by Sharon Gavioli, R.N, Childbirth Educator, Brisbane
My everyday life revolves around all the necessary practical tasks to ensure my family functions smoothly. I have children to care for, a household to run and a paid job that I love, as well as making time for my relationships.
I am also a student of Universal Medicine. I have been regularly attending workshops by Universal Medicine and esoteric healing sessions and from what I have learnt, I now know that how I go about my everyday tasks is a choice that can either feel in my body as simply lovely, or as incredibly stressful.
Before coming to this understanding, I always felt very stressed in my life. There never seemed enough time and it often felt like someone was demanding something from me. More often than not, I was actually resenting having so much to do. This would result in me always looking forward to something that would give me a break from what I viewed as mundane and boring. That ‘something’ would be staying up, watching TV late, a Lindt chocolate with some chips on the side or looking forward to my next outing.
Today, I am still quite busy but I have changed. More often than not, I can feel more present with what I am doing and not getting ahead of myself thinking of all the things that need to be done. This change has come about through my commitment to developing a deeper love and appreciation of myself. This love has allowed me to be gentler with myself and to trust that life can flow without me always having to control every aspect of it. There is now a greater contentment in all I do, so even doing the dishes can be a lovely experience that I actually enjoy and not something that I have to rush through so I can get my break.
My previous pattern of feeling resentful about always having more to do, stopped me from embracing the simplicity of allowing myself to be truly present in what I was doing. This change in my approach continues to develop often by me catching the frustration and resentment when I start to feel it arising in me. When I can catch it, I just allow myself to feel that my body is holding tension and to then make a choice, knowing that my own resistance to what I am actually doing is what makes the jobs feel boring or mundane. I suppose I could say that I now feel more responsible for my own choices in how I choose to respond to the practical requirements of life.
Some days I still feel the pressure of having too many things to do creeping in and continue to catch myself when I get caught in this old pattern. But the late TV watching and Lindt chocolate fixes are long gone. More importantly, I spend very little time looking forward to an event that will bring that reprieve I so desperately felt I deserved. I know this experience of feeling the pressure of having too much to do is something that many people can relate to. For me, it has been amazing and life-changing to know there is another way.
So my life continues as business as usual, but with a much deeper awareness of how my choices can allow me to feel simplicity and joy in all I do. This simplicity has not only benefited me but also my family. When I make the choice to embrace all I do with simplicity and joy, there seems to be a domino effect that enables my family to get on board with me at times. None of this would have been possible without my choice to embrace the understandings presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for which I am forever grateful!
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
Sharon I needed to read this, ‘my commitment to developing a deeper love and appreciation of myself’, is something I seldom do. I seem to appreciate others but don’t give myself the time to do this for myself. Especially at a time with a new job and the pressures placed upon me, is exactly whaat my body needs.
It’s quite ironic but once upon a time, I used to have the late nights, the chocolates and alcohol and now a days, I would rather be filled with joy from appreciating and making choices of keeping things and life simple.
Your blog gave me an opportunity to appreciate how many changes I’ve also made in this area. I remember reading this ages ago and feeling how I wanted to change that feeling of chores, now it truly is about quality and the order I bring to the house and the blessing I leave in the kitchen when it’s all cleaned up – life with the soul is amazing. It’s feeling more like the one life where my being is what counts and brings the quality and richness to life, not the things I’m doing.
I agree Melinda, life is so much richer when your choices are from love and appreciating you and this is reflected to another. And from this, nothing is mundane or a chore, you are then in the flow of life and the quality your bring, is reciprocated.
When we seek a break (and want the chocolate or the chips or the beer etc), it is really a way of saying that we are looking for a break from ourselves and how we have been in the day (rather than needing a break from what we have been doing). Only we cannot run away from ourselves. This is a simple truth.
Sharon, how I love what you have shared here as simple words of wisdom – it is the how we go about things that matters so much more than the what we do and though life for you now goes not not much differently to before (in terms of still being a mum, working etc) everything changes when you bring in the joy and simplicity of living life.
