Everything is part of your changing journey. Do not dismiss anything as a mistake, as backsliding, or give it a negative label. Everything is significant, every action positive because it means you are alive and making decisions, that your spirit is pushing you to keep going.
Give value to every experience as you take your changing journey. Accept that every step shows you something. Every choice is a different part of you making a statement, asking to be a participant on your journey. Remember that everything has the power to change you. Even your thoughts have power, so keep them changing in new directions too.
Every step along your path is meaningful. Let that knowledge guide you and keep you focused and intent on your changing journey to new life!
Seeds planted long ago eventually bloom… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Life Lesson #1:Everything is meaningful.
Why do things happen the way they do? Why must I do that, confront that, be that, act like that? Why do people get sick? Why do people suddenly die? Why is life so difficult? There is always a meaningful answer. Although it may not be apparent in the moment it will eventually reveal itself.
In a seed’s planting, in a stem’s growth, an eventual blooming will take place. Such are the reasons for the events in our lives. They are our growing lessons; every event, every happening, and every choice and challenge in life are fully meaningful in the long run. Like seeds planted long before we were ever aware, they signal the greater potential that is our birthright and our destiny.
Yes, there IS meaning in everything. Even if we can’t always find it immediately, it is far better to attach a reasonable meaning than to ignore the events in our lives as simply “life.” The idea that “that’s just the way life is” has never been enough of an explanation for me. I’ve always yearned for more, have always known that everything is meaningful and everything is important to my personal journey.
If we are to accept such an idea then we must also be willing to find the importance in everything that happens to us, to those we love, and to the world at large, for we are all interconnected. So, I propose that the first lessons in addressing the events of our lives as meaningful is to search for meaning, to apply meaning, and to patiently wait for meaning to reveal itself. It may take some time, but I’ve learned that eventually meaning will more fully come to light, blossoming will happen.
Sometimes meaning is very apparent, sometimes less so. Sometimes we might instantly see the meaning for others but find it much harder to apply to ourselves. I usually find that if I see the meaning for someone else then I stay there and apply the same meaning to myself. It works, at least to begin with, in helping to face something about the self or to confront emotions or feelings that have never been apparent, or in consciousness for some time.
Outcome may be hidden or unclear… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
To begin with I work with what comes, with first impressions. If nothing comes, if I just cannot find meaning for myself, I apply something that makes sense with where I am and what is happening in my life.
“Oh, this might mean this or that.” And then I wait. But in the meantime I work with what “might” be true. Like a light shining into a dark tunnel it does eventually bring me a bit closer to clarity on the personal meaning of something.
A search for meaning is a bit like working with a dream. Trying to find the meaning of the symbology in a dream, aligning it with what is actually going on in our personal lives is always beneficial. Dreams aid and support our ever-changing lives, giving us insight into aspects of ourselves that need clarification, or revealing that which has been unattainable in waking life. Dreams can also give us direct and profoundly meaningful answers straight up, without the mysterious symbology that we might often encounter. Dream helpers can be very direct!
In applying meaning where none may be apparent, stay focused on where you are in your life, what’s happening inside of you and outside of you. Don’t necessarily “make up” a meaning, but try to apply meaning according to what makes sense and what you might be envisioning, or what you’ve already learned about yourself and how you generally approach life.
For instance, I can sometimes let things slide. I am fully aware that I’m doing so, putting off something that should be done. Part of me knows that I’m being avoidant, an old habit, even if ever so slightly, but there is another part of me that senses it might not be the right time to approach or do something, and so I wait. I might not have full awareness of this other part that is waiting, or why it is doing so, but the avoidant “waiting” behavior may be just the hint I need. “Don’t act now!” that part may be saying, however subliminally. At the same time I must address the dilemma: Am I just falling into an old habit? Or is this the new me telling me to wait because waiting will have a favorable outcome?
It is often a precarious approach, waiting itself offering challenges, and I never let really important things slide. I pay my bills, confront my personal issues, and face what I must during the daily ups and downs of life. At the same time there are other processes in my psyche and in my life that I just can’t ignore, and I guess that’s what I’m attempting to pass on in this blog: Don’t ignore anything because everything is meaningful, whether hidden or clearly apparent.
To find meaning in everything is a bit of an adventure. Enlightenment may come in the very process of sitting and pondering that which might be trying to get our attention. Outcome of sitting in internal pondering is like outcome of life: eventually clarity does come.
Eventually all will be revealed… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
There is great value in intentionally sitting and pondering, in training the self to be aware and to constantly seek personal meaning, no matter what one is confronted with. Why am I put in this position now, at this time in my life? What must I learn right now? Being aware that life is always trying to teach us something is an important aspect of the search for meaning. For why otherwise are we here, if not to learn and grow beyond this reality and this human condition that we find ourselves steeped in?
As life’s lessons are faced, we become more available to notice and benefit from everything that happens to us. Each time clarity comes and new meaning is discovered a new lesson is learned and a new opportunity opens up for us too. And then all of life’s lessons become meaningfully part of the greater whole of our personal journey. And then we evolve too! So remember Lesson #1 as you take your own changing journey: Everything is personally meaningful!
Good Luck in your own quest for a meaningful life! Jan
New things begin to take precedence as a process of change progresses. The mind and body may feel deserted as old habits and behaviors are left behind, as old thoughts are refused, as old worlds are departed from and the joys and conflicts of the new journey encountered. As the connection to spirit and true self grows stronger other parts of the self may protest, feeling disconnected and even deserted. In truth, all parts are shifting and coming into new alignment and so each day must be greeted as a totally new experience in a new body self.
