Does everything have a purpose?

Life's challenges, do they have a purpose? Well for me it is going back to the idea of beliefs and how they support me in life, or a thought, or an idea about life that no longer serves me, and I am ready to let go of it.

So yes I believe everything in life has a purpose, but it is the purpose that I put on it, not something obscure that is happening to me; that has some meaning but I have no idea what it is. I believe I create my reality, this belief serves me in being in some kind of control in my life. Not the traditional sense of control but a sense of empowerment around what happens in my life. If I am the creator of my reality through my beliefs, thoughts and actions, then I am not a victim and this is where I can control how I view what is happening in my life, either changing my thoughts or beliefs to create a change in my circumstances. Sometimes an action needs to be taken when I have some clarity around 'the purpose' of this event.

I like to believe the purpose for certain circumstances in my life is for me to grow as a being. To expand my awareness of self, to see myself as more rather than less, which is how we can at times view ourselves in relationship to life's challenges. At these times of great challenge it is often hard to see the purpose of such events and see 'I' have created this situation to see myself as more. So in these times I personally need lots of reminds of who I really am. I need to examine my thoughts and reactions to the contrast in my life. I spend time in quiet contemplation, I listen to the teachings of Abraham/Hicks and Eckhart Tolle; this all helps me feel my way into some clarity around my challenging situation and helps me take some expansive action. What I mean by expansive action is perhaps acting differently to how I have in the past. For example I am wanting to live on my own now that my flat mate is moving out, I don't have a clear path to this experience; I have an ad in the paper and I am going to act from place of abundance, not a place of needing someone to help pay the rent. I am going to communicate to people who ring up from an empowered space of what I want from a flat mate, not like I need you to rent my room what do you want. For me this is the purpose of what has 'happened'. For me to value myself in relationship to a future flat mate, because guess what, that is the vibration I am going to have to come from if I want to be able to afford to live on my own. I am going to have to feel abundant, feel self value, feel empowered. That is the purpose I am assigning to an experience that challenges my circumstances of what could appear to be 'lack' of a room mate.