It was a wild week on planet Earth, energetically speaking. I talk to so many people that I get to see patterns. This week, my inbox was filled with people saying the exact same thing. “I do not know how long I can go on like this. I’m exhausted. I’ve lost my joy.” There were a variety of reasons—material challenges, unkind coworkers, family members who were behaving badly, and more. These dear souls had legitimate reasons to feel down, but angels being angels, guided them to find love and peace even in the challenges.
The angels maintain that our exhaustion in challenging times comes less from the challenge and more from thinking exhausting thoughts—feeling unloved, alone, without hope or ideas, blaming ourselves, or finding fault with others. The soul doesn’t waste a moment looking for the whys and wherefores of a challenging situation. The moment you encounter a challenge, your soul is exclusively focused on a kind and loving path to the solution. The angels are holding the vision of the healed condition. The Divine guides you on a path of perfection in love and grace.
But being human, these challenges knock us off alignment from our soul’s vision. They may temporarily cause us to forget how loved and assisted we are. Old patterns arise. Old fears surface. And before we know it, we are deceived into forgetting that life is good and the universe has a solution for every problem. We are deceived into feeling alone, left to fend for ourselves, and figure it all out. In truth, we are loved beyond reason, guided with grace, and never alone.
When a material or financial challenge seems insurmountable, the soul sees the path to resolve it. I’ve known people who received unbelievable help when in need—cars being gifted to them, $6K of back taxes paid by a friend of a friend who felt inspired to assist, thousands being given to them when they only asked for a loan. In a space of faith, we open to grace.
When a personal challenge arises—unkind coworkers or angry family members—the angels guide us to disengage, physically if possible, and if not, emotionally. Years ago, they put it this way: “Ann, you don’t have to hate the kindergarteners, but there’s no need to play with them!” Now, when someone is unkind, I remain quiet, don’t take it personally, and get away as soon as possible. If I can’t get away, I remind myself, “Not about me,” and refrain from engaging. We struggle to do the impossible when we try to create peace with people who don’t want peace. The soul says, let them be. But let yourself be too, and free yourself from the drama. You can witness the behaviors, but you don’t have to engage..
And in all challenges, there is a human tendency to agonize until we figure out a solution, but the soul says, “Relax. We’ve got this. You’re guided.Enjoy your day until you receive the impulse to act.” The more I let go of agonizing over how to resolve a challenge, be it losing my keys, having a huge expense, or dealing with a difficult person, the more quickly the solution comes.
This week, I had more than a few challenges, but they didn’t seem so challenging as they once would have. A family member was very upset at the fact that the reflecting pool had been altered in Washington, DC, and was now overgrown with green algae. I grew up in northern VA and remember the beauty of this particular pool, especially at sunset, rippling with reflections of the monuments and glowing with a peaceful beauty. I felt sad about the current situation. Within two days, my own pool was green with algae 🙂
And while there was a physical cause, of course, the outbreak was completely coincident with the spiritual focus. I wasn’t thrilled. It will cost me a lot to remediate. In the past, I would have beaten myself up for not noticing the debris that was growing things, or felt like a victim because I didn’t have the time to check it every day. This time, it was just something to handle. I have a very knowledgeable pool person who is as mystical as I am and extremely competent. He has a young family, a heart of gold, and needs the money more than I do since he’s just starting his own business. And so I chose to look at the situation as a way to support a beautiful family. What started as a discussion about algae transformed into a deep discussion about how to handle being a deep empath. The kind and cooperative interaction far outweighed the temporary inconvenience and expense. Glass half full… and no algae in the proverbial glass!
The same day, I received guidance to get a tree trimmed before storm season. Thinned out, they weather the winds and stand tall, but heavy with branches and debris, they can fall. It was an expensive endeavor, but necessary. So I gave the expense to God and called the man who handles my trees. It turns out he was going on his first vacation in 30 years, so he got it taken care of quickly before he left. I’ve known him for over 25 years, so it felt like calling an old friend for help, and I was glad to see him taking care of himself. I have enough work to refill the well, and it felt good to know I was supporting his vacation.
An hour later, I called a dear family member who, uncharacteristically, was in tears. They were facing more medical challenges and possibly another trip to the hospital. I couldn’t change the circumstances, but I could listen with compassion, hold space with love, and uplift and encourage them with gentle humor. We all know how unthinkably hard it is to watch someone we love in pain, but what saves me every time is reminding myself that the universe wants to honor their wishes for well-being, and if I hold my focus there, I can assist.
It didn’t end there. I had to do some physical labor that I wasn’t accustomed to and woke up in pain the next day. That was new. It was a workday. So I sat, breathed, and received love and healing energy from spirit, napped in between clients, and by the afternoon, the love was flowing so strongly that the pain disappeared. It was one of the fastest turnarounds I’ve experienced to date.
