The teachings and presentations of Serge Benhayon have helped me in every aspect of my life: in my work, my home, at school, with food, exercise, physical health and, most importantly, in the way I am with myself and people, and the relationships I have with them. All of this has not been because of individual teachings per se, but from just one – love. Serge has helped me know, to the deepest part of my being, that I am from an amazing love – and when that love is allowed to be there and is developed in the body, it is automatically expressed and filtered into every aspect of life. How can it not be so? Love has no barriers and does not discriminate.

I was introduced to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine (UniMed) five years ago, through a friend and a Gentle Meditation group. Serge is the most caring and utterly-endlessly patient person I have ever met – his integrity and dedication towards others is at times incomprehensible. The care, dedication and integrity from Serge and the Universal Medicine practitioners is unending and enormous – in workshops, in treatments/sessions, and in general passing or conversation. I have never seen or felt it anywhere else in the world, or with any other group of people.

I am so blessed to be part of this group as we are making a true difference. That is what UniMed is truly inspiring in the student body: the true integrity, love and care for others (because all people deserve it). The continually growing student body is a reflection of a rippling-on effect. Our world drastically needs this integrity and care, the reflection of it, and the knowing that it can be done – and that it must start with self.

I was initially drawn to do the Sacred Esoteric Healing Level 1 course, and from there realised there were reasons behind what was going on for me. I heard and felt simple and true words. I became aware that there was much more than I allowed myself to feel about myself. I learnt, and am still very much learning (as we all are – including Serge himself), to be more aware of my body, to be nurturing and caring towards myself and others, and to not expect another person to fill my needs as a compensation for the love that I am not even sharing with myself.

Most of all I am learning to allow and to know that I deserve the loveliness of feeling myself as a woman, especially since the amazing presentations and reflection that Natalie Benhayon shares with all the other women, who have also chosen to nurture themselves and blossom. Natalie is simply a woman who has chosen a very different way of being with herself, and others, a way that completely stems from love – and girl – does it show! She is also the reflection of how a child can grow up to choose for herself when raised with an enormous amount of love, as she was shown by her parents. She is a true inspiration to me.

Yes, in many cases what may be presented by Serge (and lived) is not said anywhere else, but the reason so many are drawn to it, know it and choose to be inspired by it, is because it is simply truth. Simple and true words that then offer a choice. The words are there to present a choice. In my experience women, in most cases, are the ones that tend to hold things together no matter how dysfunctional things are or hard-going life has been for them (and I am sure if you ask your mothers, your grandmothers and great-grandmothers, their stories/experiences will highlight this too). For me, women have always been the stronger/foundational gender, the ones who hold everything together.

Something very true has been presented to us all, to choose or reject (and either choice is fine); but for me, when I see or hear a true truth that I can feel to my bones, it opens me up for change – a change that I can then choose to work with.

Let’s face it, the way humanity is thinking and acting is clearly not working.

The way I live, the way I am at work, the way I feel at work and during any other day, feels mostly great. I can see that people are exhausted, tired, driving their bodies and generally not coping with life, and this is very sad. There have been moments of struggle for me, as I have chosen to make my life more simple and learn to feel how things are for me, however, these moments are nothing compared to what I feel in my body now.

I enjoy being at work, I enjoy being at home on my own, and I enjoy being with my daughter or with friends or family. All of this is because I have, and am learning, a deeper acceptance of myself, a deeper loveliness with myself, and an allowing for what is there to be there. To make the changes in my daily life that support my body, not destroy it or hinder me. I am constantly learning and committing to the connection to and with myself, to my love and to the love of God. With this comes a knowing from my body – that that is somewhere within each and every one of us (especially if I can feel it, relative to the way I used to treat myself and others).

