Physically stuck

I often experienced emotional stuck, a state where I could not think clearly and consequently am unable to move. Yesterday I experienced a physical stuck on my bag where the zipper accidentally grips on the cloth that it could neither close or open. It gives me the benefits of going through the process of overcoming a problem.

Automatically two things came up on my mind. First, why I was not careful enough to cause the zipper to stuck. Secondly, why it had to be stuck that way, as in I could not access to the contents of my bag. I wished the stuck position was different in a way that I could still put things in or take things out from my bag. These are my usual automatic response - why I made such a mistake and why my mistake results in significant blockage.

After I came out from my guilt and denial stage, I had to face the problem solving stage. My usual response is to stick on the method that does not work. I tried to open it by force and it didn’t stuck. I tried harder and it didn’t move. I wanted to keep doing it.

Fortunately I was with my wife. We googled the way to overcome a stucked zipper such as using lubricant like soap. But it didn’t work. I wanted to continue doing the thing that didn’t work. But we decided to go for dinner first as it was the time to eat. We tried to buy tweezer after dinner but it didn’t help much. We tried to google again and was reminded to observe the place where the obstruction starts instead of just the place where it stucks. So my wife came out with the idea that we need to step back, instead of directly opening it, we need to close it a bit. I tried it while observing the cloth that was stuck and finally managed to close and then open it.

It was a good experience and reminder that when there is something stuck there is also a solution as we persevere finding ways to address the problem.