Any one of these things might have caused undue drama in my past, but now they’re just part of life. I don’t waste my time trying to figure out how to avoid them in the future. I focus on the loving solution, the help that is available, and how much we are loved. And then I “delegate up,” giving the problem to God and the angels.
There are, of course, much bigger challenges. I know people whose kids live in a war-torn area and made frequent trips to the bomb shelter. That would unsettle most of us. For the kids, it was no big deal, just a temporary interruption in their day. They sailed through a tense period on Earth with utmost grace. I know so many people who have lost loved ones, often under unthinkably challenging circumstances, and yet the willingness to honor themselves through their grief and reach for the one in spirit creates a path of beauty and ultimate partnership with spirit. After 30 years of helping people through all their life’s challenges, I’ve seen people evolve from anguish to empowerment so many times.
So when the challenges come, here are a few ways to avoid struggling with the struggles and to sail through them with grace, guidance, and even joy.
1. Focus forward
Instead of making yourself wrong or obsessing about why, how, and who led to this challenge, focus forward. Stop the shame-and-blame game and focus on how the evolution of a solution will feel.
Imagine you are on the other side of this challenge. How do you feel there?
Remind yourself, “The Creator of universes knows how to help and guide me.” And then sit, breathe, receive, as if you know you are worthy of love and assistance.
Act when guided.
Think of it this way. If a bad program began to play on your television, you could sit there and watch it while obsessing about how it got there, how you accidentally selected that station, or who changed the selection on the remote. Better, you could just change the channel.
The quicker we change the channel off any angst about the problem and toward the feel of a future solution, the quicker the solution can come.
2. Don’t Be Deceived
Our programming often tells us lies about the situation. You may be deceived into thinking it is going to ruin your life or your day. You may be deceived into thinking it can mess up your future, or will never get any better.<br /><br />
Meanwhile, the Divine whispers, “I love you. I’ve got your back. We’ve got this.” That is truth.
There are energies that will amplify your fears and try to deceive you into thinking you are alone, the problem cannot be handled, or that it defines your future. Those are lies.
The truth is that you are never alone, there is a solution for every challenge, and your future can be bright.
3. Feel Your Feelings, But Don’t Stay Stuck
It is a typical human response to be upset, frustrated, or disappointed in the face of a challenge. It’s OK to feel that way. Better than stuffing it. But you can hand your feelings up to the heavens instead of staying stuck in them.
My process of feeling and healing goes something like this, “Angels, I’m going to burn your ears for a moment! Get out the composter!”
Then I rant, rave, and burn off the steam until I’m done. Like a little child who needs a good cry in the arms of someone who loves them, we can have our so-called negative feelings in the arms of the comforting Divine. It always feels better to move through feelings instead of stuffing them or pretending not to have them.
4. Give Yourself Permission to Let Go
Go In some cases, we hang onto our challenges by trying to make an unpleasant situation better. We try to change the dynamic with others who don’t want to change. And we feel like we’ve missed something or failed when we can’t get them to change. In truth, another’s path or choices are not up to us, even in our desire for better.
Instead, let go. Let others be who they want to be, and focus on being kind to yourself.
The angels have often said, “Ann, you can’t make bad food taste good, and you can’t make bad behavior feel good. Don’t bother, turn away!”
The first time they said this, it was a revelation. Permission to be upset? Permission to just let go? I didn’t have to fix the situation with the wounded soul who was attacking me? “No,” they responded. “Let go.” And so I did, and the attacks stopped. I no longer cared. This person no longer got the temporary high that came from aiming their pain at me.
I was, as I now like to say, “country-song-done” with that behavior, as in “Don’t like it. Won’t like it. Can’t fix it. DONE.” It felt amazing! Permission to stop trying to fix the unfixable. Permission to change the channel and let the bad program run without a viewer! Permission to be free and happy, even if this other soul was miserably upset that they couldn’t control me. It changed my life and how I view unkind people. Now I have compassion for their pain, but no longer take it on. “Not my circus. Not my monkeys!” as the saying goes 🙂
Life happens. Stuff breaks. People get unhinged. They can act in painful ways we’d never dream of acting.
The key to sailing through the challenges with grace is to take a breath, remind yourself that no matter how you got here, you’ve got a choice now to align with the love that creates universes, solves every problem, and wants to pour into your life. You have a choice to focus on the feeling of the outcome, and to focus forward beyond it. And in doing that, even the toughest challenges become easier to navigate, and you often get happy surprises along the way.
In truth, love is always present. Help is always here. You are never alone.And even when the challenges come quickly, and you’re tired and discouraged, a simple shift in perspective can make all the difference. Life is not out to get you. People’s behaviors are not ours to change. But we can create space to receive love from the Divine and our angels, who are always for us, supporting us and guiding us. We can let others be who they need to be while figuring out what feels healthier for ourselves.
And then life’s challenges are simply part of life, helping us grow and evolve toward greater joy.
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