Sometimes we go through events in life that can be rather stressful and shocking. These can be major life events such as having an accident or losing your house, or personal events such as losing a friend.

In the "everything must be positive" brand of new age thought, such events are to be avoided at all costs. Law of Attraction people will tell you that if you have something bad happen to you in your life, that you "created" it with your negative thinking...so shame on you! Get with the program! Think more positively and life will just be a bowl of cherries without any pits in it!

This is simplistic, wishful thinking that ignores the fact that we're here as souls to experience challenges for our spiritual growth.

Sometimes when we experience an event that we perceive as negative in the outside world, it is actually a blessing in disguise.

Earlier this year I experienced this very strange evening where two friends of mine, two recently new friends, both got mad at me and stopped talking to me. On the same night. In separate events.

In meditating on whether I should work to get these two friends back into my life, I was guided by my soul to leave them alone, as they were actually serving as negative influences in my life. Spirit wanted me to release them, and so a crisis was manufactured and they were removed, swiftly! Within weeks I had a stronger friendship with another acquaintance, and new friendships have appeared to replace the old, negative ones.

Sometimes spirit will create such a big problem that you can't ignore it anymore and you are forced to take drastic measures. I lived in a rent-controlled apartment once a block from the beach - it was a terrific apartment - but it was time for me to move on. Prying me out of there would have required a crowbar of planetary size. So what happened was that the building was sold, and my new landlord started rewiring the building, by having contractors come into my home and pound holes into the walls.

I lost my parking spot just as I had accidentally sent in my car registration without proof of insurance. I kept getting ticketed for my "lapsed registration" (which was just a screw up) when my car was parked on the street.

Fed up, I picked up and moved to Seattle for a year when the opportunity arose. It was an amazing experience and would not have happened if I had not been so ready to just throw away my old life out of frustration.

Recently I had another experience where something just exploded in my face without warning, and I feel strangely excited and happy, even as I feel sad and upset, because I have this feeling that something really good is going to come out of it. What, I do not know, but whatever it is, it will be better than the status quo that was starting to wear on me after a few years.

Try to be open to the new things that can come into your life when what you had blows up in your face. Sometimes that's just spirit opening a door for you. Maybe you were unable to open it for yourself, so spirit used some dynamite. That's OK - it'll all part of the exciting process we call living!