To receive the gifts of adversity, we need to turn our way of looking at the difficult situation completely upside down. Having a disease, or a severe health problem, or being limited in money, or stuck in a job you don’t like may in fact be a huge gift in disguise.
My daughter taught me this recently. She had been agonizing about the health of her horse who would get better and then another issue would emerge. After a couple of years of helping this horse and not being able to ride him, she finally had to draw a line in the sand and begin to contemplate putting the horse down. She couldn’t imagine anyone else being willing to own that horse because it was un-rideable. This severely limited her options.
Finally turning to her own inner guidance, she imagined what the horse might want for its life. Then she went to visit the horse and meditated while she was in the horse’s presence. Here’s what she learned.
1. When you look through the eyes of Source, things look very different. The horse had come into her life to help her heal a number of traumas around animals. The horse did not want to be ridden because it had such trauma around being ridden that it would rather not live than constantly be facing pain and terror.
2. We live in the context of the web of all life. We are never separate from the interconnection, no matter how alone we feel. After meditating with the horse, she realized how profoundly the horse had helped her heal and so she started researching online and found resources where horses were used for healing people in a number of settings. She had never heard about horses being utilized that way. When she connected with one of those people in that profession, they became quite interested in acquiring her horse.
3. Amazing and magical things happen when you let go your old perceptions and turn your beliefs upside down. All kind of new possibilities can flow in after you let go scarcity and contracted old ways of thinking. She literally saw 7 other horses who were in worse shape be adopted by concerned animal lovers. Hers did not get adopted until she was able to come into a whole new understanding of her relationship with her horse (and she is a conscious, ethical, concerned animal owner).
4. You turn your perspective around by asking these questions. How would Source see this situation? What if you embraced this difficulty and asked what gifts you have received in this life as a result of having this problem?
5. When you look for the gifts, you find them. Three days ago I was very frustrated by the medical options facing me regarding my health. My daughter challenged me to do what she had done. Look through the health issue through the eyes of Source and look for the gifts. I took the her challenge and began looking for the gifts. My daughter and I left MN when my finances were really smarting, and my health had deteriorated.
As a result we have moved to an area of the country that I had wanted to explore. I retired early from my occupation, and began writing about things I really cared about. Because of my health issues and finances, I settled in this state and had to look at alternative ways to support myself. While I was still ill, I took a caretaking position on a farm and met one of my closest friends here. She introduced me to other friends, and through her I found my way into a choir that I love, into a city that I love, into a community that I love, and she has taken me through a huge set of adventures enjoying the wide outdoors through her naturalist eyes.
She took me to the island that I now want to move to, and gave me the mug that says “Dwell in the Realm of Possibility.”
So in the weirdest and oddest twists of events, my money scarcity and health problem evoked a whole new life with new friends which I adore. I am happier now than I have ever been.
6. When we receive the gifts with gratitude that adversity brings, perhaps we are close to learning the lessons that the adversity provides and we may be able to graduate and move onto the next stage of growth. With looking at my health issue as an opportunity for transformation from my higher Self, I no longer feel so angry and antagonistic about my colitis. With the release of those feelings of victimization, then new possibilities are beginning to emerge. As a result of the research I did before seeing my doctor, I was knowledgeable enough to say no, I don’t want cortizones, no I don’t want immunosuppressants, what else can we consider? I was able to ask about 2 other drugs. She was able to give me some strong alternatives. (The drug I had been using was creating major side effects).
She had already worked with me as I had changed my diet (letting go wheat and dairy). Now as a result of my research, I have other alternative ways to reduce inflammation and look forward to a time when I may become drug free.
7. What if when I have symptoms in the future I cradle my abdomen and say “Thank you body, for being the instrument through which I have received the life of my dreams?” This puts me into a completely different relationship with my body, my finances, and my disease. Instead of circumstances which I feel at the mercy of, or need to push against; I cradle with gratitude and acceptance and grace, my infirmity. Now that is a mind bender. And maybe I won’t need the condition any longer for my growth, and I can move forward. Life is full of infinite possibilities. It could happen.
May you discover the wonder of the gifts you have received through these difficult times.