Meaningful Coincidence: Leaving the Door Open to Synchronicity

Too often we breeze through our days focused on work, play, family, and routines. But as you go through your day, don’t cut yourself off from energy outside of your regular sphere and known relationships. Allow yourself to be open to chance meetings. Coincidental meetings, especially those that are repetitive, almost always have something to offer you and they should be grasped and embraced. You may not see the value in a particular meeting but pay attention anyway.

During those chance meetings, focus on being rather than doing, listening rather than second-guessing or thinking about your next comment. Don’t allow your mind to wander. Be present so you can “hear” what the other person has to offer in the conversation. Ask questions. The reason for the chance meeting may present itself immediately or it may take some time.

Being open to new ideas may give you insight into a current problem you’re dealing with. At the very least, it allows you to interpret the world in new ways and may give you a different understanding of yourself. This doesn’t mean you should be open to everything that’s thrown your way. There are instances when you should follow your instincts and intentionally close the pathway.

So what exactly is coincidence?

Many people don’t believe in coincidences at all. They simply believe in the randomness of the universe. Those who do believe in coincidences believe they occur for a reason, specifically, they are meant as messages for the individuals involved. If you cannot discern a reason or cause for something that happened, it can be defined as a coincidence, particularly if it occurs more than once.

There is a strong similarity between coincidence and synchronicity and the words are often used interchangeably. Both contain occurrences that have no apparent causation; occurrences that occur at the same time. And chance may have nothing to do with it.

If you’ve been thinking about something for a long time, focusing on a particular issue or problem or desire, there’s a good possibility that a ‘chance’ meeting or coincidence will occur in your life relative to those thoughts. Be vigilant in your awareness. If you feel a tug to go to a certain place or suddenly want to slip into Starbucks, do it. There may be a universal alignment waiting for you.

What makes a coincidence meaningful is the fact that it has meaning to the person experiencing it. It can teach you. Perhaps you are there to teach someone else. And as the universe works in mysterious ways, the teacher teaches and learns while the student learns and teaches.

Meaningful coincidences can guide you or clarify something for you. They can give you direction if you’re sitting on the fence. You may not recognize the answer right away. It may hit you later, out of the blue, when you least expect it. Perhaps another encounter or coincidence may be needed to drive it home. If you’re open to them, the meaning of coincidences in your life will become clear.

Intersecting Pathways

We are not alone in this world. We are constantly crossing paths with all kinds of people, events and situations. Letting go of how things are going to happen will leave you open to new awareness, allowing those things that are moving into alignment for you to come within your scope. Those things that are “moving together in time”, the fundamental nature of synchronicity, are simply a mirror image of your own thoughts. When you in your path intersect with those things in their path, and there is no apparent connection, this is synchronicity. You may see it as coincidence but the fact that it relates to some thought or event in your life makes it a meaningful coincidence.

“Synchronicity [meaningful coincidence] is the coming together of inner and outer events in a way that cannot be explained. [There is] no causal relationship yet they seem to be meaningfully related (meaningful to the observer).” (Carl Jung)

These events, as unlikely as they may appear on the surface, may come as a surprise but they can open up the path to new possibilities for you. Coincidences happen all the time. The trick is to be open to their potential meaning. And remember, the only meaning anything has is the meaning you assign to it.