Serge Benhayon presentations are life changing should you chose to investigate for yourself what has been offered to the world. Those people that have made the changes through personal choice are leading very different lives not in any sense of perfection but one of immeasurable love, simplicity, vitality and joy.
Gorgeous to read of the increased responsibility you have chosen to bring into your life Sharon, ‘I could say that I now feel more responsible for my own choices in how I choose to respond to the practical requirements of life.’
We can’t underestimate the power of our everyday way of living, to both create stress, misery and ill health, or a sense of wellness, presence, simplicity and joy. So many people believe that work and life is awful and hang for the weekend, their holidays or retirement, but everyday can be joyful when we reconnect back to and live from our soul. It can take time to establish this because we can have such deeply worn grooves to live life in a harsh and joyless way, but it’s very worth it.
You, and thousands of other people, myself included, are eternally appreciative of all Serge Benhayon brings for all of humanity, ‘None of this would have been possible without my choice to embrace the understandings presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for which I am forever grateful!’
Me too Lorraine, it’s such a gentle way to live and so beneficial, not just for ourselves but for those around us as well to enjoy our loving presence. Serge is truly an amazing teacher and representative of the Ageless Wisdom.
Its lovely to read of your greater contentment in life due to you making new choices, ‘This change has come about through my commitment to developing a deeper love and appreciation of myself. This love has allowed me to be gentler with myself and to trust that life can flow without me always having to control every aspect of it.’
Then our day feels complete so we get a truly deep-full sleep and the same loving cycle can commence appose our awakening.
Everyone we connect to benefits from being met by someone in their essence and seeing our greatest form of communication is our reflection, so maybe we can all look into a mirror with a deepening appreciation of the Love we all can be.
“I just allow myself to feel that my body is holding tension and to then make a choice, knowing that my own resistance to what I am actually doing is what makes the jobs feel boring or mundane” – I really like this as our tendency is not to allow ourselves that moment to feel but instead jump into reaction and in that we miss that golden opportunity of becoming honest and making a choice from that space.
This is very true
“So my life continues as business as usual, but with a much deeper awareness of how my choices can allow me to feel simplicity and joy in all I do.”
For all of us who have chosen to take a different path to the one that is expected nay demanded of us by society, the difference is night and day. I cannot go back to my old way of life and I look forward to what the day will bring without the need to control the outcome.
It feels amazing when we are busy and yet we don’t get caught up in the busy and we end up in being in a flow with all that we do, without any stress. Then when we do end up in stress it stands out so much as it feels so not right in the body.
Our body will always tell us about a life of stress, and when connected we would never be given more than we can handle.
When living with the awareness that how I experience life is a result of my choices and thereby making loving choices life has become far more flowing, harmonious and there is not the need of rewards to make it palatable – life itself is now fulfilling.
Beautifully said jstewart51! How we experience life is a result of our choices. This takes back the responsibility in full.
Great to read this again Sharon, I have seen some real changes on the home front in myself in that it’s not so much about the task but simply being me and enjoying that connection as I move through all my home duties. I am not quite there on the work front as I can tend to lose myself as I seem to place more pressure on myself there, even though it doesn’t need to feel any different to how I am in my home life. What I’m learning is that eventually it all feels as one because the connection to me is what’s consistently present across all of life, with all tasks equally the same.
The more presence we bring to what we do, the simpler everything becomes.
Being present with what we do is important in many ways, ‘I can feel more present with what I am doing and not getting ahead of myself thinking of all the things that need to be done. This change has come about through my commitment to developing a deeper love and appreciation of myself.’
“My previous pattern of feeling resentful about always having more to do, stopped me from embracing the simplicity of allowing myself to be truly present in what I was doing.” This is such a familiar experience, just keeping my nose above the water line.
We use control (in more or less obvious ways) to make sure things flow in a specific way, we deem The Way. Temporally, it may make a difference to us because the other scenario brings all kind of emotional reactions in us. Yet, by exerting control, we become masters to use force upon others and invite others to learn how to behave in order to please us. So, the order that we help to generate is not self-sustainable.
