38. How the Universe Tests You Before You Uplevel (and How to Pass Without Spiraling)

Every time you declare a boundary, end a cycle, or set a bold intention don’t be surprised when the universe hits you with a test. In this episode, we're diving deep into how spiritual tests work, what they really mean, and how to hold the line when your old patterns come knocking.

You’ll learn:

• How to recognize the difference between a test and a red flag
• Why emotional and energetic clutter slows your manifestation
• What it really means to step onto a new timeline
• How to support your nervous system when things get triggering

This is your sign to stop shrinking and start anchoring into the version of you that you’re becoming.

💫 Resources Mentioned:

• Creating Space Membership
  — somatic, creative & intuitive tools to help you expand
• The Manifesting Magic Playbook
  — use the “Building Bridges” practice to align with your next chapter
• Book a Private Intuitive Session
  — receive focused energetic insight and guidance to support your next steps
• Explore the Expansion Mentorship
  — deep 1:1 support for navigating spiritual growth and aligned transformation
  
  

▶️ Let’s talk about what it means to grow, and why it feels so damn hard sometimes! Email or DM me with your questions and we will tackle them on a future episode!

WORK WITH ME:

– Join Creating Space on Substack (essays, audio notes & creative field notes):
https://jenniferhulley.substack.com

– Go deeper through the Studio Circle (community chat, pop-up meetups & quarterly print / creative love letter):
https://jenniferhulley.substack.com

– Explore 1:1 Creative Mentorship (12-week partnership for creatives):
https://www.jenniferhulley.com/coaching

FIND ME ONLINE:

