The greater the contrast, the more we learn

Soul Reasons for Life Challenges

Without the meaning that flows from a higher view, we remain stuck in our human experience, believing (understandably) that these things should never happen. For trauma survivors on a healing journey, we need to consider the broader vision to find purpose in our suffering, and step into our soul warrior authority.

Reason 4: Contrast

Our soul learns from experience–the greater the contrast, the more we learn

The main reason we incarnate is to learn, and contrast facilitates that learning. Robert Schwartz explained that, because we come from “a realm of complete unconditional love,” and our soul is made of this energy, “we experience no contrast to ourselves…this means we don’t fully understand who or what we are.” At home in our soul existence, there is nothing but love. Glorious indeed, but all ‘drops’ are merged and diffuse in the ocean of Oneness.

To know ourselves as an individuated drop, and consciously appreciate what love is, we “come for the experience of ‘not love’...by the end of a lifetime, we understand what unconditional love really is, which means we have a more profound self knowing.” The contrast provided by the temporary absence of love–”the opposite of love is fear”–prods our conscious awareness of who we truly are.

This planet of extremes provides a wide range of experiences at a dense, highly polarized level. Our soul can grow rapidly by coming to ‘earth school.’ The more challenging the events, the greater the evolutionary gains.

When we view traumatic events through the lens of the soul, we begin to see the broader possibilities of meaning they may contain. The soul is the evolving part of us that exists beyond time and space; our soul is eternal. Later, we will explore reincarnation, which suggests our greater Self has more than one earthly lifetime. If there is no death, then we must be more than this single lifetime. If we live more than once, then there must be a greater Self that is developing through these adventures. If we are learning each time, then it makes sense that trauma provides intensive ‘courses’ for our growth.

Think of the mix of life you have lived so far. There are wonderful moments of joy, connection, and adventure that are held in your memory. Hopefully, you have many of these collected in your experiential bag of tricks. Then, there are moments of pain and struggling, which you may have dealt with and integrated, or may still be processing. All experiences contribute to our evolving soul, the repository of all our learning and development. As A Course in Miracles puts it, “All things are lessons God would have me learn.”

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book, Trauma Survivor to Soul Warrior: Reconnect With Your True Self (due to be published in September 2025 by Manuscripts Press LLC).

I am looking forward to sharing it with you.