It can be easy to not understand why we have had to endure difficult situations (let alone find them inspiring). Did they really need to happen? Was all that pain necessary? If everything happens for a reason, how to I make sense of apparently needless difficulties?

Reframe: For a garden to grow, what is the most essential element? Compost. Manure. While of course it also needs plenty of soil, as well as water, it’s that which is dead, decayed or excreted that truly nurtures growth.

So, yes. Your pain, which feels like sh*t, is indeed that which helps you grow.

Action: Think back to a difficult situation that you don’t understand why it happened. Imagine it as being filled with richness. Hold the intention that you’d like to grow from it. Ask for its gifts to unfold, slowly, and to help you discover an increasing feeling of wholeness and peace.