Life is full of various challenges and it’s impossible to avoid them. But this isn’t really something new, is it?
However, there are only two basic views and approaches to any life challenge we face, and it’s up to us whether we go through life as victims or use your energy to create the life you desire.
An experience inflicted on us by someone or something “outside” of us
The first and most common approach to challenges is based on the view that challenges are caused by someone or something “outside” of us. We see ourselves as victims who are unfairly deprived of what we think is important. We feel burdened by the challenging situation and want to put it behind us as soon as possible and return to “normalcy.” We aren’t at all interested in investigating whether there may be a higher purpose or benefit behind such a situation, and whether we may have caused it ourselves. While we view our challenges as an experience inflicted on us by someone or something “outside” of us, the most important question we ask ourselves is, “Why is this happening to me?”
The experience that our soul creates for our benefit
However, if we begin to view our challenges in life as experiences that our soul creates for our benefit so that we can grow and become a more complete version of ourselves, it’ll be much easier for us to create the necessary detachment and find the strength within ourselves to learn the important evolutionary lessons that such challenges bring us. Challenges become resources that we can use to shape them into a new form that didn’t exist before in our lives. Instead of asking, “Why is this happening to me?” (victim energy), we start asking ourselves and the Universe questions that allow us to explore new perspectives and ways of seeing, which ultimately leads to better and better decisions and activities. Challenges become a “platform” that allows us to see the potential in ourselves and in the world around us that we couldn’t see before.
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Although it is sometimes very difficult for us to connect this on a rational level, our biggest challenges are always related to our life purpose. We did not come to Earth just to survive successfully and leave offspring behind. There is a higher purpose to the existence of each of us and until we become aware of our purpose we will constantly be accompanied by the feeling that we are missing something so that we can feel complete and whole.
Just as an acorn contains a built-in “code” that allows it to become an oak tree, so each of us contains a “code” (innate potential) that represents the highest, most authentic, and most complete version of ourselves. And it is our soul that, through various challenges, creates opportunities for us to embark on living the life we have come to live. Challenges are not obstacles in our life path, but an integral part of it.
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Life is like a school and the main purpose of our life school is the realization of the innate potential that we all carry within us. The lessons of our soul are key to the content of our life curriculum – and impossible to avoid. The people and situations we encounter are like a classroom that allows us to acquire knowledge and test ourselves. Once we learn and master a particular lesson, new and more complex lessons begin to be created that allow us a new opportunity to get to know ourselves and our own resources that we carry within us. The more consciously we approach learning life lessons, the more playful and fun the game of life and unleashing our own potential becomes. Lessons that we neglect or do not want to learn are repeated over and over again, but learning them with each repetition becomes more painful and uncomfortable.
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The more we realize our innate potential, the more we are able to receive and retain more energy of love into our lives. In essence, we could freely say that every time we face a particular challenge we have two fundamental choices – either to express ourselves from a higher level and open ourselves to receiving even more energy of love into our lives, or to become even more entangled in a web of fear which keeps us in the illusion of separation from the energy of love.
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Unfortunately, most people consciously avoid learning life lessons and regularly try to escape from them. As soon as they face a particular challenge, they try to get out of it without delay or panic trying to find the culprit for it. This approach is a reliable recipe for a life without joy and enthusiasm – because the joy of life lies in continuous learning and becoming a new and more complete version of oneself.
The great turbulences of life are always preceded by the numerous gentle whispers of our soul, which constantly strives to direct us on the path of joy and conscious growth and development. The problem is that we often think we have a much more important job than taking the time on a daily basis to listen to our soul.
I believe that you know many who look at their individual painful experiences like trophies and proudly repeat phrases like “What doesn’t kill you strengthens you!”, not realizing that such experiences have become extremely painful primarily because they have been around for a long time. Times before that they had successfully fled from themselves ignoring the whispers of their souls. It would be much more useful for them to admit to themselves that this is not a trophy, but a weakness – because only when we become aware and accept our weaknesses do we bring ourselves the opportunity to turn them into strengths!
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As with everything else, it all comes down to awareness – whether we look at our challenges as lessons that our soul creates for us or run away from them believing that they are caused by someone or something “outside” us.
Either we learn the lessons that challenges bring us or we stagnate. Either our life enthusiasm grows or we feel a growing indifference and apathy towards life. The third option does not exist.
Your choice…