Every so often I think think about the course of events in my life; the ups and downs, the excitement, disappointment, the mundane, the big and the little little events, adventures and gifts that I’ve experienced thus far.
Quite often whenever I’ve experienced and overcome a challenging period of my life I consider it a closed chapter and merrily move on, thinking that I’ve learned everything I needed to know for a life lesson, and maybe even become a little complacent.
However, eventually the Universe brings about a wind of change, causing me to re-confront another challenge; bigger and bolder than the last. And whilst the external circumstances may differ from the last the root of the challenges remains the same.
Some may call it karma, which i’d agree with; however, I’d like to clarify the following two key points.
- Karma is not a negative force in which we suffer misfortune for our ‘mistakes’. More so, karma happens for us not to us, in order to help bring us closer to our true selves by giving us the opportunity to confront ourselves. In essence bringing us closer to inner peace and contentment, and help us overcome our own weaknesses, limitations, sense of lack, and perceived shortcomings. However, we may perceive it as negative because in general humanity at present is (sadly) ruled by fear and group compliance, as opposed to authenticity and love.
- Karma occurs both in triumph and disappointment, insomuch that we learn more about ourselves, what we desire, what we do not desire, and about gratitude.
A few jobs ago, during my days at Transport for London there was a time where we were continuously asked to reduce bus and rail services as a panic response, due to ongoing funding cuts. In response some of my colleagues eventually came up with a phrase known as the ‘Spiral of Decline’. Whereby reducing by bus and rail services would result in a reduction in passengers, which would as a consequence result in further reductions in services and so on in a perpetual cycle until reducing services was deemed unsustainable to the business.
I mention this because when considering how we experience life and learn from it’s varied lessons, we can also conceptualize this experience as a ‘spiral’ in effect, which I have provided an example of below.
The above ‘spiral’ depicts the way in which I believe that life helps us grow, through various challenges that are meant to bring about transformation through overcoming and increasing in maturity. As the spiral expands, so do the challenges and obstacles we face.
For example, we may overcome a series of seemingly disparate scenarios, and each scenario may allow us the opportunity to strip away layer-by-layer that which holds us back from expansion. Where the first obstacle may be associated with more surface-level challenges to our inner being, and eventually progressing to more profound challenges to our sense of self that may be less situational and more fundamental. That will provide us with the opportunity to remove any masks, or illusions that are often rooted in a lack of self-love, fear, the opinions of others, belief systems and biases that we may have grown up with or absorbed due to some external approval.
Speaking from my own personal experience many of my own life challenges from toxic relationships, to joining religious cults, and missed career opportunities stemmed from a people-pleasing mentality, which ultimately was rooted in me forsaking my own needs because of my own lack of self-worth and value.
I believe that this ‘spiral’ works both ways, where if we overcome the present challenge then the next challenge will bring us even more insight, awareness and inner-peace. Whereas avoiding a challenge and obstacle will just make the next, inevitable obstacle more challenging and traumatic, and so on. Until we are eventually forced to confront the obstacle at the point where overcoming it may require far greater effort, courage and sacrifice to remove those things and parts of us that no longer serve us.
This is not to create a sense of defeat but rather to make us see what we think we are at present, and what we can truly want to be if we choose to confront ourselves. In essence, the ‘spiral’ is what some may call the Universe or a particular deity, which is ultimately the personification of ‘us’. Therefore, we are really judging and pushing ourselves towards our highest state and good.
This is not an unfamiliar concept and it can be found in the many spiritual and philosophical texts, including the following,
“To whom much is given, much is required” Luke 12:48
“With great power comes great responsibility” Spiderman, 1962, Amazing Fantasy #15
These quotes can be interpreted as material responsibility; however, great power and gifts may also be seen as inner virtues, character, and emotional growth, that are gifts in there own right. And when examined through the lens of the ‘spiral’ may be interpreted in the sense that the overcoming of life challenges brings greater inner strength, gifts, and rewards, and the greater challenges require greater use and responsibility of our gifts and talents as the ‘spiral’ expands, so that we can also help with the expansion of others.
Therefore, wherever we are in our own ‘spiral’ we must press on in the knowledge that all things put before us are placed there to help bring us closer into alignment with who we truly are, and who we truly want to be.
The Philosopher's Poet 