Discouragement, frustration and lack of meaning can be the order of the day when you feel like you’ve hit a directional “wall” in life.
On these kinds of days, no matter how hard you try to maintain a hopeful perspective, you just want the challenges to go away. After all, what’s it all for?
Why are there so many challenges in life? Why does life sometimes feel so difficult and well, so damn hard?
A few years ago, I stood at my own directional “wall”. I was deep into the abyss of self-pity constantly asking, “Why me? What have I done to deserve this?”
By asking questions that perpetuated my role as the victim, it prolonged my state of helplessness.
As the feelings of helpless ensued and seemed to have no plan (whatsoever) to leave my life, I began a quiet (and much needed) journey inward. Over the course of several years, I devoted myself to emotional healing and read more than 100 books related to spiritual growth.
Your Soul’s Plan, by Robert Schwartz, was one of the books.
According to Schwartz, there is another possibility for the challenges we all face. In 2003, Robert Schwartz was tired of searching for the deeper meaning of his life. After exhausting many avenues, the final push led Schwartz to have a consultation with a medium.
During the session, Schwartz was eager to understand the suffering he had experienced. He asked the medium to ask his guides about the major challenges he had faced.
The guides went on to explain that he had planned these challenges before birth — “not for the purpose of suffering, but for the growth that would result through the remembrance of what he had planned to do on earth.”
In an interview with Schwartz, we discuss pre-birth soul planning and the possibility of the higher purpose behind some of life’s biggest challenges:
BJB: What is the primary focus of your work?
RS: I became aware of the work of Michael Newton who wrote Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls. He was a hypnotist in the 90’s who pioneered what he called ‘Life Between Lives Regression’. It’s a form of hypnosis in which a portion of the client’s consciousness goes back to the non-physical realm.
A few years after Your Soul’s Plan (formerly known as Courageous Souls) came out, I took the training to offer between lives soul regression. This is now a major focus of my work.
BJB: Can you talk about the difference between the first book, Your Soul’s Plan (YSP) and the most recent book, Your Soul’s Gift (YSG)?
RS: In Your Soul’s Gift, I examine the pre-birth planning of some experiences that are more challenging, more traumatic and harder to believe and accept that somebody might actually plan them before birth.
There are chapters devoted to the pre-birth planning of rape and incest.
It was not comfortable for me to put those chapters in the book because there was a concern that people would not be able to wrap their minds around it, or that it might be misinterpreted as a ‘blame the victim’ kind of mentality, which it most certainly is not. I felt that I had a responsibility to present what I found in my research.
There’s also a chapter about the pre-birth planning we do with pets.
The story in the pet chapter is about Marcia, who plans to be a Dwarf. She knows before she comes into the body that this will be a very difficult experience, especially when she’s a child. She chooses animal companions for support who will love her unconditionally.
Animals are great teachers because they love unconditionally and they receive love unconditionally. They don’t push it way the way humans do.
There are many lessons we try to learn through things that we plan in our life. But when you drill it all down, it’s really about learning how to give and receive love.
BJB: Does each person make the choice to incarnate, or are some here for a reason other than their soul’s choice?
RS: From what I have seen, it’s always a choice on the soul level.
The personality, a portion of the soul’s energy, is informed as to what the life plan is. The majority of people agree to the plan because they can feel that it’s based on unconditional love and wisdom. There is a small percentage of souls who start to feel doubt or fear. If that happens, they are reassured by their guides that this plan is for the highest good. A small portion of those who continue to express doubt will have the plan revised.
BJB: Fear and self-doubt are so prevalent in this world. Does any of the doubt from the pre-birth planning session carry over and come in with the soul?
RS: I don’t know if all of the doubt is removed. I do know that enough of it is removed so that it’s always consensual. But to answer why self-doubt or doubt in general is so prevalent, I think that’s more of a function of the forgetfulness.
Once we’re in the body, we have self-induced amnesia so that we don’t remember we’re eternal souls or our lives on the other side; and because of the limitation of the five senses, the average person has no sensory input to tell them that there is a non-physical realm. This creates the illusion of separation in which we appear to be separate from each other, from
God and from the universe.
We appear to be this small individual in a hostile world.
BJB: So there is individual pre-birth soul planning and group soul planning?
RS: There are soul groups which consists of other souls who are at the same stage of evolution, meaning the same frequency or vibration. Members of a soul group will reincarnate with each other again and again playing every conceivable role for each other. We play the role of mother and daughter, father and son, best friends/enemies, even murderer and victim because they all lead to healing, growth and expansion. At the soul level, there is no judgment about any of the roles. They’re viewed as learning opportunities.
BJB: What about déjà vu, is this an experience of soul level recognition?
RS: Déjà vu can mean different things. Sometimes you were with them in a past life. Sometimes it’s a memory of a scene that was shown during a pre-birth planning session.
BJB: If the same scenario shows up in your life, why does the soul not recognize the same choice will lead to the same outcome?
RS: If you have a pattern in your life of a particular kind of challenge cycling back around, that occurs in increasingly intense form that is your soul really trying to get your attention. The situation will keep coming back until there is some conscious recognition of what the lesson is.
BJB: If you’re experiencing financial insecurity, would abundance be a virtue that your soul is working on?
RS: The virtues are qualities that are important to the soul. Abundance is a state external to the person which is created through vibration. I think in the case of financial struggles, the first two that come to mind are faith and trust. You have to work on this in a conscious way by saying to yourself, “Despite this situation of financial hardship, I choose consciously to believe that the universe is for me. I choose consciously to trust the universe, and have faith in myself and my guides.”
The more that you make a conscious choice at the vibration of trust and faith, that high frequency allows circumstances of abundance to come into your experience. Other virtues could be patience, acceptance and empathy for those in similar circumstance.
BJB: You write that the soul communicates with us through “loving impulses.” It is your free will choice if you will act upon the impulses. If you do not act upon these impulses will the unwanted circumstance return with greater intensity?
RS: Yes.
BJB: How do you know if your soul is accomplishing its purpose?
RS: The soul communicates with the personality also through aspirations and inspiration, feelings of excitement and joy.
These feelings are direct communication from your soul saying, “This is the path for you.”
Making decisions based upon fear is something that will pull a person off their path.
However, in a larger cosmic sense, you could say it’s never really possible to be off of your path because your soul knows that will also be a learning opportunity. “Everything is perfectly, imperfect.”
BJB: What would you say to those individuals who are extremely disheartened with the state of the world?
RS: I would say, place yourself at the vibration of whatever you attend to.
If you are energetically sensitive, be your own filter and attend mostly to things that inspire you. Sign up for newsletters that alert you to the millions of acts of kindness that are happening in the world. The more you shift your attention to those things, the feelings of disheartenment will lift.
BJB: What is the role of prayer?
RS: I think the key to prayer is to be in touch with the feeling that prompts the prayer. There are only two emotions, fear and love.
When you pray out of fear, you’re sending energy of fear out into the universe and energetically you’re solidifying the fear in the world. But if you’re praying out of love, then prayer can be very healing and powerful.
According to Schwartz, “My purpose in writing this book is not to persuade you of the absolute reality of pre-birth planning, but rather to offer in a spirit of helpfulness, an idea that has been profoundly helpful to me.”
“I ask only that you consider its possibility.”
“You need only ask, “What if? What if I really did plan this experience before I was born? Why might I have done that?” Simply asking these questions gives new meaning to life challenges and launches a journey of self-discovery.”
For more information on Robert Schwartz or Your Soul’s Gift, you can log onto YourSoulsPlan.com.