How do we cope when what we’re doing isn’t working?

What do you do when you realize that the way you're living is not working for your body or mind and that you're quite unhappy with the status quo? Some people make a change if they know what that change ought to be. But what if you don't know which change should be made? What, then, are the choices? 

It's difficult to stay with the knowing that what you're doing isn't working when you don't know what to do to make it work better. People tend to anesthetize and distract themselves from this truth if it isn't clear to them what needs to happen, or, if it is clear but they're not ready to do it.

Other people may go searching to find an immediate solution, trying one thing and then the other, but they may become discouraged if what they're trying isn't solving their problem. 

The real question is how do we tolerate being with ourselves when we know what we're doing isn't working but we don't yet have the solution?

I've been in this difficult space more than once. What I suggest is making space for the unknown. It is hard to stay in an unpleasant situation when you have no plan. It is equally hard to have a plan and also know that you may not be able to rely on it to work. You find yourself in a loop that's hard to make peace with. There's a third option, though, which is the cultivation of faith that a solution will be found, even though we don't yet know how it's going to happen. When you take that step into the unknown and open the door to hope and faith in your own capacity to heal, it relieves what's often a lot of chronic contraction. That opening in and of itself is helpful to the healing process.

Take a good look at where you are relative to what's working and what's not. Is there a place where you can open into the unknown?