the seasons, from fort photo on flickr
Have you ever thought about the rhythm in your life events? No matter how many years you have lived, there is a rhythm or a cycle to the events in your life. Just as the Earth changes through the seasons, we change as we move through the seasons of our lives. Looking at our lives very simply, we see that events happen and then we experience emotions related to those events. We respond to these emotions and then another event happens. And then we respond to another set of events and emotions and on and on. After a while some of you may notice that you no longer respond to similar life situations the same as you did before - and that’s called transformation.
Feeling our emotions as they come through us is a crucial part of learning to enjoy our own transformation. How you choose to experience your emotions is an expression of your inner essence, the whole of your life experience, and the transformations you have been through. Your life’s journey, what you have learned in your environment from your parents, teachers, mentors, and culture, the insights you’ve had, the emotions you’ve felt, the choices you’ve made, and the changes you’ve been through – all of these things combine with the essence you were born with and lead you to express yourself in each moment. Essence + Experience + Transformation = You 
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Everything in life is energy. Physical matter, such as our bodies, is made up of energy – it’s just energy vibrating (or moving) slowly enough for us to easily see it and feel it. Likewise, our emotions are also energy. E-motions are energy in-motion. We all learn in school that you cannot destroy energy, of course. You can only transform it. Life is about moving energy, energy-in-motion. The basic way to process life-energy is to connect to the energy moving through you, feel the emotions it presents, transform it, and move on – and basically that’s our life. We feel, we change and we transform – and then we do it all over again. The further we choose to go down this path, the more we learn about ourselves and the more deeply connected we are to our heart’s true purpose.
happy baby from sean dreilinger at flickr
The more we resist this process of change, the more pain we feel. The more we embrace it, the more we feel joy, happiness and peace. One of the basic definitions of stress is that it is simply resistance to change. We could also call it resistance to the energy in our emotions. Resisting the process of personal transformation, or just not being aware of it or feeling overwhelmed by it is what brings the suffering of stress and anxiety into our experience. The more you practice this process of transforming energy, the better you become at it. You can master this! One of our missions here on earth is to become masters of our own transformation. All of the world’s spiritual traditions lead us down the path of change and personal transformation. None of them say it’s an easy path necessarily, but they do all seem to point to it as the only way to true happiness and re-union with Spirit or the God within all of us. That Source within us is also the true source of bliss in our everyday lives. The more you embrace your own transformation, the more you connect with that powerful, joyful Source within you.