Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?
Waking up each morning in true appreciation of the mist in the valleys, the birds chirping, being in awe of the rays beaming through the clouds from the sun, or in the remaining glow of the last full moon. Feeling the freshness of the morning air on your skin and brushing across your nose as you open that first door or window of your home.
Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day that allows you to feel what is needed to truly support you to continue feeling the glory that each day and each moment can bring?
Knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life, to see the roses amongst the thorns, to build a relationship with your body that allows you to live in a way that leaves you feeling vital at the end of each day.
Then to look forward to putting yourself to bed so you can get up and do it all again tomorrow. A bit far fetched you may say: well at one point in my life I would have agreed with you, arguing this was impossible and ‘airy fairy’.
I rarely was able to see the roses amongst the thorns; there were glimpses, but not for long and I certainly was not able to appreciate the full bloom from start to end. Now after many years working on my own self-appreciation, learning to love and accept myself, I can now truly appreciate life and all that comes with it, thorns and all.
My focus now is no longer on the thorns but instead on the roses; the beauty, scent, aroma, gentleness and delicateness that surround me every day – that same quality I feel around me is also within.
This beautiful quality that has taken me a long time to connect to, is one that I now choose for myself as a way of life.
A life that now has a flow and a consistency where the complication still presents itself, only now I am able to observe it, deal with what gets presented and move onto what is next.
In the past the complication used to absorb me; it would consume my day at times, even making it difficult to sleep, playing on my conscience for as long as I would allow it to.
By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.
Observing how with the simplest of choices life began to shift, the complication became less, and the magic of God began to take over: with every thorn came a rose, and after a while the roses overtook the thorns, a beautiful reminder of how life could be if I continued to choose me, to choose love.
Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more… by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with.
After many years and the support of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon, I have learnt to take responsibility for my choices, the way I live and to appreciate myself, to love the woman I am, to know I am not perfect and nor do I need to be, that life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated, that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic.
By Nicole Serafin, 44yrs, Woman, Wife, Mother, Hairdresser, Tintenbar, NSW
Further Reading:
Wonderment
The Magic of God in Everyday Livingness
Appreciation, Appreciation, Appreciation
Appreciation of Life and Ourselves
The whole blog beautifully exposes the mind-set that life is hard, a struggle etc. sometimes things may be difficult and yet we can let that situation cloud the beauty and magic around us in the simplest of things, like the gorgeous sky and nature. We have so many blessings and we have been given so much, including how to connect to God and our Soul and find our way out of difficulties – it is really right there within us. As you share Nicole, that beauty and magic is also within ourselves and we can nurture that connection everyday and let go of the narrow and addictive focus the mind can have to the ‘thorns’.
Nicole this is really refreshing to read because at the end of the day we are too busy focusing on the thorns, than every beauty around us. And this statement was quite powerful to read, ‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently”. This just goes to show how our minds can ruin our bodies than if we allow our bodies to run our minds. Big difference to live from this latter knowing than former knowing.
It is us who create all the complications in life whereas, if we live in tune with natural essence of who we are, life can be very simple and magical.
I agree Mary, we are our own environment. It’s a hard pill to swallow when we are accountable for this. Within all of us is our natural essences, its just coated with this thick crust of nothing that thinks it can burden us. But the natural essence is gently nudging just as equally if not stronger.
Bringing back responsibility, appreciation and love for self can support amazing changes in our well-being, ‘ I have learnt to take responsibility for my choices, the way I live and to appreciate myself, to love the woman I am.’
True appreciation is the bridge to our Soul.
Thank you Nicole, I’m always inspired by this blog, it really opens me up to not accepting life as it is as normal, to see there is more love, magic and awe to live with, that joy can become my normal, and that appreciation and the power of my choices can support me to get there.
Absolutely Melinda, appreciation of our essence, which is our Soul-full-ness that has always been within, is an amazing step in our evolution.
The more I change my choices to be more loving the more beautiful life becomes. I’m not lucky or gifted, I learnt about the power of my choices.
We make choices in every second of every day, what are we choosing, ‘Knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life’.
There is so much to appreciate everywhere, and the more we accept that the thorns are a part of life the more we feel there is no limit to what we can appreciate.
Thorns can also been seen like the grit that enters the oyster and causes the pearl to form, an opportunity to respond and bring more of our true selves forth.
There is so much to appreciate, ‘Waking up each morning in true appreciation of the mist in the valleys, the birds chirping, being in awe of the rays beaming through the clouds from the sun, or in the remaining glow of the last full moon. Feeling the freshness of the morning air on your skin and brushing across your nose as you open that first door or window of your home.’
It is wonderful in this day and age to hear someone describing life as magical as it seems that so few people feel this. This can be a new normal.
And sharing the magic in our days opens us up to see more magic.
I thought of all the people who don’t wake up feeling light and energised in their body or having birds chirping outside their window. It can be easy to think that life is a chore and hope to get through it as best you can. I have also found that changing me is the only way to feel the magic of life again – and it is the only thing we have any control over! For me it came down to taking the focus away from thoughts and coming back to just feeling and honouring my body. When I don’t wake up feeling light, it is because I have not done this i.e. eaten too heavily, not gone to bed when I was ready etc.
I always liked the quote as a child about the man who looked down and saw mud but looked up and saw stars, it seems to me the direction of our gaze determines at large the outcome of our experience in life – do we truly see the magic at hand or are our eyes only seeking out the rubbish?
I think we are quick to separate body and mind when in fact they can work together and in union. Why separate something that is all one in the same?
I do not appreciate enough the lightness and the space I consistently feel in my body, and then to appreciate all my choices that have led to feeling this gorgeousness from within…appreciation is my missing ingredient! I already have a marker of the power of appreciation, so it is for me not to stop appreciating!
To be willing to see the good, the bad and the ugly not only prepares us to live in a world of human created horror, it also allows us to bring through that which we have starved this plane of life with and that is our innate divinity – the essence of who we truly are.
‘Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?’ This line always stops me on reading it, where I give myself the space to feel this question…and with somewhat disappointment know that I cannot feel a resounding yes.
“Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?” This question can really sum up where we are each at in our relationship to life. I don’t currently see life this way, so that has given me a great opportunity to look at why not and what beliefs are in the way, thank you Nicole.
Reading this blog today “is a beautiful reminder of how life could be if I continued to choose me, to choose love.”
So when we are faced with challenges or complication of any sort, keep it simple and choose love.
The blog is a beautiful reminder that how we live, and the choices we make, can literally change our lives, ‘Now after many years working on my own self-appreciation, learning to love and accept myself, I can now truly appreciate life and all that comes with it, thorns and all.’
“to choose love” is to choose to feel the magic of love that is all around and within us.
“Observing how with the simplest of choices life began to shift, the complication became less, and the magic of God began to take over: with every thorn came a rose, and after a while the roses overtook the thorns, a beautiful reminder of how life could be if I continued to choose me, to choose love.” Beautifully put Nicole the more we listen to and feel the magic of God the more we realise how much there is in our lives.
Choosing simplicity over complication, ‘A life that now has a flow and a consistency where the complication still presents itself, only now I am able to observe it, deal with what gets presented and move onto what is next.’
For me today the most joyous moments were driving and turning a corner to be greeted by thousands of sunflowers dancing in the breeze and later when a little girl, just one years young that day, took me by the hands and toddled towards me and as I stepped back she stepped forward with such sparkly blue eyes and just kept walking towards me full of joy, playfullness that the same rose up in me to greet her.
Very beautiful, and magical Elaine.
Once we truly start to heal we can connect with, and feel that there really is grace and beauty in the interconnectedness of all things
I woke up this morning and after a while started to think about the new job I was doing today and whether I would go well doing it or not. I was concerned that I wouldn’t do so well and it was starting to cloud my thoughts. When I read this line ‘Then to look forward to putting yourself to bed so you can get up and do it all again tomorrow,’ I realised I wasn’t seeing the bigger picture and magic of my whole day just the thorns that may come up amongst the roses. To consider that I would be living a whole day not looking at just the thorns that may get in my way but lovingly putting myself to bed tonight so I could get up and do it all again was a very deep consideration. A beautiful blog Nicole reminding me to appreciate everything that is on offer everyday, the absolute magic there is in life and to appreciate myself as I move throughout the day and how I respond to it.
When I read this line ‘Then to look forward to putting yourself to bed so you can get up and do it all again tomorrow,’ I realised a lot of the way I live is focussed on the thorns that crop up in my day and not in appreciation of everything that is simply beautiful that comes in my every day such as the natural beauty, the smile on a person’s face, the simple things like the beauty of a rose. To look at getting up to do it all again was a very deep consideration in how I live a whole day. A beautiful blog Nicole reminding me to appreciate everything that is on offer everyday and how I live my day.
An ode to appreciation and how choices we make can compound either our loveliness or it’s opposite and the thing is in each moment we have another choice.
We can appreciate more, and so build our appreciation muscle, ‘Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more… by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with.’
I woke up this morning to the birds singing to greet the day that was coming, the sun wasn’t up but they knew it wasn’t far off. To me there is nothing more magical than to listen to birds singing first thing in the morning the sheer exuberance of their song is so uplifting.
I agree Mary, the stillness of the morning and the beauty of birds singing signalling a new day, it feels very magical.
I agree, the magic of life is not just what we can see with our eyes…
I love listening to the birds sing, they always have so much joy.
There are so many moments full of space and connection that are there , around and within us, that can remind us of the magic that is there always.
“Each moment you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you” – I agree, getting to know and rekindling the connection with the truth of what we are builds confidence and trust that supports us move through life in whatever ways it gets presented.
Every day we have the opportunity to choose what do we make life about: a small thing closed in itself, or feeling that we are part of the all.
Life is truly magical… The more appreciation there is for life the beauty and magic reveals itself.
To live as you describe is not a pipe-dream. It is a reality that can be lived and it is one that I am embracing more and more each day and it is glorious.
When we invite complication into our lives it is like we allow a great big spider web to be woven all around and through us, its stickiness attaching to everything, making it so hard to separate what is true in our lives from what is not. And trapped in this web we begin to not only lose ourselves but also the magic that is life. To begin to say no to complication and yes to simplicity the web no longer has anything to attach itself to so life begins to sparkle once again.
I love the image you give here, Ingrid, it conveys so clearly, and simply, the complicated life that is created by complication.
I am choosing to say no to complication when it tries to enter my life, and yes to simplicity, ‘In the past the complication used to absorb me; it would consume my day at times, even making it difficult to sleep, playing on my conscience for as long as I would allow it to.’
There’s such a shift of focus when we live from love and appreciation; life does become magical again, just as it was when we were children.
The more we open ourselves up to love, appreciation, and magic, the more we have in our lives.
I love what you have shared here Nicole, life is truly magical if we open ourselves up to this truth, if you always focus on the thorns you will be blinded when the roses appear.
Gorgeous to read Nicole how life can be lived when we come from love and appreciation of our divine qualities and way of living, the magic and joy of life can then be appreciated.
In every situation in life we can appreciates its beauty or we can focus on the thorns of life and let them spike us.
Life is so magical! I clock now if it is a thought that is lesser than who I am i.e. straight out abuse. If it’s not tender, absolute delicateness and love I know my movements need to slow back to that heavenly all body movement of my heavenly touch.
And the more we appreciate life the more the magic reveals itself.
No matter what is going on in our present life there is always the opportunity for the grace and magic of learning to help us accept and understand what is going on.
It is not just changing our perspective on life but as you share here Nicole when we start living with more care and love this will deepen and then the beauty can but be seen and with every step more.
When we absorb what is around us we can get caught up in the thorns but when we observe all that is around us we are aware of the thorns as well as the beauty of the roses and move through our day with purpose to share the roses with those around us.
There is no doubt that the soul is beautiful and that it comes from even greater beauty, so I appreciate the reminder if I’m not feeling that then I may have stopped observing and got caught up in the mess that is life at times.
Thank you Nicole for a beautiful reminder of the love that is on offer all around us and within us, that life need not be a struggle when we claim this love which only deepens the more we appreciate the magic of God that is present.
‘Knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life.’ Thank you for this loving reminder to appreciate ourselves and see the Magic of God that is always on offer and which I am increasingly choosing as the thorns get correspondingly more insignificant.
Thank you Nicole. I have been wondering why things are as they are in a certain relationship and it is very simple I am being too serious and therefore too heavy and not letting the spontaneity live. Ironically this is exactly what the other person needs too.
Thank you Nicole for a beautiful blog, and the appreciation you have of the amazingness that life has on offer, learning to see the beauty in the roses and allowing the thorns to just be.
‘After a while the roses took over the thorns’, life feels so much fuller when the roses start to take over the thorns.
The times that I have chosen to focus on the ‘thorns’ of life, what I feel is unjust, cruel, corrupt, harsh, etc. in a reaction to those things without simply calling them out as an observer, I have begun to then only see the ‘thorns’ as if the ‘roses’ were not even there.
This is great Nichole, as I have never thought about life in such a way “to appreciate the full bloom from start to end,” and may I add that the thorns have there place as well. Thorns are some of my greatest lessons in life for with-out that little prick we remain asleep and disconnected.
Powerful meaning that life is simple and this is for us to come back. Now or tomorrow, we are love and love is simple, so should our way of living to be too.
I have found too that the more we bring appreciation into our lives the more our attention goes onto the beauty that is naturally there, ‘This beautiful quality that has taken me a long time to connect to, is one that I now choose for myself as a way of life.’
