Each of us has the choice to view life as a series of opportunities, or as a random string of good or bad events.

When we choose to view life as an exercise in opportunity, we live with the awareness that every moment is a teacher. Every circumstance is unfolding for the potential betterment of all involved. Every encounter, every stumbling block, and even every failure is an open invitation from the universe to expand.

This mindset opens us to the experience of living, rather than contracting with repeated reactions of frustration, anger, or fear. As we begin to trust that life is actually designed to support our growth, the universe responds in kind.

Our job is to learn to ask of life what we need and want, be flexible in what form our desires will come in, and be open to life’s next invitation to blossom.

Pretty soon–uncannily–we find ourselves in conversation with precisely the sort of person we always hoped to socialize with. We realize that our present-day reality is what we used to only be able to daydream about. We have the perspective within every challenge that it, too, contains precisely the lessons we need.

This month, view each moment as an opportunity–a divine circumstance you have called in for yourself. A prompting to prove to yourself how far you’ve come. A reason to rise.