After she was badly hurt in a car accident by a drunk driver, Amy sat in her hospital bed with a patch over her eye. Though she had difficulty breathing and felt the pain of broken bones, she said that she was stunned at how she was excited by life, excited to be alive. She was feeling something new to her - the ability to live on a level of openness and intensity and even joy. The accident had literally cracked open her shell. This opening happens to many people - sometimes through their greatest difficulties. Everything has a particular purpose in the scheme of things. Everything you undergo and everything you feel is an opportunity for becoming more aware.

There's a Purpose for Everything

When you look back at the events of your life, you may see in hindsight how the pieces of the puzzle fit together, how experiences that have grieved you or made you angry or terrified were exactly what you needed to both deepen you as a soul and help you to move on in your growth. A relationship that ended might have been just the chance you needed to move to a different city or to another person and to find something with which your soul is more aligned - or at the deepest level, to awaken you to the essential experience of your higher self.

Sometimes Wounds of the Heart Can Open You Up

Things can pierce you so strongly that they actually blow you open. Wounds of the heart, for example, can be just the piercing you need to unlock your deepest feelings. You can shift your feelings. You can first experience them, and then release and transform them as you become more powerful.

You Can Feel and Then Transform Your Deepest Feelings

Everyone has emotional patterns that are scripts they came here to experience. Some people are very angry. Others are cowering and fearful. Some are very controlling. Still others are filled with deep sadness and grief. Some of us feel all these feelings, though usually some theme predominates. Most of us were born with these feelings and we all came here to transform them.

All Feelings are Made of Energy

Ultimately, everything is made of the energy of the Universe, including all of your feelings. You can heal and transform your experiences. Sadness can show you how to have compassion for all people of the world who are also sad. Anger can give you power. Fear can protect you in many circumstances. Depression can show you the deeper parts of life.

What You Can Learn through Your Greatest Troubles

You might see that through our own suffering you can now feel profound compassion for people all over the world who are suffering. You might feel a profound wisdom that shines a laser beam on the meaning of some experience in your life. Sometimes a difficult experience like a divorce, for example, is just what you need for a new life. You can learn from life experiences like the death of someone close or physical illness, and you can become more alert and alive.

Three Healing Steps

First let yourself feel your feelings. Then release them when you're ready. You might find that you're able to experience more light, love, and wisdom. Through your deepest trials you are becoming more enlightened and awake.