A recent conversation with a friend had me thinking – does everything actually happen for a reason?
It would be lovely if there was a higher power at work…laying out our path exactly in the direction we should be moving.
At times, thinking “everything happens for a reason” can be comforting. It can give us a sense of surety in how our lives our unfolding.
However, thinking “everything happens for a reason” can also feel discouraging. It makes us try to justify why terrible things happen.
Personally, I believe thinking “everything happens for a reason” comes from hindsight being 20/20. Looking back on our lives and assigning a reason to why things happened the way they did is part of the coping process. With that coping comes the ability to move forward with a different perspective.
Nonetheless, thinking “everything happens for a reason” likely comes from a combination of two things – half being a higher power laying out our path, and the other half being our ability to cope with the inevitable changes in our lives.
In many ways, thinking “everything happens for a reason” can be a catalyst for coping. Instead of ruminating over how things have played out, believing that everyone and everything in our life has served some sort of purpose can be reassuring.
Here’s a few examples:
“If me and my ex-partner never broke up, I never would have met my current partner.”
“If I would have been hired at that one company, I never realized I wanted to work in marketing instead.”
Whatever your reasons are, thinking “everything happens for a reason” is a valid – and important – way to accept what is in our past, settle into the present moment, and embrace the future.
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