Common Sense Magic

MI–0001 Recorded August 28, 2026

Emotional distance improves problem-solving

A problem is not a problem if you can divorce yourself from the emotion of the problem.
A couple separates factual pros and cons from fears and attachments while considering a major relocation.
A decision board keeps the measurable facts separate from fears, attachments and imagined outcomes. Both deserve consideration, but emotional concerns should not be confused with objective facts.

Refined insight

A problem becomes easier to solve when you can separate it from the emotion surrounding it.

The underlying insight

Someone outside a problem can often see a solution more easily because that person is not emotionally entangled in it. The goal is not to deny emotion, but to prevent emotion from unnecessarily restricting the available solutions.

Origin and context

A life learning developed by Tim and Sonja many years ago. They learned that, when encountering a problem, it was useful to ask how they were emotionally locked into one way of thinking about it.