Have We Met Somewhere Before?

There are times when you meet up with someone in this life who at the outset seems so familiar, even though he or she is a perfect stranger, and you might even ask, “Have we met somewhere before?” What is going when you feel so strongly that you know this person?

have we met somewhere before?

Logically, you know you have never crossed paths with this person, but still, there is the strange and undeniable familiarity or connection.

On one side of it, this phenomenon is the idea that this person reminds you of someone with whom you’ve shared a connection in the past and you can project those very same feelings on a perfect stranger who is similar enough to trigger your latent emotional feelings.

This is common when we’ve loved someone who is not present in our life at the moment. A friend, a family member, a teacher, mentor, or someone we admired from afar. Maybe they moved away, or you just ended up on different journeys and drifted apart, or they may have passed on. It may have been long ago enough that you may not even remember them consciously.

Still, there’s a part of you that misses them, and your subconscious triggers all that connection and projects it on someone. And, Bam! There you are. This is a blessing because it honors the original person, the effect he or she had on your life, you go right back into that state and it feels very good, but it’s a little socially awkward.

Then, there’s the “other side” of the have-we-met-before phenomenon.

I don’t know how you feel about all this, but buckle-up buttercup because we’re goin’ for a ride…

There are a great many “other reasons” you feel like you may have met this person before, and the likelihood that you may know this person deeply and/or intimately from beyond your present experience.

“Oh, no, not the, ‘I know you from a past-life,’ thing!”

Yes, it sounds so romantically trite, nonetheless, this is a real thing. The higher part of you, remembers experiences from lives you’ve lived before, and it recognizes those with whom you’ve shared these experiences with.

Just like this life, past lives have had both good and bad experiences, so the feelings that you feel for this person might not be good. This person may have been connected to a highly-charged tragic event in a past life and those negative feelings are breaking through in this reality.

If you have met before in a previous life, there’s a good chance that you may have unfinished business to tend to in this go-round.

How do you know if you know someone from a past life?

First, there is the knowingness of recognition, with deep emotional impact, followed by an initial (albeit you might think of it as silly) idea that pops into your head, indicating you must have known them in a past life. If you’ve been well-socially-programmed, you quickly discard the idea of having a past-life connection because that would be ridiculous.

When reuniting with someone from a past-life, you feel this deep connection which goes beyond any logical explanation because you feel as if you’ve met a long-lost friend, someone, you cared deeply for but haven’t seen in years. This overwhelming flood of emotion could come accompanied by tears, extreme joy, and/or a compulsion to embrace because it has been a long time, at least one lifetime since you’ve been together.

They say that the eyes are the window to the soul, and you are likely to understand the meaning of this when you look into the eyes of someone you’ve shared adventures with in a past life. There is an uncanny instant knowingness and trust that you have shared experiences and you get a feeling, if not a glimpse, of this feeling of shared experiences. This shared trust allows you to drop human pretenses and feel like you can be open and honest with this person because you share this vast history with him or her.

As you reconnect with this person, you may find that you both have particular fascinations about geographic locations around the world and specific time periods. It’s likely that you have shared experiences in these locations in a past life. Your souls remember, even if you’re unable to consciously remember in this life.

As you get to know your fellow traveler (which happens very rapidly, if you’ve traveled together before) you realize that you understand, trust, and know each other more deeply than other people you have met in just this present life.

When you interact and spend time in each other’s presence time seems not to exists, you can share and chat with each other for what seems like minutes when hours may have slipped by because you’re more deeply connected outside the timeline of this life.

Even though you may be miles apart, the connection persists without any degradation due to time and space, and when you are able to reconnect again, it is as no time has passed and you just pick up right where you left off.

And who knows, you may even be a part of the same Cosmic Speakeasy, where you and a number of other soul mates, rendezvous and commiserate in between lives.

Just saying.

What is the Best Spiritual Journey?

As a spiritual coach, people often ask me, “What is the best spiritual journey?” Compassionately translated, it might read, What religion, brand-of-thought, or style of living might be the best path to follow?

If you’ve asked that question, you have a way to go, yet.

Think about your spiritual journey just as you would any other trip you might take. Let’s say you’re in Seattle and you want to go to New York. There are so many roads which can be travelled between those two locations, the question is how do you want to get there?

Many people want the fast-track, so they stay to the highways and get there as quickly as possible, maybe staying the night in one or two locations along the way, some driving straight through, while others take an RV and as many side roads as possible, enjoying the scenic route.

Of course, you can plan and execute your own spiritual journey any way that is the best for you. We’re all different and we all experience our lives in unique and different ways (at least we should). So, to ask anyone what is the best path to take doesn’t really make any sense.

You can ask me about the path that I took, or you could study the path that someone else took, but you must take your own path, even risk creating a new trail through terrain which may not have been travelled before (or lately).

Your spiritual journey is not a race, nor a competition, and you never reach a finish line. There will be monumental moments when you feel like you’ve reached the pinnacle, and these moments are to be savored and celebrated. After a moment of settling into this new, expanded energy, you will see another peak in the horizon.

