Struggle shows up in many ways and plays a crucial role in personal growth, societal progress, and spiritual development. It builds resilience, character, and ultimately shapes who you are.

When you struggle, it can be a powerful motivator, prompting you to adapt, learn, and strive for improvement. Facing challenges can also strengthen relationships and produce empathy.

But is it always required? Some people grow through joy, creativity, and inspiration instead of hardship. Let’s look at the purpose of struggle in three areas of life.

Character Development: Struggle forces us to confront difficult emotions, overcome obstacles, and develop persistence.

Learning and Adaptation: By navigating challenges, we learn valuable lessons and problem-solving skills.

Self-Awareness: Struggle reveals our strengths, weaknesses, and areas we need to grow.

Defining Values: Hardship clarifies what truly matters to us.

Appreciating Success: Difficulties make us more grateful for life’s positive moments.

Innovation and Change: Societal struggles often spark movements and scientific breakthroughs.

Motivating Action: Hardship can highlight injustices and inspire people to work toward a better world.

Building Solidarity: Shared experiences create connection and collective strength. This is what can bring people together for a common cause.

Finding Meaning: Struggle can spark reflection on life’s purpose.

Strengthening Faith: For some, adversity deepens trust in a higher power.

Spiritual Growth: Struggle can open the heart to compassion and empathy.

Living Authentically: It often pushes us to embrace our true selves.

Ultimately, struggle is an inherent part of being human. While painful, it’s also a powerful force for growth and meaning. As Jo Boaler, British educator and author of Limitless Mind, explains:

“We cannot achieve anything creative without being comfortable with mistakes and struggle—and we should all embrace times of struggle, knowing they are helping our brains. When we adopt a limitless perspective, approaching different jobs and conversations with a comfort with uncertainty and struggle, with a willingness to learn from others and with a flexible approach to problems, outcomes improve—in learning and in life.”

That’s the beauty and power of group work. Nothing else like it if you ask me. The connection to the Universe is amazing when we work together, because the energy is amplified significantly.

Here’s where I want to pause for a moment and clarify. Struggle and suffering are not the same thing. Struggle can be short-term—it’s the effort, the push, the challenge.

Suffering, on the other hand, is often prolonged. It’s the ongoing pain, heaviness, or despair felt when you resist what is happening or attach to the story of the struggle. In many ways, suffering is struggle without acceptance.

Struggle may sharpen you, but suffering can wear you down if you stay stuck in it.

In my monthly Intuitive and Akashic Records group, one member asked how today’s suffering in the world impacts collective consciousness. This group has been working together for a couple of years to do intuitive work, which amplifies the energy significantly. That means we can access higher information for better answers,

Before diving into that, I’ve been curious about why so many people feel the world is in such a dreadful state. Is it really worse now than in other periods in history?

I asked AI to compare different historical periods. It ranked Black Plague in the 1400s as the worst—when 30–60% of Europe’s population died! Next came WWII certainly creating a lack of stability across the globe.

It also pointed out something I hadn’t considered. One thing that makes today feel so much worse than it might really be is the instant access to global news and social media. Every tragedy, act of violence, and natural disaster is broadcast immediately.

Our ancestors didn’t carry this weight of the world the way we do today. No wonder your nervous system feels maxed out!

Back to the group session. Here are the messages that came through to answer the question about suffering and the collective.

My message: “Suffering isn’t required for growth. But resistance can create circumstances where suffering shows up as the push needed to evolve. Many people need that catalyst and your higher self will orchestrate that if it’s needed to get you moving.”

Kay’s message: “Yes, there is suffering and it adds up in the collective. However, be concerned with the self and not the collective. Too much time focusing on others or the collective becomes a distraction from your own personal growth. It’s better to focus yourself.”

Well you can let that free you up from worrying about the world and the collective consciousness!

Bee’s message: Lastly, I want to share what Bee got as a message. Hold onto your seat because this communication blew me away!

“There are many factors to humanity’s collective growth and awakening. Each person evolves in their own time/timeline. There is tremendous growth right now if you could only see it.

The low vibe or darkness keeps you at bay, so you’re suppressed to knowing there is so much light in the world, you would consider it blinding!

Raise your vibration. Raise your awareness to your abilities to go within. Step out of the matrix and you will see not only how you have evolved, but also how the planet as a whole has as well. Reconnect with nature and all that is your light shines brightly.”

OMG the light on earth is blinding! Imagine that.

I’ve mentioned before how Kryon, channeled by Lee Carol, said about 10 years ago that earth had achieved 26% light and what good news that was. According to Kryon, we only needed 25% light to handle the darkness in the world.  Imagine what the percentage is now if spirit considers it to be blinding!

Really take that in for a moment and let it sink into your consciousness. There is so much light that if you could see it, it would appear blinding. In other words nothing else would be visible except the light.

In addition, since you are a part of everything and everything is a part of you, that means your light is blinding too!

Of course, after these big revelations, I still find myself seesawing with personal struggles. Recently I saw article about how to manifest when you don’t know what you want. It was a good reminder that growth isn’t always clear-cut. I ended up writing my own affirmation, inspired by the article and the writer’s affirmation, as well as these ideas on struggle and growth.

“I surrender to this transformation of my life now and am moving to my next phase that’s fun, synchronistic, and so exciting. I trust the Universe and feel supported!”

Could that affirmation work for you too? I purposely included fun and excitement, that I may learn through joy and creativity vs. struggling.

If you find yourself struggling or suffering, pause and ask, “Am I struggling productively, or am I suffering unnecessarily?”

Here are some suggestions to shift out of struggling and suffering:

If you’re overwhelmed by the world’s pain, do what you can to let those thoughts float by. This is a place where distracting yourself is productive! Do something creative, play, sing, dance, but don’t allow yourself to sink into despair.

History shows humanity has lived through far worse than today’s corrupt world leaders and natural disasters.

Not always. Growth will always ask something of you, but suffering and struggling are not always a must. You can meet change through joy, creativity, and flow just as much as through hardship.

The choice is how you engage with life’s challenges and your attitude toward growth. Embrace the changes, and you’ll struggle and suffer a whole lot less.

xoxo,

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