10 reasons to be grateful for difficulty

Energy is in constant motion. It takes form in relationships and circumstances that encourage you to explore emotional turmoil. The universe creates situations that relate to all your choices. This is karma in tow. Not everyone grasps the basis for karma. Consider 10 reasons to be grateful for difficulties;

1) It is opportunity to challenge your anger. Negative energy hides true reasons for upset. As you identify discomfort, you grow aware of parts of personality you can change, and shift mental focus to what you want to strengthen.

2) It draws attention to buried pain. Unless you heal root causes, suffering will not change. Only self-awareness permits you to reframe and heal painful memories. Knowing about your emotions and why you create them enables you to compare what you created before to how you feel now so you learn to create different feelings. This is a meaningful healing process.

3) It encourages you to heal a competitive nature. The desire to compete, to accept a challenge, to fight a court case, to defend your belief of innocence in any argument, all reflects deep-seated fear. Unless you address core reasons for inadequacy and insecurity, you fight misplaced battles you do not win. From the soul view, only love exists. It teaches how ego and emotion are measures of unacknowledged pain.

4) It suggests you to stop viewing self as victim. Contrary to popular belief, every experience you encounter is appropriate at a given moment. On some level you may not be aware of yet, you deserve every experience you get. When you do not choose to let go of expectations, you resist forgiveness of self and others and refuse to surrender to the moment.

5) It invites you to give up judging. No situation is good or bad. You attribute labels based on misunderstandings. You discover judgments obscure the truth. This  perpetuates discomfort and inner restlessness. You resist unconditional self-acceptance. You learn judging mirrors what you do to self.

6) It teaches how the soul communicates. Difficulty is soul's way of telling you healing is required. The remedy is not to withdraw from sources of hardship, but to realize how you contribute to them and learn to search inside the self for causes of apparent pain.  You are guided to speak from the heart rather than listen to ego-mind.

7) It teaches you to learn trust. Every experience is a test for awareness and faith in what you do not understand.  You are reminded it is not always clear why you exist right now. What matters is that you discern which parts of you prevent you from using your gifts to the best of your ability.  To develop deeper emotional awareness empowers you to make more responsible choices.

8) It teaches you escape is not the answer.  Part of you gets confused when you do not experience joy, harmony and enthusiasm.  Choosing to avoid difficulties simply means the emotions underneath them will create new hardships to get your attention until you listen. 

9) It brings out support in those around you.  Uncondtional love and support surround you in unseen ways, regardless of your actions.  Perceived difficulties also invite empathy and understanding from people you know and do not. They offer love and support.  This teaches you what soul wants you to do-to love and accept all of self. 

10) It prepares you to handle other hardship.  In some sense, each obstacle you face and work through can make other ones less intimidatng and easier to manage. You gain confidence as you reach each milestone.  You sense meaning and purpose in each hurdle.  Inner changes have already begun.  As you consciously intend harmony, cooperation and service to others, then you realize you exist to experiment with your life.  You figure out how to get out of vicious circles.   

Mother Theresa's Prayer

May today bring you peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.

Comments

[Melinda]

Great stuff as usual, Liara. In particular, I think your advice on not being a victim and allowing yourself to learn to trust are of particular importance to me. Interestingly, I wrote a blog post yesterday on personal responsibility, which I also see as the result of embracing change in oneself. Increasing self-awareness allowed me to lose the victim mentality and really start healing. What a blessing!

Take care,

Melinda

[Maryam]

Thank you.

[Liara Covert]

Melinda, the victim mentality is a trap. Karma draws your attention to what you have created to encourage you to take more responsibility. One sometimes forgets that to participate in the cause of a situation assures one is involved in the consequences. When you blame something or someone for pain, the pain continues. The eureka moment is when you register that you choose your experience and only you have power to change it. The clarity of 'what' always comes before you figure out 'how.'

[Tess The Bold Life]

This is so great! And timely.

I've only in the last year realized how much fear was hidden in competitiveness. But then again that's what is hidden everywhere unless one is feeling good, safe, blessed and loved. Right?

Oh and the Prayer is the best. Mother Teresa is my favorite.

[Mark]

It is very important that we understand the grandness of difficulties that come our way and how blessed we are for the lessons they carry. Love the prayer, thanks for sharing.

[Donna L. Faber]

Hi Liara ... I am a great fan of learning through difficulty. However, I have observed the victim mentality taken to an extreme in order to avoid taking any kind of personal responsibility. Even so far as to accuse another of mental, spiritual, and psychological rape to avoid self-analysis. In the fervor of accusation, this victim turned into an abuser. And meanwhile, the conflict goes on and on.

