Soul Food 4 :: Noticing Patterns and Signs

Hey everyone,

The people in our lives, situations we find ourselves in, our bodies, and even life itself are always trying to push us to work on and move through various lessons in order to grow.  All the tools that we need to recognize these points for growth are all around us- we just have to pay attention.  In this post, I wanted to talk about understanding why we sometimes experience patterns and see signs, and what they are trying to reveal to us about ourselves and our surroundings.

Seeing and experiencing the same things over and over again, however big or small the situation may be, is life trying to bring your awareness to something.  It’s  your job, however, to open your eyes and read the signs in front of you! There are no coincidences, and everything is happening for your benefit.  So keep your eyes peeled, and let’s jump into how exactly to interpret these patterns!

Even if you already know this information, it’s one of those things where, if you read it again, it’s just a great reminder to not overlook anything and to keep asking yourself, “why is this happening to me?” This is the best question you can ask because everything is happening to your for a reason and for your benefit.  Especially if it comes up time and time again.

Have you ever had a series of days in which the same animal crosses your path several times in a row? Or you have a frustrating situation with a friend or coworker repeat itself? Or you experience similar patterns in your romantic relationships? These recurring events are no accident- they are in your life to help you bring your awareness to an important lesson unique to you, and the faster you realize and move through the lesson, the faster you will grow and move past it!

Everything is a reflection of you

All of our experiences, good and bad, are a reflection of us.  When we are insecure about a particular issue, or feel a certain way about ourselves or others- the world will respond and reflect these thoughts back to us.  This is a really hard pill to swallow, and something I think most people (including myself) work on for their entire lives- even after being made aware of it.

It is so human to get angry with a person or situation, and blame others, rather than look inside and understand what that situation is reflecting inside of you. But the truth is that it is only happening to you for your benefit and to push you to recognize something about yourself and grow.

If you have a body insecurity, and feel that everyone in the world is staring at your stomach, for example, they probably are- because they are responding to the energy you are putting out about your stomach.  Instead of being angry with them, change the energy that you are emitting. Work on feeling more comfortable within yourself, and project that confidence.  You will always find that the universe responds.

To give you a personal example from my life, over the last five years, I dated three guys in a row, who I really liked, and who each had pre-existing plans to leave the country–all to study abroad elsewhere.  That is such a weird “coincidence” right? Well, that’s what I thought before really stepping back from the situation and assessing.  I thought, “it is too strange that this would happen to me repeatedly, so why is this situation presenting itself over and over?” As soon as I opened myself up to this question, the answer came to me. I was feeling that I wasn’t “good” enough to meet a beautiful person and hold on to them.  I thought I could meet someone special, but they were too good to stay, and therefore couldn’t be in my life for long.  Once I was made aware of this issue within myself, I was able to sit with it for some time and really ask myself why I felt this way. This is often the hardest part of the process, though acknowledging the issue is equally important.  After facing the issue, I felt a real sense of growth around my self worth and my understanding of my value as it pertains to what I have to offer another. I don’t have the full success story yet of finding the right person for me, but I can feel a new sense of love and respect for myself that wasn’t there before, and I know what I deserve.

I could have just as easily  been angry with those people or angry with life for showing me beautiful people that all didn’t want to stay with me or even “abandoned” me, so to speak, but I recognized the pattern and chose only to look at myself for the answer.

I do think that occasionally things happen to us to show us how not to be.  Living in a city, one can see all different kinds of people- one of which is the angry public transportation traveler.  I can’t tell you the number of times someone has yelled at me with real anger inside them on a bus or on the metro for something I did unintentionally that wasn’t even a big deal.  I always feel like these instances happen to remind us how not to treat one another, and to remember what anger and sadness really looks like- and it’s not cute.  Instead of getting angry with that person, or letting it affect your mood, let these situations show you how not to be and remember them when you feel angry with someone else.  Often times, these people give me even more of an incentive to in turn show them how to be, and spread happiness and positive energy- even if that is through simply not responding and not succumbing to their low level energies.  ooh! even another lesson there! 🙂

The meaning in signs

Animals and nature are really cool indicators of lessons too.  I often have stretches of days where I see the same animals over and over again, or days where I see a really unique animal and know that I need to look into what it means.  There are a number of books and even websites that talk about various animal meanings/interpretations.  I will frequently see birds fly in front of my car for days on end.  I always feel like birds are symbolic of messages or new information coming to me, so I keep my eyes out for that message.  It really becomes a cool thing to be aware of once you start.

I talked about this more in depth in my post “Connecting With (and loving!) Your Body” but our bodies are great indicators of lessons as well.  If we repeatedly experience the same ailment, even if it is as small as a mosquito bite, it is most likely due to a recurring problem in our emotional/mental lives.  Louise Hay’s book, “Heal Your Body” is my favorite resource for understanding underlying meanings of physical ailments, and saying affirmations to correct them.

I wanted to touch quickly upon another point regarding signs- sometimes things happen to us in order for us to relieve some stress.  When we break a glass, or lose something, or get in a little fender bender, it is stress being lifted off our bodies, and we should be grateful for it.  No matter how frustrated I get at losing something important, I also remember to be grateful that I’m getting the stress off via something superficial rather than with my health or something more serious.

Reaffirming learned information

Sometimes signs pop up in our lives to reaffirm something we have already learned.  A lot of times when I get a new idea or understanding on a topic, I will see or read something randomly that will flat-out say exactly what I just learned! This will happen to me often nowadays with some quote I stumble across on Instagram, for example. I will have just asked for a sign about something, and I literally read the answer on my phone shortly after. How cool is that? When this happens, I know that my new idea is true, and important for me.

What happens when we don’t “get” our lessons?

When we don’t see or choose to ignore our lesson they do not go away.  Actually, they get worse, and more serious, until we notice them.  A big lesson that is continually swept under the rug for many years (say, a relationship issue or an issue regarding self-love) can even lead to serious disease.  Life does not allow us to not learn our lessons, and we will keep getting smacked in the face with them until we acknowledge and move through them.  This is, of course, easier said than done in many cases, but it is important that it does get “done”. The good thing about facing and learning your lessons is that they will not repeat themselves again.  Only when you don’t address your issues, do they continue to resurface.

We can ask for lessons to be shown to us

If you feel that you are unsure what you should be working on, or you want extra confirmation of what your issues are- ask for it! Ask every morning for your lessons to be brought to light, and they will be.  And pay attention to what comes up!

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Now it’s your turn! Tell me what patterns you see in your life, and what you make of them. 🙂

Love,

Amanda

 

header photo: Just chaos, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic