As you walk this journey, you will come up against challenges, difficulties, and times when you want to turn back. Part of this is simply life, although your perspective has a lot to do with your experience. You can always choose to see your challenges, problems as difficulties simply as Situations Which Require Your Attention, thereby focusing into the solution.

If similar situations come up over and over again, that’s a pattern. Patterns exist to call attention to an unhealed wound. Every time the patterns flares up, you have the opportunity to heal the originating wound. Just because you have worked through an issue previously doesn’t mean you have worked through all the layers of it; we can only work through something to level we are capable of in this moment. So don’t get discouraged by a pattern that resurfaces.

Wanting to turn back is the resistance of the Negative Ego. Every time we have the opportunity to grow, we are likely to run into that resistance. The key is that the present is where Negative Ego isn’t; if you can get present, you can walk forward easily enough. Focusing on verifiable information, on what we can see/hear/taste/smell/touch, keeps us out of those stories and brings us present. It allows us to be in conscious contact with the Divine. “Conscious” because we have to work at consciously directing our focus.

Every time you come up against something uncomfortable, you learn more about yourself and what you are capable of; you get to heal, if you’ll let yourself. Part of the discomfort will be the Negative Ego trying to keep you from that growth. Get present and walk forward anyway.

Do not be fooled into thinking that the journey we call life is an easy one. We learn through experience, and the more visceral the experience, the deeper the learning. Life would actually be pretty boring without challenges, when you think about it.

This post is part of a new series called Monday Message, based on that day’s reflection from 365 Days to Enlightenment (authorized versions are currently out of print, working on a new edition). Check back next Monday for another one! You can also sign up for the Daily Message on my mailing list if you’d like to receive a new reflection every day. I also often post them to Instagram and Twitter, if either of those is a medium you enjoy.