There is so much for us to appreciate, beginning with who we actually are in essence and the love we are constantly held, as is reflected though the magic of nature, reminding us all of the our own magical and innately divine nature. As from this point of appreciation, the power of who we are can be naturally lived through whatever we do in the world.
That life is not meant to be hard … now this is something so many of us in the world do not live, I know I didn’t for a long time until slowly and surely I allowed myself to take greater care and in doing so I noticed more of the beauty including in me. And that has changed everything.
I always used to focus more on the roses and the magic of life but there are also a lot of thorns and suffering that I did not want to see so clearly. In more recent times I am choosing to see it all exactly as it is or as clearly as I can and accept the thorns and atrocities and their role in bringing us back to the love we truly are.
I like your approach Nicola, life is what it is, and it is what we do with that that makes life magical or not.
Everyday offers us the possibility of choosing us or choosing something else.
Focusing on that which is of truth allows us to display and overcome anything that is of the what is not.
Appreciating all my choices even the unwise and irresponsible choices deepens understanding of myself and allows me to hold myself through any situation.
When we begin to appreciate ourselves life opens up and there is a richness there in the simplest of things and yes there are thorns but they come with roses and in fact we learn to be with both, for the biggest lesson in this is whether roses or thorns we’re equipped and neither can touch us when we’re just living connected to ourselves.
I used to see the thorns as insurmountable and would be constantly anxious and stressed that they were there and that they could arise at any moment. I would use ‘perfect’ and ‘nice’ to try and keep those thorns at bay but they would impact me even more because my foundation was false. Now the thorns are my greatest lessons and teachers, as they show me behaviours and patterns that I have been living that are not at all from my essence and ask me to read more astutely what is going on.
Appreciating the thorns and the challenges is a deepening level of appreciation that keeps deepening some more.
It really is a moment to moment choice: do we accept and see life as magical, and everything that happens as amazing reflections of our choices, or do we choose to be a victim of life, at the mercy of it and our own choices? Even if we’ve chosen victim mode, it doesn’t dictate the course of our future, that is forever unfolding according to whatever we’re choosing in each of the billions of moments in our days.
Why do we resist so hard to stop being who we all are, when being amazing and full of love is a simple choice away for all of us!
There is so much in every moment to see and feel but how much are we willing to see? This is a beautiful testimony of the more we allow ourselves to see the more we will actually see.
Making choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life and to see the roses in our everyday life is a great choice.
Beautiful blog. Miracles do happen – every day. Every moment of appreciation is one.
This is wonderful to read and gorgeous to see the changes, ‘I have learnt to take responsibility for my choices, the way I live and to appreciate myself, to love the woman I am, to know I am not perfect and nor do I need to be, that life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated, that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic.’
Life really is beautiful when we make changes, feel into our bodies and follow it’s lead. I now feel many moments that you’ve described and yet sit here feeling that there’s more. But I know that that ‘more’ comes from within me and not from an outside source.
It is amazing what life can and does bring us, considering that everything it presents offers us an opportunity to evolve, understand and grow. All of a sudden those life challenges become stepping stones to again radiating with the essence of our soul.
Thank you Leigh, yes, on the surface things can present as ‘awful’, maybe they don’t fit the picture we have of how life ‘should be’, yet our situations come precisely to us providing opportunities to both let go of what is not true, and to confirm and live more of what is true – our inner essence from the soul and God.
Appreciating is what keeps us moving forward. When we move with appreciation, without attachment to relationships, jobs, people, life naturally brings our next step towards us. Our job is to keep steady, to read situations, to stay awake and aware of what’s truly needed next. Every moment is an opportunity to learn and to evolve. Life’s actually pretty magical, when we look up, and let go.
This is a great reminder of how we can continually appreciate throughout our day, ‘to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life, to see the roses amongst the thorns, to build a relationship with your body that allows you to live in a way that leaves you feeling vital at the end of each day.’
Life is truly magical I agree, even in the worst situation or in the most challenging position there is such an abundance of magnificence and beauty, the thorns are a great metaphor, because you only have to slightly change the course of your eyes and there are the most beautiful exquisite flowers on the planet.
It is the observation of life as we feel it that brings a deeper understanding of the whole and how we in turn live within it and that is truly magical indeed.
“My focus now is no longer on the thorns but instead on the roses” Me too. For a long time I thought the day would never come when I would see the roses were more than the thorns. But it has and it’s a miracle.
Yes, I can relate to this miracle in my life too Lucy – my view of life is so different now – there is an abundance of roses and far fewer thorns.
I can totally relate to what you have shared Nicole. I have had a life of doom and gloom which created a lot of anxiety in my day. It has been a long process to clock and then stop what is not of love in my thinking but the reward has been nothing short of divine.
I know that ‘doom and gloom’ feeling well Kim, and how all consuming it would be when in it. Everything was then based on right and wrong, and most the time everything I saw as wrong. To come out of that and to see that there are so many roses and moments to deeply appreciate, is like lifting a heavy thick damp blanket from our eyes.
Well described Aimee, it’s a thick veil of illusion that is heavy on the body to carry.
One of the most important choices we can keep choosing to make, ‘Knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you’.
Thank you for the reminder that life is not complicated or hard. Should I require understanding I am asked to read and feel the energy at play, something I can now these days easily do.
Yes life is truly magical even when it may seem it is not!
This is so true Nicola. Every situation, every moment is one of magic for us to learn and evolve with and from.
I agree Nicola, everything we experience is truly magical especailly when we bring full appreciation to it.
‘Observing how with the simplest of choices life began to shift, the complication became less, and the magic of God began to take over’ It just that, to see and feel the simplicity and appreciate even the smallest changes or things that occur and be open to the magic of God surrounding us to support in life.
“My focus now is no longer on the thorns but instead on the roses.” I love this Nicole. When we appreciate what truly is around us thee is so much on offer. A glass half full or a glass full – to twist the old adage….
Yes, this article has helped me to be aware of how I am naturally focusing more on the beauty around me now, ‘the beauty, scent, aroma, gentleness and delicateness that surround me every day – that same quality I feel around me is also within.’
I can feel the hugeness of our choice to see life from either our limited view or the true view – that is magic.
Your blog really drew me today because I can feel how I’ve made life hard again, mostly because I am not letting the beauty of my being be central to my life, alongside the appreciation of myself.
Feeling the fire (heat within my heart) that wants to come out more when we speak about appreciation and that we are in fact part of the magic in life, very much so, that at times it can seem too glorious for us to accept it.. But it is for us to do so, and when we do, we will outweigh any darkness around (we might have chosen before, but no longer choose).
Thank you Danna, this was perfect for me to read today. There is a realisation there that the issues, problems and darkness you refer to are part of the comfort, the irresponsibility to not claim and live the glory of me.
And that is within us.
Magically yes – thank you, very dearly reminding us of the depth of love and magic that is in you.
I was very good at focusing on the negative things for a long time or if I was waiting on a test result from school or the doctor i would always go to the extreme negative, which I find very interesting and shows where my values rested. I have found how much I value and stop to appreciate my movements and choices today also helps me see that many of the choices I made when I was young were all leading me back to who I innately am and that is a pretty powerful appreciation unto itself. Life definitely is magical and our choices are a big part of that.
I saw a saying that struck me the other day. It said, ‘you could bemoan the fact that a rose bush has thorns or celebrate the fact that thorn bushes have roses.’ It’s about where we choose to focus our energies and I can see how you have changed your focus Nicole and as result you are seeing the beauty and magic in life.
It is in the allowing, of feeling the all, that we meet the grandness, the magnificence, the beauty, the magic of what is by design around us. What I can feel when I read your words Nicole is how I have chosen to contract away from the all, not wanting to feel the ugliness I see around, and missing out on the beauty at the same time – and that was my choice.
Life is truly magical feels so very expansive than life is full of struggle my old belief system which only and ever generated complication and struggle. Having much more of an understanding of life and of myself, (having cleared and healed many old hurts), there has been many times that life has been simple, flowing and magical.. and indeed many more times that I have missed.
I recently experience how heavy, dull and disconnected we feel when the focus is on the thorns and there is little or no appreciation of the roses. By stopping to feel the communication from the body and then choosing to re-align and and walk ‘with it’, feeling the quality of every step on the ground with conscious presence and returning to whole body awareness, everything changes, as if by magic, to being lighthearted and joyful once again.
It is life changing when we begin to love ourselves. Just to say and feel deeply that I love my body, and appreciate all it does for me, opens me up to more awareness to any refinements I need to make to continue to truly nourish and care for my body and to continue to evolve.
Lately I have only been seeing the thorns and not the roses. Then a few days ago, my body communicated; Be tender with yourself today. And everything changed. I could feel the light within, the light I carry, it felt like the voltage had been turned up. The thorns cleared that day as the bud of tenderness began to blossom and express. I felt amazingly light and innocent, just like a child.
It is just a matter of where we emphasis on, on the thorns or on the roses? I know which one to choose. While not neglecting the thorns I choose for the roses which to me represent the heavenly glorious life lived in a physical body. A physical body that is bounded to the earth because it is made up from its particles, that to me represents the thorns.
The magic of God is always there. My openness to it, is what allows its revelation in my life.
Perfect reminder for me today Amparo, of course the magic of God is always there, but how open am I to receiving all he has to offer?
How amazing it is, that making one single choice to re–connect to the body by being in conscious presence and awareness with it – complexity can be exposed to open the way to simplicity and the Magic of God in our life. “By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently”.
I have just stepped outside in the early morning to be greeted by the most glorious dawn chorus, seemingly hundreds of birds singing so gloriously in their own unique way, probably celebrating the fact that it has finally stopped raining and blowing after many days. I could feel their joy ripple out to the world and it made me smile from the inside out. Yes life, “is truly magical” – we simply need to pause for a moment to enjoy and appreciate it.
How gorgeous Ingrid – and on the other side of the world I stepped outside onto a third floor balcony to be bathed in the most glorious and vibrant sunset of a huge panorama of various shades of red, yellow, gold and orange hues of light, spreading across the evening sky – a moment of magnificence and glory of the Magic of God visible for all to see and appreciate.
I have been in the experimentation stages of adopting a different approach to life myself. Most recently one huge difference being to simply let go when a situation occurs that would normally trip me up and leave me feel all wallowy. I decided I’d given that a go many many times over and so this time I’d try something else. I’d trust that everything was ok, that I was ok and that perhaps this situation was actually an offering of something other than what it looked like. letting go, and just going with it, I can say with my hand on my heart IS the most effective way forward!
I am experience the same thing Elodie. I got myself into a bit of a struggle with something ( letting my mind take over!). As I became aware of this old pattern of mine to let my head rule, I realised this was not my thoughts and called this out. And then the knowing of what to do next was there: just surrender, there is nothing for me to do but surrender, for in the surrender grace can flow.
This is the perfect blog for me to read right now as it was brought to my attention I do not see the magic in life. Initially reading your blog I felt oh gosh well if I lived in valley surrounded by the most amazing nature of course I would see the magic in everyday life but that is just it .. it is seeing the magic everywhere including the most built up concrete places … there is magic. This is still very much work in progress rather instead of trying to see it, it is allowing myself to feel it.
‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.’ When thoughts take over we get drained and complication will come into our lives and as a result the body gets exhausted, I agree when we choose to feel the lightness and the magic of life the body is the one to listen to.
Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day that allows you to feel what is needed to truly support you to continue feeling the glory that each day and each moment can bring? No, not always, and is a lovely reminder for me today.
Do we see the issues or do we see the opportunities? Do we choose to live our grandness or our limitations? Everything is a choice, so are we appreciating what is being offered to us in life, and are we appreciating our ability to feel and to read, to express honestly? Are we seeing our amazing value of being true to ourselves in a world where we are conditioned to live as the world decides away from the intimacy with ourselves?
‘Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?’ I sat with this question and my honest response was no to both parts of this question. Maybe, I just have to fully open my eyes…. and maybe, I need to take more time to appreciate, confirm and clock when I do feel the magic and the glory, for I know it is always there.
Great question Doug; How can we connect to God when all we see is the mess? I can feel how important it is to stay in our bodies, staying present with all our movements and expressions – constantly being aware of how everything we do, say and thing affects every-one – energetic responsibility.
Ah the roses, that’s right…. sometimes I can get so bogged down in the thorns I forget that there are many many roses. We were literally smelling the roses at work today… there were two white roses and they smelt absolutely divine, when colleagues would walk past them and stop to smell, their whole demeanour changed and a smile spread across their face.
In learning to walk through life with appreciation I feel like a toddler taking its first steps – wobbly and unsteady and yet every time I fall I pick myself up and take another few steps. I know one day I’ll be walking confidently with me with appreciation being my ever present companion.
Love to re-read this blog and feels to me a powerful confirmation of how much I have let go of and as a result I too no longer focus on the thorns ( the struggle, the complication, the exhaustion of taking on others stuff and emotions) and now in my life the roses are taking over those old and outdated thorns….There is so much for me to appreciate and love about myself.
I love the magic of simplicity.
The way we see life is purely based on perception. We can see its challenges as thorny and without the roses if we are also choosing the live in a way that is not honouring of ourselves and others. But we can also see such challenges as simple learnings of expansion such as a rose opening up itself more and more, letting more of its beauty that is already there out.
Beautiful Joshua what you express. Recently, I had such a challenge with a relationship, and in the allowing of giving the other space to be where they were at, I felt the expansion ( of not trying to control and hang on to the relationship, and old pattern of mine). It felt like a little package from my Soul, divinely constellated and perfectly timed!
