What you get out of a situation is not as important as what you become, as a result of that situation.
Hilarion
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We all can come up with a list of things we don’t like or that we wish were different. We’ll find that these items often are the focus of our conversations. Shifting the focus to things we enjoy may not be habitual, but when we remember to do so, we’re usually thankful for what we think of as our blessings: our family and friends, our home, our job, our health, or our financial prosperity. It isn’t a large effort to ponder all that we like in our lives and summon up feelings of gratitude.
While it is easy to list the unwished-for or challenging things, it usually is quite a stretch to feel grateful for them. We didn’t ask for them, and they make life uncomfortable or difficult. When our relationships with others are strained, when our housing or finances are uncertain, or when we’re physically or emotionally unwell, our first reaction usually isn’t to be thankful. We just want life to go back to being the way it was before the unwelcome situation.
Everything that occurs in our lives is generated by our sharing within, for our benefit. The sole purpose of our life’s events is to help us understand our divine interconnection in the sharing. Everything, even the hard times, is a gift of divine love from the sharing to us, to remind us of who we really are—intrinsically interconnected expressions of divine consciousness.
But this probably isn’t our first thought when something unwelcome slaps us in the face. Habitual separation consciousness likely will have us thinking victim thoughts like “Why me?” or “Bad things always happen to me.” If we are willing, for a bit, to let these thoughts go, we can begin to understand that there is a message and opportunity in the hardship or unpleasantness. We’ll need the help of our inner divinity, our sharing within, to help us make this mental shift.
We can start by focusing on the center of our chest and visualizing a golden light there, that grows brighter and then fills us and our surroundings, as we gently inhale and exhale. We’ll continue even, rhythmic breathing until a sense of surety and peace fills us, signally we are in conscious connection with our sharing within.
Then we can think of a recent challenging event. We’ll let ourselves feel all the emotions of anger, sadness, confusion and loss that may arise. We’ll focus on the golden light in our chest and state aloud, “I may not know why I experienced [name the challenging event], but I am willing to accept that it was given to me for my benefit. I welcome help from my sharing within to understand the message and opportunity encoded in the event.”
We’ll continue breathing softly and evenly and wait. We may get clarity right away, or it may come to us later, but we can be confident that our sharing within will help us understand, at the optimal time. We will be able to see that the unwelcome event changed us. That change in us was the real reason for the occurrence, and it is for our lasting benefit.
If we lost a job, we may have learned to be more resourceful or may have expanded our personal horizons to learn a new, marketable skill. We may have lost temporary financial stability, but gained inner strength and knowledge that will remain with us for the rest of our lives.
In any situation, particularly a challenging one, tangible, physical gain or loss is not as significant as the inner changes the situation creates in us. This is the real gift of the event, one we can truly be grateful for.
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Divinely unique and beautiful reader, what are your best traits, and how were they born in adversity? Please share…