Crossing Bridges: Stepping into the Next Chapter

© 2021 Barbara Knapp. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  01/05/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-4732-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-4731-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-4737-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021925213

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Contents

Taking the First Step

Stepping into the flow

Finding A Purpose

Receiving Energy

Bridging the Gap

Bridge of Creativity

Bridge to Our Dreams

Bridge to Inspiration

Bridge to Awakening

Bridge of Change

Bridge to Success

Bridge of Conscious Connection

Bridge of Empowerment

Bridge to the Universe

Bridge of Light

Bridge to Potential

Bridge of Activation

Bridge to Manifestation

Bridge of Possibilities

Bridge of Spirit

Bridge Toward Destiny

My Closing thoughts

About the Author-Barbara Knapp

T here are many lessons taught to us by our life experiences. Some days we may just be merely getting by, wondering if our current situation is all that we will experience in our lifetime. Are we destined to stay locked in a realm of illusion, or peripheral disharmony? Will we live with the what if’s, should haves, and could nots, or are we on the verge of discovering our destiny? Have you ever had the feeling that you were destined for something much bigger than the daily shuffle? Have you sensed that you are meant for something bigger and better or that you need to accomplish something deep within your soul during this life cycle? Do we live our lives with unfulfilled dreams that later lead to regrets, or do we wish to create a life fulfilled, knowing our soul had completed its cycle of manifestation?

If you only had one wish to make, would you ask for fortune, fame, or would you ask for the gift of conscious infinite power to manifest your dreams? When we start asking ourselves questions that we might not have given thought to before we open up a dialogue with our higher self. Maybe for the first time you can begin to uncover what makes you the real you. As we stand at the threshold of theses unanswered questions, we must look for the answers, just imagine yourself crossing the bridge and discovering that there are many new experiences waiting for you to create. We discovery over time that we are the creators of our destiny. Yet we may carry some doubts that says we are only destine to play the same role that we have played in the past. Is who we have always been all we will ever be, with nothing else available for us? We may have a preconceived idea as to what our destiny might be, yet there are so many unknown possibilities that will change the course of our lives. Destiny is defined as your future or the pre-ordained path of your life, which is a predetermined course of events considered as something beyond human power or control.

Destiny is the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person in the future, also known as fate. The inevitable or necessary fate to which each person is destined also referred to as one’s lot in life. Fate determines who we meet in life, our feelings determine who we want in your life, and your journey determines who stays in your life. Fate and destiny are both words dealing with a predetermined or destined future. However, our fate is usually associated with a negative outcome and destiny is usually associated with a positive outcome. While fate is concrete and determined by the cosmos, destiny depends on your choices in life.

When we say something is a twist of fate, we mean something strange or unexpected has happened. But more than that, the outcome was meant or fated to happen. Sometimes fate is romantic. Fate and love often go hand in hand. Many people trust fate when looking for relationships with our soul mates. When we first encounter what we may consider fate, we have to question what purpose it serves because there is always a reason. We can manifest our destiny by making changes throughout our journey that will enhance our lives for the better. Also, we can seal our fate by the actions we take and the chances we don’t take.

Taking the First Step

L ife is a journey comprised of many steps on our personal paths which takes us down some winding roads of constant evolution. Each day, we are provided with a myriad of opportunities that allows us to transform out of the old version and into our newly awakened selves. What has always been can be rescripted as each moment presents itself. We are presented with many opportunities to reevaluate our reaction to life when we get triggered by someone or something that rubs us the wrong way. We don’t always see the light in any given event, but we may see a lack of light in our response to these events. On another day we may find ourselves wanting to walk away from a particular circumstance but are not sure if we can. Eventually, we may find ourselves stuck in a rut that we can never seem to get out of. We may even make the same choices over and over again because we don’t know how to choose otherwise. Rather than moving us forward, our personal paths may take us in a seemingly never-ending circle where our actions and choices lead us nowhere. And we repeat the same mistakes over again. It is during these moments that your awareness of any repeated pattern can be the first step onto the bridge of change. What one can not control one must endure, until we change direction and make it across the bridge.

We grow up and we walk down many paths on our journeys. Yet sometimes we forget that our paths are not made up of straight lines. Our paths have many twists and turns and at times it seems like we are wondering around aimlessly trying to find a path that feels right. We may feel we are predestined to only walk a certain path and that we will never experience anything more than what we currently are living. Well, I don’t believe that at all. We start out on our journeys following what we have been taught to believe it, by society and our familiar connections. We may not have had positive role models or mentors to look up to. Therefore, we had to figure things out by ourselves. Sometimes we can get off track from where we thought we were headed. We all move in a direction that has been laid out for us, determined by your beliefs. Yet we may need to evaluate over time if the current path we’re walking down will lead us to our own true north.

