You know that feeling you get when you're looking for something you can't find? You're confident you know right where you left it, but you can seem to find it? Maybe you even give up looking for it for a brief time, and then all of a sudden, it shows up right where you had been looking. It's as if your eyes were closed, and as soon as you opened them, you saw what it was you were looking for. This is a good analogy for how your internal processes work! There are parts of you outside of your conscious awareness that pay attention to what is going on with you. For the most part, their intention is to help. This is what enables you to see what you couldn't see before. Sometimes, we need to practice patience or take a break from what we are trying to solve. To allow our other parts to do their job.
This is a concept I try to express to my therapy clients all the time. If your work aims at what you know to be most authentic at the moment, you can trust that you will find what you're looking for with time. Your unconscious is your teammate. While you put in the conscious-directed work, your unconscious is doing the dirty work behind the scenes to help you find your answers. You can learn to trust support from your unconscious. How do you trust your unconscious? At least, one way is by working toward what you know to be good in your life. Aiming at the good doesn't have to feel productive even!! As long as you are honest with your intentions and want true growth, your unconscious can fill in the blanks.
This is what is meant by the phrase "don't give up 5-minutes before the miracle". The conspicuous work you're doing now might not feel productive, but trust that your unconscious has your back if you're aiming for what you know to be truth. This message I try to relay to my therapy clients all the time. When you feel hopeless and are struggling to continue seeking because it feels like nothing is changing, use this space as an opportunity to trust that You want the best for yourself and that You are working towards the best good you know. Then let your unconscious do its job and trust that the answers you are seeking will come.
* The picture I used above is what is called an impossible bottle. An impossible bottle is a bottle containing an object that does not appear to fit through the bottle's mouth. I will leave you to connect the dots yourself.