By Tammy Graham

There is an opposite — or opposition — in all things. There are two sides to every coin: heads and tails. They are equal and opposite poles (or extremes) of the same thing, just like hot and cold temperatures, love and hate, pain and euphoria.

When something we perceive as bad happens, we can know that within it lies the potential for an equal amount of good. If something is just a little bad — like bumping your head — then there's just a little good tucked inside it. But if something is catastrophic, like living through a natural disaster, get excited! Because that means there is the potential — if we choose to find it — for just as much good. That’s how we can use this law to stay at a high vibration and find the blessings hidden within our opposition.

Of course, just because blessings are found within every challenge doesn’t mean we get to skip the challenge itself. We still have to go through it. But facing it with our eye on the blessings makes the whole thing so much more bearable.

When it comes to challenges, one example that comes to mind is childbirth. I prefer giving birth drug-free, with the help of a midwife and doula. Every time a due date approaches, I get nervous — because I know the mental and physical anguish that’s about to come.

There’s the mental work of staying in control, relaxed, and focused so my body can do what it’s built to do. There are the emotional ups and downs — crying in exhaustion, bursts of excitement thinking about meeting my baby. There’s the back pain, the abdominal cramping, the hot and cold flashes, the burning as the head crowns, and the body-wracking pain of labor itself.

But even in the thick of all that, I stay focused on the end result: my newborn child. A perfect gift, fresh from heaven, that I’ve been dreaming about for months. I think about how euphoric I feel after giving birth — how powerful, confident, and alive I feel. It’s the only time I’ve ever felt so unstoppable, like I could climb the tallest mountain or run forever. The joy is indescribable. And it only comes after experiencing all the pain and emotion that childbirth brings.

The Law of Polarity creates balance. I wouldn’t willingly go through the pain of childbirth if there weren’t an equally powerful good on the other side. Without that euphoric feeling, it would be nothing but torture. But because I know the good is equal to the suffering — just on the opposite side — I am happy to endure it.

1st Nephi 2:11 in the Book of Mormon says it perfectly:

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility."

In short, the Law of Polarity is at play in everything — relationships, finances, weather, emotions, you name it. I believe it was the band Metallica who sang, "Every rose has its thorn." Let’s make a choice: whenever we find ourselves stuck among the thorns, let’s focus on the roses.