Life does become truly magical when we stop making it about our issues, about the ‘small stuff’. When we let ourselves remember that the stars above are not separate to us and that we are part of a stupendous whole, we know we are part of something magnificent, and bringing that magnificence to the practicalities of daily life, makes our lives truly magical.
Beautiful what you bring to the fore here, that life is actually very beautiful, that we simply need to learn to see that beauty and most of all see and know our own beauty – from within.
When we see and know our own beauty from within, it is like the curtain lifts and we move onto a new beginning, or like a new chapter in our lives, simply because we are allowing love to flow through us and be expressed through us, knowing that all we do is with the hand of God.
And one person can see a messy unruly vista that needs order and lots of work to make it acceptable, and another can see the beauty and wonder of nature…. It is all in the eyes of the beholder.
I love what you share here Nicole ‘ by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with.’ This is a beautiful reminder of the power of appreciation in our lives and how it can transform our lives immensely when we choose this.
Appreciation really does change how we see life, it is not something we are taught to do not in it’s true sense, so it is not familiar but when we do suddenly we can find a lightness and joy in things that we would normally find mundane. I was appreciating your appreciation of the detail of the day Nicole and when we bring this appreciation to each other life is truly Magical.
It is magical when we simply shift our focus, life becomes completely a different story. How is this shift possible? It comes from the amount of love we allow within us, so that all choices in life come from the foundation of love, rather than lovelessness. It feels magical, but it is something every single one of us are able to choose. #OrdinaryExtraordinary
“Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more… by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with.” How easy it is to be grabbed by the darkness of this world, it’s a focus in the media and news for example. I have often focused solely on an issue, disturbance or problem in my life, but I can feel it’s less about the issue and more about how I dismissed myself and the wholeness of me within such situations. As you say you’re still dealing with the thorns but you’re not consumed by them because your appreciation is for the bigger picture of life, and for the totality of yourself.
Today I am deeply appreciating the gorgeous colours of Autumn, here in Central Victoria, as I walk with myself and my dog amongst the leaves and the damp earth; what a joy. Your blog Nicole supports me to appreciate and confirm all that is on offer to us all.
Gorgeous indeed Nicole. I really appreciate, and connect to, what you have expressed here;
“A life that now has a flow and a consistency where the complication still presents itself, only now I am able to observe it, deal with what gets presented and move onto what is next”.
‘…a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?’
This is a great question to ask oneself from time to time – because if this is not a life that you would come back to live then what needs to change? Fact is, we are coming back, whether we like or believe it or not – so how we live now is very much determining what our next life will be. This calls for great responsibility and celebration at how we can choose the quality of how we live in each moment. This goes for the day and night too, we wake up to be faced with the day we lived prior – so what needs to change?
This is gorgeous to feel the blooming of appreciation for All that is present to support us in our everyday. Yes we have the choice moment by moment to make it as simple or complicated as we choose. The reflection of nature is truly a magical way to take our cues from if a little lost in the overwhelm of thoughts of what isn’t working.
For most, if not all, of my life that I remember my default pattern was to see the thorns before the roses. Now, since my involvement with Universal Medicine, I cannot yet say that I have reversed that default pattern but I can say I see the roses first much more than 50% of the time. That is growing with everyday and that feels fantastic.
Nicole I love the sensibility you bring here and how as you say there are always thorns, but there are also roses and it’s about how we live and choose to see life – do we give focus to just the thorns or do we see the roses and understand that no matter what is happening there is always that beauty and appreciation to come back to in us, and it’s just a matter of living in a way that chooses to give focus to this while knowing and understanding that the thorns are there but that they can never overcome us unless we choose to forget that there is so much more – we are love underneath absolutely everything always.
We are never taught to focus on appreciating ourselves and what is around us, there is more attention for our imperfections. Coming from appreciation, which is known and felt in our body, our eyes open up to the beauty of ourselves and life as a whole.
I thought that life was something that we had to get through, that struggling was normal and we simply had to manage it as best we could yet I constantly questioned what is it that we are getting through and to where are we ending up? I now realise that the struggle existed from resisting living in connection to who I am within, to my Soul. Through developing a loving connection to my essence I have discovered that there is much to appreciate, a world in fact where magnificence in normal, where who all of us are within is glorious in every way and can be as such through the choices we make in every given moment.
Thank you Nicole, your blog gave a fresh breathe in my day, as I felt a little down (from being hard, wanting to be perfect etc.) I am reading this and realizing that I should stop playing hard games with myself and give myself some fresh breathe, and so I did and felt the bright commitment again. So inspirational. Then I also read this line which beautifully stood out: ‘Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more… by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with.’
You know what I do to all this ” Waking up each morning in true appreciation of the mist in the valleys, the birds chirping, being in awe of the rays beaming through the clouds from the sun, or in the remaining glow of the last full moon. Feeling the freshness of the morning air on your skin and brushing across your nose as you open that first door or window of your home.” but I don’t choose to see the same beauty, love and all I bring in myself – I tend to focus on the negative.
This was a perfect blog to read today. I have found I have no trouble appreciating nature and the magic of it, and I can nearly always appreciate people, yet I can get caught in feeling a mismatched of who I know us all to be and the behaviour I see us manifest. Nature doesn’t say one thing and do another but we do…we say we love and then we manipulate to ensure we don’t get hurt of feel like we are less than another. Your blog reminds me to be this love consistently for myself and leave that as a footprint on the earth, for me to come back to and to show others it is possible to be and do.
Letting go of the images and expectations we place on ourselves and instead focus and appreciate those areas that reflect our own beauty allows us to accept the many blessings that are given to us on a daily basis and live in full appreciation of the all.
Beautiful, truly beautiful Nicole, sharing with us the magic of appreciation and the love that comes from that.. Is palpable and known by this blog. Incredible how we all got this choice to make ourselves and allow life to be truly magical, not that it was not before (we might did not wanna see it), but so now we allow it and accept it to be part of us, our day, our life:
This is just stunning Nicole. I love what you shared about life shifting when you bring awareness and love to your choices… and with this the recognition that every seeming thorn has in fact a rose to appreciate when you choose love as your foundation… outweighing any darkness and consuming you instead with magic. Gorgeous.
The thing is that we have made life about right and wrong and good and bad and thus are always trying to pick on and out the bad and the wrong to make life better, but this keeps us in a cycle of picking and choosing and trying. Life is a whole and the more we allow ourselves to see this and live it the more we will see that all has a purpose and that we are here to learn to unfold back to the grandness that we belong to.
What a beautiful confirming supportive blog to read and enjoy and see the light and beauty in each and every day allowing the complication to be and not overwhelm one. True appreciation for the all, the magic , ourselves and everything can be felt from working on ones self love and allows the true magical way of living and this certainly confirms this thank you Nicole simply beautiful.
True Appreciation is awesome because it holds everything and when truly expressed allows us to expand to our fullness, and in that we offer a fullness to everybody and everything around.
I agree Doug. Sometimes thorns are a gateway to truth and with it comes an appreciation of roses.
For years, I appreciated and connected with nature, flowers, trees, butterflies, sky and sea: I felt and saw the magnificence of the world. But without feeling my own equal magnificence in the intricacies of the universe, the true magic of it all eluded me. Without deeply connecting with our inner selves it is difficult to appreciate ourselves fully and all that life offers us in each and every movement.
“Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?” Great opening question Nicola, and leaves me to ponder as I am not sure I can honestly say I want to come back time and time again. That said through The Way of the Livingness presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, my life has transformed incredibly so, I feel so much more ‘content’, in my skin (or body) and with life in general and with who I am and what I bring. But there is more, and perhaps I am at the juncture, ready to go deeper, ready for life to show me more……
By seeing the roses amongst the thorns first and foremost it allows us to also see the magic of the potential full bloom in the world around us.
The magic of God makes life a joy and brings the wonderment we had as kids back into our lives. There will always be thorns, but they too are part of the magic of God. Everything has a meaning and message. We can’t pick and choose what we see, but we can choose to respond thankfully and with appreciation for all the support that is constantly offered, to remind us of who we are and who we are not.
Thank you for reminding me that there is another way to live Nicole. I don’t feel refreshed, vital and joyful every morning (or even very often) but I am inspired to take whatever steps I need to take to start feeling this way consistently.
“with every thorn came a rose” when we learn from the prickly issues of life we blossom like the flower of the rose and appreciate the beauty of who we are.
You know Nicole it strikes me, reading this part of your blog… “Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day that allows you to feel what is needed to truly support you to continue feeling the glory that each day and each moment can bring?” … that this is such a rare approach to take to a day. For most, even if we wake feeling refreshed and great, rarely think to continue making choices that foster and sustain what you offer. Rather our progressive choices make us increasingly sluggish, tired and heavy. Which once I think about it… seems to make no sense at all. Why we wouldn’t continuously seek to feel that lightness in order to enjoy life in the way you suggest is a question most definitely in need of asking.
It’s simply outstanding when we can appreciate the glory and magic of this life in the simple every day moments. It does not need us to be high achievers, spend lots of money, have power or fame… it just requires us to be present moment to moment, and to live in a way that allows us to enjoy all these moments, rather than feeling bad about decisions we have been or are making that shoot us in the foot.
Nicole you have really reminded me of the darkness I used to live in and how there is so much to appreciate now, even though I have this stubborn pattern of not always seeing all the beauty of myself. The truth is my life has shifted into such an amazing place with the support of Universal Medicine and by my own consistent self loving choices. There is so much more to celebrate, thank you for inspiring me today.
“By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” . . . .one cannot help but feel the difference this makes to everything. It is like stepping out of entrapment and into a whole new realm.
I appreciated what someone said yesterday and it brought them to tears. We can never underestimate the power of what is truly taking place when we make appreciation a natural part of our day.
I have received the message that it is important to appreciate the gifts life offers many times, however it is rare that I am reminded to deeply appreciate myself. Your blog reminds me that without self appreciation all other appreciation is empty.
Changing the focus from the thorns to the roses is such a glorious transformation.
Today I have had a rough day, not feeling very great, had a hard morning with the kids trying to get them off to school. In the car before we left, the whole family did an exercise of telling the group one thing they would like to change and two things they appreciated about the morning. My husband lead this and all the children responded beautifully, I refused to join in out of my own stubbornness and hurt. Shortly after I felt my mistake and so I followed the kids into school and cuddled and kissed them and told them one thing I would like to change and two things I appreciated. One of the kids I couldn’t find, I went to his classsroom but his class wasn’t there. He had left for school very steady that morning and so I wasn’t worried but I noticed a kookaburra was sitting right where the door to his room. I was touched, as I knew it was a gift, for me, at that moment, its times like these that bring me back
Observing life from our connection makes the view on life way more crystal clear than when we are in the remedy of it.. To observe ourselves and our actions and to build awareness to why we do certain things. To allow ourselves to feel who we are and feel the parts we are not that. By our honesty and will we can see all the evil we want to see – we simply have to choose in our wholeness to do so.. It is a matter of choice and allowance – that allows us to see all we moved and all we have played.
Whenever I am presented with a feeling of nostalgia over something I used to do, I always bring it back to the point you have made here Nicole – I love my life so much more now than ever before!
‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.’ When we stop our head taking the lead we have an opportunity to allow our body to lead the way, and when we do it is astonishing what happens.
Learning to take responsibility for our choices is such a huge thing, that every second of every day we have a simple choice to make, to choose love or not. It should be a total no-brainer but still we carry on choosing that which harms ourselves and others, so reading your blog Nicole is such confirmation that making the true choice really is a no-brainer.
Beautiful blog Nicole. I do not always feel this way about life, but certainly more often since I have re-connected with myself. When I am ‘off’, this is an amazing blog to come back to and reignite that inner flame once again.
What you have expressed here Nicole is so very beautiful, my eyes welled as I felt the rose and the understanding and awareness of the same quality within;
“My focus now is no longer on the thorns but instead on the roses; the beauty, scent, aroma, gentleness and delicateness that surround me every day – that same quality I feel around me is also within”.
Appreciation allows our divine qualities to deepen and expand and naturally we can then see and honour these qualities in others.
I love this Nicole, this has really inspired my to embrace this day and enjoy all that is there to live.
This blog is so beautifully open – not one sliver of guard or protection in sight… Thank you Nicole!
“Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more… by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with.”
I can relate to what you write here Nicole as I lived so much in the darkness for so long and life was super hard and confusing in there. And so much anxiety.
This is a nice moment of appreciation actually (thank you) to see that I no longer live in so much darkness. But recently I felt myself slipping into old patterns of living that way and remembered how that felt living in there and I was like nope, not going back there again. Choose love, choose me, choose delicateness over hardness, get support and return to the roses as you have so described in your blog. Each step, small as it is, towards love to ‘smell the roses’ is a magic one.
When we truly appreciate all that is around us we begin to feel how truly magical life is by all it offers us in every moment.
I love how your focus is now on the beauty around you Nicole, there is so much, ‘the beauty, scent, aroma, gentleness and delicateness that surround me every day – that same quality I feel around me is also within.’
There is so much to appreciate Nicole. Being present with our bodies gives us the ability to appreciate what is there, rather than the mind that always reaches outward, looking for something beyond to fulfil.
“Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day ….”
Thank you Nicole, this is something to be implemented in my day and carried on through out it!
As I read your beautiful blog this morning Nicole I see the sun shining through my front window, the wind chimes and trees blowing in the wind and the birds chirping outside. Nature truly is a divine reflection of how we can in turn feel within. Pausing to enjoy the reflections is much to appreciate from the choices we make throughout our lives. Thank you Nicole.
