be more sensitive to serendipity, dreams and intuition so that things will be easier for you.

Serendipity - The Fortunate Accident By J Finnis

How organized are you? Does your life run like clockwork, adhering rigidly to some pre-determined optimal schedule? Or is it relatively chaotic, following whim rather than plan? The former is usually considered more virtuous, but there may be advantages in allowing a little randomness into your lifestyle.

One example of many is the discovery of the antibiotic penicillin, responsible for saving numerous lives. This wonder drug was isolated by biologist Alexander Fleming after neglecting to properly clean his culture dishes.

When I was a kid my Dad loved driving, and we'd go out for rides every Sunday afternoon. However, his enthusiasm for motoring was unmatched by his sense of direction. As such we discovered numerous, fascinating little out of the way places on our weekend outings.

Despite the predictions of Newtonian mechanics the universe does not operate like a giant clockwork machine in which the entire future is pre-determined by the past way back to the "big bang". The contemporary physics of quantum mechanics instead speaks of an inherent randomness in which reality is created as it goes along significantly influenced by the act of observation.

By being tightly organized and following a rigid schedule we minimize the role of chance in our lives. To a degree we protect ourselves from the nasty surprise - but not completely, as 'fate' always finds a way to introduce itself. But we also risk blinding ourselves to hidden opportunity.

By doing things the way they've always been done we help ensure that is the way they always will be done. But this is not the way that has seen mankind extend himself way beyond the capabilities of our animal brethren. The fruits of human progress we all enjoy today are the result of those who dared say the status quo could be bettered. Not every deviation from the straight and narrow will yield success. Indeed many paths are blind alleys. But without seeking we cannot find.

So, how might we invite the fortunate accident into our lives? The key is to loosen up a little. Make room for randomness. Don't always follow the same routine just because it's always been that way. Don't be afraid to (try to) fix what ain't broke.

Start simple. Stop organizing your life so rigidly; go with your instincts on the day. Read a different newspaper. Take a different route to work. Change your day for shopping/laundry/gym... Take up a new hobby. Read a different kind of book... And if those things don't bear fruit right away don't get despondent - Rome wasn't built in a day - keep the doors of opportunity open.

Johnny is the editor of new age spirituality - exploring the idea that this life, this world, is not the totality of our existence. In fact, it might be just one small part of something much bigger, just one tiny step along an infinite journey... Have your say on our forum the hang out.