Your true north is your inner sense, or your souls calling. This calling is based on what you feel you want to accomplish in this life cycle. When you become aware of what it is you’re looking for and align with your true north the Universe picks up on your vibrations and thoughts and will point you in that direction. It’s a combination of your values, your beliefs, your passions, your skills, talents, and your purpose, which keeps you on a straight track that’s true for you. This is different for every single person. No two people have the same true north point. Although we might align with a certain type of personality, we are destined to find our own inner compass to explore the future independently.

When we retreat into our minds, we begin taking more notice to the inner workings of our mind. What makes us who we are, our values we hold dear, the commitments we have made to ourselves, and the goals we have long nurtured in our hearts. The private aspects of our personalities provide us with the most personal parts of ourselves, which we may not show others. Embracing our uniqueness, we find our inner light so that others may experience our passions with us. Even if you never really thought about it before, begin to explore what grabs your attention. It’s up to you to uncover how to bring out those qualities and manifest them into a new reality. Essentially passion is described as a strong feeling of enthusiasm, a powerful or compelling emotion about something. What are we passionate about? What is It that sparks the flame within and ignites that passion?

Finding your passions isn’t just about your careers and making money, it’s about finding your authentic self. The self you may not even be familiar with yet. The true self is often times buried beneath other people needs or what we feel obligated to do. We all emboss our own signature so we all realize that each soul is unique and is here now for specific purpose. Life does not have an instruction manual containing all of the answers to life’s questions, yet often the greatest wisdom comes from some of life’s most painful experiences. When we can’t find the answer, we must become the answer. Having faith in our own ability to transform any obstacle is not coming from the ego, it is simply necessary if we are to overcome any challenge.

Every day we have the opportunity to bring hope and excitement into our lives and into this world; by simple deciding that we are ready to make some changes to our lives. As we work toward healing the past, we can now begin living fully in the present moment with compassion and a higher love for ourselves and each other. This idea will cause a ripple effect. You will begin to ride the waves to Ascension and focus on the point on the horizon. What do you see? When an object hits the water, ripples expand incrementally, flowing outwardly. The ripple effect is a situation in life that when one thing occurs, it has a direct effect on other situations. And the chain goes on and on and on. Most often, the effect is spoken about positively.

Are we ready to rewrite our scripts and change the characters that we are creating? Do we want to run the loop over our lifetimes where we appear each day and play out the scripts that we have been following up to this point? When we decide that the path, we’re currently walking on needs to change, we begin to imagine what is possible and still waiting to manifest. We know that everything is energy. This energy is within all of us. This energy carries a unique vibration. The vibration you emit toward creating the next chapter on your journey during this timeline, depends on your willingness to cross the bridges and walk forward into the future.

There are many unknowns waiting for each one of us to discover. Our time here is precious and should not be wasted doing something that doesn’t fulfill our soul’s calling. We have heard the saying, Life is like a camera, focus on what’s important, capture the good times, develop from the negatives, and if things don’t work out, just take another shot. You may have had struggles on your journey up to now. But as our awareness evolves, we learn to bless these experiences for the lessons that they have taught us and bless all your triumphs and successful accomplishments we have achieved up to this point too.

Some days we may not realize that we are running on auto pilot. We do the same thing each day with no form of satisfaction by the days end. This can cause us to feel frustrated and stress out. When we look at what we’re doing as a detached viewer, noticing our actions and reactions, observing ourselves, and our choices, we begin shifting into an awakened state of being. This can be the first step in uncovering where we may need to make changes. We may feel that we are stuck in situations that will not change, yet once we decide that change is needed, we have already moved onto a new path forward. Our thoughts dictate the direction we are moving in. If we settle for what is how will we ever know what will be. The shift may be subtle but we will start to see signs that things need to change.