Web: www.jenniferhulley.com

Substack: www.jenniferhulley.substack.com

Instagram: @jenniferhulley

TikTok: @jenniferhulley

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is Soul Therapy. I'm your host, Jen Hully. Together, we'll explore the universal magic that is life, creative expression, and the process of returning home to your authentic, powerful self. The universe is always ready to call you on your bullshit. That's right. The universe loves you and wants to work with you to expand, but it's always going to fact-check you. It's going to make sure that when you say, hey, you know what? I'm not going to do this shit anymore. I'm ready to grow. I'm ready to do this. It's going to fact-check the fuck out of you. And that is exactly why the second you state a boundary in your life and you're like, I'm done with that person, that they come right back. Because the universe is basically saying, for real? Or are you full of shit? When I was leaving this job that I was in, and I knew I needed to leave, I was like, this is like so not on my soul path. And it's distracting me, but also like slowing me down. The money was pretty good. Like I was there because the money was decent and didn't require too much time from me. But the second I said, like, hey, I'm out, they came back with more money. And I was like, and I was like, well, how much more money? And they're like, well, how much do you want? And I was like, oh no. Because I had drawn a line. I had said to myself, like, this is not in alignment with my soul path. I know that my vision for myself is so much bigger than being in this small space or this small entity. I know that I'm meant to go here and here and here. And like this is just, it's keeping me in first gear. And I need to be able to go to like third, fourth, and fifth and get out. We can always be tempted to do things that we don't really like. Like we can be tempted to tolerate shit that is not good for us or is not um fulfilling when there's a dollar sign attached to it. Like, I have no shame in saying this. This is why I stayed in public education for so long. I fucking hated it. I hated every single day that I was there for like 15 years. And I worked in like the most dysfunctional work settings. Like, not an easy peasy go to work and like it's a it's an easy day. Like you're like, what the hell? And I still didn't leave. And I didn't leave because money, right? I was like, oh, money's good and I got a pension and I got this, so maybe I'll tolerate it. Because money, I'm seeing in my mind's eye, the devil card is um, it can be used to like enslave us and tie us and entrap us. It can tether us. That's the word I'm looking for. It can tether us to like a lower vibrational life path. And I don't mean like it's a bad life path, but I just mean one for you where you're not being stretched and you're not growing. And so this week I want to talk about tests, like the concept of the universe providing you with a test when you are trying to up level or manifest or change, because you better believe me when I say that you're when you're trying to grow, the universe is gonna step in and be like, here's an exit ramp, but there's a test there. And it's just doing it, not because like it's trying to fuck you over, but it's trying to be like, are you actually ready to embody that person that you're trying to become? Because the person that you say you're going to become doesn't tolerate that guy's bullshit or doesn't have that habit, whatever it is. It could be like a calling to move to a new city or move to a new country or like, like I said, get rid of somebody who's you're in a relationship with. You have to release these things in order to receive whatever it is that's coming in for you. But the universe wants to make sure that you're not hanging on. I've already got the burps. Oh my god. When I'm doing readings and intuitive work and channeling, sometimes the energy moves through so quickly. And it like literally, I just start burping. So buckle up. We might be burping in this episode. So the universe is always working with you, right? Like we think of the universe as a concept, it's always expanding. Its very nature is to expand and to grow. And it's the same for us. It's in our very nature to be expanding, to be growing, to be pushing the edges of what we think is possible, to be pushing the edges of what we know to be possible through our experiences and to be stepping into that space of like vastness and unknown. But in order to expand and to grow, we have to say no. We have to cut those cords. We have to cut the ties to the energetic debris and the gunk, emotional, tangible, that are like slowing us down. It's interesting to me because when I see people going through like what you'll call like a spiritual awakening, there's like certain things that start to happen. You start to see friendships die off. You start to see like complete tower moments in work where it's like, I can't work for this company anymore. And believe me, if you're not going to say that, the universe will do something to move you out, anyways. Like you will get fired or all this crap will just start to crumble because doors have to close. Space needs to be cleared, and attachments and relationships and things and energies need to be, I'm hearing expunged. I'd like a better word than expunged, cleared. This is how it works. Needs to be cleared in order for you to plant seeds to grow into your next, you know, the next phase of you. And this act of clearing and removing, it doesn't necessarily mean like, you know, getting rid of that dude that you don't like too much or getting rid of that job. Like it can mean physical, tangible stuff like that. But it it also means like clearing out the energetic and the emotional gunk. Because believe it or not, that's the stuff that slows you down even more than physical ties. When you're holding on to