To solve the problem you often need to move to a different level of thinking, a higher one where the problem becomes an instant of a more general case.
In psychology we sometimes hear an advice to look at things philosophically. We often take it skeptically and this is unfortunate. Our skepticism, I think, steams from the fact that we don't know how to do that, as this is a skill of itself. But this is an important skill, the most important maybe.
Anxiety, manic or depressive states and some other psychological misfunctions are the result of being inside the situation/problem. When we are inside the situation the scale is skewed, everything is magnified and is perceived out of proportion, like a face in a picture that was taken by a camera located to close too the face.
The world shrinks to the size of the problem. The problem becomes the world.
The outcome raises to the life-or-death level. The reactions become extreme. Winning gets us ecstatic, losing sets in despair and uncertainty turns into panic.
We need distance, we need perspective to see things the way they are.
Normalcy is not an absence of emotions it's their appropriateness and the intensity.
The ability not to be taken over by the problem, not get fully absorbed in it, constantly keep this sanifying distance is unequally distributed among people. Even in the same person this ability might considerably vary over time.
This is a skill that needs to be taught and most importantly practiced regularly. The payback - healthy mind.
What is this ability, what makes us look on life philosophically?
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