“Do our spirit guides or the universe ever do bad things to us to teach us a lesson? I have always been really good at attracting money into my life, but last year everything just started falling apart and now I’m struggling to pay my bills. I feel like the universe or my guides slapped me down in order to teach me humility. Is that possible?” – Marsha
This will probably come as a shock to many people, especially if you carry the common new age belief that life is a school and we are here to learn and grow and evolve and eventually we are so enlightened that we don’t have to come back here ever again.
You did not incarnate to learn lessons. You incarnated to experience physicality, to have a vacation from your life as an energetic being, to have fun here.
Your guides are not standing there on the other side with a check list that says “Slap Karen down because she’s gotten really cocky lately.” Or “Karen’s had it too good lately, let’s take her down a notch, let’s give her dog cancer.”
No.
Everything you experience here is a result of the choices you make. It’s all cause and effect.
If you’re running a lucrative business but the market turns, or you stop serving your clients well, or you get behind on the latest technology, the effect is that your business will suffer and you may generate less income.
If your dog is 22 years old you can expect that eventually it’s going to succumb to disease and pass away.
If you cheat on your spouse, and he finds out, you may lose your relationship.
It’s not the Universe or your guides punishing you or trying to teach you a lesson. It’s action and reaction. Cause and effect. Choice and consequence.
That doesn’t mean you won’t learn something from the experiences you have. We can generate meaning for any given experience. Let’s use the example of a business suddenly failing. What might someone learn or take away from the experience?
- This business has run its course, I think it’s time to try something new.
- I should probably spend more time with my family, so I’m going to shut the business down.
- I’ve gotten a little lazy, I’m going to work hard and recover my momentum.
- I just need a little help, I’m going to hire more people. I can turn this around.
Same situation, but different people will glean different “lessons” from the experience.
It’s disempowering to feel like the bad things that happened to you were of divine design. Then you will always feel at the mercy of forces beyond your control.
But the reality is that once you incarnate into a physical body here on Earth, you are subject tothe physical laws of this universe. Your choices will always determine your results. So if you don’t like the output, change the input.
You don’t see people saying, “Hmm, I planted an apple tree but was hoping I’d get apricots. I don’t know what happened.” You planted an apple tree and got apples. If you want different fruit, plant different seeds.
So the next time something bad is happening to you, or you’re getting results you didn’t want, ask yourself what choices you made that led to this outcome. Ask yourself what seed was planted that bore the fruit you’re now holding. Adjust your strategy and get a different outcome. But don’t blame your guides or the universe for the “lesson.” They didn’t generate it. You did.
