Our lives are a sacred spiral… not a straight line
Did you ever notice that spiral patterns are everywhere in nature?
Hurricanes, the double helix which is the structure of our DNA is a spiral, pinecones and pineapples, from galaxies to snail shells.
Our fingerprints are a spiral. Have you ever seen a photograph of a human fingerprint and a tree stump side by side? You’d be hard pressed to tell them apart.
There are several patterns in nature. But spirals exist everywhere in the nature of our planet and into the great beyond.
Why do we see our lives so very different? From birth most of us are put on a path by someone else. So many life goals are laid out for us, it’s no surprise that we don’t have to think too hard about what to do next and if we reject this mainstream trajectory or accept it but struggle? We can experience misunderstanding, isolation, and rejection.
As Highly Sensitive People we already feel things differently, so as we are living our lives in this spiral pattern we might see ourselves as failing at life.
Life is not a linear path, it is a sacred spiral.
When we reject this natural pattern of life is when we get stuck. It is natural to ruminate on things until we’ve fully processed them, the struggle to let things go is normal and being drawn to the same types of relationships over and over is natural a spiral pattern of life.
When we get frustrated with ourselves because we think we should be “over something already” or can’t understand why we can’t stop thinking about something uncomfortable or embarrassing that happened… know that this is actually a completely normal response to living life as a human being.
Where we often stumble is having a set of unrealistic expectations of how we’re supposed to function and behave within a social structure that doesn’t follow the natural order of things.
Life is not linear.
Things reappear in our lives for a reason.
We continually come back to things we thought we knew and things we thought we understood because we need to see deeper truths. We’re called to learn the truth that lives underneath the stories we tell ourselves- we return again and again because we’re simply not done learning.
This can be an incredibly painful cycle at times, and why so many of us seek professional help. When we keep struggling with the same hurts, the same types of people, the same stresses, it’s overwhelming and frustrating. We can’t help but wonder “why can’t I escape this?” or “why does this keep happening to me?”
This can leave us feeling lost, lonely, sad, and confused about why something isn’t quite working out for us, why we can’t seem to break free. And if we’re already vulnerable as HSPs, many times we don’t want to speak up or call even more attention to ourselves. So we get stuck.
But just knowing that our progression through life isn’t a straight line can help. Understanding that we will have the same challenges, we’ll be thrown off course, we’ll see the same types of people come into our lives over and over until we start to notice, until we begin to study and look deeper into ourselves to find the reason why these types of energy keep returning to us.
In my life one of the most generous gifts the universe has given me is to show me over and over again that the linear path I thought I was on was actually not a straight line at all. From the outside it looked like the average linear path but in actuality it was a continuous loop of the same destructive people, the same purposeless jobs, but all doing and saying the same things over and over, just in different ways.
Slowly I began to see, life is a spiral not a linear path.
The same things keep showing up in our lives over and over until we start to pay attention, until we start to ask questions, until we start to notice.
Once we notice we can begin to make the changes we need to move forward.
As we begin the new year and the winter season of rest and reflection it is a perfect time to slow down and observe.
What patterns do you see in your own life?
Do you suffer in the same types of relationships? Hurts? Struggles? Over and over?
And when you begin to notice these patterns what changes are you willing to make?