How Life Speaks to You

No matter where you look in life - you will see change taking place at every level. Sometimes you meet a challenge that calls you to change and observe it as a negative event. You stand in a universe that thrives on change and reorganization. You believe its rules are different for you, but they aren't. Discovering this gives life more meaning.

The idea that life should be a constant upward climb also goes against the laws of nature. Periods of growth in nature are always followed by decline. The decline is how nature reassembles itself for new possibilities for growth. None of its components are lost during this transformation. Both carbon and energy have been recycling since creation began. When you are knocked out of your upward cycle, you have no choice but to turn within and reflect. Rebuilding doesn't mean that anything you really need is taken away. The core of who you are will remain the same. You just get better over time.

Most of us would like to stay in our comfort zone. As one of nature's organisms, we were designed to organize chaos into order. Each time we meet a challenge or obstacle we have the opportunity to reach deeper into ourselves and allow life to unleash something that would have remained dormant.

If we can view the challenge as how life speaks to us, rather than a negative event, we learn more about ourselves and life. We learn to fully participate in life's unfolding and see its perfection at work all around us.

The Challenge Is Uncomfortable

When we meet adversity, we grow uncomfortable. Suddenly what worked in the past is no longer working. The first question the challenge presents is: What are you protecting and why? The answer can be an idea that no longer serves you. Sometimes it helps you to understand what is important to you because you can only understand its importance when you are called to defend it. At the same time, the challenge might be life's way of asking you to let go of a past way of thinking that has become limiting. Life can often be reduced to the story you tell yourself. Challenges come along to help you write a better story. Just as nature moves from order - chaos - to order again, we move from comfort - discomfort - to comfort again. Remember that discomfort is a prerequisite for change.

The Challenge Reveals the Cause

Inherent in every challenge is something that connects you to it. If your integrity is challenged, you may need to become more solid in your sense of self. If you are challenged financially, you may purposefully re-create the drama that brings your finances into your daily focus. Just as dreams use symbols that capture aspects of your way of thinking, in daily life you also meet challenges that are the embodiment of the story you live by. When meeting difficulty, you would do well to turn within to explore your relationship to what you believe is being threatened. If you can develop a more trusting relationship with how life unfolds, you will understand the challenge as a call to explore the cause of what you are feeling. When you make peace with how life unfolds - you can see how life speaks to you by bringing your real feelings to the forefront.

The Challenge Holds the Answer

If life didn't challenge you, the path would become stagnant. A person who runs a marathon may feel exhausted and in pain afterwards, but what an accomplishment! The discomfort is momentary but the accomplishment is enduring. In a relationship, you may identify qualities of a partner who you believe has opened you to love. You think it is them, but you gave them this power. The ability to open to love was always within your power. No matter the trial, each event is allowing you to identify the answer to your fulfillment. Loneliness is a prerequisite for seeking intimacy. Self sufficiency is the answer to a fear of intimacy. In every challenge, you can see the answer or reason why you create the experiences you do. If life presents you with financial difficulty, it may be asking you to partner up. Who knows why life does what it does - but it is always seeking to fulfill your deeper desires.

The Challenge Unmasks You

You were born to become the unique creature nature designed you to be. Often we wander far away from who we are because society demands it of us. You take a job so you have a steady income, while you know you are overqualified or bored. You'd rather not rock the boat or change the status quo. This desire to become who you really are will always find a way to unmask itself. The unmasking seems like life has thrown you a challenge, but eventually you see the reason for why life unfolds the way it does. As nature pushes forward through all obstacles, you will not be left waiting on the sidelines. Often your mindset is the only obstacle to your own growth. The challenge unmasks you to how you are blocking greater fulfillment.

The Challenge is a Gift

Knowing that life is committed to your growth, and helps you to become more fulfilled, you can meet events as a conversation with life. Even when you heart is broken, you dive in a little deeper each time and that is the growth life seeks from you. Celebrate the teaching - learn the language of what life is saying to you. Life knocks you out of your comfort zone in many different ways, but its purpose is to fulfill you. And yes, you are that important to the great of unfolding.

What worked in the past is no match for the future because everywhere you look in life you will see how change is unleashing blockages.

You stand here with a choice. The ability to see more meaning in life depends on whether you are participating with life or feeling at odds with what unfolds. Life is always repeating a story about change and growth. Ask yourself: "what story am I telling myself?" How you defend yourself from change is what makes you feel like life has turned against you. When you strive to see the purpose of what unfolds, you learn to really see.

Life will always be a reflection of your relationship to it. Hold gratitude and life will make you grateful.