By Nancy Rynes, author of Awakenings from the Light
Are you ready for a little adventure?
By now, you might be getting bored with being home a bit too much. I don’t know about you but for me it’s been many, many months without doing my usual traveling and seeing people. While I generally enjoy my own company, I think it’s time for a little adventure.
The adventure I want to take you on doesn't require a physical journey, though. Instead, we’re going to continue to explore the concept of our lives as adventures.
It might be a little strange to think of life as an adventure, but consider this: Dictionary.com defines "adventure" in a number of ways, but the ones that seem most appropriate to for us are, "a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome; an exciting or unusual experience." I think it's important to note that "adventure" doesn't necessarily mean the journey is always easy.
Sounds about right to me, especially right now. Life might bring you times of happiness and fun punctuated with times of stress and worry. Sometimes events click into place and move you effortlessly forward toward your goals. Other times, outside events threaten to throw you off course. And sometimes you might need to make a course correction but are unsure of what that might look like.
Even given all of the highs and lows, this life is definitely an adventure. It's a bold undertaking to agree to come here, and there are no real guarantees for any of us except that we will be presented with events and opportunities.
So yes, life is definitely an "adventure" and in my mind, a sacred adventure. But we'll get to that in a minute.
Every adventure story has a hero, so let’s think about who is going to be the hero on this adventure called Your Life?
You are.
Yep, you're a hero.
You might not think of yourself as a hero, but you are. You are the hero in your life's sacred adventure, especially now with all of the challenges and uncertainty that loom for so much of the planet.
Your journey as a hero started before your boots-on-the-ground adventure really began, before your birth. You received what could be thought of as a call to an adventure: a calling from Spirit to come here to live a human life on Earth. This may be your very first, or only, physical life. For others, it may be the tenth. But in any case, Spirit gave you the opportunity for a human life. Why? Well, the reason is unique for each soul but this life is usually given as an opportunity to experience, accomplish, or learn something.
Some souls might refuse the call, at least at first. A soul might be reluctant to come to this planet where life isn’t always easy. Not everyone enjoys adventure, after all. But eventually your soul agreed to the call because it realized that it was in your best interests to come here. And saying YES to that call is when your life’s adventure started.*
Next, your soul agreed to some of the things it wanted to experience, learn, or accomplish in its time here. Sometimes these goals might be completely up to a soul, but in many instances Spirit and the soul’s teachers helped to narrow down the reasons for this particular life. For example, Spirit may call on a soul to take on a large and challenging task, such as being a voice for equality, for peace, or for justice. In other instances, Spirit may ask a soul to to learn and live one discrete thing, such as the value of family, compassion, or gratitude.
But while the soul does have choice,* it is difficult to refuse the request to come here. I remember this from my own pre-birth time, and other experiencers have commented on this as well. If Spirit asks you to do something (such as live a life on Earth), your soul feels great honor, responsibility, and opportunity in the request.
Trust me, it’s very difficult to say no, as hard as that might be to believe right now.
Why? One of our souls’ deepest desires is to contribute to the greatest and highest Universal good. And when we are asked to live a life that will further love and light, whether for ourselves or for the planet, we usually say YES.
But let’s get back to you and your own sacred adventure.
Your main reason for coming here is oftentimes one (or more) of these: to learn a specific lesson, to be a source of love/kindness/compassion, to observe or experience, to make amends, or to help others. But even though you may have more than one goal for this life, there is usually one that is your main, overarching reason for being here.
And what about pre-determination vs. choice?
The degree to which your life is laid out varies, but you do have choice both before coming here, and within your time in this life. Human life is not like being an actor in a movie where you have specific lines, actions, and a character arc that must be followed.* Where would be the opportunity for learning and growth, just by following someone else’s script?
There wouldn’t be any.
What really happened, then? Well, your soul agreed to one or more overarching goals before your birth. Then once you arrived (were born), your soul does its best to accomplish its goals.