Fascinating.

D~

[Liara Covert]

Maryam, learning opportunities are always knocking at the door of the mind. Mental and physical distress present so you act to facilitate healing and bring relief to the soul.

[Liara Covert]

Donna, the notion of victim draws attention to repressed insecurity, anger and fear. People resist facing their real feelings. They anticipate pain. This kind of attitude prevents a person from growing spiritually, by choice. When a person forgives himself, he lightens an invisible burden. If a person does not choose to admit a problem, that person still continues to encounter experiences tailored to his soul. Other people have choices to detach from painful memories, to realize they can handle and let go of their own incidious negativity. After all, what you notice in others conveys things about yourself in your reactions. A wise and loving soul accepts everyone as is.

[Liara Covert]

Mark, human beings have this conditioned tendency to complain about what is not going their way. These kinds of people are simply unaware of the depth and complexity of the learning process. Awareness is still expanding.

Any emotions that indicate inner suffering, like resentment, anger and fear, simply gauge the degree of personality that is not yet aligned with soul. One can be grateful for pain as a signpost. It is like points on a map that indicate exactly where to go within self to heal.

[Liara Covert]

Tess, as you mention, fear is hidden in unexpected personality traits. And yet, part of you knows fear exists because you inevitably sniff it out and see it for what it is when the time is right. People come to sense when they are runnning away from the truth and when they are experiencing a transition to their next lesson.

[Miruh]

Hello Liara,

Thanks for sharing this wonderful prayer. . May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

This is truly the essence of living a life with gratitude. We have to relearn so much of what we have absorbed about fear. Thanks again for an uplifting post.

[Liara Covert]

Miruh, available lessons are infinite and life-transforming. The opening of awareness is what sets everything else in motion. Each soul decides when to expand and how much.

[Donna L. Faber]

Hello again ... this topic and our string of conversation leads me to my next question. What do you think about psychic vampires? There is a whole group of spiritualists out there, people who are spiritual, that believe in the psychic vampire, and have written great articles on the details and such. I just don't know how to feel about it, and am eager for your input.

D~

[Alexys Fairfield]

Liara,

People don't realize that we are all swirling baths of energy bouncing off of each other and trying to make sense of it all.

The techniques you mention encourage us all to be aware of what we are putting out and taking in.

[Loving Annie]

Good Friday to you Liara.

"The universe creates situations that relate to all your choices."

How very true I have found that to be in many ways !!!

The gratitude I feel after the fact for my difficulties is now I see them as The Universe holding out a solution to me if I will just work hard enough to discover it.
And then the difficulties are relaced with easiness :)

So most of all your number 6 would have resonated for me with regard to this.

[Liara Covert]

Donna, the term 'energy vampire' is often used to describe people who harness the life energy of others. These vampires are not always aware what they do. If you have ever felt drained when around certain people, this may help explain why. Yet, your reaction to energy determines what you feel. Ask why you feel at odds with energy.

The thing to remember is energy exchange is unequal, that is, reciprocity is not present, then this is an opportunity to raise awareness. If you feel depleted while another in your life becomes energized, it is a stage in your awakening process to learn to recognize what this feels like, the explore why this may be happening and then, to do something about it if you choose. The free will factor comes into play. Recall Eleanor Roosevelt who says, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

[Liara Covert]

Alexys, your analogies are welcomed. Many people concentrate so much o the process of becoming they forget what they already are. Inner work enables a person to raise awareness of fears an thus be equipped to appreciate learning stages of the path they are on.

[Liara Covert]

Loving Annie, learning to listen to the inner self differently transforms outlook and everything related to how you feel. Sooner or later, a person arrives at a mental state where life no longer feels great all the time. To view this stage as vital to growth shifts energy vibration. This teaches soul strengthens bonds with mind every moment.

[Loving Annie]

It really does... and that increasing soul strength feels so lovely....

[Donna L. Faber]

I continuously value your input.

I had a personal experience, wherein someone tried to hold me responsible for their life's pain. Not family, not a romantic relationship, someone who used to be a friend. This person acused me venomously of being a psychic vampire, and even accused me of spiritual rape. In honor of the friendship we once had, I analyzed myself seriously and thoroughly. This introspection showed me that indeed I was emotionally needful as a young adult, when this person and I were friends ... but the accusation was made innacurately and is very sad. I don't accept that individual's judgement.

C'est la vie, indeed ... but the exchange most certainly prompted me to analyze my intent in the context of that relationship, however degraded it had become.

Lessons through difficulty ... plenty.

D~