stuff like anger, resentment, grief, all of those emotional bits they come from like a physical attachment. If you're in a job that you hate, your boss disrespects you, and you work with people, you're like, they we just do not connect, they're frustrating, you're gonna be harboring feelings of like resentment. You're gonna feel invisible, which is probably gonna make you feel kind of jaded. You might be holding on to like anger is gonna be there. And all that emotional energy and like energetic debris and gunk clogs up the pipes. So when we talk about like stating a boundary and saying, like, I'm no longer available for this dynamic, we're also talking about like I'm no longer available for holding on to anger. I'm gonna create space in my own soul field by processing it, by transmuting it, by moving it out. And that's like a personal boundary that we, you know, say with ourselves, like, I'm gonna work on processing my anger. And guess what? The universe is gonna be like, let's get her really angry and see if she actually puts these practices into play that she's talking about. And this is exactly like in creating space, which is I haven't really talked about it much on the podcast yet. I'm gonna do an episode about it probably next week, but creating space is a monthly membership that is like dedicated to exactly that. It's creative, somatic, and intuitive practices that help you move out that energetic debris using things like therapeutic art, breath, visualization, reflection, even like somatic practices, because we have to move stuff out, but we also have to like take care of our nervous system while we're doing that work of like going through these tests that the universe is like, let's see if she's done with anger, you know, because it's gonna be hard. It's not gonna be easy. So as you're listening to this, if you're thinking, like, yeah, this is sounds like I could use some help with that, go check out creating space. Like I said, it's a monthly membership, and there's like weekly practices that we go through that all surround like a theme for the month, and then there's like a monthly circle where we get together, creating space and developing rituals that create space in our body through somatic practices, creative practices, mindset practices, all of that is part of how we expand and how we grow. When we do this, when we say, I'm gonna, you know, I'm drawing a boundary and I am cutting the cords with my job, or that friendship that I have that isn't really fulfilling, or I don't really feel seen or supported, or I'm going to, you know, I'm gonna check my thoughts and I'm gonna check my negative self-talk at the door. When we draw that boundary and we're like, no more of this, and I'm moving on to that. We essentially are birthing a completely new version of ourselves. You are deciding to step off the timeline that you're in and step onto a completely different one. So it's like imagine your life, like your soul has so many different tracks that it can be on and literally are on at the same time. Like there's multiple infinite versions of you existing at the exact same time. And so when you create a boundary, micro or macro in your life, and you say, like, nope, we're done with that, your soul literally goes like onto the next one. And that next timeline is going completely different directions because every single little decision, it has like a snowball effect, right? And so when you state that boundary and you're like, we're not doing this shit anymore, I'm not, I'm giving up. Like, this is decaf tea that I'm drinking right now. If you're on the podcast, you can't see. But I'm drinking a mug of decaf tea because I put in a boundary with myself that was like, I'm not putting caffeine in my body anymore because it fucking blows my nervous system like through the roof. And when my nervous system is like completely blown to smithereens, I'm not available for like this kind of spiritual soul field type of work. So I had to, and it was hard. I had to say, like, we are somebody who doesn't drink caffeine anymore. And with that came a lot of tests, a lot of practices with my nervous system. But it's landed me in a space where it's like, okay, new abilities are opening up to you and new possibilities and new ways of intuiting when you work with clients because my mind and my body is in a different space, right? So it's like a little decision like that to just be like, I'm taking caffeine out is like and it just births this like completely different path. Does it mean like the things that are gonna happen on the path would never have happened? Not necessarily, like there are some checkpoints that you're gonna always meet, but whether it happens before or after this other thing, like that's the stuff that starts to change. And so, like when this new timeline exists, right? You're birthing a new version of yourself, the universe is like, yes, okay, here we go, ready to launch. And just like how when we're ready to launch a rocket, we don't just put the rocket on the launch pad and be like, let's go. They test shit, right? Have you ever watched a live rocket launch? I've watched one with my son. Side note, we watched one for like three hours and then it didn't launch because they ran so many tests that they were like, didn't pass off. And they like aborted the whole thing. He cried. It was like a whole thing, but thank God they took off the next day. He's really into space. But it was the same thing. It was like, and they kept checking it. They kept doing weather checks. They didn't just check the weather once and be like, oh yeah, the weather looks good, we'll leave it. They checked it and they checked it and they checked, and they're like, fail off. And this is the exact same dynamic that happens with you when you're expanding. You say, like, I'm not talking to that person anymore. It's like we're gonna pop them up on your for