At first I was irritated when I read this bit in the book Claim Your Power by Mastin Kipp:
“Your soul learns from contrast. If your soul wants to learn forgiveness in this lifetime, then you must also experience betrayal. If your soul wants to learn self-love in this lifetime, then you must also experience self-hatred. Without your difficult experiences you wouldn’t be able to learn, grow and transform in the way your soul desires.”
Amidst the stormy emotions that come to someone experiencing betrayal, it seems a lot to ask them to think about how the experience is going to help their personal growth. And maybe that’s not the way it’s meant to happen.
I’m all for feeling the negative emotions at the time so they’re not suppressed, only to come up years later for processing. At the same time, there comes a point when those negative emotions serve no purpose other than to bind us to the hard experience. They hijack our energy and keep us from moving forward.
Maybe it’s not so much about active learning in the wake of a tough event. It’s about not moving forward before the experience has been fully experienced.
Perhaps while the storm is raging it’s about simple allowing: just holding a kernel of openness to the idea that there’s something of value in this experience. Don’t have to chase it down, or feel bad because it hasn’t unfolded yet. Just holding the tiniest spark of belief…because that spark holds the potential – when the time is right – to light your way out of the darkness.
Seeing the spark in you, my friend.
*****
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