Loving Life’s Challenges

Loving Life’s Challenges – An Excerpt from Soul Searching by Bill Philipps

Our most difficult challenges can also be our greatest turning points, each a crossroads where we have to decide how to move forward. These moments can bring a pivotal shift in our perceptions, a change in how we view our world, and most significantly, opportunities for personal growth. Inner growth comes from how we meet the challenge, and our attitude toward each challenge defines us. When someone we love dies, if we get sick with a serious disease, when a pandemic grips our world, if our country breaks out in war — these significant challenges, some personal, some global, can be turning points that lead to opportunities for positive change within and around us.

The deeper we get into a challenge, the more important it is to flip our thinking about it. We need to let go of what no longer serves us, find inner strength, give gratitude for what we have, and seize opportunities to do good. This is how we keep our vibration elevated in a positive place. We live our best life when we face challenges, persevere, and survive. This is the space from which personal growth is built. Turning back out of fear after our world is blown wide open is a missed opportunity and takes us nowhere. We are born out of the realm of Spirit, brought into life to learn lessons and gain new perspectives on a soul level, so we can grow and learn to appreciate the gift of making loving connections with each other. 

I believe we are all born into this life with a plan rooted in love and mapped out for us by our higher power. But because we have free will and our actions affect one another, we often encounter speed bumps and obstacles along our path that we need strength to move past. Those challenges remind us of what is important, where we should be directing our energy, and how blessed we are no matter our situation. The challenges we encounter reconnect us to that love from our initial plan, like a soul recognition of our greater purpose. With that reconnection, we can survive anything and even one day thrive again, no matter how complex or even tragic a challenge becomes.

We all continue to face one of the biggest challenges of our generation: the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, the virus caused widespread fear as people across the globe became sick and often died. Fear defined daily life as people isolated, stopped traveling, attended school virtually, and sometimes lost their jobs. People were afraid to go to the store, shake hands, hug, or even be near others. To varying degrees, this continues today. We remain challenged with how to stay connected with loved ones while remaining safe from the virus — a reminder of how important it is to have human connection. Of course, many people and companies have risen to the challenge in numerous ways: We now possess multiple effective vaccines, we have learned the best protocols to keep people virus-free, and working from home is becoming accepted. Some challenges have been more difficult than others to overcome, and some of the solutions — like in-home learning for schoolchildren — have presented challenges in themselves. 

The pandemic has forced people and societies to “pivot” in order to meet challenges together and help each other survive. Worldwide, people have shown some extraordinary acts of kindness. And over time, as we learn to live with the virus, people’s fears have lessened, and we’ve focused not only on surviving, but on persevering and coming through stronger than before. Despite the continuing challenges of the virus, we have a new appreciation for things we may have taken for granted before, such as a simple handshake, hug, or visit with grandparents. We have a newfound appreciation for all of our relationships — family and friends, coworkers and acquaintances — because we now realize that our greatest gift in life is each other. Life is fragile, and we’ve learned how much we rely on each other, so we must nurture all relationships with care and respect. The pandemic has been a global call to action, and many have listened and helped people who were struggling and been the answer to someone else’s prayer.

Remember our nasty little companion, the earthly ego? This is where our fear dwells. The ego often regards challenges like impassable roadblocks. It responds to obstacles with despair rather than embracing them as opportunities. Yes, some obstacles block our way, but we can still succeed by “pivoting” and finding or creating new ways to reach our goals. This is rarely easy; quite the contrary. But the harder the challenge, the greater the reward when we overcome it. Accepting a challenge also involves risk: Our solution might fail, but it might not. What’s most important is never losing faith in ourselves to face whatever challenges arise, and to operate each day with love for ourselves and others. Challenges aren’t a curse or a failure, but sometimes they are an opportunity to go in a new direction.

Psychic Medium Bill Philipps is the author of Expect the Unexpected, Signs from the Other Side, and most recently Soul Searching: Tune In to Spirit and Awaken Your Inner Wisdom. His life’s mission is to help people deal with the grief of losing loved ones by bringing through validations, evidential information, and beautiful messages from Spirit, which heal and bring a sense of peace. Visit him online at billphilipps.com.

Excerpted from the book Soul Searching: Tune In to Spirit and Awaken Your Inner Wisdom ©2023 by Bill Philipps. Printed with permission from New World Library — www.newworldlibrary.com.

Author: Bliss

Dedicated to making a positive difference for people, animals, and this beautiful planet!