Painful Awakening

I have been thru a very life changing and a very painful experience. But what this event has done is made me consciously think about my soul and why these events are happening with me. After reading your work and work of Dr. Wayne Dyer and Sonia Chiqoute it has come to my realization that every situation or event happens which aids or facilitates our souls’ evolvement. And I really am feeling that. Now when I meet people and have encounters with them in my day to day life I am not judgmental at all. I look at them and listen to them as another soul and signs from the Universe and the Divine as what they are trying to tell me. My question is why is it that to come to such awareness that you are just a personality and there is a soul in you that needs to return to the divine has come with a very painful experience? Is it because of our souls past journey in previous lifetimes and the karmic decisions that the soul has taken before reincarnating on Earth.