We’ve all had the experience in our lives of feeling on top of the world. These mountain top moments provide us clarity, an expansive view of the horizon ahead and make us feel that we are on the right track. These are moments we love to savor. We relish the sweet sensation that comes from the experience that life is falling perfectly into place.

The valley experiences can be more disconcerting for us to navigate. From the valley, our view is often obstructed and we can’t tell which path will take us to the destination we are seeking. Sometimes we wander around aimlessly just trying to find our way. There are dead ends, forks in the road and detour signs all adding to our confusion and disorientation. We just want to get back on top of the mountain and restore order and clarity to our lives, but we’re not sure how to get there.

This is the pattern of our human experience. It is the design and destiny of our soul’s evolution to travel the valleys and mountain tops while gaining valuable tools and knowledge along the way. As we revisit the valley, we remember what strengths, assets and discoveries we made during our last visit and utilize those skills to make our journey less struggle and more surrender.

What I have personally found most challenging about the valley experience is that there is typically a pattern or an old way of being that is dying away and yet the new way of being is not yet established. It can often be a confusing and bewildering experience. We knew how to react, behave and live as the person we used to be, but who are we now without those old patterns, behaviors or relationships? It can feel like we are fumbling around in the dark.

With time, patience and commitment to our own unfolding we will begin to discover how it looks and feels to live from this new place. Intuition and grace begin to guide our footsteps and then suddenly we realize that we are ascending back up the mountain to encounter another summit experience. If we are smart, we begin to become less attached to clinging on to our view from the top. We realize that this is just another glorious part of a never-ending journey.

We begin to find joy not only in the view from the top, but the gifts that we gather each time we are blessed with a trip into the valley. The realization that our deepest sense of satisfaction, growth and peace has emerged from our time in the valley will create in us a space of joyous welcoming each time we return to this terrain. Our resistance and fear will be replaced with a wellspring of excited anticipation for the discoveries, shifts and blessings we will harvest along the way. Without even realizing it, we will have moved into living from a place of surrender. A place where we release our preference in favor of our evolution and accept the present moment as perfect.