Think about some of our great, heroic stories such as Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece. Jason, a prince, was given a mission: to obtain the mythical Golden Fleece. Before he started on his journey, though, all he had available to him was his goal: obtain the Golden Fleece. No pre-determined path was laid out for him, no string of GPS coordinates, no list of instructions. The path his journey would take would be (mostly) up to him. Wise teachers could give him advice, but Jason would have to set his own course and learn how to respond to storms, to the meddling from mythical beings, and how to handle political intrigue along the way. So Jason assembled a ship and a crew, then set off on his adventure. With persistence (and help from his crew and wise teachers) he achieved his goal and returned to his land with the prize: the Golden Fleece. Along the way he learned even more valuable lessons such as compassion and humility. (Perhaps these lessons were the ultimate spiritual goal of his journey.)
So like Jason on his journey, while you’re here in a human body you have a lot of room to make choices and respond to events.* In fact your life is really defined and refined by your choices. You come here with an overarching spiritual goal or goals (such as learning more about compassion), and you might set some human goals too (like having a family, or having a specific career), then you work toward accomplishing them. And like Jason, you will: find friends and allies who help you along the way; learn from teachers or mentors; respond to events; and you may even adjust your course through life from time to time.
All while (mostly) having little to no human memory of the spiritual goals you had before your birth.**
This calling to live a human life is an exquisite and sacred journey, opportunity, and call to adventure. Next time we’ll discuss: preparing for the journey, meeting your mentors, and crossing the threshold to adventure.
Until then, peace and love,
Nancy
*Note: Some human religions say there isn’t a choice about incarnating, that it is thrust upon them. While that may be the case for some, all evidence we have so far from NDEs, STEs, OBEs, and between-life regressions does not bear this out for everyone. But putting on my scientist’s hat, it could well be the case that the Divine or our spiritual teachers do, in fact, guide some souls into specific lives.
In certain instances, individual souls seem to come into a physical life with a very specific course of action laid out. Their purpose may be act as a learning catalyst for others. In these cases, it may seem as though there is indeed a very specific, predetermined pathway lined up for that soul. But the “assignment” was accepted before birth and the soul understood its specific purpose in this life. However, this completely “predetermined” type of life seems to be pretty rare. The vast majority of souls coming to Earth appear to have a lot of room for choices and decision-making.
**Note: Why is that? Why do most of us lose that spiritual clarity? I don't think it's just one reason. When I look at small children, mostly under 10 years old or so, it seems that many of them do have memories of who they are and what they want to accomplish. They may have memories of other lifetimes, or of their spiritual home before coming here to Earth. But most kids (at least in USA) appear to lose at least some of this spiritual clarity as they grow. Society, family, and peers can tell us that these memories are simply imagined or fantasy, that they should grow out of them. That was partly the case for me. The little spiritual clarity I had as a kid was gone by the time I was 15 years old. For myself, there may also be an additional reason why my human mind didn't have access to my deeper spiritual goals. I think if I had the knowledge of exactly what I signed up for, I would have "chickened out" and not even attempted to accomplish what I had set out to do.
The content of this blog comes from my own experience during NDEs and OBEs, others’ whom I trust and their NDEs, and corroborated by the work of Dr. Michael Newton (“Journey of Souls”). The concept of the hero's journey is derived from the work of Dr. Joseph Campbell.
Archive: Past Newsletter IssuesMessages of Hope with Suzanne Giesemann: Exploring NDEs with Nancy Rynes
TODAY Show: Nancy's Interview on NBC TV's TODAY
Article: Seven Lessons That Dying Taught Me About Truly Living (Aspire Magazine)
Article: Lives Changed by NDEs (Boulder Daily Camera)
Article: Awakening to Life(Pages 6-10, Journal of Exceptional Experiences and Psychology, Summer 2016)
Article: The Meaning of Life (Excellence Reporter)
Simply Peace Part 2
Downloadable, Audio-only versions of the webinar are available on my SoundCloud site: https://soundcloud.com/nancy-rynes
Please Join Me On Social Media
Facebook | Pinterest | YouTube | LinkedIn