Synchronicity can help us find meaning in the unexpected.

What we pay attention to shapes what we see.

Noticing synchronicities shifts attention away from fear and scarcity and toward gratitude and possibility.

Have you ever thought about a long-lost friend only to hear from them a moment later? Did you ever experience a “chance meeting” with someone who changed the course of your life? The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung called these events “synchronicity” or so-called meaningful coincidences. They spark a sense of magic, as if the universe were nudging you toward the direction you were meant to take.

The psychological aspect of synchronicity is central to developing meaning in our lives. It helps us accept certain events as we zoom out to see the “Big Picture” and view how those events influence our behavior. Whether you believe one event influences the next or not isn't really the point. Synchronicity raises our awareness about positive events, shifts our focus onto possibility and abundance over failure and lack, and provides a framework from which we can make better decisions based on gratitude, attitude, and optimism. In other words, synchronicity matters much like dessert. You can survive without it, but it sure does make life sweeter when you have it.

For Cassandra Juniphant, owner of the online fitness club The Body Ministry, synchronicity has always been something that has accompanied her throughout her life, from recurring numbers and songs to unexpected messages and déjà vu. But one coincidence was so striking that it changed the way she understood her own life. After four difficult years as an entrepreneur, Cassandra was participating in a Mastermind when her mentor suggested that the key to finding one’s purpose may lie in what has been........

© Psychology Today