If we only focus on the thorns in life that is all we see and feel the spike of.
By observing and understanding that life has thorns representing our imperfections to learn from and be aware of allows us to fully bloom.
Appreciation is such a game changer, in so many ways…’ by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with.’
‘ I have learnt to take responsibility for my choices, the way I live and to appreciate myself’ So simple and yet life changing when we make loving choices on a consistent basis – life does become truly magical!
Gorgeous Nicole, reading this article is just like watching a flower unfold its petals and bloom. I can feel the appreciation in your words.
Before encountering Universal Medicine and the Ageless Wisdom I believed I was responsible for my choices. However, I came to understand that my ‘choices’ were in fact reactions to the results of an earlier opportunity to make a choice but had not because I had chosen not to take responsibility for whatever reason, be fear, too painful, confrontational, etc. Not choosing to take the responsibility when it arose created the choices that were in fact reactions to the ‘thorns’ in my life, which created the illusion that I believed I was being responsible.
Hanging the focus from ‘the thorns to the roses’ has been one of the most beautiful things to have occurred since meeting Serge Benhayon and choosing The Way of The Livingness
It seems totally balmy to focus on the thorns when there is so many beautiful roses, but for most of us we still struggle to see the rose from the thorns or complicate things needlessly as seems to be human nature, when we have it all we just want more, garden of Eden and all that so having Universal medicine and Serge Benhayon and this great article Nicole to show that there is another way out of the conundrum of life is truly a liberating thing.
Appreciation is something I need to claim and celebrate more – I have so much to appreciate in my life. The magic of God is all around us, in us and through us, in every movement. We can make the gift of this our responsibility to reflect to humanity.
Thank you Nicole, just to feel those choices that I make and so simply to again and again come back to who I truly am. Quieting my racing mind and allow myself to feel the beautiful magical being, flowing through and within life.
So true Nicole, learning to live from that appreciation we open the door to a deeper understanding and connection to the magic and Divinity we are truly from. All the criticism and slef-judgment we heap upon ourselves only serves to bar the portal to this magic within that is ever awaiting our return.
Thankyou Nicole, like yourself once upon a time for life to feel magical and beautiful it would have seemed like an idealistic dream, yet here I am making this happen. I’m going from focusing on issues and problems (the thorns) to seeing myself as a beautiful rose, as someone with much to appreciate – both in myself and in life, and connecting more each day to the magic all round me. It is possible to live each day feeling beautiful, loving ourselves and appreciating life. Enormous thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for showing me the way.
Bringing the simplicity back to life, and so letting go of the complication is a welcome choice, ‘Observing how with the simplest of choices life began to shift, the complication became less, and the magic of God began to take over’,
Appreciation is like putting a magnifying glass on the smallest of details in our life and seeing the glistening diamonds held within. Appreciation expands the joy.
…’that life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated, that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic’ This was a revelation to me…I expected life to be hard and complicated because we have made it so, but since being connected with Universal Medicine to discover that life can and does have a flow full of magic has been a truly amazing discovery!
I do enjoy feeling the lightness in my body first thing, something I had not appreciated until now, ‘Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day’?
Choosing you is a fundamental first step, and to keep choosing you in each moment, ‘Knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life,’
I love the feeling of walking through what I might consider ‘un-chartered waters’. I get this when I am willing to explore expressing things I may not usually feel comfortable saying or sharing. The more I do this the more I realise how much I enjoy the constant change that is taking place and that while it appears new it is actually very familiar.
The barbs or thorns when I was growing up were “sugar and spice and all things nice’ Yuk! No wonder we live in a crazy mixed up world with many generations being told that “sugar is good for you!” As you say Nicole, when we take the time to smell the roses our life can be magical.
I have only recently understood just how addictive complication is, how it can be perceived to give meaning to life and yet also how self-perpetuating it is. A very tiring Groundhog Day till illness and disease ask us to question our normal.
Appreciation is a key ingredient to our experience of life.
I love this blog Nicole, I love the appreciation of all the little things that add up to a joyful and magical life. I know that for me, when I fail to appreciate all that is there to appreciate in my life, I lose the sense of magic and wonderment that is my life.
What a key point to not take things for granted and to truly appreciate who we are, where we come from, the Universe we are apart of and the Divinity that created us. Everything else simply doesn’t really matter it all falls into place. When we surrender in this knowing then what ever we need, where ever we are meant to be will but be supported and magic will be at the forefront of our days.
Beautiful Nicole, ‘My focus now is no longer on the thorns but instead on the roses; the beauty, scent, aroma, gentleness and delicateness that surround me every day – that same quality I feel around me is also within.
This beautiful quality that has taken me a long time to connect to, is one that I now choose for myself as a way of life.’
This blog us a great reminder that there is so much to be light and joyful about in life should we make the choice to not only see it, but to let it in.
It has taken me a long time Nicole, to even begin to touch upon living my life appreciating the Magic of God around me. This shows that living life magically is there for everyone if we choose it in every moment and if every moment is approached with love then our lives can truly be evolutionary, and it is possible to live with joy from day to day. Of course, there are going to be thorns, because we have accumulated many thorns along the way, and without them there would be no reflection to evolve, but recognising a thorn when we see it is the best awareness we can have, and then we can look past the thorns to see what is beyond.
I love my roses in my garden- the subtle perfume that can be smelt as you walk past them, the beautiful colours when in full bloom- all a wonderful reminder to see the divine beauty, and appreciate that life can be awesome, fun, and full of God’s magic, with no complications. It is a choice to smell the roses or see the thorns.
Waking up and looking forward to living life all over again shouldn’t be ‘far fetched’ or unthinkable. On average we live around 80 years, and to feel apathetic towards the world and what our role is in it for all this time should not be the norm; we can instead choose to appreciate the magic in life and engage in all that there is to learn and teach others.
So true Susie, we all have so much to appreciate and share about the magic that happens all around us.
Nicole, reading this brings a tear to my eyes, ‘life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated, that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic.’ I can feel that this is how life is for children, that it is usual for them to wake up full of themselves and ready to be a part of life, often waking early, I can feel how as we get older we want to be in bed more and do not wake up with this same joy and readiness to be part of life.
The power in your observation that when we chose to invest in the beauty, darkness does retreat from our light.
When we look out from a body of love we feel love and see love around us, the thorns become held within the nature of the all en-compassing love we are a part of.
Often without the thorns, the ‘ouches’, we may not wake up to the fact that we are surrounded by the magic.
Life is magical, listening to the birds outside my window while reading your blog I am appreciating it is always there for us to re-connect to.
After 12 years I am still learning to make simple choice to stay truly connected to the loving Son of God I know I am.
I know the more I let God into my life the less complicated it becomes and the more joy I can feel in me, Life is truly magical if we but allow it..
It really is simply a choice to choose simplicity over complication. And in the simplicity we can feel God and the beauty of life.
After awhile we can recognise the thoughts and conversations that take us away from the joy that we are. We can be aware of the things that bog us down and keep us away from being the light that we are.
The way life constellates excactly as it needs to for us learn and evolve is truly magical.
I love the last paragraph Nicole. Learning to accept that life is not supposed to be hard or complicated is one true gift that we are all in need of grabbing with both hands. Imagine if we all gave up on the idea that ‘life is a struggle’. I for one would be living in a very different vehicle of expression. A work in progress!
‘After the many years of support’, I have also received from Universal Medicine and its practitioners, I am also much more solid in appreciating the roses and not the thorns, forever a student, but I do enjoy learning too that is cool! An awesome blessing to humanity, a reclaimed me and Universal Medicine!
The head or the heart, not magic or magic, when we reconnect with our hearts implies magic is felt.
This has also been may experience, “Observing how with the simplest of choices life began to shift,”, one of my simplest and most profound choice was to practice to observe life, how my body feels and what is going on around me, an illuminating experience and deeply supportive.
What we choose to perceive is so important. I made a choice this weekend to look across platform at an underground station and not just observe the issues and baggage people carry, but their essence within.I have been practicing this for a awhile, it is a different perspective. To be more open to the essence in ourselves and others allows us to feel and observe love and light. And it is a choice and it is a practice, but it does however become more normal, a new normal.
I have read this blog before but the title drew me to it again this morning. Since I have been focusing on appreciating myself, the thorns of life have not disappeared, but the way I look at and deal with them has changed. Life is no less complicated, but I am not so reactive and have the ability to be more of an observer first before I act.
Life is truly magical indeed Nicole. I have found it is the way I choose to live that allows me to feel this magic or not. Some days when I am connected to myself, I feel what you’ve shared and some days when I have made unloving choices I am not able to feel or appreciate the magic that surrounds me. The magic of life is always present, ready and waiting for me to connect to it but is down to the details of my choices that connects me to the magic or not. So, every choice I make matters and it impacts on everything.
I just watched an image of a dog in the clouds as I was talking in a meeting, I love how simple playful images are around us when we want to see them it is easy for them to appear.
‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.’ This is key, when we understand that our thoughts are fed to us and depend on the energy we are aligned to, it helps us to take responsibility for that alignment, and, instead of allowing our thoughts to dominate our day, to allow what we feel in our bodies to guide us in everything.
It has been gorgeous to re-visit this blog, a simple and powerful reminder to be responsible, appreciate our bodies and take more care of them. Building a deeper relationship with myself has opened up a flood of true appreciation for the magic of my body, life and for others. Thank you Nicole.
“to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life” its like life is setup to not appreciate all the glory that is around us, we focus on seeming issues that are not actually issues and then don’t get on with the bigger purpose that we are here to bring. If we start each day and each moment appreciating the details of life then when we do work, talk or communicate I’ve come to understand that our words and movements are coming from a different place. As others have shared when I bring appreciation into my day then everything flows with ease. It shows how everything comes back to my responsibility for my choices.
It is true what you are saying Nicole, I too thought that is was far out, airy fairy notion to have magic and joy in ones life. Once I understood what these truly meant with the support of Universal Medicine I have started to see how this can be. I am starting to feel and see the roses – and man do I love roses. What I really can contest to is the more I appreciate how amazing I am and connect to the Glorious Love that is within me then I am starting to see that in all those around me and every where I look. A total confirmation of everything is a reflection.
To see the magic of life we have to be open to seeing the magic within ourselves first. Often I notice how filtered my eyes are depending on what I am feeling or thinking at the time of viewing! When I am in self-appreciation what I see in front of me has a completely different look than when I am in self bashing mode… yet the view remains the same!
It is so easy to hold onto complexity thinking we need to stay ‘on top’ of everything, but in fact it is an unnecessary complication that just holds us in a holding pattern to stop us deepening and becoming more aware of the grandness and simplicity and stupendous intelligence of the truth we are all from.
How would this World be if we brought our children up in the knowledge that they are worthy and the need for them to appreciate themselves and not look outside of themselves for confirmation that they are OK. Thank you Nicole for sharing that ” life is truly Magical”. It is up to each of us to allow ourselves to let the Magic in, to be felt and seen!
You have identified appreciation as one of the keys to a truly magical life Nicole. This is something that resonates with me, I do not have the depth of appreciation that I would like, but I am working on developing this each and every day. I have felt the difference when I am able to appreciate myself and the joy and magic this brings.
Reading this I can feel how appreciation is not often something I choose. I see how I have made appreciation about something I do instead of who I am and what I bring to everyone. I see and feel things so differently when I appreciate every day, there is a definite science to it.
Once the roses can be appreciated we are not victims of thorns anymore, but can actively deal with them as part of life on earth as it is currently lived.
Life is truly magical and it is our choice of energy and how we live that determines what we feel and weather we choose this or not . It is amazing how we can change our perspective on life and the power we have with this.
Thank for the inspiration “to see the roses amongst the thorns”…the whole world is focused on the thorns, we need to see the roses.
Life is truly magical as your title suggest and I love waking up every morning to begin a new cycle and a day full of new opportunities to learn, grow and connect. Thank you Nicole.
Nicole, this is such a gorgeous article, when I read this I can see that this is how children are ‘Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?’ I notice with my son that he loves waking up in the mornings and enjoys life, he sees beauty in the details and has fun pretty much all the time, so I can see how this is our natural way of being – that life does not need to be serious and hard.
I love how you see the world Nicole. I often feel life as magical, but then get caught up in what I have to do, rather than being able to observe and appreciate all that there is to my world, the beauty and support that surrounds me daily. Taking the time to appreciate the magic of life is hugely powerful for me.
Met too. I love how she sees the world and shares it with us.
I have embodied ‘self-appreciation, learning to love and accept myself, I can now truly appreciate life (and) all that comes with it, thorns and all’, in a way that brings a humble relationship with all of humanity. Why humble? Humble because over the last12 years I have learnt to appreciate the all that I have become, which brings a knowing that we are all equally that! With this understanding I can share that it comes with a responsibility to choose the energy that brings love into my body.
A change of perspective can change the world.
‘Then to look forward to putting yourself to bed so you can get up and do it all again tomorrow.’
This sentence sparked something in me and brought a clarity as to why I often do not start the day with a zest or a vitality for it. Putting myself to bed feels like a relief, a check out, like I get to not be with the world for a while and take a break. But having that intention when I put myself to bed is a movement that then creates the movement I wake up to. Pretty cool!
For me this way of being comes from when we choose to disconnect from God, and live in our head ‘I rarely was able to see the roses amongst the thorns; there were glimpses, but not for long and I certainly was not able to appreciate the full bloom from start to end.’ In truth none of these issue are real when we come back our body and feel. It’s more like observing show.
