The Nature of the Soul

A question I hear often is about our experiences here in the earth plane--specifically why is there so much suffering? Inevitably this question leads to discussion about the soul and the soul's purpose. I wanted to share with you the information I received from my spiritual guides about the soul's purpose and the soul's perspective of the earth plane. I hope it can ease some of the pain and discomfort that is so often experienced on this journey. 

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"When a soul chooses to incarnate it does so with great intention. There is a highly intelligent design behind every incarnation. The soul will choose its parents, its location, its gender, its ethnicity, its sexual orientation. All of these factors will be chosen by the soul to put it in a prime situation to experience the particular lessons for growth it is after. For example, if a particular soul chose to assist humanity in a thrust towards tolerance it may have chosen to incarnate as a Jewish person involved in the Holocaust. If a soul chose to be a part of thrusting humanity toward racial tolerance it may have chosen to be a part of the civil rights movement. If a soul chooses to assist humanity in such a way, it will take on the role that allows it to be of service and learn valuable lessons of its own as well. The constant dramas that are being played out on the earth plane--from racial injustices to terrorism--all serve to provide opportunities to propel humanity towards greater love. It looks like a long, slow, and arduous process from where you are standing, but you have to understand, time is not as you think. Everyone on your planet is a soul with an agenda. These agendas are well designed game plans that the soul has developed to best maximize its learning potential while in the earth plane.

The human plane in which you live is ripe with opportunity to grow, expand, and learn. There are so many facets to the human experience to explore that it is almost mind boggling. You live in a plane where a wide range of human emotion can be experienced--emotions that can't be experienced elsewhere. To be incarnate on earth is a very special learning opportunity. You are each on the path of your soul's desire and the experiences you have and the particular range of emotions you explore while here are dependent upon the lessons your soul chose to focus on in this incarnation. While you may see your world as a place of tragedy, the ever-expanding soul sees a place to explore a vast array of learning potential including poverty, sickness, grief, and so on. The soul sees experiences as opportunities for growth and for greater awareness. As you have consciously forgotten your soul's agenda, these experiences of tragedy and grief look and feel devastating. The soul, from its vantage point in the spirit realm prior to incarnating does not view earth as a horrific house of horrors, but rather as a classroom (albeit a very challenging one!) ripe with opportunity for learning. The soul knows that whatever it endures on the earth plane is temporary and that it will soon enough return home to the spirit plane.

The purpose of the human experience is about exploring the vast range of human potential, possibility, and emotion that is available. It is part of the soul's journey to explore and experience itself in this way. This means experiencing all facets of the human experience--the good, the bad, the ugly. But the soul knows that it is all beautiful. The experience of joy is as beautiful as the experience of grief. To the ever-expanding soul, both are growing experiences. There is no judgment of one being better than the other. They both serve. They both produce the same desire results--to grow and to expand in awareness through the experience of emotion. This perspective is lost to the conscious mind. The conscious mind is conditioned to seek pleasure and avoid pain and as such all manner of beliefs and constructs have been established that define the varying facets of the human experience as good and bad, right and wrong. The goal within such a paradigm is to avoid suffering and seek only joy. While it is wonderful to have joyful experiences, the soul knows that it also stands to gain valuable lessons through less joyful experiences. Grief, sadness, pain--all serve to enrich the soul's experience of life. This is the bigger picture. The soul knows that to seek only pleasure and to have only pleasurable experiences is to limit the expansion of the self. It would be akin to only seeing in black and white instead of experiencing the world through a vast array of color. When a world full of color is available to the human eye, would it not be limiting to see only in black and white if given the choice? And so it is with your earth incarnations. There is a vast spectrum of experience available intended to enhance the experience of life overall and to dabble only within one small area of such a large spectrum would truly be limiting. 

So how does this help you while you are here, while you are experiencing what may feel like long term pain and suffering? By detaching from the conscious mind that focuses solely upon the suffering and to align awareness with this higher part of yourself you can begin to alleviate your suffering. It is when you identify so completely and wholly with the conscious mind and the human physical form that suffering becomes unbearable. When you can begin to identify with your higher self and with the knowledge that your experience is temporary and brief, you can begin to lessen the effects of your suffering. You are not this body, not this identity that you know, not this suffering that you feel. You are an eternal soul doing its work. When you can focus on your higher self and detach from suffering to any extent possible, it softens the edges of the experience. It is not so much the experience itself that produces suffering but rather the extent to which you identify with the experience. It as also helpful to see painful situations as the potential growth opportunities they are. You do not have to attach to the suffering, but rather you can ask yourself what this opportunity can teach you. Can you find any bit of hope, love, gratitude, or peace in the situation? Try to focus on turning it into something positive--even if only in baby steps. Difficult situations can be wonderful catalysts to greater awareness and greater joy, if one is able to extract the lessons from it, to any extent possible, instead of remaining in a space of complete identification with the suffering. 

The purpose of our sharing all of this with you is to give you a greater understanding of the human experience. There are a lot of misunderstandings about why you are here. When you take this greater perspective, with a better understanding of the purpose of your human existence, the world around you seems less harsh. Yes you will still witness tragedies and travesties but with this greater awareness it can become less painful. This greater awareness allows you to step out from the center of tragedy and pain and begin witnessing it from a more detached, albeit compassionate, perspective. When one witnesses suffering alone, with no greater understanding of the purpose it serves, life can seem harsh, cruel and bleak. 

We encourage you to seek beauty in your world wherever you can. It may be as effortless as watching a dance of butterflies. Or it may be more challenging--such as finding the silver lining from an otherwise outwardly devastating situation. For instance, when natural disaster occurs--floods, tornados, earthquakes, hurricanes--instead of focusing solely on the devastation and suffering, see where you can find hope, love, and compassion. Focus your attention on the act of many strangers coming together to help out those in need. See the demonstrations and examples of the beauty and love in the human spirit. See the examples of strength and perseverance. Try to see all matters of the world through different eyes--through the lens of hope, potential, and love. When you begin to adjust your eyesight in this way, the energy you extend to the world around you becomes more fruitful in terms of what you want to create--more love and more peace. If you want suffering to end, let it begin with you. By a continual focus on suffering alone, that is what you perpetuate with your creative energy. Start small if you need to. When you are at the supermarket and encounter someone who is grumpy or rude, instead of taking it personally or going into judgment and criticism about their attitude or behavior, offer them a smile. See what happens. You will either uplift them or you will uplift yourself with your own act of kindness. Either way, you are healing--you are choosing to express love instead of withholding love. In this scenario, you are your own example of a demonstration of the love and kindness the human spirit is capable of." 

I extend my deepest gratitude to my guides for sharing their knowledge with us, and deepest gratitude to you who is reading this--a brave fellow traveler on this earth journey. 

In Love,

heather 

For more information about Heather's work as a medium please visit: www.heatherwallace.net