“When you awaken spiritually, it doesn’t mean that it’s the end of challenges. They don’t stop. The only difference is, and it’s a big difference, you no longer unconsciously transform the challenges of life into unhappiness.” Eckert TolleI would not say that I have always been an optimist, but for the most part, once I got passed the initial fear and worry of a situation or experience, I always looked for what I could learn from it or how I could use it to heal or grow, and use what I learned to share with others. Perhaps I just don’t like things to be wasted, especially the hard things. Or perhaps I want so strongly to get out of the feeling state of hopelessness. Whatever it is that initially propelled me and still moves me to look for meaning or opportunities for growth, I experience as a gift. As someone who has always deeply enjoyed learning, I get to use all of life’s experiences both the challenging, the significantly difficult and the pleasant and significantly blissful to teach me. It’s been interesting to me to notice the reactions of people close to me. Some will feel that it’s unfair that I experience positive benefits to most challenging situations. And most will tell me that even when they saw me at my lowest points, it was easy for them to not worry about me, because they know that I will somewhere, at some point, find the learning, perhaps the learning ladder, to walk myself up out of the hole. As you know, we don’t have control over how other people respond to us. But we can tap into the parts of us that look for and find the possibilities. Even though I am aware that my desire to learn and grow is innate, it is still very much a skill that I am still learning and developing. For me, and for many empaths, we have had a lifetime of soaking up the feelings of others, and we have had quick and strong reactions to external factors. We are now living in a time where there is scientific data and information that is shared with us so easily, that we can more easily see possibility and train our minds (thoughts, emotions, beliefs, intuition), to see/know truth, and to manage the emotional and perhaps even physical experience of the external experiences that we have. Eckert Tolle says this well.