you page on TikTok. We're gonna get them to text you. We're gonna have them driving beside you in their car. Because the universe is gonna check and check and check until it's reassured that it was like, yep, their consciousness and their 3D ego mindset is locked into this new timeline, we're good to go. Because, you know, in space, they know we can't safely launch this rocket if we think it's gonna like blow up. You know what I mean? Or if there's a possibility that the fuel gauge might fail, or I don't know anything about rockets, but like the the phalange might fall. Please tell me we know what a phalange is. So when you are ready to launch into that new version of yourself, the universe is gonna test you over and over and over and over again. And this is where I see people like start to freak out because we start thinking, like, oh my god, am I doing the wrong thing? Like, am I is the universe trying to stop me? And it's like, no, it's not. It's checking your resilience and it's checking your resonance to make sure, like, just like we check to make sure you've got your passport before you get on a plane. How many times do they check your passport every time you try to do something? And so the task becomes recognizing when something is a red flag or a test. And for me, I always say, like, the test comes after you've expressed that boundary. Okay. Red flags come when you're just start barreling towards an idea, and then you start getting nope, nope, nope, slow down, slow down. Like it's a different dynamic because you're not expressing a boundary, you're expressing a desire. You're saying, I want to move to this country, and then all of a sudden it's like, Bill, this gets changed. Nope, you've got this. No, and the universe is like saying, no, no, no, no, like come here, like, don't deviate too much. But when it's a true test, it's because it's something that you have said you no longer have space for in your soul field. And you know what? I go through this, my clients go through this, my friends go through this, we see it on TV, like we see it all the time. It's it always the image that keeps coming up to mind is like when you cut a toxic person out of your life, right? And it's like all of a sudden they text you. And like I had a person in my life who I like closed the door on multiple times, but then it would always like come back, and the universe would, you know, test me. And I'd be like, okay, I'll open the door a little bit, see what they want, maybe I can help them. But I got to a point where I was like, no way, like not happening. And I like drew a boundary. I was like, something happened, and I was just like, nope, we're done. And I said, you know, I declared, I cut cords, I did all my stuff. And um, wouldn't you know it? That like, I think it was like six months later, the universe had this person like reach out to me. And I caught myself and I was like, just because somebody has reached out to me, I'm not under obligation to answer. And so I didn't, and I was like, Yeah, I'm doing it. I'm like, see me, like, new timeline, here we go. And then when I did not respond to that, you know, that bid for attention or a bid for entanglement is what I'm hearing. Not a bid for attention, it's a bid for um energetic entanglement and attachment. So when I did not respond to that, and I was like, we're not, we're not doing it, did the universe not have me end up face to face with this person literally like four days later? And I tell you, I had not seen this person in years. And I was like, face this person, and I was like, oh my god, and I remember like my soul left its body. Not because I was scared, I was triggered. And I want to talk about triggers a little bit, but because I was being tested on this boundary, it was triggering like a wound within me where I was like, oh my God, I ghosted this person. I have now staring at them when I just didn't respond. Because that's something that I don't do. I don't just not respond to people. And I'm like, you know, I work on my own boundaries with time, but and saying, like, I'll respond when I can, and but I still have to work through that constantly. And so the first thing I was like looking at this person, I was like, in my head, I was like, what am I gonna say? And I was like thinking, I was like, Am I gonna make up a story, say I was really sick or like I'm sorry, I've been busy, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, don't engage. Because what I heard, don't engage, don't engage. And I just sort of like looked at them, kept going about my business, and then they like were standing in front of me in line for something. So their back was to me. And it was like a good three minutes, and I was like, I was like fighting. I was like, do I say hi? Do I not? Do I pretend? And I was like, I'm not gonna say anything. And I was like, I'm just gonna hold the line and see what happens. And then, you know, we ended up going our own separate ways, and I was like, holy crap, I was like, that was really hard for me because this was like a dynamic of like entanglement separation, entanglement, separate, and I was like, I'm not, I'm not doing it. And when I say the universe will fact check you, it did because 30 minutes later, there's that person again, and it was giving me another opportunity, being like, are you actually okay with letting this person walk away? And not showing any indication that you've even recognized them. And I just stood there and I was like, not moving, not doing anything. And then they walked away and that was it. And I knew I was like, oh man, that was like final exam universe, like final exam. But this is what I mean when the universe is like, you're on a different timeline. Are you actually ready to be on it? We say all the time that we're sick of our own shit, that we're gonna change, and then we do the same damn thing over and over and over again. And