Any life situation we find ourselves in can be seen as training, as an opportunity to grow spiritually, to cultivate virtues, gain skills, experience, and wisdom. Different situations provide different training opportunities, but every situation has the seeds of growth in it.
Every problem on the individual or collective scale is a call to adventure. Every situation is an opportunity. Everything is training.
It takes skill to recognize the opportunities in the situations we find ourselves in, to make the most out of our circumstances, to cultivate virtue at every turn. This post is about that skill, about how to reframe this present situation as an opportunity.
If U truly believe in ur heart heart of hearts that U can learn from each and every moment, from every person U meet, from every situation U find urself in—ur whole life will be an endless psychoactive journey, a school prepared just for U by the universe itself.
If U see the whole universe as a school where we are meant to learn lessons and grow spiritually, then it follows that this situation is also an opportunity to grow, just like every other.
the “reframe as opportunity” move is basically:
> be in situation (including, especially a difficult or challenging one)
> validate what’s hard about it. don’t pretend it’s not
> identify a desirable virtue or skill that U could grow in through this situation
> identify a specific approach, interventions U could do to cultivate that virtue
> act on, apply interventions
> iterate based on what U learn, what’s working, what’s not
> cultivate virtue, profit. rinse, repeat
With some creativity, U can make use of any given situation as an opportunity to cultivate some skill, virtue, or value U care about—even a difficult, undesired situation.
Here are some examples:
- writing this post is an opportunity to cultivate generosity and compassion, to help others who might benefit from it being in the world
- making mistakes is an opportunity to prove that I love myself
- being around people who speak in a long-winded, unattuned way is an opportunity to cultivate patience
- being in a situation I am bored by is an opportunity to cultivate a playful curiosity, to find out what’s interesting about topics I might not otherwise be intrinsically interested in
- small, everyday, inconsequential choices are an opportunity to drop out of the mind and into desire, the honesty of intuition
- larger decisions are an opportunity to surrender, and witness the magic that comes when the same skill is used at important junctures in the chapters of ur life
- making art affords us the opportunity to feel seen by ourselves
- every situation is an opportunity to be kind to urself ❤️
These are generic, broad examples—U will probably find it helpful to get very specific, to look closely at the exact situations U find urself in, and notice what particular virtues and skills those situations are an unusual opportunity to cultivate.
Conclusion
Some people wish for a life of no problems, but I would never wish such a life for any of you. What I wish for you is the great inner strength to solve your problems meaningfully and grow. Problems are learning and growing experiences. A life without problems would be a barren existence, without the opportunity for spiritual growth.
— Peace Pilgrim
In my experience, the intensity and discomfort of an interpersonal situation is typically directly proportional to the degree of opportunity for learning. An especially difficult situation is top-tier grist for the growth mill, if U can allow urself to remain open, to stay curious, to listen to others, to see from new perspectives.
In the ideal case, we tread softly and gracefully, learning our lessons far sooner in sweet and gentle ways. In practice, if everything explodes, that’s a time where, if nothing else, we can be guaranteed an opportunity to learn, to receive the gift of growth.
U get to decide what U learn from a situation. No one can dictate what lessons U learn. The most important and meaningful growth may be whispered in between the lines of screams and chaos.
How are ur current circumstances an opportunity to learn? What virtues do they give U an opportunity to cultivate?
The art in this post was created by Sílvia Bastos, and is licensed under a CC BY 2.0 license. You can support her work on Patreon.