‘Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?Waking up each morning in true appreciation of the mist in the valleys, the birds chirping, being in awe of the rays beaming through the clouds from the sun, or in the remaining glow of the last full moon. Feeling the freshness of the morning air on your skin and brushing across your nose as you open that first door or window of your home.Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day that allows you to feel what is needed to truly support you to continue feeling the glory that each day and each moment can bring?” You know what I don’t do this everyday, life is really simple if we choose to live this way.
Thanks, Nicole. Re-reading this blog is a great opportunity to reflect on how I was constantly caught up with thorns in the past, moving from one thorn to another and seeing life as a big bunch of thorns! Now that I have created space within myself by starting to deal with my hurts and reactions to life, I can see between the thorns and connect to the beauty and spaciousness that has been there all along.
How to start the day is an awareness worth bringing to the world. And the day starts in the way I put myself to bed at night.
I remember someone once saying to me that they appreciated when things came up for them because it showed something they could let go off and bring greater love too so they didn’t see it as a problem more an opportunity. I thought this was a cool way of looking at it.
Thank you Nicole for sharing that it is possible to experience beauty everyday despite the thorns in life that we may face.
‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently’.
Living life from the body rather than the mind, opens us up to experiencing life in a whole new way. One (from the mind) is tainted by beliefs and ideals; and the other (from the body) comes with a freedom of experiencing and enjoying life as it is – the simplicity, beauty and joy.
Living in appreciation is a life that grows richer by the moment.
This is such a sweet blog Nicole, reminding us all that there is magic all around us, all we have to do is look and allow ourselves to see it. And we choose what we see, the roses or the thorns and in any moment we always have this choice.
I must admit my first reaction was ‘this sounds too good to be true’ but on reflection what was really going on for me was that I didn’t want to feel the truth – that this is what I am actually denying myself when I don’t choose to be all of me – who and what I truly am. Much to appreciate – thank you Nicole.
Wow Nicole – what you describe here sounds incredible but I know that it is possible for each and every one of us – we just need to commit to being consistent in making the right choices.
When we make our life more simple we start to see the magic of God. It is a surrender to being a part of the Universe and appreciating our part in shining our light and thus taking responsibility for who we are and what we live in order to serve life in general.
As I read this at the start my thoughts were like a non-stop back seat driver. Thoughts of such being an impossible feat so why bother – the fact of love being all around and within and coming through us constantly is only a myth to the mind where as the body knows that this is very real and can be experienced.
After 12 years of loving choices I am learning to listen to my body and it definitely feels all that happens. As I am slowly learning to listen to the body magic does happen.
Beautiful Nicole, it was a joy to read and feel how joyful life can be when we chose to feel the gorgeousness of who we are.
Amazingly beautiful and refreshing to read your words, Nicole in a world that can appear to be full of thorns. As we open up to the possibility of change and begin the process of taking responsibility we realise that the thorns are of our making, and that if we want our life to be full of roses that is a possibility that is well within our grasp, if we choose to connect to God and the wisdom of the Universe, which is constantly there supporting us.
Power-full wise words. “By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” Your mind will conjure the same thing over and over again, the bodily feelings has more to it. This is a simple way to be aware of where you are at in your state of being.
“Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day that allows you to feel what is needed to truly support you to continue feeling the glory that each day and each moment can bring?” I don’t do this enough. When I wake up the first thought is usually a thought of not appreciating myself. It happens so quickly between the feeling of potentially allowing to feel how my body feels by continually surrendering to what it is telling me to the same reducing contracted thoughts. It shows me I am not appreciating myself in that moment of my day and how I fell a sleep the moment before was not in appreciation.
Your blog inspires us to appreciate that life is truly magical. I can so relate to what you’ve shared, the more I appreciate myself and everything around me the more I see the world is full of love and magic. Appreciation is like stopping to smell the roses, soaking in the beauty of life, and confirming we are all divine and glorious.
I recently watch The Way of The Livingness broadcast in which Serge Benhayon talked about appreciation and how much it is key to our evolution and in your blog I really get a sense of how this transforms life.
Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more… by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with. Yes, this was me also Nicole. Self appreciation of who we are, what we have and where we are at, totally changes how you feel about life as you start to take responsibility for your part by moving in a way that confirms you are way more than your mind will allow you to know.
Beautifully expressed Nicole, appreciation and acceptance allow us to experience pure magic and joy in our lives.
Nicole, I love the way you talk about your life having a flow and simplicity without getting caught up in complication. It is inspiring to read of the joy and magic you feel in life and your appreciation of this. My life is becoming more joyful and definitely more simple, this creates an ease with life which I am appreciating more and more.
I love how there is always something we can appreciate about our life, and the beauty of nature around us.
I too feel truly blessed by it all, and love feeling the symbolism from the world of nature.
It is amazing how our lives change when we choose to see the roses. It is such a simple choice yet profound in its offerings.
When we start to pay attention to our choices and take responsibility for those choices we start to look at the thorns in a whole new light and realise that they are not there to punish us or to avoid but to show give us an opportunity to evolve.
Your blog was a great reminder for me this morning Nicole, reminding me of my own loveliness and how my day can unfold from simply connecting with and moving in that divine loveliness.
The magical relationship we have with God and the true understanding of how it fits into our everyday life should taught at school!
Just when I need it, the support and love is there. It is as if I am constantly being looked after, the right person is there offering me exactly what is needed. There is no denying the magic of God when I let myself surrender to this love.
‘Knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life, to see the roses amongst the thorns, to build a relationship with your body that allows you to live in a way that leaves you feeling vital at the end of each day.’ well said Nichole.
My focus was once on the thorns in life instead of the roses that’s for sure. Through learning to love, appreciate and connect with the beauty within me I naturally see the world through different eyes were the roses are my focus rather than the thorns and the magic of God is reflected to me.
Thanks Nicole, this is truly inspiring to remember to stop and appreciate the beauty that is all around us. And the more we appreciate it, the greater connection and communication we have, and this is a great reflection to remember who we are also.
Nicole, I love coming back to your blog as it reminds me more than ever quite how much Magic is all around us – we just have to choose to open our eyes and see it!
I also have found life to be amazing from start to finish every day. Each day is a clean sheet to start afresh, and this is created by how we ended the day that has just become the past.
And the future if we live in our fullness!
“Knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life” This statement is so true Nicole I had never really got this before but I am starting to understand how we are all masters of our own lives and that we can choose to move in a way that confirms the real love we are.
“I have learnt to take responsibility for my choices, the way I live and to appreciate myself”. I too have done this and my life has changed so much. Life is truly amazing and full of magic. Everyday is a new beginning.
“In the past the complication used to absorb me; it would consume my day at times, even making it difficult to sleep, playing on my conscience for as long as I would allow it to.” I can relate to this, it use to absorb me for days, playing on my mind. But now it’s all changed I can observe more, make different choices. I too now see more roses than thorns, it is a constant work in progress in responsibility and making choices.
Knowing that we are the lightness in our bodies is a gift of tender loving self-care that supports the quality next our choice and movement. Developing and expanding on this foundation becomes simpler and more natural the more we are aware that the way we move and care for ourselves truly matters. Why would we want to hurt or diminishes the lightness we innately and deliciously are?
Once you are seeing the roses first, then the thorns also become beautiful because they are then opportunities for further evolution.
Living in constant appreciation of everything around us allows us to see more of the beauty, simplicity and magic of what life truly is even with the challenges that might be presented we are always being asked to be more of who we are.
I can so relate to what you share here Nicole… the smallest of changes can have a huge effect, and the more I lovingly nurture myself, the more appreciation I feel for myself, for others and for my life… and life becomes truly magical.
‘the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with.’ I can really appreciate this in my life too. I really used to live in a foggy darkness and now the mist is lifting life so much more beautiful. I’m working on not pulling the blinds down because that lets in the fog again so I’m choosing to be more aware and though this can be a little uncomfortable it’s worth it.
I can so relate to your comment and this blog, thank you for your sharing.
If the hurt and issues we have accumulated represent the darkness you speak of Karin then the more we walk to those glimpses of light the lighter our steps become.
I love this blog Nicole, it is light and full of joy. It is inspiring of how life can be, it can be truly magical. My life does not feel like this everyday, but some days are, and I know that everyday can be and that is me who chooses how my days are. They can be magical or not.
It is so important to appreciate, truly appreciate ourselves and others, and the joy of that connection is grander than any sabotaging though that may enter our head.
This is very true Jenny, and something that I glimpse and hold and turn away from and again return to. What I am discovering is that I appreciate myself a whole lot more than my head lets me know. Appreciation comes from a feeling in the body, the heart, and I can feel that I love myself and appreciate what I bring but trying to think it, does not work for me.
It is all about making the choice. Seeing all that is there for us to learn from. Which is truly beautiful, life is truly beautiful. We only need to make the choice in every moment, to be in this wonderment – seeing the roses.
This is so beautiful to wake up and read and take the appreciation and magic into ones day .The expansion and joy felt in the magic and seeing this opens ones heart and can be deeply felt by all.
It became clear to me that trusting and being open to magic in life and that it is always there, accessible to us was only possible as I began to trust that there is magic inside me. The Universal Medicine healing I chose was an important catalyst in developing this foundation.
“Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?”
How many are hoping for that kind of life but it never comes? How many are looking forward to the next break, the next holiday, the next ‘out’ time but all they ever get are fleeting moments of relief or excitement? For most this question is like a fantasy, like a fairy tale, so it is very valuable what you share that this can be very real and is reachable for all.
Self appreciation does make life simple, and this opens up the space to begin to enjoy life again and to feel the awe that nature can inspire. Little kids are like this, uncomplicated and without the imposition from others that there could be anything wrong with them. In this simplicity and joy to simply be themselves, there is room to connect fully to life and enjoy all the wonder and magic that abounds.
I love it when you just bump into someone in the street you have been thinking about or considering calling. It’s like the feeling is the call and the answer comes physically to you. It happened to me yesterday when I had been thinking about someone but it was just a distant thought and then I bumped into them. I only remembered I was actually thinking about them after I had physically spoken to them, “life is truly magical”.
Nature provides a magical reflection for us in every moment, and if we can appreciate what it brings, it supports in our evolution back to the Divinity we are naturally from and that is innate within us all. We are being constantly pulled back to the truth of who we are, and nature helps to light the path of the journey home.
This is something I have to do more, make space to appreciate my life, rather than be so caught up in doing it that I never stop and smell the roses. I have realised that some of the drive we can experience in life can come from that fact we haven’t really appreciated what we have come from and so we are driven to do whats next because we feel the lack.
Complication can so easily slip in if I am not present with my body but when choosing not to entertain thoughts and focus on keeping things simple, really simple, it makes such a difference to my day as there is a flow, I get so much more done but most of all I feel alive and at one with my body.
‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.’ This is huge. Our thought often predominates all that we do at the expense of what we feel. For me a great indicator of how I am is the degree to which I can appreciate the beauty within me which is reflected back through the magic in the world or to which I have issues running in my mind preventing this. In a recent singing and sound workshop with the amazing Chris James the return to my body from my mind bought tears to me eyes – sometimes we don’t realise what we’re missing.
This is really beautiful Nicole, that you can appreciate each day as a new day – see it in full for all it has to offer, and accept the rose and the thorns, that it is not about perfection but about the fact that we appreciate each moment.
Nicole thank you for sharing your magical life with us and inspiring us all to see the beauty everywhere throughout our day.
The rose is an amazing plant, it not only has petals that are delicate, the rose hips are full of vital nutrients. Rose hips are like a super food and being super human, if we so choose a ‘knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life, to see the roses amongst the thorns’, this supports you ‘to build a relationship with your body that allows you to live in a way that leaves you feeling vital at the end of each day’..
By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently. This makes a huge difference absolutely Nicole. This morning when I opened my eyes, thoughts started flooding in immediately, thinking about what had to be done and feeling the energy of anxiousness connected with that drive. Then I stopped myself, and just breathed and felt my body and I just let myself be with me. Such a simple thing to choose, but it stopped the mind chatter and reminded me of how lovely we truly are when we can just let ourselves be.
“Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more…” and more and more and even when there are thorns it just means there is more to learn and appreciate.
““Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day…”
That is a great reminder Nicole as it does not make sense to start the day any other way, but how often do we do that anyways. I certainly will have to pay more attention to the quality I live my life in rather than the quantity of what I can get done.
Bringing life back to what there is to appreciate and to focus on that supports no end when things get a little “thorny”. Quite often those thorns are only very little when put into the context of the bigger picture and so in appreciation we we don’t make mountains out of mole hills, but with due consideration and awareness can sort things out pretty quickly without emotion or too much fuss.
An awesome attitude to wake up with everyday
What a beautiful gentle reminder that we always have a choice.
Yesterday was one of those perfect English days where the sun was shining, the birds where chirping, the smells of meadows and roses was in the air and the trees where dancing in the breeze. Of course there are many (well not that many!) days like this in summer, but the difference was that I was present in my body and connected to it all, and felt it as an extension of the celebration I was feeling inside, of being one with God and nature with every breath.
Haha – Janet, I always thought the perfect English day is when it rains outside and you have a fire going and snuggle up on the couch with warm socks on.
‘Knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life, to see the roses amongst the thorns.’ How easy we can be trapped into seeing the thorns and thinking this is life rather than truly appreciating that this is a choice. Like the flipping of a coin we can let ourselves see life in a whole new light and perspective if we so choose it.
