Gift Or Lesson? How Your Past Lives Impact Your Present
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The theory of reincarnation suggests we are souls who are reborn over many times in a quest to raise our energetic vibration. You might notice patterns repeat in your life — fears, lessons, relationships, preferences — all of these can relate to patterns not only in your present, but also in your past lives, which can be a rich source of information if you choose to look there.
Before each lifetime, you select the gifts and lessons you are to receive. Your soul is returning to Earth to face challenges, such as being pulled back into old patterns from previous lifetimes in order to heal them. Your soul chooses this specific existence to learn, grow, and thrive. Understanding these patterns in your present lifetime will help speed your soul along its way.
Practicing Selflessness
The pattern of selflessness can come forward in our lives in a variety of ways, such as being kind, donating time and energy to local charities, becoming an activist, or a war hero. A young woman in this lifetime has a great affinity for children, from ski instructing to camp counseling to caregiving to teaching. She discovers in a past life she lived in Russia during a time of extreme hostility. When others didn’t know if they might be arrested, taken away, or their families murdered, she offered scared parents who wanted to protect their children a way to escape into neighboring countries. She had many successful escapes, bringing the children to wherever they would be safest, striking up friendships with guards or soldiers, who let slip if danger was approaching. Just as these children grew up and started successful families of their own due to the selflessness of one person, countless others in this present life will thrive as this soul continues to raise its energetic vibration of the selflessness pattern.
Addiction To Gambling
Gambling is a common pattern through many lives. Gambling has been a part of human history for millennia, so it’s easy to see how in a past life one might have passed away destitute, alone, and broken from a lifetime of gambling every penny, and ignoring the world and lessons to learn. Henry finally admitted he was addicted to gambling and couldn’t stop when his wife gave him an ultimatum: seek help or she would leave with their children. He started attending a 12-step program, going five days a week, and meeting his mentor Sam twice a week, often with calls past midnight.
At the urging of a fellow 12-stepper Henry also decided to delve into his past lives. There he discovered a pattern of gambling, losing and chasing the adrenaline rush, first as a Roman gladiator, then in Paris, and even as the unlikely female owner of a gambling emporium during the Gold Rush in San Francisco, who eventually was shot dead over a disagreement. Through hard work, soul searching, and persistence, Henry discovered how this pattern had followed him like a shadow of tragedy through many lifetimes. Only through the love and support of his family, friends and mentor, as well his own belief he could succeed after witnessing so many lifetimes of failure did he finally find the willpower to overcome his addiction.
The Pain Of Self-Loathing
Pain of an unknown origin may be the result of a past life action that requires you to heal patterns in the present to experience pain relief. For all of her adult life, Anne has lived with a piercing pain in her right calf, even causing her to grimace at times when she walks for any distance. Despites dozens of tests, her doctors find no source for the pain.
Over time, Anne begins to reflect on her life more deeply for a possible spiritual or emotional source of the pain. She discovers a past life as a native in South America at the time when the Conquistadors arrived and she traveled as a scout to meet them. At first, they were fascinating — a new language, new people, new technologies — but it was quickly apparent they were interested only in finding hidden gold. Attempting to return home to warn her community, she is shot through the leg and left to die.
It’s not until she takes the time to put herself first and reflect on her life that she discovers a pattern of self-loathing for failing to forgive herself for being reckless or even ignorant in this lifetime as well as in the past, and unintentionally causing harm to others. Over time as she learns to forgive herself, the pain begins to dissipate, but she discovers it starts right up again when she falls back into her negative self-loathing state. She must continually remind herself you are what you make of yourself; however, at your core you are always a strong, brilliant soul raising itself to ever greater heights.
Precious Pets
Many people wonder if animals also follow us through our lifetimes. This has certainly been the case with my two most beloved pets: Shang a 50-pound chow chow, and Starry, a 5-pound Persian cat. Shang protected me from a violent family as a child, facing me all night sleeping on the floor in my bedroom. When I returned on the weekends from my father’s house, battered and bruised from his beatings, Shang would press lightly against my wounds, and lick at the tears, doing his best to comfort me. He never let me forget I was loved unconditionally.
Starry came into my adult life long after Shang was gone from Earth, but just like Shang, sleeps facing me in my room at night. Before my TAVR heart surgery, she would lay on my chest, purring and crossing her two tiny paws, doing her best to comfort and protect me. After my surgery, she was with me every step of the way, literally, as I pushed her over 500 miles in her little blue stroller throughout our neighborhood during my recovery. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no physical therapy available during my healing journey, and so, thanks to her, I was able to successfully heal.
It was easy for me to understand how Shang and Starry were the same soul in this life. I addition to my intense love for each one, they have nearly the same amber coloring and even get attention in the same way — by raising their paws. However, it also helped me identify this same soul in other lives as well. In one African lifetime, I had been abandoned by my family due to being perceived as a burden with my cleft palate. A pride of lions — with the same amber gold colorings of Shang and Starry — found me after I had crawled into their den. A lioness at the time had just given birth and they raised me and protected me. One of the cubs and I became incredibly close, to the point I became accepted by the lions, living to the age of 29.
This particular soul has offered me protection, unconditional love, and companionship with an irreplaceable bond that has transcended time. It’s not just our human companions, but animal souls as well, we travel with throughout this and our many lifetimes returning to Earth in our quest to raise our energetic vibration.
Donna Hartley is an international inspirational speaker and renowned past life reader for over three decades. She has shared her compelling story on NBC, ABC, PBS, in The New York Times, and is the author of the Fire Up book series. Visit www.donnahartley.com. Meet Donna in person at the Natural Living Expo in Marlborough, MA on November 11 -12, 2023, at booth #5. Don’t miss “Are Your Past Lives Living in Your Present Life?” at 9:30 AM on Saturday!