Or, you can find a comfortable place and settle in for the remainder of your years, if that is what is best for you.

There is no right way. There is no wrong way. There is only your way, and your way will be unlike anyone else’s way.

Sure, you can receive input from others, query them, and see what piques your interest, dabble in a particular thought pattern or belief system for a while to see how it resonates with you. There is no harm in that. Who knows, it may lead to a major unexpected leg of your journey.

And don’t be afraid of changing your destination, or taking trips along the way that may seem like they’re taking you in a different direction. All your trips along your journey add to the quality of this life.

There may be treacherous terrain to be crossed, you may meet challenge, drama, and pain along the way. You are likely to encounter situations and circumstances which you could not have anticipated or prepared for. Not to worry. No mistakes can be made, as long as you keep moving.

There is no judgment for you here.

You might find yourself in Orlando, when you originally thought you were headed to New York, but your journey will have been rich and full of life, and you will have tales to tell. Tales which will have eager eyes trained on you as you tell of your travels around the campfire, eager to hear each and every detail.

Most people don’t get to live a life like the life you are living.

What is the best spiritual journey?

You are a spiritual being, on a spiritual journey and your journey is the best spiritual journey for you.

You are your spiritual journey.

(And there is no way you can do it wrong.)

 

Where Are You On the Bus?

Ever feel like life’s pushing you out into the street in front of a moving bus? There’s one sure way to see that doesn’t happen to you and that’s to get off the street and get behind the wheel of the bus. If you’re feeling like life’s giving you the runaround, it’s because you’re not in the driver’s seat.

You might think, “Okay, I’ll drive the bus.” So you get behind the wheel and at the first stop light, you get distracted by someone or something at the intersection and go to check it out, before you know it your bus takes off without you. It takes a certain amount of attention and diligence to stay behind the wheel of the bus. Driving your bus is impossible if you can’t stay in the driver’s seat most of the time. If you can’t do that, the best you can ever hope to be is a passenger.

As most of us are passengers, someone else is doing the driving and we just go along with wherever we go or whatever happens. If bored of the ride, we could opt to get off the bus and look for a different bus. In this case you may have control of which bus your on, but not as much control as you might have being the driver.

It can be intimidating, if you’ve never driven you bus before. I think most of us wonder if we’re going to be any good at driving the bus once we get in the driver’s seat. It’s okay. Even many of us who spend a lot of time in the driver’s seat, like to take a break and let someone do the driving for a while, and a few are driving instructors.

If you’re upset about the journey your bus is on, feeling bad about it, complaining about it, accusing others of changing up the trip, or waiting too long at a particular stop along the way, is not going to change a thing. If you are feeling negative emotions about your journey, it’s a clear indication that you’re stuck in the back of the bus. It’s not assigned seating. You sat in the seat you’re in, so you best stop moping about it and start moving forward in the bus at the next stop.

As you move closer to the front of the bus, you don’t even have to be the driver, and you can get the advantage of seeing things that are coming up. You are a lot more excited about your journey and its potentials from this vantage point. You feel way better than being in the back of the bus, where you can’t really see anything but the other passengers in front of you and what your bus is passing.

If you’re not feeling so good about your journey, the first thing to do is to take a look at where you are on the bus and at the next opportunity move. Raise your awareness and look at your journey from a different perspective. That may be all you need to feel so much better about your journey, but I have to warn you, the allure of the driver’s seat is much greater from the front seats of the bus.

You can do a pretty good job of discerning where someone sits on the bus. Just go into a restaurant where a tour bus is parked outside and walk around the tables eavesdropping on each table. You will find people grouped together talking among themselves about their journey. The ones from the front of the bus are focused on all the good and exciting things, while the groups from the back of the bus are complaining and not very happy.

If you’re stuck in the, “Woe is me,” attitude, it’s hard to expect anything better. But once you’ve made the decision to change your position on the bus, your attention is looking forward on the bus, looking for a better seat at the next stop, not focused on you dismal seat.

Sure, stuff happens, and you find yourself sandwiched between a less than fragrant passenger and another one who is trying to sell you something. Just play along, while keeping your attention focused on a better position in the bus. Be polite, but do not fully engage in an intense battle of wits with either of these people. If you fully engage your attention and begin defending your position, you’ll be surprised when you notice that you’ve spent our efforts arguing (or feeling bad about being stuck here, or just pretending to be asleep) through several stops, missing opportunities to shift your position and moving to a better seat.

This works in all stations of life. You might be stuck in a seat in a college class, and suddenly decide you no longer want to feel like a rat in a cage anymore. Even with the awareness that your family and friends might like your decision to dropout and jump off at the next stop. You’re ready to start driving your own bus. That’s what one young man did and he was a billionaire by the time he was 31. That was his name? Oh, yeah, Bill Gates. You may have heard of him.

There are many stories of regular people, just like you and me, who were stuck on a bus but once it occurred to them there might be a better way, decided to start looking at ways to get behind the wheel.

Isn’t it time, now, for you to get behind the wheel, or at least think about changing seats?