A changing self requires attention to all parts. And so, a gentle and kind attitude toward both the old and the new selves is important, even as they shift into new alignment with each other, and even as they change within themselves. A changing self is in a magical process of total transformation, morphing from one state into another. After all, making new connections of any kind, within and without, can be quite shocking to all systems and yet, with the gentleness and kindness now required by all aware beings fully activated, your journey to fuller spirit and spiritual awakening may progress without a hitch or glitch.
A warrior knows that the only thing that matters is staying on the path. Change will come anyway, but a warrior is always ready to greet and engage and learn from the experiences of choices made, knowing that they are all part of the journey. And so a warrior accepts what life presents and remains focused and intent. And if a warrior stumbles it is only a moment before the path is found again and the journey resumed with renewed vigor, the heart’s intent acknowledged as of the upmost importance.
A process of change brings with it permission to become a new being, to shift into not only a new being on the outside but a new being on the inside as well. As the challenges of change are confronted and worked through, inklings of new life begin to trickle into conscious awareness. Physical changes emerge too.
Though desires, habits, and even laziness may attempt a takeover, the longer one stays upon the path of change the less powerful those old entities become. Soon they have no charge at all but are merely shadows of a past life. Soon the energy of new life is fully lived in the light of the changing self.
The path of change is always right there offering its opportunities, daring that a step be taken upon its promises for new life. Let that powerful energy of change take you from out of the old and into something new. You will not be disappointed. Even though the way may present some tricky situations and some challenging confrontations, if you are intent you will succeed. So keep going. If you are to be overpowered by anything let it be by the powerful energy of change!
The conscious self, the Adult Self, is the most powerful self we possess in our human form. It is the self that will determine the fate of our life in this world.
The crux of the adult self’s power lies in its freedom of choice. Even in the most dire of circumstances nothing can ever take away our freedom to choose the attitude we take toward our predicaments. And that attitude will define the path of our lifetime, now and beyond.
All circumstances in human form are not equal. Like all of nature, some circumstances are more physically favorable than others. A seed that lands in a fertilized garden is better positioned than a seed that squeezes into a sidewalk crack. Our first challenge is to recognize that life is not fair, all life is not treated to equal circumstances. Herein lies our primary opportunity to exercise our freedom of choice.
This is the fundamental truth the Shamans of Ancient Mexico teach: entitlement, which builds its protest from the unfairness of circumstance, and which consumes the lion’s share of our energy, can be squarely defeated by an attitude that acknowledges: “I am not special.”
This is not an attitude of resigned, negativistic defeatism, but an objective acknowledgment of the truth: being special is an ego construct rooted in entitlement. Being born entitles us to nothing other than an opportunity for life, and even that is not guaranteed for long.
Despite the glamour and power differentially distributed and enjoyed in the world, detachment from defining one’s value by dint of circumstance frees one to humbly navigate life without the burden and nuisance of entitlement.
To be unshackled from the chains of entitlement is to be freed to assess the truth of who we are, the circumstances we were planted in, and the core issues we are confronted with and need to solve in order to advance and resolve the problems that so weightily block us from the light of fulfillment. What are the karmic seeds fashioned for resolution by the context of our present lives?
What does freedom really mean? – Photo by Jan Ketchel
From this perspective we can see that we are completely freed, in this life, to advance our spiritual journey and attain fulfillment. Our seed fell where it needed to fall to grant us the opportunity to specifically address and solve an impediment that is unique to our personal Soul’s journey.
From this perspective, from a Soul perspective, all lives are equal in that all lives are planted where they need to be planted for their own opportunity for advancement. To be born into another’s life, no matter how attractive that may appear, would have little value for our own unique journey of advancement in this lifetime, or in infinity beyond this life.
From this perspective, the greater the challenge in this life, the greater might also be the opportunity for advancement. For example, people who have experienced severe trauma in their lives have unparalleled opportunity for spiritual advancement.
Firstly, fully mastering the impact of trauma requires a mastery of entitlement issues in order to have the energy and focus to take on the impact of the truth. Secondly, trauma is a natural, or unnatural, hatchway to the discovery of the energy body or the living soul, that which is mental and emotional awareness that remains entwined with the physical body for the duration of physical life.
The direct experience of this spirit essence in trauma ushers the person deeper into the truth of who they really are at an energetic and soul level and what life really is: a spiritual EXPERIENCE, far beyond what any religious teaching rooted in faith and belief can offer.
Entitlement is a vestige of archetypal domination from infancy that produces an imprisoned self, sentenced for life due to a felt paucity of material or emotional advantage. In other words, lifes’ circumstances run deep, even deeper than we might suspect. We are all dealing not only with the circumstances of our present lives, but also with the deeper issues of being alive in a world that is set up for us to have to confront and learn about our personal spiritual journey separate from this world and all that keeps us attached to it.
Somewhere in our karmic load lies all the answers… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Though crimes should be prosecuted and victims recompensed, spiritual freedom requires a shift of attitude. And spiritual freedom is the essence of life. Physical circumstance is the playing field for spirit life and spirit evolution. Freedom from the bondage of physical entitlement sets the stage to truly resolve the seeds of our karmic load as materialized in the circumstances of our lives.
As Janis Joplin put it: “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose…” And I would add: because our karmic load is completely sewn, completely freeing us now to choose where we go next!