Nicole this line struck me this morning “Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day that allows you to feel what is needed to truly support you to continue feeling the glory that each day and each moment can bring?” when I feel at ease, connected and deeply caring of myself I treasure those moments but I often don’t feel what is needed to support me to continue feeling that glory. Something that I can feel would be really supportive for me.
Stopping to appreciate the little things in life that can so easily pass us by, if we get caught up in in our minds and loose the connection with everything around us, how the birds fly, the birds singing, the stars in the sky all bring us back to a sense that there is so much more to life than what we allow ourselves to feel. Appreciation of ourselves is the first step to appreciating everything around us, our bodies naturally become lighter and our mind becomes less cluttered with thoughts that keep us seeing the thorns rather than the beauty of the rose.
To stop and smell the roses as we travel this life fits this blog well. Have you ever noticed that when we try to improve something that doesn’t need fixing there is a trade-off! Rose growers are constantly trying to make new types of different coloured roses but in the process, they lose their scent and have no smell at all. As humans do we try the same alchemy on ourselves, try to improve how we look to the outside world and lose who we truly are?
Thank you for reminding me that the way out of complication is simple. Small choices to do what is loving in each moment support us to make huge shifts in our lives and ways of being.
The more you appreciate the beauty in life, the more you can see. Absolutely Nicole, because you’re not holding onto anything but just in allowance. This opens you up in your body and as we are all connected to everything, so too does our world open us immeasurably.
Each day presents a greater awareness from the lived wisdom of the previous day, and we learn this from a very young age. ‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently’. For me living in the wisdom of being with my body in all I do (conscious presence), so what you are doing the mind is thinking, is an awareness that is a game changer! Having an awareness of my body as it moves through life becomes a Livingness that brings so much to my day and by the end of the day I feel complete – ‘Then to look forward to putting yourself to bed so you can get up and do it all again tomorrow’. And more!
A beautiful sharing, Nicole, I love this “Now after many years working on my own self-appreciation, learning to love and accept myself, I can now truly appreciate life and all that comes with it, thorns and all.” Yes, I spent much of my life only seeing the thorns, rather than the beautiful roses, figuratively speaking. But my life also has been turned around by making small but actually huge changes to my approach to my daily life. By learning to connect to my own innermost, and be comfortable in my body, listening to all its plethora of communication, I have developed a huge appreciation of myself and all that occurs in my life. The key for me was also to develop a deep love and acceptance of myself as not being perfect, but still a beautiful loving woman. Acceptance of ourselves is such an important word in this journey, not needing to be perfect, but living the best way I can at this stage.
What is interesting to feel is that even if there are parts of my body that are sore or in pain I can also choose to connect to that lightness and joyful essence that you describe Nicole and feel that are I am connected to the beauty of nature.
It is so beautiful to read Nicole of the shift from a protective view of life to one of appreciation and self acceptance. I can relate to a deepening in my own self acceptance and self love, when I stop to connect and appreciate to my own fragility and power and the immense support that is there all the time.
I love what you’ve shared here Nicole about the more you appreciate the beauty in life, the more you can see – and your analogy of more roses and less thorns. A few years ago I would have totally rejected this notion of needing to go anywhere near the body, to reconnect to the simplicity and flow of life that is always there. Mine was so flooded with anxiety and stress! But like you’ve shared, the less I allow my mind to dominate, and the more I bring myself back to my body, to my breathing, the simpler, lighter and easier my life has become. So much more of a joyful and less stressful way to live.
Hi Nicole, thank you for this. While reading I remembered that if I saw a beautiful sunrise or sunset or huge stunning full moon or any awesomeness in nature I would go wow and feel it as outside of but now I still go wow however I see this as part of me, I no longer make it grander than who I am. There is a respect but also a feeling of equality. The first part of your blog also gave me a gentle reminder of the magic of the Universe and all that is within it. Since knowing Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine a deep and well needed awakening has happened within, however this is a continual and ongoing process .. there is always more to be unfolded and revealed. I could also feel that when we do have this .. see more roses than thorns but not deny the thorns that are within the world (hurts, frustration, anger, sadness, wars, abuse, cruelty, separation etc) we have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters within the world who currently only see the thorns to show them there is another way and there is more than what we currently see.
“Then to look forward to putting yourself to bed so you can get up and do it all again tomorrow”. Many would consider this statement to be “out there” or impossible to experience and once upon a time I would not have believed it myself. But when life starts to truly be this way and it has come from simply introducing consistent Self-Care and Love and being honest with myself, it is really quite something when this statement becomes true.
“My focus now is no longer on the thorns but instead on the roses; the beauty, scent, aroma, gentleness and delicateness that surround me every day – that same quality I feel around me is also within.”-
What a great reminder. Thank you-you have reminded me to smell the roses more and appreciate life and myself and others more.
Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have watered the gardens of so many lives that there is now a beautiful scent of roses spreading increasingly across the globe.
I too can testify how incredible it is ‘to build a relationship with your body that allows you to live in a way that leaves you feeling vital at the end of each day’.. It’s so true what you’ve shared about how having this kind of relationship allows us to appreciate life and the miracles that happen around us as we’re not constantly thinking about or being weighed down by our emotions, a dense body and a general attitude of disregard which often leads to feelings of unhappiness. We really can change our entire outlook on life through making simple, consistent loving choices and taking care in how we move and are with our bodies.
This I can relate to so easily: “In the past the complication used to absorb me; it would consume my day at times”, growing exponentially as it went around and around in mind, and as it did, burying the actual truth of the situation deeper and deeper into its very sticky, complicated web. Having come to understand that the moment I bring complication into my life the truth and the magic disappears has made such a huge change to the way I live my life, a change that I celebrate every day.
Appreciation is huge and to share what we appreciate about ourselves not only to ourselves but another person or people is very confirming and allows our relationship with ourselves to deepen and expand at the same time. A quiet confidence begins to grow as we realise all that we bring.
This reminds me that so much is about our perception, recently in the UK things have become very ugly with racism running rife like I have never known it. Others perceive threat where I and others see opportunity to grow and discover. How we choose to live our life shapes how we see it and perceive others, it is in fact vital to our development to know we shape our view of the world.
I have to admit on starting to read the beginning of this blog I thought this is too polly anna, but then you shared it is not something that has just happened but that “This beautiful quality that has taken me a long time to connect to, is one that I now choose for myself as a way of life.” it’s something you choose and like you I find so much more magic and beauty around me daily that I appreciate.
Hello Nicole and this blog always feels so warm. When I read it this morning I felt the full winters sun on my back in between my shoulders. The warmth ran out into my whole body and made me just want to cuddle into it. I took a deep breathe and then let me body settle into this feeling. This all felt so real and in fact the feeling was, thank you for the early sunrise today.
How many would love to wake up in the morning with such joy – it is still something I have to work on – living the purpose that gets me out of bed not in exhaustion but with love and appreciation of life.
It is so easy to focus on the negative, what is wrong, what hurts etc. like at the moment my back feels tense and hurts a bit and it is so easy to just focus on that but there is so much more! I feel a huge warmth in my whole body, I feel a beauty in my presence, a stillness, a grace and great beauty. The tendency is there to go for perfectionism like I can not fully enjoy all of the beauty with the back pain, but this is not true it is just a way I have chosen to live for long that it seems normal but I can choose to appreciate what is there as I will.
“By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently”.
It has been quite a process over the past few years to bring the machinations whirling around within my mind towards a stop moment, in order to be able to bring more conscious presence to my body.
It has been well worth the effort as there is a strong and steady solidness being re-developed in my inner foundation. When the mind is back in charge, the raciness begins again and the day does not stay on a firm footing until back present with the quality of movement arising from within my body. What an amazing teacher the body is.
I appreciate the simplicity and joy that came with making different choices.
It is true that we miss out on so much when we do not appreciate the every detail and miracle of life, the learning in every moment.
A beautiful blog – your discovery of the beauty and richness of you that is equal to all that is reflected to you by nature is deeply inspiring.
One of the magical things that comes with appreciating yourself and your life is that you can do that in almost all economic situations. It does not take a lot of money to appreciate ourselves, in fact it is free. It just requires courage to get started and then it gets easier and easier as we live and express more and more love.
My son just rang me up to tell me about a duck that is on the pond in our garden. He described in great detail how he is there every morning with his head tucked under his wing having a sleep. It is magic to me that I now appreciate these details whereas years ago I would have raced through this kind of thing and not allowed the space and blessing that observing and appreciating nature affords me. It is thanks to the wisdom of Serge Benhayon that I have then developed my own wisdom – and there is much wisdom in appreciating the magic of nature.
‘Life is truly magical’. Yes it is, yet what I have experienced is that although the appreciation of this is important, it is also important to stay connected to reality and be aware of all the horrendous things in the world that are going on. My tendency when I feel the magic of life is to go all kind of wafty and my feet can come off the ground. In moments like these I need to give myself a reality check to stay connected to the world in all its misery and pain as well as all the beauty and gorgeousness there is to feel.
I agree Nicole since appreciating my self I am able to see and appreciate the beauty in life and in people no longer just seeing what is not is wrong. Appreciation is a key to the kingdom of God.
Nicole, I have been appreciating life more since reading your article the first time, noticing the sound of the birds and the beauty of nature as I go about my day to day. This morning I made the choice to feel the lightness in my body as I woke, I was awake earlier than usual and felt the absolute tenderness and stillness in my body and am enjoying continuing to choose this quality in my day, ‘Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day’, thank you for the inspiration.
Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?
Your opening question Nicole was something that a few years ago I would not have thought would ever be possible to live in such a way. It brings it back to our choices and living from our bodies and how we feel rather than thinking and busying ourselves which takes us away from feeling who we are. The simplicity of life and how we move in every moment really does make a big difference to how we live each day and it definitely is a magical way to be.
Nicole, it is lovely coming back to your blog and remembering to see life from the beauty and glory it is rather than getting caught up in all the nuances. We can work trying to get to some ideal of love, or we can start with the fact that we are already love and so it is an unfolding back and hence there is nothing to attain or get from outside of ourselves. It makes a massive difference and takes away the fact of doing the wrong or bad thing and so removes a lot of self judgement – at least it has in my experience. The moment I try to get somewhere I know I am out as I already am love just choosing not to be for whatever reason.
“Observing how with the simplest of choices life began to shift, the complication became less, and the magic of God began to take over”
Thank you Nicole for the beautiful reminder that the choice is always ours and to appreciate the magic of God, in life and within each and every one of us.
This morning I got up and stood and confirmed to myself, my sacredness is with me now, and my job is to move in a way that supports that divine essence. With that, my whole body changed and the next movement felt so very beautiful, it was as if, every woman was with me as I moved forward. This prompted me to remember something that came to me some time ago, a question that I posed to myself as I looked in the mirror. What if, whenever I move I am moving on behalf of every woman in the world, what reflection would I like to reflect for them to know themselves back by?
“That life is not meant to be hard, it is not meant to be complicated, that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic” We can choose in every moment to become absorbed, weighed down, cynical, or give up on life, with all the corruption and the horrible situations that are occurring everywhere or we can choose to observe them but not let them overtake the beauty and love we also know is everywhere. So why choose to be weighed down by complication when we can choose to truly enjoy the magic of life and the magic of God that is within us all equally, opening up the possibility of less division between us all.
Whilst there is a serious side to life it is always best taken lightly and I truly appreciate the relationship with my wife and the joy we share doing this.
Through the embodiment of the energetic truth presented by Universal Medicine, I have definitely felt vital at the end of many busy days of work and more often these days also wonderful and even glorious. Putting myself to bed feeling like this, has returned me to the joy of most days waking up looking forward to repeating it again the next day, which used to be only a memory from my childhood.
I love this reminder Nicole of the ease and flow we can have with life. There is such a lightness and joy in the opening of this blog which brings the realisation that this is accessible for us all. We can all develop an exquisite connection to our essence.
‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body’ – for me this is a work in progress as I feel the connection to my body build and I begin to feel more yummy. When we truly appreciate all that we have been given ‘Life is Truly Magical’ and we realise that our choices are beginning to change as we see rose petals everywhere on the path of life.
This blog reminds me of the old adage – “As within so without”, from growing self-appreciation to naturally then growing appreciation for what is all around us.
Thank you. So inspiring and uplifting to read this right now and realise I have been tempted to weigh things up rather than go with the flow or what I know to be true.
Life is responsive to our choices. Yes it can be magical or equally it can be purgatory depending on the choices that we make.
‘There will always be thorns’, but they are only all consuming if we give them our attention. The more we focus on the roses (the qualities that support and serve) the more inspiring life is.
‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.’ This is huge! I can let my mind can run me like an out of control truck especially when I feel under pressure, but by saying no to this and coming back to a focus on my body helps enormously.
I smiled in recognition Rachel as my mind has had a long run of being out of control, like a naughty child and knowing I can come back to my body has made a huge difference. Learning to observe and not absorb, smelling the roses, it is great to know there are so many ways to come back to the wisdom of the body which help stop the runaway truck!
That every moment we have a choice to choose us or not. This is a very confronting and liberating revelation to understand and it completely blows away any ideas that we are victims of life or that life just happens to us. We do have a responsibility to be fully aware of the energetic choice we actually always have.
The beauty of life when we are connected to God is truly magical. Things change and flow in the stillness the motion and the oneness of the universe as we are connected to it all and feel part of the all. This is very magical and something we feel and know within us and miss deeply when we are not with this.
Making life about appreciation in everything is a real key to changing how we are and how we see things . This really does make so much difference and definitely helps us see the roses amongst the thorns until the roses are what we feel and see inside us also.
