What you dread never really goes away by itself because the dread is in you - wherever you go.

Some see this as the universe's way of stimulating growth, while I would say it is just your karma and perception at work - presenting to you what is present in you. Whether your experiences lead you towards enlightenment or away from it is entirely up to you.

The good news is that though the strength of your resistance would be proportional to the pain of facing the resisted, it means the lessons you learn will be just as great, if not greater. What needed is not so much confrontation, but mindfulness of what is dreaded. When the dreaded is experienced as it is, something interesting happens - the dread dissolves.

This is possible as when you learn to see the dreaded as it is, you will realise that it is different from the dread itself, which is self-imposed onto it. The pain from dread is always initially mild, but it can intensify when you keep resisting it. This is not pain from the dreaded per se, but from resistance. For some, being in the waiting room can be more painful that seeing the dentist!

As long as they are not realised, universal truths will "manifest" in your life in infinite forms - because truths are always around. Other than the karmic reasons, "everything happens for a reason" - the one(s) you choose - so do choose carefully. There is no super-intelligent being playing pranks on you - just an occasionally deluded one falling for unrecognised self-created traps - you!

Whatever you experience is punishing only when you miss its educational value, and rewarding only when you truly learn. The natural cycles of "rebirth" from life to life (and within this life) are wonderful ongoing opportunities to overcome your spiritual roadblocks, till you clear them all - which is when you are liberated from all pain.