[Neurons] 2026 Neurons #14 THE ART OF MIS-HANDLING PROBLEMS

Mon Mar 30 06:52:04 EET 2026

From: L. Michael Hall

2026 Neurons #14

March 23, 2026

Problem Solving Expertise #14

THE ART OF MIS-HANDLING PROBLEM

When it comes to problem-solving, handling a problem occurs on a continuum.
There's are many degrees between mis-handling a problem and handling it with
grace, power, and focus.  Your skill and my skill for effectively handling
problems depends on a great many things: your ability to clearly define the
problem, the number of contributing factors to the problem, the number of
symptoms that result, the amount of noise around the problem, etc.

One kind of mis-handling of a problem involves creating a minimal solution
or a pseudo-solution, and then exaggerating ut as if it was the ultimate
solution.  Here's an example: 

Let's say a young man complains that "nothing ever works out and I can't
find pleasure in anything."  Imagine that those around him have a solution,
"Just cheer up; put on a happy face; look on the bright side of things."  If
the young man complies, thinking that they know better, he then adopts this
shallow solution.  He adopts a style of 'smile, count your blessings and all
will be well' as his 'solution.'

Yet actually this is a pseudo-solution.  It is not a real one, not an
authentic solution.  Why not?  Because it is based on a false assumption,
namely, that the suffering person can directly turn his emotions on and off
and that the source of the emotions (i.e., his thoughts and beliefs) do not
really matter.  Now given how we can adopt false understandings, false
strategies, false ways of acting, etc., what if the young man becomes
'overly optimistic,' by developing his ability to ignore his emotions and
'pretend his way' to a shallow optimism?

If that happens, then his 'solution' has becomes the next-level problem.  In
that case, the 'overly optimistic way of being' not only covers up the real
problem, it also defends and protects the real problem (his original
negative thinking).  The pseudo-solution would now stand in the way of
getting to the original problem.  It becomes an interfering problem itself.
Yet the young man would not see it that way.  He would see it as the great
solution and so would refuse to give it up or consider it as a problem.

What may have been a fairly harmless difficulty in the first place which the
young man over-generalized and over-exaggerated ('nothing' 'ever' works out
for me), the solution of denying his emotions, refusing to look within, and
adopting a shallow optimism has all come together to create a really big
problem.  And he doesn't even know it!  

In this way the attempted solution mis-handled the first problem and became
the next-level up problem.  And when an inadequate solution becomes the
problem, if often becomes a much bigger problem and more difficult to deal
with.  The entire experience may have gone in another direction.  What if
the attempted solution of denying emotions and adopting shallow optimism
lasted for a short while and provided a temporary relief, but the original
problem continued and got worse- more frustration, more failures, etc.  Then
below the shallow optimism that he's faking and that others are preaching
could be a slow burn of a rage, a deep sense of helplessness and a rage at
the unfairness of the world.  He would then become a volcano in the making,
becoming more and more ready to explode.

Obviously, the pseudo-solution became a much bigger problem because of its
implications:

           Don't look within.  Don't seek to understand why you felt what
you felt when things didn't go well for you.  Ignore your emotions and they
will go away.

           Don't track back the emotions to the thinking that produced
them.  Don't discover your cognitive distortions or ill-formed ways of
thinking about your original problem.

           Cover up the negative emotions with positive emotions.  Just
'fake it till you make it' and all will be fine.  

This reveals how the original problem was mis-handled.  Nor is this rare or
an exception, pseudo-solutions occur all the time.  They are, in fact, easy
to generate.  The same structure occurs when a parent tells a child, "Go to
your room and don't come out until you have a smile on your face."  Or when
a manager says, "Just suck it up; everybody's struggling, it's best if you
leave your emotions (your problems) at home." 

To flush out hidden solutions that have become a problem, use these
questions:

           What 'solutions' have you used in the past that may now be in
your way?

           How have you interpreted some previous problems and thought you
'solved' them, only to fine that they are returning?

           What symptoms may be popping up which don't make sense and seem
to come from out of the blue?  

The bottom line is that problems need to be handled aright-appropriately.
And that requires a creating a well-defined problem in the first place.
Then developing the skills to do the meta probe into the mind-body system to
find out what needs to occur.

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

International Society of Neuro-Semantics 

738 Beaver Lodge

Grand Jct., CO. 81505 USA

               1 970-523-7877 

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