Pūr Energy Life

When you were in school, you were taught lessons where you would later be tested to ensure your understanding - and this would generally be in the theoretical sense. However, in life, you are given practical exams before you actually start to learn your lessons, not after. Depending on how quickly you learn, these lessons can last a seemingly awful long time as the tests keep on coming until you finally (and unmistakably) pass. So how do you succeed in learning your life lessons whilst minimising the pain experienced along the way?

First of all, none of us ever signed up for the lessons we experience in life (or are at least not aware of) but these all seem to happen to us whether we like it or not. And some people never even realize that these lessons are even presented to them and end up falling into a victim mentality. But rest assured, it's possible to learn how to identify and pass your lessons in this universal school of life.

Recognize Your Repeating Patterns

If you've been stuck on one of your lessons for a while, you will start to notice patterns that keep repeating in your life. These patterns will likely be unfavourable events that can occur in different circumstances and with different people. For example, one lesson that I see in many people is the need to overcome low self-esteem and gain the confidence to speak up. This sometimes is caused by upbringing, fear of rejection or other traumatic events - the cause is what commonly holds you back from passing and the key to passing requires you to break out of your patterns of thinking and behaviour.

This particular lesson may start out with a parent who never listens to your needs and keeps on telling you what to do and how to live your life. Some cultures traditionally hold strong values to respect your elders and never question what you are told, and so some people may find it difficult to speak up to start living their lives on their own terms. However, others may experience strong consequences if challenging an abusive parent, which would be their reason not to speak up. Some lessons are easier to learn than others, but even the more difficult ones need to be passed in order to become unstuck and move forward in life.

If you don't succeed in passing the lesson through your childhood or adolescence, then even when you move out, you will find that you encounter new people who enter your life that hold similar attributes. This may be in the form of friendships, a work colleague or even your romantic relationships. In the beginning, you'll find that things are new and refreshing, but over time, if you haven't yet learned your lesson, you'll find that you are once again faced with the need to overcome your fears and stand up for your thoughts and beliefs.

In my experience, with other people and some of my own, common life lessons related to this example include:

Drawing boundaries and saying no

Speaking up and standing up for your beliefs

Learning to walk away

Gaining independence and non-reliance on others

There are many other categories of lessons as well, each with a multitude of subcategories, but these are handled in the same way where repeating patterns will occur if left unlearned.

Change Your Responses

When you finally identify a repeating pattern in your life, then it's important to break the cycle. And by understanding that you can't change the source of the pattern or the actions of the other people involved, you can start by changing your responses. 

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. ~ Albert Einstein

So when you face and recognize that you're about to experience yet another repeating pattern, you must change your response or your reaction to it, however small this may be. The key is to do something different because changing an input will alter the output, just as doing the same thing will yield the same outcome. 

Gaining Awareness to Enable Change

Awareness is key to creating any change and you must be able to identify a pattern in the first place in order to be able to change it. However, many people go through life in reaction mode, and emotional triggers will cause instant responses that reinforce the repeating patterns in your life.

So how do you change this if you can't control your responses?

When life gets overwhelming, it's crucial to slow down and experience stillness. Meditation is a proven way to help your mind from racing endlessly, calm your emotions and help you to gain clarity and mental focus. These are all of the components needed to enable you to make different choices and better decisions that will help you to break out of repeating patterns so you can move forward in your life. This is also a preventative approach and helps you from becoming stuck in life by avoiding a downward spiral of life lessons - because if you don't pass the tests the first time, they tend to get harder and harder until you have no other choice but to learn them. 

Not only would you avoid the many negative consequences you would face if you left your repeating patterns and emotions to take over, but just doing twenty minutes of meditation each day also serves to benefit you in many ways, including:

Reducing negative emotions and amplifying positive ones

Gaining a new perspective on stressful situations

Increasing imagination and creativity

Increasing patience and tolerance

improving the overall physical and emotional wellbeing

To read more about the benefits, including my tips on how to get the most out of your meditations, read my blog post How to Get the Most Out of Your Meditations.

You can also learn more about Repeating Patterns in my 49-Day Energy Mastery Course where I talk about what energy is and how it affects your life, your emotions, limiting beliefs, repeating patterns, how karma works and the importance of forgiveness.

What are you waiting for? It's time to get unstuck from your repeating patterns and start moving forward to living a better and happier life full of new opportunities and potential!