There is a part of each of us that deliberately leads us into situations we aren't going to like. It's a phenomenon we all experience from time to time—and for some of us it's a pretty regular occurrence. We find ourselves getting out of one mess only to plunge into another.

Is this a bad thing? Well, your ego will tell you it's a bad thing. Yet you still won't be able to stop yourself being drawn into these unpleasant, if not extremely painful, situations.

You see, there's a part of us that's attuned to what we really need in our life, not what our ego tells us we need. This aspect of us knows exactly which situations are required for our growth at any given time.

In this Journey into Higher Consciousness, we call this dimension of ourselves the inner grower.

An insightful spiritual teacher many centuries ago described a kind of battle going on inside himself. A part of him really resisted what was happening in his external circumstances, while another part of him had a hunch that at some level all of this had to be if he was going to grow in consciousness—if he was going to "show up" in his life as the magnificent person he sensed himself to be in his essence.

Translating essence into existence is an experiential process. It can't be done by thinking ourselves into a new way of being. A lot of us think we can improve our lives by improving out thoughts, but that's all just part of the egoic structure of the false self. The ego is always happy to see us engage in "self-improvement." It likes improved versions of itself.

Mental activity, rather than transforming us in a permanent way, tends to block the process. We make some measure of improvement in our life, which causes us to feel egoically comfortable with ourselves. But authentic, substantive, lasting change eludes us.

Whenever we become caught up in thought and the false paths it leads us down, life has to deliver us a painful blow to direct our attention back to what's going on at our heart level, which is where all real growth springs from.

Some of the situations we get ourselves into—and we use the expression "get ourselves into deliberately, because they are intentional on our part even though we may not be aware of this fact—feel so uncomfortable that we might even begin to believe that we are a hopeless failure. How could we possibly have made such a mess of our life? How could we be so foolish as to end up in such a horrific situation?

What might feel foolish to the ego is our inner grower's wonderful wisdom. At all times, no matter how bad things get, we are in the hands of a Master Potter: our own experience of the universal divine consciousness, traditionally spoken of as "the holy spirit."

Nothing is going wrong at such times. Rather, it's like the story of two brothers a couple of thousand years ago, one of whom demanded his inheritance from his father then took off to waste it for the next several years. After he had spent up and all his carousing so-called "friends" had deserted him, the story says "he came to himself." He realized how he had betrayed his true self, forsaken his true desires. This insight became the makings of him.

Our inner grower is willing to escort us all the way into the pig pen if this is what it takes to shock us out of our egoic mindset and into our heart, where our essence resides in seed form and awaits the chance to grow and blossom.

Authenticity is the goal of our inner grower. It seeks to draw out that deep part of us that's real—the person we truly are, beneath all the layers of learned behavior that are in the final analysis nothing more than an act we put on.

Step back from yourself in any situation you find yourself in, and you can actually watch yourself putting on an act. You can observe yourself posturing, gesturing, talking, emoting in ways that aren't really you at all!

The inner grower's task is to deliver us into situations in which we will be forced to see the split that exists in all of us to varying degrees—the difference between the person we essentially are and the person we act as though we are.

So no matter what you are experiencing, no matter how seemingly intolerable the pain, it truly is all good because it's all God. At such times, we are in the hands of the divine Presence that's our true being, as it seeks to crack open the eggshell of our ego so that the authentic life within can emerge.

Next week, we'll look at how we can best respond to the painful situations our inner grower has to lead us into in order to awaken us. How can we maximize the redemptive potential of such situations, so that we move forward on our journey into higher consciousness?

The following week, we'll discover that the journey doesn't have to be painful—that our inner grower actually longs for our experience to become asset-based instead of deficit-based.

By asset-based, we mean building on the solid foundation of our essence, moving forward creatively, showing up in our magnificence more and more.

In contrast, the deficit-based growing most of us do for some time as we go on our journey involves waking up to how dysfunctional and destructive our behavior is. It's focus is undoing our unconsciousness, instead of conscious creating.

Opportunity for Self-inquiry and Sharing:

A.  Bring to your awareness a time when you got into a mess that was extremely unpleasant. How did this situation serve to awaken you to the fact you weren't being true to yourself but were actually betraying your true being?

B.  What situation in your life currently does your inner grower have you in that feels uncomfortable? Have you been able to identify what your inner grower is seeking to awaken you to?