I woke up today feeling light, fresh and abundant. I am no longer in a smog-filled city, but in a beautiful resort which is to be my base from now on. To think that I’d been mildly resisting moving away from the city to live in the ‘countryside’. For days I’d had a running commentary at the back of my head: How will a city girl cope with living in the countryside?
On arriving at the resort where I’ve been employed as part of a team helping people with addiction problems, I immediately felt calm and at home. This place is beautiful – more than the aesthetics, the energy is flowing and welcoming. The resort sits on the banks of the famous River Kwai, a stunning site that showcases the beauty of the river. The first thing that grabs you is how alive this place is – the river flows strong and fast, yet is calm, so that it moves like a sheet of fabric on the surface. The constant movement of the water makes the whole place come spiritually alive.
The air is clean. I’ve seen more species of butterflies, birds and geckos than I have in a long time. The most noticeable noises are birds singing and, at night, the insects play a symphony that can be distracting for ears more used to distant sounds of traffic.
It brings to mind how we tend to resist moving to better options due to fear of the unknown, even though where we are isn’t that great. When I look around me, it appears a no-brainer that where I am is superior to where I was: beautiful surroundings and the opportunity to do meaningful work on a daily basis.
Some may argue that it’s only been 24 hours, but I reckon there is tremendous power in taking that step of moving forward, of courageously taking your entire energy to a new place and committing to giving your consolidated gifts for a meaningful cause, that the future from that point on can only expand you. If you fully immerse yourself in your new environment and allow it to open you up to something greater.
Often, we allow our fears to continue stopping us, even after we’ve made a decision and changes have been made. When you think about it, this is such a foolish thing. Anything new stores great potential for exciting discoveries. But we’re so used to staying in the comfort of familiarity that instead of diving into the joys of newness we pull ourselves back and end up depriving ourselves of the gifts.
By consciously moving through our fears and opening up to what’s around us, something magical happens: we tap into a certain spiritual element that heals us of our latent fears, as if we’ve been cleansed of the blocks that stopped us from actualising our highest potential.
Full Immersion is a component of the practice of Total Presence. It means immersing yourself fully into an experience by bringing all your energy back into your body. When we express ourselves through all our energy, we’re able to scratch the surface of what’s around us and unveil more beauty to ourselves.
Where are you at this moment? How much of yourself is here? Anchor yourself energetically in your body. Mentally, apply yourself fully to the moment – do not think of or wish to be somewhere else. Your emotions are connected to the present experience, not the past or projected future. Your spirit is here, not in another place or time. Energetically, you are here, to fully experience with your whole self.
When you are here, totally, you are naturally connected to your source of power and can exercise your full potential at this very moment. That knowingness of your power, the feeling of having your powers at the tips of your fingers, coupled with the richness of acute sensory awareness of your surroundings when every inch of you is filled with your essence, deepens you into a state of being more alive and expansive.
That energy is forward-moving. There is no painful letting-go required. For when we focus on living the present moment to the full, we change the energetic structure of what had been. Everything begins to shift around to fit into a new structure created by living the present fully. The future remains a vast space of exciting possibilities as we maintain an openness and relaxed anticipation of being delighted by something we cannot even imagine right now.