It becomes difficult to disregard what we see when we are tuning into the vibration of our soul. We are no longer asleep to the truth behind our choices. What are we passionate about? What dreams do we wish would come true? How can we make the most of our time here? When we listen to our inner responses, we begin to realize that we may need to take a new approach going forward. We are the originators of our life stories so it only makes sense that we are the ones to make things happen. Not everyone changes for their better. Although this is a judgement issue, we can clearly see that each person will choose to follow what they feel is right for them. This is also part of the journey. We learn from our experiences that some paths lead us forward and others may lead us astray. Any time we feel like we are ready to wander off the current path we are on, we can gradually walk ourself onto a new path anytime we need. Even if we do not know what is in front of us, trust in your intuition as it guides you and take a step. Making these decisions to change direction is not something that you need to rush into. It may not happen overnight, yet it can happen that quick.

Stepping into the flow

W e are all one decision away from a new life. There is a freedom that comes with this awareness. Rather than thinking that we are stuck in a repetitive cycle where there is no escape, or that things will never change, we begin to see that we can play a hand in creating the chapters of our lives. Whether we are aware of them or not, our behaviors, our choices and our storylines are created by us. Our past and our present shouldn’t dictate our futures. We can make changes to our storylines and let go of any baggage that we do not want to carry forward. We pack a lot of emotions and experiences as memories on our travels and some of them can feel very heavy if we are carrying them around with us all the time. Leaving the past behind, we can proceed forward and lighten up and allow change to occur naturally. Taking a trip down memory lane allows us to remember what was important and let the rest stay where is needs to be. We are then free to move beyond our old limits. Making new choices means we can decide what our futures will be like even before we arrive there. Within this awareness, our paths can’t help but open up for us as we move forward, while paving the way for new experiences and new ways of being. It is through awareness that we can continue to consciously evolve and create a life of our dreams.

There are ups and downs on the paths we walk along during our lives. At times we might find ourselves under those heavy dark clouds in the middle of a storm. During these phases all we want is for the rain to stop and the sunshine to return. Try to remember that everything is temporary, and the sun will rise again and a rainbow will appear as we look forward with hope. Any challenge that we may have encountered reminds us that we are stronger than we may have thought. It may be these challenges that actually moves us along the path of life. As we journey down our chosen paths, we will come across periodic rest points.

This allows us the time to observe and check in with our current place in life and reevaluate where we are currently. If we need to move in a new direction we can stop and map out a plan before we need to proceed. It’s often during our times of challenge where our soul grows the most. When we can stop and rest in between our next experience we receive the gift of wisdom. These crosswalks are designed to give us the chance to either continue to walk forward on a similar route or acknowledge it may be time to turn in another direction. We learn what is working and what isn’t and where we can let go of things that no longer align with where we are headed.

Our stories are unique and contain the memories of our experiences which reminds us that nothing last forever. We have been given many lessons, received many blessings throughout our lives which will remain with us within the pages of our stories. At times we become complacent, and may think we can only achieve our current position in life. This happens throughout our lives in our relationships, careers, and our daily interactions with others. What was once aligned has shifted. When we begin to clear our paths of any outdated beliefs about ourselves, or our place in the world, we awaken to a new version of life. Even though we may have gone through many storms and overcame many challenges we have learned valuable lessons along the way which added to our life’s stories. This awareness moves us onto a new positive path that will in hindsight all make sense. One of the discoveries we find on the journey is, we all have the ability to alter our life’s, by altering our attitudes about how we think life should be.

The first step in overcoming any obstacle is to believe that it can be overcome. Doing so will give you the strength and courage to move through any crisis. The second step is to make a resolution that you can prevail over any chaos. How high you fly is derived from how BIG you think. It doesn’t matter how slow you go as long as you don’t stop in your quest to fulfill your soul’s purpose. The world is not stopping and things will always change so it is up to each person to make certain adjustments during their life.

Whatever we are experiencing during any time of transition is only temporary. If things are not going the way you would like, do something today that will change whatever issues are coming up now. By dealing with these bumps on the road we gain perspective and can adjust accordingly. We may have experienced loss of work, an unexpected illness, or issue within relationships that have come to an end. Any setback that we have experienced seems insurmountable at that time. Yet with time and persistence, focused thought, and faith we will make it through. We will come through these endings realizing that it was those endings that gave us the new beginnings that will lead us to better days. Nothing is Insurmountable, there is nothing in your life which we cannot overcome. Whatever the situation or problem, there is always a solution. When our next best course of action seems unclear, any dilemmas we face can cause us to give up. But if we can keep reaching and climbing the mountains in front of us, our current reality will shift. Our focus now needs to shift toward the solution. When we open our mind to the solutions, we open ourselves up to receiving intuitive messages. We can actually gain more in the slow down period then if we were to continue rushing to fast. When we can quiet our minds through meditation and start taking a look within, we can slow down, center ourselves, and wait for the right course of action to appear and see that nothing has to be impossible.

