Recognizing Life Themes
How Challenges Direct Our Growth
August 13, 2024
Issue #239
Hello there!
Exciting Announcement!
Starting August 12, 2024, my holistic psychiatry practice will be located in a beautiful, new building in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah.
I'm looking forward to the many advantages my new place offers. What this move will mean in just one word: accessibility.
First, for those who are flying out to meet me for their initial evaluations, my new office will be less than ten minutes from the Salt Lake City International airport. Second, public transportation nearby will allow those without cars to reach me with ease. And third, an abundance of restaurants and hotels within walking distance provide greater ease for out-of-town visitors.
Personally, I'm excited to explore many fun places nearby while continuing to nurture my holistic psychiatry practice. Once I have settled into my new space, I look forward to spending more quality time working on my book.
Now, onward to today's topic!
This week, I want to share something that I've found surprisingly helpful to my patients that goes beyond looking for disease patterns at the physical level.
Recognizing a patient's life theme can go a long way towards healing as well.
What are life themes? How do we recognize them? And how can we use our insights to further our healing process? Read on to find out!
Have a wonderful week.
Recognizing Life Themes
How Challenges Direct Our Growth
Life is like taking a short vacation to a foreign country. What do you want to experience and see while you're here that you have never experienced or seen before? What kind of adventures do you want to have during your brief stay?
Imagine coming from a country where the weather is always a balmy, sunny 70 degrees. Food and friendships flow abundantly through your peaceful days. You are free to enjoy anything and any time that you want. No one in this country suffers at all, ever.
When you go on a vacation from such a place, do you want more of the same, or do you seek something different to put a little spice into your life? Perhaps you may be curious and eager to expand your worldview in ways you've never imagined possible. What would you put on your vacation agenda?
This vacation agenda is like your life theme. You are here to see and experience things that expand your mind and that you want to bring with you when you leave.
For example, a life theme could be "creative freedom" with a sub-theme of "meeting responsibilities." Or, it could be "overcoming physical debility" and "self-empowerment."
What areas of growth do you seek? What have you been curious about?
A better understanding of loneliness or scarcity? Developing a greater appreciation, compassion, and empathy for others? Learning how to transform physical debility to health? Understanding the many faces of limitation? Broadening the boundaries of freedom?
Your life experiences on this short vacation will unfold as your life theme based on the growth you seek. Usually, this means that you will encounter, soon after arrival, challenges that repeatedly direct your attention to these areas in life.
Being the creator that you are, these challenges trigger your desire to transform them to a higher state of being, and in the process, your creative muscles will grow and expand.
How do you recognize a life theme or even a sub-theme? The best way is to discern a repetitive pattern to the challenges you face. Perhaps your life/career focuses on addressing these challenges.
Rather than avoiding these challenges or negatively judging yourself for having them, think of these challenges as central to why you chose this vacation spot. Without these challenges, life (which needs to move, flow, and change to be life) would be unendingly, interminably, and blissfully the same.
You may not be happy dealing with life's challenges, but your (spiritual) Self values them. They bring spice to life and stimulate growth. These challenges direct your attention, intention, and motivation toward transforming them so that you can leave wiser, stronger, and better than ever.
Well, at least, that is the desired outcome.
What if you refuse to learn or grow? What if you get overwhelmed by these challenges and give up or give in? What if you can't overcome the challenges and remain stagnant and stuck?
Life is short. You'll move on and out of this brief vacation, and you'll have time afterward to reflect and learn from your reflections. Later, you can plan another vacation to another foreign land, if you want.
The thing to do now is to embrace your life theme and do the best you can. You won't know who you can be without pushing the boundaries of what you can creatively transform.
You are a creator. Life is your sandbox (or roller coaster). Your life theme is what you've come here to experience. And your challenges guide you to the creative work that remains during your vacation away from home.
(Last week, I posted the podcast below on creating financial abundance and fulfilling relationships. I love this healing meditation. It is so powerful! I hope you'll take the time to listen to it if you haven't done so already. See below for the links.)
Click here to listen to the podcast episode
Click here to watch the YouTube Episode
Creating abundance may be easier than you think when we use energy healing techniques to help us bring abundance into our lives. This recording was created for my patients and now it's freely available to you as well.
I think we all need a little more abundance in our lives, don't you?
The root of scarcity comes from feeling that we are “not enough.” Healing this belief is at the root of transforming patterns in our lives that lead us back to not having enough.
To enjoy abundance, our beliefs need to change; we need to feel deeply that we are more than enough.
I hope that as you enjoy this podcast that you will be able to create and be aligned with the power of abundance within you.
I hope you'll find this energy healing approach helpful!
How to Reach Alice W. Lee, MD:
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For more about Dr. Alice W. Lee, please visit:
Website: www.holisticpsychiatrist.com
More stories and insights: Holistic Articles
YouTube: The Holistic Psychiatrist
To schedule consultations or appointments, call Dr. Lee's office at 240-437-7600
Dr. Lee has office locations in Lehi, Utah, and Yonkers, New York.
The content provided by this podcast is for informational purposes only and has not been approved by the U.S. FDA. This podcast is not intended to provide personal medical advice, which should be obtained from a medical professional.