I have learned and developed many things in my day for myself. I have learned to honour when I am tired, to go to sleep when my body is telling me so. Going to bed earlier has allowed me to wake up earlier, to wake up refreshed with energy, to get myself ready with plenty of time in a way that I enjoy and have fun with, to get bags packed with the lunches that I have caringly prepared the night before, and breakfast prepared all before I wake my daughter up, to then help her to get ready before we go to school and work for the day. And to really be there for her, as well as with the kids I teach when I am at work.

Before I began to self-care, I would have moments of being quite racy and elated to moments of feeling quite low; I exercised to be thin and felt unhappy with how I looked; I over-ate (especially chocolate) to deal with life; I over re-acted when things didn’t go the way I expected them to, and at times I manipulated others to make things as I wanted them; I used to cry myself to sleep many nights; and was generally trying to tick all the boxes life was throwing at me… and all of this while I was studying, or working or being with friends and family. I am sure it all looked fine from the outside as I had a good job, owned a few houses, had a husband and a baby – but on the inside I was hurting without really knowing how to express it.

My days and my life are much simpler now – and the more I simplify it, the grander it feels. The more I feel, the more I realise how much there is to feel, and at times there is a sadness knowing that I have spent much of my life shutting this down to avoid dealing with issues.

I have learnt to prepare for the day, to prepare supportive, nurturing, nutritional food that I really enjoy making. I have learned to give my body the exercise it needs. I have learned to stop, to feel, to give myself time, to sit down in the day to eat, to have a break (or a nap), to have a cuppa or just to rest and have time-out for me. I have learned that racing around just gets you exhausted and debilitated and that I can actually do more now, with a lot more energy and in a more caring and loving way, without needing caffeine, sugar, alcohol or heavy foods that lack nourishment.

I have learned to eat what my body needs, to feel how food is sitting in my body. I am learning to let go of the foods, etc that I have felt alter my body in any way – whether it be racing it up or making me tired. I have learnt, and am still learning, to express/say what I am feeling in a loving way, with the care and gentleness others deserve. I am learning to share the appreciation I feel, to be more understanding of others, to be less reactive, and even how to take things less personally (all of which just causes stress and a very irritated and tired body, so who needs it?).

I am more aware and have developed the self-awareness to question why certain things happen the way they do – and to know that there are other possible ways to deal with things. I have changed and continue to work with my love and the quality I am in with myself and others. Thank you to Serge and his presentations – I now know that I always have a choice in this.

The benefits of all of this (which was all inspired by the reflections and presentations from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine) is that I am raising my daughter on my own six out of seven days with openness, working as a teacher at the same time, without going nuts. Bringing all of myself – when being with and teaching the kids – playfully and joyfully, knowing that when things feel tricky, there is another way. The simplicity of my day and honouring what I feel from my body has supported this. My relationships with others feel more open. I am 34 years old, a single, working mum who is enjoying the simplicity of daily life and who has a deep contentment within herself.

One of my biggest physical blessings (and there have been many) is what my body has shown me from my changing the way I am with it: I have not had a grand-mal or petit-mal seizure or vacant moments for five years… and the most amazing part is that after consulting with my doctor three and a half years ago, I began to slowly wean off the medication I was taking. I did this over a three month period while my doctor monitored me and my levels with blood tests and so on. I felt that I was getting enough rest, was looking after myself well enough, I was no longer drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes, and I had learned to not take on so much and become stressed (these were all triggers for me). I have been medication-free for three and a half years now. Whilst these lifestyle and medication changes have worked for me thus far, I want to be clear that every case is different and no one should stop or reduce medication without consulting their doctor. Conventional medicine, along with the changes I have made in my life, has been a great support to me in my healing process.

So one man, one very connected man, has decided with all of his being to put himself out there to share and reflect our amazingness. Serge Benhayon is in the business of love, and the reflection of that love is very inspiring. Look at the number of people who have truly changed their lives, benefitted from what he has reflected in his way of living and in his presentations. One man has done all this. What would happen if every single one of us was as committed to the rest of humanity?

By Johanna Smith, Perth, Western Australia