Embrace serendipity, connect with people and nature, let go of the past and determine your mission

© Hugo van Dijke. Author depicted. Glencoe, Scotland.

“You see, the problem in life isn’t in receiving answers. The problem is in identifying your current questions. Once you get the questions right, the answers always come.” – James Redfield

I’ve always believed books find you at the right time. At a second-hand book market in Ghent, mere weeks before the Dutch and Belgian lockdown, I found the book ‘The Celestine Prophecy’ by James Redfield. I’ve always wanted to read it and for two euros it was mine.

The book from 1993 was as impressive and insightful to me as ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho. The nine insights from the book are profound lessons in life for any time you pick it up, but perhaps even more so now during this pandemic.

The protagonist in the novel travels to Peru to seek a mysterious manuscript containing nine insights about life. On his travels, he encounters professors and priests who are all after the book. As well as a high priest who wants to ban it and who has the government in his pocket to avoid people from spreading the manuscript at all cost.

The insights from the book can serve as a compass for life. No wonder millions of people around the world have become fascinated by the book and try to live their lives by the insights.

I learned to embrace serendipity and coincidence in my life more. Last year, I visited Peru and Redfield’s appreciation for nature is fitting to the wildlife of that magnificent country of the Inca’s and the Amazonian jungle. By connecting more to nature and the people around you, understanding your past and solving inner conflicts, you might be able to find your purpose and go after the life you want and need.

It’s what happened to me at the time: I let my guard down, surrendered to whatever traveling (and life) may had in store for me. I found love, lost it. Discovered what love means to me and that sexuality is something that’s not so black and white. I learned that I had to pursue writing. I did.

Let’s dive into some of the most striking lessons from the book you can apply to your life.

#1: Embrace serendipity

“The First Insight occurs when we become conscious of the coincidences in our lives. […] The First Insight occurs when we take the coincidences seriously. These coincidences make us feel there is something more, something spiritual, operating underneath everything we do.” – James Redfield

Call it coincidence or fate, but I love the word serendipity. By letting go of your inclination to control every situation, by being open to the unknown and the mystery, hidden messages await you wherever you go. I know I need to remind myself of this when times are tough or when I’m living on autopilot.

Being open to the unexpected leaves room for new paths in your life. The beauty is, that you can steer this. That sounds counterintuitive so let me explain. There is a high chance that you have certain questions on your mind right now. Perhaps something you want to achieve. A business you want to grow, a story idea you want to develop, a new job opportunity you’re trying to seek in the midst of (economic) chaos. To let serendipity do its work and with your quest in mind, you will stumble upon something or someone that might direct you to the right path. You may find a coincidental answer during a phone call with a friend or a conversation with a stranger in line for the supermarket. Your job is to see it when these moments arrive.

I have a tendency to control and plan everything. I don’t like to depend on other people to get ahead, but that’s nonsense of course. The best things that happened to me on my still pending quest – that of being a published writer with books sold around the world – is that I found help in unexpected places. Like the time I met a Dutch literary agent at a literary event where I did my first ever public reading. I predominantly write in English, but now I’m also working on a Dutch book project and he’s now representing me.

That book project came to me in another unexpected turn of events. I wrote a short story about a man traveling back in time while a now-famous painter makes a portrait of him while he contemplates his decisions. My gran used to own a portrait of her gran painted by Piet Mondrian. We were never allowed to talk about this family secret until she decided to sell it after my grandfather’s death. I called her for research for the short story. I hung up after three hours with enough material for a book about my ancestors and their friendship with the famous Dutch painter and the portraits he made of them.

Because I was open to serendipity I’m now working on this book, which led me across the country seeing Mondrian’s paintings, interviewing (lost) family members, diving into the art history archives, and finding gems of stories and uncovered secrets. I let the research process guide me. It’s fun, because every time I open one door, I enter a room with a dozen more. I let the information then decide which door I open next. And what I’ve found so far are mesmerizing stories leading me to art uncovered, old family feuds, freemasonry, a heroic couple saving Jewish people from deportation and a mysterious manuscript supposedly written in 30 B.C.

“It says that whenever people cross our paths, there is always a message for us. Chance encounters do not exist. But how we respond to these encounters determines whether we’re able to receive the message.” – James Redfield

So be on the lookout for those chance encounters and hidden messages, you’ll never know what lies ahead. Listen to what the universe throws at you via the people you meet and the experiences you encounter. (Now, three years later, that book is published).

#2: Embrace the energy of nature

“’Once we reach the critical mass’, he continued, ‘and the insights begin to come in on a global scale, the human race will first experience a period of intense introspection. We’ll grasp how beautiful and spiritual the natural world really is. We’ll see trees and rivers and mountains as temples of great power to be held in reverence and awe.” – James Redfield

Energy is a word that comes up a lot in the book. Redfield shows that energy is highest and purest in nature, but that people can enhance this energy if they are susceptible and put their minds to it.

What do you feel when you walk in a forest, hike through a national park, sail the ocean or climb a mountain? I bet that you feel recharged, focused, and leave with a clear mind. Taking in the beauty of the trees, the smell of the grass, the chirping sounds of dozens of birds, pulls you back to our roots. Your roots. From nature we came and to nature we’ll return.

Last year I traveled through South America while I still suffered from a burnout. Hiking Patagonia and parts of Peru has definitely helped me to calm down and reconnect with myself and nature. The beautiful scenery has made an everlasting impression on me equal to reading a good book.

You don’t need to travel the world in order to reconnect with nature. In fact, we can’t right now. Seek out the forest, dunes, or mountains close to home. Rent a cabin in the woods, take a step back and let nature guide you back to show you its simple laws. Whenever you think life is cruel or complex, take refuge in the natural order of mother Earth. Be open to her lessons.

