As long as you see the challenges of your life–even the smallest difficulty–as a problem you will suffer. The only thing that makes you suffer is your perception about the event, not the event itself. Nothing on the outside can make you suffer; suffering begins from within. All challenges can bring you closer to God or take you further away. The choice is yours based on your perception. Change your perception from problem to opportunity and this will change your experience.

Even if another person says something hurtful to you, you do not have to get upset; recognize these hurtful words come from someone who is focusing on their problems and is suffering. Their intention is not to hurt you, but to relieve their own suffering. Their unconscious act is the best that they can do in their present state.

If the suffering comes from an outside event, you must recognize that the point of this event is not to cause you pain or problems, but it has arrived to teach you something about yourself. This includes all events in our lives, from physical injury to emotional hurt and even the death of a loved one. Let me say this another way, there is and always will be opportunity in all of life’s experiences including the most tragic. In fact, our most tragic events present our greatest opportunity for change.

We still will experience sadness, grief, loss or other emotions, but in that moment when we have the clarity to look for opportunity, our life begins to flow again. We can lose ourselves in our problems or we can find ourselves through our problems by looking for the doorway called opportunity. With this change from problem to opportunity, we once again become congruent with the creative energy of the universe.