Life is truly magical when I allow myself to live in spaciousness, a dimension my body feels comfortable with, instead of living captured in time where my body feels contracted and anxious. As to me I can feel that my body has no relation with time, it can only live in this moment and not in the past, nor it can in the future. So when I live in this spaciousness I can easily detect when time tries to come in as my body will react and mostly things become complex, pushing aside the simplicity of life should be, where we can have those magical moments where everything flows in a natural way.
I love this blog Nicole, I have read it a number of times and the opening line is a reminder for me. If I am not feeling like my life is amazing, a life that I would want to come back to live again and again, then there is something for me to look deeper into.
I love this blog Nicole, it is very real in how it reveals that the only thing we can change in life is ourselves and the profound impact this has on the way we experience life.
Have I allowed myself to do this? A great way to start the day – ‘to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day that allows you to feel what is needed to truly support you to continue feeling the glory that each day and each moment can bring?’
You describe a lovely picture Nicole of how we get what we focus on in life and we choose to see the roses or the thorns similar to whether we are glass half empty or glass half full. We do create our issues and can make them so big that we forget to see the other side of something. My focus now also is no longer on the thorns but instead on the roses in life, understanding and feeling the beauty of life and that whenever a thorn does stick out its nasty sharp point, it’s a little thing for me to learn.
Dear Nicole, it is lovely to read how you have turned your life around from focussing on the roses and not the thorns, and that it is a simple choice to do so. How long have we as a human race chosen to focus on the thorns, and I love what you say here “Now after many years working on my own self-appreciation, learning to love and accept myself, I can now truly appreciate life and all that comes with it, thorns and all” – it is truly inspiring to hear words such as these from one that is living them and returning to the magic that life brings.
This sentence rings true for me – “By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” When we surrender to the wisdom of the body, life does indeed feel very different, as there no longer is the constant pressure, tension and buzziness of trying to figure life out through our mind, instead a letting go and feeling what is true in each instant. It also creates space to feel and read everything around us.
It is very interesting how we have chosen to only see certain aspects of the lives we have created rather than the all that we innately know within and is also reflected back to us when we are open to it.
It’s so easy to lose sense of the magic in life when we allow ourselves to get bogged down. When we get stressed, tired, anxious it is hard to see the wood for the trees. what I find helps is to observe what it going on rather than reacting to it. Reacting keeps me in the misery, whereas if I observe myself and how I am I reawaken my sense of humour and I feel lighter. Nothing is permanent, everything passes, therefore the way we respond in any moment helps to establish how we are in the next.
Observing is such a powerful tool when used to connect deeper and not to withdraw!
‘Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?’
Often I am caught by the thorns instead by the magnificence of life. Taking responsibility adds to the magnificence of life. It is something I claim in my life and this lightens the energy and brings an ease to my day.
Where there are roses, there are sure to be thorns, but why should that take away our appreciation of the rose. Such is life. Once bitten, twice shy, and so we retract like a sunflower in the dark, instead of remaining open for all the world to see.
By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently. Yes, Nicole, this does make a huge difference, and in one single moment, how you feel, can change totally, when you recognise that your energy is not your own and is disempowering you, as our essence/soul, would never make us feel less than we are.
Thank you for the reminder Julie that our essence/soul would never make us feel less than we are.
A life that not hard and free of complications sounds like the life for me. Its never fails to amaze me how hard and complicated things can get when we don’t keep it simple and stick to a rhythm.
“Observing how with the simplest of choices life began to shift, the complication became less, and the magic of God began to take over” Thank you Nicole for reminding me that we always have a choice.
Appreciation is certainly key – especially in those times when we can find it hard to appreciate, and this I can appreciate! 🙂
When I stay so very close to the rhthym and flow of stillness, which is felt inside of my body, everything else is seen from that quality. It brings everything to life and with that comes the understanding and acceptance of whatever may be playing out.
A timely reminder to appreciate all that is on offer. Thank you Nicole!
I felt it was an important ‘stop and check in’ question to ask if we see life as amazing, something we want to come back to each day, each life. So many of us go to bed weary from the day and dread when the alarm goes off the next morning. How many of us refuse to consider reincarnation, because the thought of coming back to the same existence is intolerable? Deep inside us we know this is not the way it’s meant to be, that life can be magical and joyful. It is great to take a moment to consider, if it’s not magical what is it about the way I am living my life that is taking away the joy?
I liked the analogy of seeing thorns or roses. It is a bit like the cup half full or half empty scenario and points to how much our perceptions alter what is before us. Nature is always steady and full of reflections for us of all that life has to offer. It is how we feel and respond that changes in each moment. It makes sense that if we allow ourselves to see more roses, there will be less importance or reaction to the thorns. Our appreciation of life supports our steadiness ability to deal with each thorn as it comes up.
There is a lovely, contented quality to the way this blog is written, which has left me feeling contented too. It is not selling anything or asking me to change. It feels like I am simply being allowed to observe quiet inner musings and appreciation of the ‘the little things’ in life.
I agree Fiona, this blog has left me with a warm feeling, knowing it is about me being willing to be more gentle with myself and to wake up the with awareness of how I choose to start my day, will carry on through each 24 our cycle. It feels like going back to kindergarten, feeling the simple joy of living and being in each moment. No brain surgery required, just a few adjustments here and there to the way I was brought up to live and more appreciation of just being me!
What you have described does sound impossible for most people’s realities. There are few with this appreciation of life and it is easy to get caught in a rut, looking for high points to break up the monotony. I find it comes down to the choices I am making, which affects how lovely I feel in my body. When I feel lovely, I am more likely to feel the loveliness around me and appreciate all the little details.
This feels like an eye opener for me in this moment. It shows me how I forget to appreciate, and not make the choice to see the glory of life. Because life is truly glorious when we choose to live from who we truly are.
Sometimes on a walk, in fact often I cannot help but marvel at tiny things, like small purple flowers, or a stunning plant. I might stop and show whoever I’m with what is there, and fully enjoy the beauty of what is around us. The smell of the trees, the sounds of the waves. It is all exquisite. Thank you to Universal Medicine for showing me a way to live as me, and so now I can appreciate the majesty of what is around me.
Thanks Nicole, can it really be as simple as connecting more deeply to my body, to close down the negativity and mental treadmill…certainly, that has been my experience to date
It is as you say Nicole – amazing and ‘truly magical’ when we make choices that align us with the beauty of life and yet ‘Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more… by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with’. By changing our perceptions we are opening the way into our inner heart and a deeper connection to whom we truly are in our essence.
I have often thought of this blog you have shared since I read it the first time Nicole and can still feel some thorny aspects of my life which gives me greater awareness and more to work on! Truly inspirational!
“By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” This is something that I have found as well Nicole, however at first it took me sometime to appreciate the power of my thoughts as once I started to notice them, I realised there was just a continuous stream, 24/7. This is still something that I have to pay close attention to, because as soon as I get distracted by something else, a sneaky thought will come in and before I know it I am following that thought rather than staying with being fully present.
Just what I needed to read. I am also in this process of relating to the roses of life and observing the thorns as part of the roses. Still the thorns (unsupportive thoughts and actions) can take hold of me, so easy to get distracted by. Today I take the magic described in this blog into my day and will open up to the beauty within and around me. Thank you for reflecting this to me via your blog!
I love this Nicole. And as a result of all that Universal Medicine has offered, I can now say the same – that life is truly magical:)
“Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day that allows you to feel what is needed to truly support you to continue feeling the glory that each day and each moment can bring?” This line is a great reminder for me at present , reminding me to bring it back to the simplicity of us and why we are here.
“By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” This requires commitment to ourselves to choose to cut negative thoughts that stop us from appreciating ourselves. I find that when I am having self-abusing thoughts if I change my movements and choose to be super delicate with myself then the negative thoughts begin to subside.
To open my eyes to see and appreciate what is around me is timely, every time. You never stop appreciating or seeing deeper, or so it seems. At any point when I have thought ‘I was there’ I have been tripped up and realise there is no end point, just another point to go deeper. This blog has supported me to see and soak up what I am surrounded by everyday. Whether it be family, friends, colleagues or the dog we are all better off when we are truly seen. Life seems so easy from here, so simple. Thank you Nicole.
It’s beautiful to read this Nicole thank you. Looking at life this way, even noting what at first does not appear to be so pretty in my life, there is a magic too for the healing it brings.
It feels like self appreciation is so important to living a life that is full and rich. I suspect that I feel more love in my daily life than I allow myself to be aware of.
I must admit I feel challenged by this blog as this way of living still does feel far fetched to me but I can feel it is possible through taking greater self responsibility for how I feel in every moment.
What I get from your blog Nicole is that the glory and magic of God which we are all equally part of, is there constantly and it is our choice whether we feel it or not.
To be reminded to appreciate myself and the wonders of the world is always timely, Nicole, ~ thank you.
Something I have learnt, and continue to learn from the life work of Serge Benhayon and the teachings of the Ageless Wisdom that he presents, is that in discovering a deeper level of love within oneself, there is actually no end point. A level, once found, calls us to go deeper – not for ourselves alone, but for all, for all that we live, appreciate and celebrate that is true within ourselves, is deeply needed to be felt by the greater whole of which we are a part. So much of our world lives in despair, and given up on the possibility that there could be such a richness of connection and living available to us.
Appreciating ourselves and the true magic that is there to be known in life is essential, for we do live in a world that is full of ‘thorns’ – endemic corruption, illness and disease at such alarming levels, financial systems and healthcare collapsing, conflict, abuse and harm… These things we cannot blinker ourselves from – not one iota – and it is the foundation of love that we live that actually allows us not only to see, and keep seeing such ‘thorns’, but to develop the capacity to play a part in true systemic change.
Scepticism makes us believe that appreciation of life and of nature is ‘airy-fairy’. We can however, re-claim this appreciation back and not react by going to extremes with airy-fairyness, but actually live as capable, strong and independent people who are having a love affair with all things beautiful.
What you write of hear Nicole, feels to be about an internal shift – one in which the beauty of life and all that we are is actually ‘let in’ and appreciated in full. Such a shift cannot be celebrated enough, most especially when it is felt, consistently so, as so many (including myself) experience today through the Way of the Livingness.
Nicole, this is very beautiful and confirming to read, ‘life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated’, I rarely see this way of living, usually what I observe is a life of complication – of stress, business, rushing around, with myself and others feeling overwhelmed. I work with an elderly gentlemen who lives in the simple way that you describe, he is very calm and still in himself, he eats, works and lives simply, his home is free of clutter, he speaks simply and does not hold back what he is feeling, he is joyful and tender and sensitive and it is an absolute pleasure to be with him, he is an amazing reflection of simplicity and beauty as is this article.
Walking around with my eyes shut to the magic was a reflection of the dismissive appreciation that I have for myself. This was the way I lived, shut down and ignorant to what is on offer. I was choosing a life of misery and the only way to cope was by checking out – drinking alcohol and taking drugs in a social environment. Once I met Serge Benhayon this all started to change and now it has completely done a 180 degree turn. Feeling and connecting to the Love inside that is Divine you cannot but see the magic of God everywhere. In nature, in myself and in others….. And I feel like I am at the beginning of a magnificent journey in how Glorious this really is once I fully surrender and enjoy what is so natural to us.
I love my life, but there is always another level of appreciation and celebration of who I am to unfold when I allow myself to accept who I am. Thank-you Nicole for a beautiful blog reflecting to us how amazing life can be if we let go of the control to make it better.
I continually look at an apple, or a strawberry, or a flower and marvel at the vision, the smell, and the abundance of what is here on earth, reflecting beauty there for us all.
The beauty, magic and universality of life is all around us and we simply have to choose to see it and live in a way that supports us from within it all as a part of this reflection. A beautiful blog offering the joy and responsibility we all have in our lives.
The magic moments of life are priceless. There has to be a reason everyone is unique, because we all have a part to play in the tapestry that we all live in.
“I have learnt to take responsibility for my choices, the way I live and to appreciate myself, to love the woman I am, to know I am not perfect and nor do I need to be, that life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated, that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic.” This is my experience too, as I have taken responsibility fro my choices, my life has unfolded beautifully in front of me.
To live by the magic of God is to move in absolute responsibility a path I am learning to walk on a daily basis with the endless support of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon.
Only wanting to see the roses comes from the illusion that a “good” life is advancing us as humanity. We want the thorns to go away to live in the comfort of a good life, but this is actually the biggest illusion ever. To divide life in good and bad parts is already an illusion as there is not such a thing as good and bad, there is only truth.
Yes I guess what you are saying here Rachel is that true appreciation is not ignoring the thorns or trying to eliminate them even but embracing them as much as the roses and understanding the beauty and grace that is present in the imperfections of life.
“By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” This is such a triumph. It sounds so simple but can take years to master. When we let our thoughts run away from the present moment, our bodies have to respond, both neurologically and chemically. We do not realise the impact of this but we do feel the exhaustion it creates. And so often what we spend our time thinking about doesn’t actually happen. When we bring ourselves home to our body and what we are doing, we allow our selves the opportunity to focus on our own Rose, which when nurtured and cared for, fills our day with the most exquisite essence that is naturally shared with everyone.
‘ …..I have learnt to take responsibility for my choices, the way I live and to appreciate myself.’
I learn more and more that the choices are not only the big choices like what kind of food to eat, what kind of job to do etc, but especially the small choices done in every moment, to choose to appreciate myself or not.