when you're being presented with these tests, no, like you're growing, you're at a space where it's like something big is about to shift. And we are making sure as your guides and as your supportive loving universe that you are equipped for where we're gonna take. You know, I have had clients who release things in their business where they're like, they released an offer or they said, like, I'm not doing this anymore. It's not really in alignment with where I want to go. It's just not, you know, whatever, whatever. And we're like, cool. We work through that and we work through like the energetic attachment and like cutting cords, and we had some ideas of like ways to sort of release that business identity. And I shit you not within 48 hours. Did that person not see like a massive uptick in interest in that offer? Because the universe was like, Are you sure you're ready to let it go? And I fully believe this person is moving on to bigger. I don't even want to say bigger and better because it's not quantitative, right? Our experiences can't be quantified of like this is bigger, this is better. It's more expansive, it's more in resonance with you, and it's probably more heart-centered. And I know this person is on a path to those things. And when they were like saying, Would you believe that XYZ happened? I was like, Yeah, I absolutely believe that that happened. And I absolutely believe that it's like, oh, we're doing this, like we're going for it. And so we did the work of like, okay, we're holding this boundary and we are holding this state of expansion and not collapsing back into contraction and shrinking and going backwards. And this is why in my expansion mentorship program, we go deep on establishing this anchoring energy in your nervous system, in your subconscious mind, but also in your conscious ego mind, so that when these things happen, you're not running back to a previous version of yourself. And that's multi-layered work because it's not just about habit breaking, it is about complete nervous system and soul-field energetic rewiring so that when these things happen, we keep calm, we're connected to our purpose. We do this so that like you can keep moving forward when everything in your body and in your 3D wants you to move backwards into contraction. It is, I'm seeing the nine of wands in my mind's eye, where she's like at the end of the battle and she's like, Oh my God, we're almost there. Like, that's the give up moment, and I never want you to give up. That's the like, we actually need to push through. And I don't mean like toxic push through, ignore what's going on. It's like, how are we supporting ourselves when this stuff happens? Not if because it's a when thing. It will happen. And I've seen people go the other way, like in my personal life, where they've like, I see them taking one step onto this new path, and I'm so excited for them. And then the test comes in and they're like, oh, but and you know, there's always these, yeah, I could, but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, there's all these little tiny reasons for why they can't keep going. Like, there's all these little micro excuses for why we can't expand and why it's safer. And like, I did this myself for so many years in teaching. So many years. I'm a single mom. I need a pension. My kids are gonna need braces. I like having guaranteed income of the same amount. It's nice having, you know, I like having my friends around me when I'm working. Like, and we're not bad for coming up with these reasons. It's my my ears ringing. Okay, spirit. Thank you. It's our ego, right? It's that part of our mind that wants us to stay safe. It wants us to stay the same. I think if I could like make everyone believe one thing and only one thing, it would be that our biggest task in this life is to partner with like our nervous system, which is our thoughts, our feelings, our energy, because it fundamentally doesn't want you to change. It registers change as danger. So every time we're on the cusp of changing, of stepping into something greater, more aligned, more heart-centered, doesn't matter how much we want it cognitively. This fundamental like circuitry that runs through our body is programmed to pull the alarm bells when that happens. And it's going to happen. And it happens to everybody. And it doesn't mean you're off path, but it means like this is when we double down on our nervous system practices. This is when we double down on transmuting the energy that needs to be like imagine yourself like pipes that need to be flushed, like old shit out, new stuff in. These tests, while they're annoying, there are moments that ask us to double down. On our self-belief. It's a double down on our conviction. And it does. It triggers the shit out of your nervous system. Tests are so wrapped up in our shadow and what we think we have to be, need to be, should be in order to be like loved and safe. They're wrapped up in our fears about safety and security and money. That's why they're so hard when they happen, because it's asking us to step out of a circuitry that is like so programmed in us through our DNA, through our ancestors, through our families, lineage, through like society in general, like through society that we're just immersed in. It's asking you to completely rewire a new way of thinking, being, acting, and experiencing your life. And it's so safe, like it's so tempting to go back to the familiar, but the familiar is a familiar hell. That's what I'm hearing in my head. It's a familiar hell. Same shit, different day. Like we know this, right? Familiarity is not your friend all the time. When it comes to you and your soul's path and being in alignment with like the most resonant, expansive, heart-centered, like emanating love version of yourself. Familiarity is not going to get you there. And that's why I said, you know, these tests, they