The Opportunity of Adversity
gwen@lovingself.net | 802-879-2706
By Gwen Evans
How often have you felt overwhelmed by things beyond your control? We all become overwhelmed from time to time. Sometimes the causes of our feeling overwhelmed can be very serious and life altering. What if we were able to take a step away from the problem long enough to gain some value from it? Would we find that there are lessons to be learned? Are there hidden gifts amidst the chaos and turmoil? Perhaps there are emerging aspects to our being that we never knew existed.
The question is what does personal adversity have to teach us about ourselves? That is the trick because the answers are unique to each individual and can only be understood from within. But how do we get to these answers, especially if we are struggling with adversity? One suggestion might be to consider the uses of adversity in our lives.
To consider that adversity has an important role to play in our personal development may seem like a new concept. This is deep inner work and an intensive approach to dealing with personal adversity from a spiritual perspective. For those who face personal adversity, such as divorce, separation, disability, health challenges, or other personal crises, this intensive work can help. Learn to make lemonade out of life’s lemons by taking a step back to consider the bigger picture. With an intuitive guide in this work, people can actually defuse some of the emotional turmoil long enough to find their own inner guidance.
In the midst of crisis, we often find ourselves bereft of guidance and support. It is at that very time that we can turn to our inner wisdom. This exploration is about reconnecting with ourselves on a spiritual level. Adversity maybe looked upon as a crisis or an opportunity. It all depends upon how we choose to face it. Much of the turmoil we experience during a crisis is created from within us, and by building a better relationship with ourselves, we learn to transform the situation.
To consider the uses of adversity means to strip away layers of negativity that we have been holding on to. Being able to gain a bit of distance from the murky layers of emotional drama allows us to start working with it on a new level. By giving a name to the problem, power is removed from the negative situation and some positive energy is immediately restored back into our own hands.
Remember the old fairy tale "Rumplestilskin?" The little man held power over the Queen as long as she did not know his name. Upon discovering his name, the queen used it and Rumplestilskin lost his power entirely. Once we name the issue and strip down to the bare bones, we can begin to turn to that inner guidance that we all have.
Through personal growth we can discover a process for changing old beliefs and negative thoughts that keep us stuck in the drama of crisis.
Sometimes adversity presents itself in our lives for that very purpose of change. It is up to us to determine how such an event plays out for us. Will we look at the deeper meaning of the lesson? Can there possibly be something of value in this situation? Is there a place of deeper self healing here?
Examining crisis brings us to examining ourselves in a deeper way. We make contact with beliefs that we have held onto and that are keeping us from moving into a healthier state of being. Making contact with these beliefs is not an easy thing to do, because they are so ingrained in our being. This is old baggage we have to clean out and ship off. So much of these old beliefs we hang onto are based in fears, fear that we are not worthy, loveable, or good enough. These things simply do not serve us in our quest for self healing.
Once we are able to identify these old negative beliefs, then the process of changing those to positive beliefs begins. This process does not happen over night. Having a professional guide to help use this framework of learning from adversity can lead to creating transformation. Life is not about a destination, and we do not arrive at complete health of mind, body, and spirit to stay there. We have not moved in, it’s just a vacation.
Balance is the goal but it is a process of constant readjustment. Our bodies don’t stay the same through our lives and we should not expect anything else to stay the same. So if there are major issues going on in our lives, how about seeing the life alterations as the possibility of something really wonderful and powerful for us?
When we begin to look at all experiences as lessons or opportunities, we approach life on a whole new level, and we embrace it with much more enthusiasm. Crisis can present us with the opportunity to realign ourselves with what is really important in our lives. It can bring us back to ourselves and our loved ones, and make us see the world in a different, more soulful way.
© 2002 Gwen Evans
