May you daily increase in wisdom, love, gratitude, reverence, healing, peace, joy, happiness, laughter and prosperity. If no one else seems to want these things for you, I do. Please accept them with an open mind and heart. All of your pain has a single source. That source is ignorance, or not knowing. If you knew, deep in your heart, as well as in your head, the great secret that few people ever know; you would never again feel the pain you have been feeling.

The secret is two fold. Who you are and why you are. You can hardly know who you think you are is a creation of others, fastened upon you since birth. All your life, others have defined you by their words and actions. They have convinced you that you are somebody very different than who you are. You have every right to be confused. You sense you are someone else but you can't find that person or see her or him clearly. You can solve this problem.

The tools you need to find yourself are mocked by those who also believe they are someone they are not. This riddle is passed from one generation to another through all history. Here is your key: Obtain your astrological natal chart from an astrologer. You will have to supply the astrologer with your date, time and place of birth. Ask someone who should know, or seek out hospital records. If you cannot find your time or place of birth, a fair natal or birth chart can still be constructed.

Next, seek out a numerologist or get a book or two on the subject. When you have examined your personal astrology and numerology, you will see the truth of my words. You will find the person you suspected was you, your strengths and weaknesses. You might also discover many reasons why you have been mistaken for somebody else. You will no longer feel like a lost soul.

You will also begin to see that all things in life are cyclical. That is, no situation remains indefinitely and change is the way of all life. You will see that certain experiences will repeat throughout your lifetime. As you change the way you see them, the effects will be very different and much less painful. You will see how patience is always rewarded and forcing is always punished. You will see new options for your life. You may be inspired to use these tools to better know people close to you, instead of defining them through your pain. This is your opportunity to be free of the pain that has denied you so much happiness. You can handle this. You will be lightening an unbearable load until there is no longer any load at all. It is a rapid process, quite the opposite of accumulating pain.

Now that you know who you are, you are ready to learn why you are. This is detective work. You have clues to follow up. You have experience. You have had moments of utter joy. What were the things that created this joy? Perhaps you cannot recall any joyful thing in your life. Look for the moments of relative happiness. What was the cause of it? Astrology and numerology will provide more clues, explaining what kind of things suit you and what kind of activities are likely to provide you with satisfaction.

You may think you came into this world with nothing. Others may have told you so. You did not come with nothing. You came with gifts to give or share with the rest of us, as we have gifts to share with you, if you would only look for and accept them. The joy you have been missing is the giving, receiving and sharing of these gifts. All givers are unique and one of a kind. Their gifts are likewise unique.

No two people receive gifts the same way either. To test this, give the exact same gift to a dozen different people and carefully observe its effect on them. This is the universal purpose for every person who ever lived. Giving and receiving. To only give or to only receive is to rob ourselves and others of joy and happiness. Who can receive when no one gives? Who can give when no one accepts?

Years of accumulated pain become an addiction. Pain we never wanted in the first place becomes an old friend. When things go well for us, we miss this old friend. We feel uncomfortable that something is missing. We can no longer respond to pleasure or enjoy it. We don't quite understand that we are doing this by free choice. We focus on external influence and deny ourselves the very freedom of choice.

We fail to meet the expectations of others and don't know what we should expect of ourselves, simply because we don't know who or why we are. When we do know these things, the expectations of others lose all importance and we become very reasonable about what we expect of ourselves. All the pressure is then removed. With the pressure off, we see everything more clearly, as though a mental, emotional and spiritual fog has lifted from our lives.

Lift your eyes to heaven and give thanks for the pain you have known. This will be the standard against which to measure your pleasure, joy and happiness, once you have found who and why you are. Some religions deny reincarnation. Some support it. No matter what we personally believe, the wisest assumption is that reincarnation is the case. That you can earn a better or worse life in this one. Numerology will tell you about the lesson you are now here to learn. If you short circuit this learning process, you will be forced to repeat it as you might a grade in school. When you take matters into your own hands in the hope of escaping your pain, instead of learning from it, your circumstances in the next life may be far worse than this one, with twice the pain and twice the struggle. Who would want that?

We are made to think that the beliefs of others belong to us. We defend these beliefs as though they were our very own and hard won. In most cases they were planted in our subconscious by mere suggestion, as a hypnotist might do. Accept them or reject them. It is foolish to fight for or against them. We struggle when we need to simply relax.

We can believe whatever we choose, no matter what others say, which is often NOT what they really believe. Because we can choose whatever we want to believe, we can believe things that cause us pain. We can just as easily believe things that give us pleasure. The natural person seeks pleasure. The confused person chooses pain. If we can only care enough about the world around us and how we fit, we can end all confusion and totally transform a life that only seems to have so little value. Think of yourself as the caterpillar who cannot know a great transformation is in the works.

A small book that can be read in a few hours, teaches anyone how to tap into and direct the power that transforms caterpillars into butterflies, at will. It is titled the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. It was written by Deepak Chopra. Once you have learned who and why you are, this book will show you how to be and do what you choose and what you must. It will show you how to find true happiness. The world would be a far better place if everyone read this book in school. The more we read it and follow its advice, the more peace and happiness we find within us. Drop me a line when you emerge from your cocoon.

Ed Howes sought and found, knocked and entered. Now he sees things differently. To see more of what he sees, please visit http://www.justanotherview.com or do an author search here at Ezine Articles.