Until the next step appears, connect with any support network of family or friends if necessary. Going through any issue alone can add to the overall stress. When we include others in our life’s they can offer some solutions which we may not have thought of. Don’t discount ideas just because they seem impractical or unrealistic. Someone may have been through the same experience and have some insight that can help guide you forward. By connecting to each other we learn that we often share the same experiences over the course of our lives.

There is no way to know exactly what the best choice for us to make is, but we can begin moving beyond whatever is obstructing our path by imagining that the best results will appear. We may receive some advice that we may not take and reject any information that we come across because we only want to do things our own way. We may get a clue throughout the day which leads us to the answer we are looking for. If we are not open to an alternative idea, we will only see things from our point of view. The narrow mind keeps us in the tunnel where we lose sight of the abundance which is waiting for us. At the very least, making any choice, even if isn’t the ideal one, can give us a new perspective before we have to figure out what our next course of action will be. Slowing down allows us to disconnect from the fast pace which we may be experiencing at any given moment. Some days we may choose to live in fast forward motion, where we are rushing from here to there. Our days can be filled with to do list, schedules meetings, or everyday issues. When we are aware of what it is that we are looking to accomplish we can make a conscious choice where we focus our energy instead of where we are wasting our energy. Always look for the alternative whenever things are not moving in the direction we are going.

When we rush around, we have the tendency to miss out on the simple pleasure that surround us each day. The sun rises and the sunsets are often passed over when we don’t take the time to appreciate them. We make ourselves so busy with all that we need to get done that the pure joy of living is not so much in the details but in the moments, we take for granted. Learning how to slow down in our fast-paced life’s can be a challenge when that is what we think is expected of us. If we slow down long enough, we may surprise ourselves with how natural and organic living at this pace can be. Taking the time each day to just spend a few minutes, longer if you can, just sitting and breathing. Deep breathing and our awareness of our breaths has many health benefits that we can all use during times of change. This simple act of surrender in doing nothing, adds so much to our day and to our overall wellness that we might not realize at the time.

When we feel overwhelmed by the scope of our troubles, we may want to think of other people who have turned adversity into triumph. We often gain a fresh perspective when we remember others who have overcome larger obstacles. It can be inspiring to hear of their victories, helping us remember that there is always light at the end of every tunnel. It is during our darkest hours that we sometimes need to remind ourselves that we don’t have to feel helpless. We have within and around us the resources to find a solution to any problem. And remember that if a solution or choice you make doesn’t work out exactly as we like, we can always try another approach. Believing that we can get through anything, keeps us moving forward. We have achieved many lessons on our journey up to now so anything that causes us to start over is given to us because we are ready to move forward. If we are not well, making some changes to our lifestyle can help us deal with any issues which needs to be done to bring back harmony to any situation we may be experiencing. Letting go of the old paths are not always easy at first but the more we intend to make these changes the more our new opportunities will begin to appear. It is often when you take a step back that we find the ability to take the next step forward. It is darkest prior to the dawn but the dawn is coming for that we can rely on.

Finding A Purpose

O nce we allow ourselves the freedom to decide what direction we would like to move towards we begin the inner creative process which will begin to synchronize and appear in time. Each day that is given to us is another opportunity to create the best possible version for ourselves. We may not realize that we often block our own ability to create a new reality by not allowing the higher self’s voice to be heard. We may think we are alone in our current situation yet we often don’t realize that we can tap into our intuition and connect with our spiritual counterparts for guidance whenever we need. When we connect with our own inner light source, we find guidance and strength to approach the next step. Knowing that You are not alone on this journey sets the wheels in motions as we begin to connect with the higher realms and step into the flow of creating our new next chapters.

In each one of our encounters, we are shown things that we need to learn along the way. Experience that may not seem pleasant and can certainly be uncomfortable to process. As we proceed on our paths in life, we may need to address any unresolved issues, before we can change our current circumstances. When we uncover the issues that are standing in our way we can see where we might need to work on resolving them, and then lean forward. This is something that needs to be done, so that we can gain our direction as to the next path we walk down. The inner work that is required is often neglected by us as we settle into how we thought things were supposed to be. When the path forward is blocked by unresolved issues, patterns form and it seems like we are repeating the same path and same mistakes all over again without really having moved