It represents the plan for your life. It represents what your life could be like if you were free of all your emotional addictions. As you live life, you are taught to resist. This gives power to that which applies resistance to you. That which you resist, persists.
Energy follows the path of least resistance.
This is why the basic cause of aging is the collision between your Soul Pattern and your Stress Pattern. Your Stress Pattern's positive purpose is to provide the resistance needed to slow down the experience of being alive. This enables you to gain wisdom from what would otherwise be a non-growth situation for your Soul. Your Stress Pattern's negative purpose is to stress you out to such a degree that it becomes impossible to enjoy the wisdom gained from realizing and expressing your Soul Pattern. This keeps you acting isolated, prohibits you from assisting your fellow man and being helped by others.