I experienced a great loss five years ago with the unexpected death of my daughter, my only child. I was devastated and thought that I would never be happy again. Knowing as much as I do about the afterlife from my work in spiritual hypnotherapy did not ease the pain at first. I cried every day for over a year. Even after I had passed through the typical stages of grieving and had gone back to my earlier activities, I was still not okay. I felt listless and dead inside. Viewing loss from the perspective of the Soul was the inspiration that I needed for healing.
Loss is a universal human experience, one that we will all experience sometime in our lives. Whether it be loss of a loved one, divorce, career disruption, financial disaster, a health crisis, or a major unfulfilled expectation, serious loss creates a change in our lives. Loss is painful and we must heal from it, as we learn to live without who or what we have lost. Neither we nor our life circumstances will ever be the same after a great loss. Loss marks a new phase in our lives and an opportunity for a new beginning.
The breakthrough in healing came for me in viewing the loss I had experienced from the perspective of the Soul. My loss felt like a catastrophe to me, but the Soul sees significant loss as an opportunity.
The groundbreaking work of Dr. Michael Newton1 revealed that we are Souls who come to earth and join with a human body, to learn and grow spiritually. Our true home is in the Spirit world, the place we come from when we are born and the place we return to when our body dies. As Souls, we do not die, but live on. Through the self-improvement process of reincarnation, we can be born again to live life on earth in a new body.
We plan each life carefully, choosing a purpose, lessons, and experiences we wish to have. We choose our location, family, gender, ethnicity, and even our body. We recruit other Souls to play roles in the drama that becomes our lives on earth so that we can all learn.
Our Higher Self resides within us and provides inner guidance to help us stay on track with the plans we have made. This is important as we forget who we are and the plans that we made once we are born, and our conscious self believes that our current existence is all that there is. Our Higher Self is always trying to communicate with us to remind us of these plans, but the messages are subtle, and we may not be aware of them.
When we experience a great loss, we either planned it before we were born, or we knew that it would be a possibility. However, we do not remember that we planned it to achieve Soul growth, and we view it as a catastrophe.
The Soul sees loss differently. There is no loss in the spirit world, as it is a place of universal harmony and love. One of the experiences Souls seek when they come to earth is the opportunity to experience loss and the strong emotions that accompany it. The Soul views loss as an opportunity, as overcoming adverse situations is one of the ways that we build Soul character.
As Souls, we know that a departed loved one has just gone home ahead of us, and we will see them again. They are still alive and are still with us, just in a different form. We can re-establish communication with them while we continue living on earth.
As Souls we know that when we part ways with someone we have loved through divorce, estrangement, or other life circumstances, we remain connected at the Soul level and can visit with them during sleep time. It is during those times that we can lovingly say to them what we were not able to say at the conscious level.
Other losses such as a financial disaster, a major disappointment, or a health crisis, instill fear in us. The Soul, however, sees this as the right circumstance for achieving Soul growth and can guide us in transcending those fears and growing in strength and resilience.
The shock of serious loss gives us a chance to examine our lives. Were we living our lives following someone else’s dreams, or focusing too strongly on a career or social quest? Were we living such a busy, distracted life that we never took time to find out what we were feeling inside? Had we settled into a comfortable lifestyle where we had traded joy and fulfillment for security? Were we living life on the surface, never diving down to address our deepest longings? How satisfying was our life before the loss occurred?
When a great loss occurs, our Soul Self invites our conscious self to listen and follow our inner guidance. Our Higher Self reminds us of the plans we made for our life and guides us in pursuing them. Grasping the opportunity for renewed life embedded in the loss through connecting with our Higher Self and following our inner guidance will help us live a joyful and fulfilling life once again.
Hearing that loss offers us an opportunity for growth would have made me incredibly angry in the early days following my great loss. I was not ready to face those insights until I had passed through the initial stages of grieving and had begun to focus less on the loss of my daughter and more on the emptiness inside of me. Even then, I still had more healing to do that required active self-care. We can become stalled at this point and may need further inspiration. Remembering that we are Souls who are here on earth to advance toward enlightenment provided me with the inspiration that I needed to continue my healing journey.
I do not think we ever recover from a significant loss, but we can heal through integrating the experience into who we are. Transcending our loss will allow our Soul self to advance and our conscious, human self to come alive again, grow stronger and find peace.
The key to a renewed future life comes through connecting with our Higher Self and following our inner guidance. This will allow us to make the most of our remaining days on earth.
1 Newton Michael (1995) Journey of Souls, Llewellyn Worldwide, Woodbury, MN
