Life brings a variety of pleasant and challenging experiences: One day everything goes smoothly, but another day is filled with obstacles. One time you are showered with good fortune, but another time you’re dragged down by misfortune. You may feel constricted by your past, fearful for the future, or hopeful about a new possibility. All these different kinds of experiences bring opportunities to see your life with spiritual eyes.
When obstacles block your way
You know those times when you have a goal in mind, but every effort you make seems to meet with resistance from the world around you? Such times can provide an array of lessons for your soul.
For example, when you consider life as a conscious, benevolent experience rather than an unconscious series of events, you’re able to look at challenges in a more productive way. You can approach obstacles with a positive spiritual viewpoint instead of getting angry or victimized when things don’t seem to be going your way.
When you have a dream but don’t know how to get there
The great thing about wanting something with your heart and soul is that a powerful, enthusiastic vision can help orchestrate whatever universal actions are necessary to achieve your dream.
It’s like when you have a clear thought that you want to pick up a coffee mug. You don’t have to orchestrate all the muscular and balancing movements of your hand and arm to do it — the mere clarity of intention is enough to set all the subconscious muscular processes into action.
In the same way, a clear vision or dream for your life can set all kinds of processes into action — both inside and outside of yourself.
When you’re afraid of losing something or someone
Fear of losing something or someone is an inevitable effect of having people, places, and things in your life that you love. Even while you’re enjoying these contacts to the fullest — such as delighting in the company of your family and friends — you may also feel an underlying note of concern that one day you may lose what you’re enjoying so much right now.
The bad times passing is something you don’t mind at all, right? But what about that good times will pass part of the equation? How can you enjoy, love, and relish all the great people and things in your life without being fearful of losing them?
When you’re in love
Being in love is one of the greatest experiences you can have, but it also opens the door for all kinds of tagalongs, such as attachment, jealousy, desire, and anger — and maybe even eventually hatred and the unwrapping of that old prenuptial agreement.
Here’s the thing: If you keep your love on the levels of attachment and desire, you’ll probably also end up hopping over to their housemates of distress and anger one day. The way around this predicament is to take the love you’re feeling and to uplift it into a higher spiritual love that doesn’t rest with such unsavory bedfellows.
When you’re under ongoing pressures
When you’re feeling weighed down by outer pressures, such as health concerns, legal matters, or financial troubles, your attitude can help turn a curse into a blessing. For example, you can use such times to take refuge in God or to train yourself to see beyond outer events and into a deeper awareness of life.
Times of outer difficulty can give you incentive to look beyond the façade of this world into the precious spiritual realms. When things are difficult on the outside, the inner realms start to look much more enticing!
When you don’t like your job
If you find yourself unhappy with the job you’re doing, this is a good time to contemplate whether certain challenges mean you’re in the wrong place, or if you’re meant to become stronger by meeting the difficulties head on. In some cases, the challenge may stem from being in not-so-good company at work.
After all, like your family, you can’t always choose the people you work with — although unlike your family, you can always consider changing jobs!
When you’ve experienced a difficult childhood
Childhood is inherently difficult. After all, growth involves a constant process of destruction and creation: destruction of old worldviews and creation of new ones.
As a young child, you realize at some point that you’re not the center of the universe. Then you find out that Mommy and Daddy aren’t all-powerful gods. You have to work hard to learn how to print and then write letters and memorize how to spell words. You discover that life isn’t always fair, and that you’re sometimes on your own. And these challenges all happen in a good childhood!
When you feel spiritually lost
Many people feel lost because they haven’t found the right spiritual community or teachings that resonate with their wants and needs.
Reading spiritual books about seekers who have found the right teachers and communities for them can help you to imagine what the right community or teacher could look like for you and can guide you to recognize the right path when it comes along.
When something awful happens
What do you do when you lose a child, or when a big tornado comes along and destroys everything you own? How can you see such times through spiritual eyes? Certainly, the answer isn’t to be unfeeling or numb about the loss. That’s just a common defense mechanism that your mind may use to cover up your overwhelming grief and pain.
When good fortune comes your way
Receiving good fortunate is one of the more pleasant lessons your soul gets to go through during its life journey. An unexpected blessing showers down upon your head. Something really great happens. You win the lottery of life. You get the job. You get the girl of your dreams. You meet a great spiritual being. You find the home you’ve always wanted. Good fortune can enter through many avenues.
One good spiritual response to such times is gratitude. Why? Because gratitude is the perfect companion to good fortune. The two nourish one another and come together to create something even greater than occasional moments of good fortune: the state of grace. When you’re in the state of grace, good fortune becomes a natural part of your life.