It makes sense then when we go into reaction because our attempts to control something have failed. I had a lesson in control over the last few days. Sometimes we get to see clearly that nothing is in our control and the only option that we have is to go with the flow. Having said that we can make letting go of that control very difficult.
Simplicity brings you back to the body and connection to who we are. All other things disappear from there..
Doing all the same tasks but then connected to my inner beauty makes a different life. Perhaps the outer looks the same, but it feels so much different, and far from mundane. It feels like everything is light and enjoyable.
For an observer hard to grasp, but I can testify as well that by being in the livingness every task feels joyful. I am doing the task with me, and feel all the beauty, gorgeousness that is me while doing it.
Fully embracing practical and functional life and really giving life our full commitment feels incredible, I find that the more I commit and the more I work the more revitalised I feel, whereas if I take it easy and don’t fully give it everything then I get exhausted.
Perhaps one of the most profound teachings that I got from Universal Medicine is that that takes hard work to keep my life simple.
I agree, that teaching has stayed with me and whenever my life gets complicated I know I have been slacking off!
Choosing to stay present is so important and coming back to reconnect when we drift off. This sense of presence has come about because you set to work with the “commitment to developing a deeper love and appreciation of myself”. ,
When we are present with ourselves, how can we but enjoy what we are doing – because we are their enjoying our own presence. I can see how approaching activity in this way brings a simplicity similar to when we were a child and enjoyed the simplest of things.
When we connect to our inner beauty, then everything we do just becomes magical, because we bring in that beauty. That sounds simple, but, in my case took quite some effort to be connected to that beauty constantly and consistently. Hard work to get there, but easy to stay there, if we treat ourselves, and do everything very very lovingly.
Yes, beautifully said Willem, it is really that simple but sometimes it takes a bit of time to accept that we are in fact super beautiful just for who we are.
Thanks Sharon, it’s such a common thing to resist or resent all we have to do in life, and have a reward such as chocolate, TV, or an outing to dangle in front of ourselves to get us through the day. Life for me has also profoundly changed to now be about the connection I have to me throughout the day, and the quality of energy I bring as I get things done. This quality of connection to myself brings a sense of joy and an opportunity to express love whilst I work, making the purpose of the day about being with me and what I bring to life.
It is without a doubt empowering to develop a loving and honouring relationship with our body. For I have discovered that when we do we have with us the truest guide as to how and what will support us best to live with an honouring quality throughout our day be it busy or not. I have converted my way of living from one that was all about how much I was doing, to now being about the quality of how I am doing things, how I am moving, and surprisingly I now am able to do even more with far greater quality of connection and without the exhaustion at the end of the day.
I’ve noticed that in myself as well Carola, that when I take care of my connection to myself and express the quality of my soul in my movements then I have a beautiful steadiness within me throughout the day and a definite increase in vitality.
When I have gotten stressed out about things I need to do and felt into whether anything really changed after I went to certain foods and distractions/entertainment to not feel it, I have slowly begun to see that all those efforts to relieve tension do not ever really work long – term. Only through making a choice to just be me and make more and more self-loving choices can we find true contentment.
Building a relationship with tension pays dividends. The challenge is not to react to the tension but to surrender to it!
What stands out in your blog is your commitment to yourself as in loving yourself and surrendering to whatever it is that you are doing, and taking responsibility for how you are with whatever is needed, in the knowing that how you respond to situations will either make something feel lovely and enjoyable or really stressful.
In the simplicity, the grace we are is there guiding us to keep it ever more simple.
The amount of energy waisted by us resisting what is ‘on offer’ makes things that can be simple so complicated. And if I am not fully connected to my body… then I am ‘gone’.
Agreed Monika – there is a natural flow to how we can move and live, and the beautiful thing is that it is accessible to us all through our connection to our body and being, as it resides within us. Something only we can choose to develop for ourselves.
What we befriend in life is a matter of free will, even if we befriend what kills us.