often show up with a trigger. And a trigger is an event that activates a core wound within us that needs to be explored. It needs to be transmuted, processed, released. Um, it needs to be like flushed. Again, it always comes up in intuitive readings when I sit down with people. I get like a timeline of where you're going, but then I'm like just bombarded with um, and I'm smiling and laughing because it's like with love that your guides do this. But I'm like bombarded with like, and this is the shit that needs to go. I always say to people, like, don't come for a reading with me if you're not ready to burn some shit down in your life. Because when you sit with me, whether it's like physically for a reading or like across the screen, your guides are going to bring a list of like, we got to get rid of this, we got to get rid of that, we got to stop this. This is slowing her down. Did it, did it, because they want you to succeed and they want you to take flight and they want you to have that chariot energy, that eight of wands, like boom, let's go. But you can't do that when you have all this energetic and like existential baggage. I really believe like it doesn't matter like where you are in your journey, like if you're just starting to explore these concepts, like we are in creating space, or if you're doing more of like a deep dive where we're like, all right, let's sit down and see what the fuck's what with my soul path in a reading. Or if you're in that space where you're like, we are really alchemizing all of this in an expansion mentorship type space, it's still the same work, and it's going to be the same kind of work, just variations of um depth and intensity. I'm seeing uh Super Mario Brothers in my head. So, like the game of like the OG Super Mario Brothers from the 80s, from the 80s, like it's the same game. He's like running, there's a flag at the end, but like one world is swimming, and then one world is like in the dark, and one world is this, and like as you go through the game, each level gets incrementally more difficult, but you're still dealing with shit falling from the sky, guys launching fireballs at you, or like a flag that you gotta hit at the end, and there's always this baddie at the end. And it's the same stuff with these tests and with these triggers and this concept of working with your shadow and working with your emotional capacity to hold, transmute, and release, like all of that. I always say to people, you gotta start where you're at. You need to know where you are, like what Mario Brothers level you're at. And it's again, we're not quantifying, we're not comparing, it's just entry points along the journey. And so there's all these different ways that you can support yourself as you're going through this. I was just talking to it was a person in a reading, and like she had never heard about shadow work. And I was like, you have to go home. And in my like in my head, I was hearing like all this stuff, and I was like, she doesn't even know what shadow work is yet. Like, this will bombard her. And I said, like, I want you to go home and I want you to Google shadow work and like look for a shadow work journal. I was like, that's like your entry level point. And I know like she'll go and she'll do that, and she'll get to a point where she's like, okay, let's dive back in. Because there's all these different entry points and entry levels, and it's not even entry, it's like resonance. It's like if you think about a radio station, like what you're going through in your life, like whatever FM where you are on the dial, um, your resources and your support and your processes need to match. So if you take anything away from this episode, I want you to really understand that we need to release before we can receive. And releasing requires us to state boundaries in our life of what we're willing to create and hold space for and what we're not willing to hold and create space for. It requires us to say no more, to repel all sorts of crap that's gonna try to come back in, anchor itself to us and hold us down. It's not dragging you down to like a shitstorm, but it's trying to pin you in place on your timeline. We need to state that boundary, remove those things that are holding us back, and then we need to work with our nervous system and work with our subconscious beliefs and use that energy, like as you're making space and you're like getting everything in alignment. We're using that and funneling it into our creative energy to create new experiences and new opportunities and new relationships as we move forward. And when you're being tested, don't freak out. Ask yourself, is this a test? Because I've just stated a boundary in that is required in order for me to grow? Or have I just barreled into a decision and I'm getting a red flag? Like there's a difference. And so when something's happening and you're like, stop, check in, ask yourself, is this a test or is this a red flag? And if it's a test, ask yourself, how is this test related to a boundary that I've just created? And how is that boundary necessary for me in order to move forward on this new timeline? And it's not that there's a pass or a fail. When I say pass, I mean pass through. And when the test comes up again, don't freak out, be like, all right, I know we're we're fact-checking. Okay. You are strong. You have all the capability and the clarity that's required to see your vision come into fruition. You just need to make sure that you're supporting yourself with all those habits, those rituals, those practices, and bring them in to create a really supportive ecosystem that's going to hold you and support you as you move forward in your life. If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to like, share, and subscribe. And everything we talked about in this episode, you can get the details in the show notes. All right. I'll talk to you soon.