“We finally concluded that everything that occurs in nature does so according to some natural law, that each event has a direct physical and understandable cause.” – James Redfield

#3: Reconnect and focus on spiritual instead of economic growth

“And that’s what we did. Four centuries ago! We shook off our feeling of being lost by taking matters into our own hands, by focusing on conquering the Earth and using its resources to better our situation, and only now, as we approach the end of the millennium can we see what happened. Our focus gradually became a preoccupation. We totally lost ourselves in creating a secular security, an economic security, to replace the spiritual one we had lost. The question of why we were alive, of what was actually going on here spiritually, was slowly pushed aside and repressed altogether.” – James Redfield

We’ve become obsessed with growth and having more. How many people are burned out nowadays or suffer from anxiety-related problems? This is closely tied to us being more detached from nature, but also from our essential being. Why are we here?

In the pursuit of creating a comfortable environment for ourselves whilst chasing money, status, dreams or simply trying to stay afloat in the midst of dozens of bills, spirituality is the last thing we chase. The funny thing is, seeking spirituality might help you put your problems in perspective, it might humble you, and put life in perspective. I bet that most people have returned to spirituality in these challenging times and start to ask the right questions.

“Working to establish a more comfortable style of survival has grown to feel complete in and of itself as a reason to live, and we’ve gradually, methodically, forgotten our original question... We’ve forgotten that we still don’t know what we’re surviving for.” – James Redfield

What spiritual lessons have you learned. Is there a spiritual path you’re already on? It may be of a religious nature, or philosophical. The most important thing is: as long as it inspires and grounds you.

#4: Understand and let go of the past

“We are not merely the physical creation of our parents; we are also the spiritual creation. You were born to these two people and their lives had an irrevocable effect on who you are. To discover your real self, you must adult that the real you began in a position between their truths. That’s why you were born there: to take a higher perspective on what they stood for. Your path is about discovering a truth that is a higher synthesis of what these two people believed.” – James Redfield

When I read this, I couldn’t help but put the book down and reflect on this. What did your parents teach you? What views of the world have they imposed on you? Whether knowingly or not. What scars from their pasts have they projected on you? How do they express love towards each other and towards yourself?

When I was going through these questions in my mind, I couldn’t help but laugh. I’m truly a blend of their personalities in many ways. And then you start to wonder: in what ways can I be better? Have there been some perspectives inflicted upon you by your parents that hold you back?

“Learing the past was a precise process of becoming aware of our individual ways of controlling learned in childhood. And once we could transcend this habit, it said, we would find our higher selves, our evolutionary identities.” – James Redfield

Identifying the ways of controlling in your childhood can stand in the way of who you’re supposed to become. Limiting beliefs or fears you took over from your parents or other people from your childhood can halt your growth. For me, an example of this is the mentality that I must and can do everything myself. In business, not spending money on expertise but rather figure it out myself the cheap way and fail. In romantic relationships, it takes me a long time to let someone in and include someone in my life. My ex hated this and in turn, she tried to claim me which drove me further away. I should have communicated better (another example – the difficulty to talk about my feelings).

Perhaps it works for you to create a list for yourself to better understand how your past still influences your present behavior. Focus on what sets you back, but also focus on what brings you forward. I tried to break down the setbacks into small steps I need to conquer. It’s a work in progress, but that’s life I guess. Leverage the strengths you gained during childhood to get ahead in life. This is a powerful mix to both understand yourself and grow from it!

“Your whole life will be about finding one that is self-enhancing. This is the problem your parents were unable to reconcile, the one they left for you. This is your evolutionary question, your quest this lifetime. […] ‘Your whole life has been a long road leading directly to this moment. When you fully integrate this view of your life, you will have achieved what the Manuscript calls a clear awareness of your spiritual path. According to the Manuscript, we all must spend as much time as necessary going through this process of clearing your past.’” – James Redfield

#5: Find your purpose and go after your mission

“We all have a spiritual purpose, a mission, that we have been pursuing without being fully aware of it, and once we bring it completely into consciousness, our lives can take off.” – James Redfield

It’s easier said than done to find that spiritual purpose or mission James Redfield talks about. What do you want to contribute to the world and leave behind? I was 27 when I was finally sure of my mission: to write. With my fiction I hope to inspire people to think about certain issues in society and in general become more tolerant towards another and ourselves. With my nonfiction work I hope to inspire people to embrace their inner creator, mostly by teaching what I’ve learned about writing, creativity and books.

Perhaps you’ve found your mission already, then be fully aware of it every day. Breathe it, embody it and act upon it. Make sure that you understand yourself and your past before you do, because that’s when you truly take out those inner gems and share them with the world through your mission. By learning from each other’s experiences we can grow together.

“I read the entire text in less than thirty minutes and when I finished I finally understood the basic insight: before we could fully enter the special state of mind that so many people were glimpsing – the experience of ourselves moving onward in life guided by mysterious coincidences – we had to wake up to who we really were.” – James Redfield

Fast forward two years and my mission and purpose changed - because I changed. I’m more confident as to who I am. I can honestly say I’ve grown to love and appreciate myself. Accept myself. I learned there’s a deeper story and experience to me that can help others who are stuck. Be open to change in both your circumstances and your purpose.

With your mission in mind and opening yourself up to serendipity, you might have found yourself a formula for a great life. Ask the right questions, and the answers will come. Each of us must do what they can to get their message out. What’s yours?

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5 Life Lessons from The Celestine Prophecy