I enjoyed much the phrase “the complication still presents itself, only now I am able to observe it, deal with what gets presented and move onto what is next.” So it is not a magical pill that we all get from Serge Benhayon and then our lifes magically become super gorgeous. We simply learn to deal with life in a responsible harmonious way. Very simple.
If we allow the magic of God to be part of our lives we connect ourselves to who we truly are and come from, because we are divine. Although that is felt like a concept and is difficult to grasp by the mind, my body knows that his is true, as my body reflects that to me when I allow the magic of God to be part of my daily life it starts to surrender and is letting go of the tension it holds because of the years not living in the space it belongs to, being trapped in the ideals and beliefs that I kept in my mind and ran my body from instead.
This is such a refreshing look at life Nicole. How many of us can truly say we love our life? This is also empowering for if we don’t love our life then we need to look at how we are in our life and make a change and commit to living from love.
“Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more… by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with.” There is something quite beautiful about what you share here Nicole… as well as appreciation, there is an acceptance that there are thorns, but life is so, so much more than that – a thorn pales into insignificance in the face of the gloriousness of a rose in full bloom.
Nicole, my resounding answer to the question in your first line is Yes! I’ve often had moments of connecting with the true beauty and magic all around us, and nights when I went to bed feeling so full of joy for the day that just ended and for what tomorrow might bring. And also moments recently when I was definitely seeing only the thorns. Thank you for your inspiring words to see the magic in the world.
With every thorn that we meet we could see (align) to the rose above…
Life is truly magical, and to be honest I have more appreciation for it now than ever before but that has a lot to do with the changes that I have made to the way that I live over the last 7 years thanks to the Way of The Livingness.
I looked at the word ‘magical’ this morning in the heading and remember what it use to mean. Something beyond belief, rare, special, a one off, a big thing, to be saved etc. Yet now I can see there is magic all around me. It’s not that I have changed my view, lowered my expectations or anything like that. It is more like I have touched into what magic actually means and it was none of the things I use to think it means. Magic is happening all around me, it is special but not as a one off, the awareness from one moment of magic opens up to the next and it is forever ongoing. We often look to the summit of mount Everest for magic when in fact it is far simpler and down to earth then that, we just need to change the way we look.
What I love at the beginning of this article is that I feel the truth of this call (‘do you see/feel the beauty’) and that it is not about ‘positive thinking’. This feels so divergent in the body!
Roses are such a divine description and symbol of how life is. It is such a beautiful natural gift from god complete in in all the qualities it offers and the seasonal cycles.
I used many ways to numb myself from feeling ‘the thorns’ as Nicole puts it, as being sensitive, it made no sense to me to how people lived and how life was, so better not to feel. I believed mysefl to be justified in living that way. In the last decade with the support of Universal Medicine, I have developed the ability to observe and not take on and react to what life presents and found that in the past I had built up in mind and overstated to myself how much the thorns had to influence me. As I let go of my own exaggeration of all this, I became to see and smell the roses, which is totally different to putting on rose coloured glasses. Not appreciating the roses because of the thorns was part of my conditioned response to life that I was and continue to be able to let go of, while not taking in the false perception about life being rosy. It is the difference between de-programming and re-programming, the former being appreciating the truth is there beyond any reality I choose, whereas the latter is thinking life is about creating a ‘better’ reality.
I have found the more complicated i am making something, it is an indication of me trying to hold onto an issue.
Take your time and smell the roses was saying as I grew up. Now My feeling is that when given the space we choice to breath gentle and enjoy all that nature has to offer!
I agree that appreciation is absolutely key to everything, I am so glad I am working on everything I do appreciate.
I love how when I appreciate all around me, from nature to aspects of myself to aspects of others, I feel a deep connection to what holds the universe together – to the bigger picture of what life is about – the grand truth that we are so much more than this earth and this life. I connect to a true source of love. A deep and grand inner knowing. And it feels glorious.
Nicole, I came back today to read this and boy am I glad, I missed this the last time but today it ran out loud and clear ‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.’ – this is something I needed reminded of – that when I do not allow my mind to take over my body, I can allow the space for the magic that is God, and can feel the joy in me and life me.
To present that life can be simple and full of joy is but a choice away can cause reaction and seem challenging. But it really is as simple as taking responsibility for it and making the choice. Thank you for pointing this out so clearly Nicole.
When we spend so much time feeling so, so in life, it becomes so familiar that we consider it normal, but as this blog presents.. what if our normal could be so much more.
Life consistently is what everything this blog states. It is only our outward perception that can have a major effect of how we can view the world.
“that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic.” Life can become so for us when we begin to know how truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic we are within, in that deepest innermost place where we connect to Soul.
What is described here can seem like a fantasy when we are caught in the complication and drudgery of life, yet so easy and natural when in the flow of it all whether there are issues to face or not. It is great that you have offered a possible first step: “By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” Simply catching those thoughts that override our deep yearning for being more caring of ourself and start implementing small steps of self care – I have seen again and again that we end up naturally finding ourself in an expanded relationship with life that we previously thought was completely out of our reach.
The magic definitely fades into the background when complication comes into my life. I now see complication as a red flag, something to watch out for that will disturb the lovely flow of life if I allow it in.
‘Observing how with the simplest of choices life began to shift,’ This is a beautiful reminder of the power of our choices – even the littlest ones impact on our lives.
I love this Nicole. I just read the opening line to my 6 year old son, “Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?” He said yes. This is a beautiful reminder that when I don’t feel life like this I need to stop and reconnect to the truth in my body.
It’s refreshing to hear the story first hand from someone who has experienced both the thorns and the roses. It’s true that to begin with, if we are used to seeing the thorns, it does take time to see the buds. It’s hard work, and it requires commitment, love, understanding and appreciation before those buds will bloom…but what you’ve described here Nicole sounds like it sure is all worth it.
Beautiful Nicole. It’s so lovely to read that it is in fact possible to uncomplicate life..unravel it and get it back on track to being as simple as it was when we first entered it.
I love this sentence Nicole ‘I can now truly appreciate life and all that comes with it, thorns and all.’ Its not about wanting to control life to be a certain way so we can feel better, but allowing ourselves to accept life as it is and the deeper reflections it offers us daily. It’s not about accepting the abuse that goes on in our world, but seeing that it is going on and how are we living in our lives, do we contribute to it or do we also allow ourselves to connect to life and see the magic of life, the glory and power that is available to all of us.
‘Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more…’
This blog should be a dose of medicine for anyone who ever feels down or depressed, or has simply forgotten that life is magical, your joy at being alive is contagious.
‘This beautiful quality that has taken me a long time to connect to, is one that I now choose for myself as a way of life.’ This is available to all of us if we so choose it!
Appreciation is an essential foundation for our evolution … it is so simple but for many it is very difficult … the thing is , it just takes practice…. Start by appreciating the little things, and then move on to the bigger picture.
I, like you Nicole have also being committed to begin to appreciate life, by connecting to me and over time starting to feel and be supported by an inner quality, that i call my inner essence…as i begin to live my life from my essence, it is like my eyes start to see life differently. I start to see something else happening, it is the magic, it’s simplicity.
‘In the past the complication used to absorb me; it would consume my day at times, even making it difficult to sleep, playing on my conscience for as long as I would’
A lot of people are suffering from the crazy and chaotic thoughts in their heads.They think they are dominated by them. To have a tool to stop them by bringing absolute and commited attention to our body is a great step to stop being dominated by somethingmwhich is constantly harming us.
On reading this it feels like connection and a relationship with our body is key in life. I know for me this is when I started to see differently in life – simple self love and self care was chosen for myself. Its not that the thorns disappeared and I see only roses but how I learnt to be with the thorns that has continued developing. There is no perfection but an ongoing willingness to be open to the wonder and magic that lays within and all around ALL the time.
I have also found the importance of stopping my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, Nicole. My head used to be so active it would completely override my feelings in my body. I now know my feelings are what we can focus on, and connect to the magic and glory that is all around us.
Nicole what you share is for the majority of humanity currently only something that occurs in their dreams, yet its something that I also feel and know can be true. Your opening sentence “Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?” is one that we could all do with not only asking but then unfolding as a reality in our life.
Nicole, it s such a joy to read your article, I feel a lightness in my body and a feeling of appreciation reading it, it puts into perspective any ‘issues’ that I may have and brings a beauty and joy to the world and my life, thank you.
“This beautiful quality that has taken me a long time to connect to, is one that I now choose for myself as a way of life.” At first it seems impossible to even imagine being able to choose such beauty for ourselves on a daily basis, because we carry so many hurts and resentments that prevent us from doing this. But over the years of studying, healing and building a new life based on the teachings of Universal Medicine, the dross drops away and our fresh faced innocence is gently revealed once more, ready to greet the day with genuine joy and appreciation.
It is with the deepest appreciation and thanks to Serge and Simone Benhayon for their never-ending loving support that I now choose the roses rather than the thorns and all that brings.
“Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more… by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with.”-
I can so relate to you Nicole. I love the analogy of the thorns being present but can be overtaken by roses blooming. My life is definitely becoming like this the more I am learning to value myself, selfcare and self nurture. I am finally feeling the joy of living and the magic of God around me to confirm this.
Such a beautiful read Nicole – it’s easy to feel the lightness of heart and the ease in which you live your life. It’s very inspirational to see there is a way to live that brings harmony and joy.
You say that “life is not meant to be hard” – it can be easy to make a virtue out of doing it hard and then thinking one is special because of it; in hindsight I have to say, what a waste of time that was!
Life is either a struggle where everything is difficult or as you describe Nicole, a magical experience in which everything flows to its natural order. It is just a matter of choice – if we focus on the thorns or on the roses; life then portrays itself to us and defines how we are with ourselves and appreciating the fact that we are divine or that we live in ignorance of this and choose to not see what life is offering us.
I agree, that to appreciate ourselves deeply and all that life offers and reflects leads to a deeper appreciation of all others.
When I feel the deep appreciation I have for me then these are the eyes and body I see and feel the world from and I am able to observe what does and does not belong to the grand love we are from.
‘In the past the complication used to absorb me; it would consume my day at times, even making it difficult to sleep, playing on my conscience for as long as I would allow it to’ – I know this feeling too. I can feel incapacitated by my thoughts as I allow my mind to race through a particular situation, analysing over and over what has happened, how things could have been done differently, what the real intent is behind the actions and what may now ensue. However, I know that when I do this, I am allowing an energy to ‘run’ me and I’m no longer feeling the gorgeous connection with my body and this energy I have chosen is affecting everything I do and say. So, choosing to take a breath, I know that surrendering to my body and living from my inner heart is my greatest protection. Living my truth will allow life to constellate just as it is meant to be.
‘Observing how with the simplest of choices life began to shift, the complication became less, and the magic of God began to take over’ … I am learning this more and more, choosing to keep my life simple and allowing the space for life to unfold and for me to feel the magic that is on offer all around me. Complication keeps me in a holding pattern as life passes me by.
I love life and I am the one choosing to live my life the way I do, without perfection. When I see things that shock me, people making choices that I wouldn’t make for myself, I am learning to pause, withhold judgment and instead allow more understanding. It doesn’t make me right and the other person wrong, rather, we are at different places in our learning. The greatest gift I can offer is to live the love that I am always and then I know that I’m sharing all that I can to my brothers and sisters always, without holding anything back.
When we live connected to who we are, then the truth and honesty of the world will be felt as a whole and its roses and thorns will be equally important because both offer much learning and wisdom through experience that is unique to everyone. Appreciating the magic of living from our connection is amazing.
Kelly I am starting to appreciate this fact, that the magic of god, the magic in the world is with the whole, the roses and the thorns and not just the way we may want all roses. The reality provides us a deep purpose and the magic keeps us appreciating we are far grander than we think we are.
Life truly is magical. Sometimes we may still be in the job we have hated for so long, and still living in the same place, still with the same partner – yet our experience of it could totally be different. Appreciation of self confirms where I am taking responsibility, therefore gives me an opportunity to look at where I have not done so, and little by little I can appreciate more of what I truly am. Nothing outside me needs changing for me to feel the way I do, it is my choice.
The reading of this blog was great timing for me, Nicole, as recently I had been somewhat focusing on the “thorns” as you say regarding the dire presidential political scene here in the U.S. But what came to so strongly is how focusing on the negative or harmful ways of others, whether that may be a co-worker or presidential nominee does not change anything for the better. Only through staying connected with our own bodies, how we move through life, communicate, work, take care of ourselves and others, can we begin to spawn a new way of living gently and with love that will eventually spread throughout the world.
I look forward to the day when I can honestly claim and say these words that “have I learnt to take responsibility for my choices, the way I live and to appreciate myself, to love the woman I am, to know I am not perfect and nor do I need to be, that life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated, that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic.”
A beautiful reminder of the magic of God all around us.
Around us and in and through us readily available whenever we choose to be with our divinity.
“By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” This is still a work in progress for me albeit a labour of love (with occasional sprinkles of frustration).
Very true that life is not meant to be hard or complicated, nor are we supposed to be perfect in living it. Our experience of life and the quality in which we live it come from the choices we make and from the responsibility we take in making those choices.
Beautifully said and agreed with Cathy. It is so important to feel the truth that we are enough, life isn’t meant to be hard and we don’t need to be perfect.
Nicole, I know I can appreciate everything that is around me and myself far more. Appreciating is something generally most of us are not that great at doing, yet it is such an amazingly supportive gift we can gift to another and to ourselves.
Being aware that every moment is a choice and that we choose what it is that we are to experience asks us to be responsible for the life we live – we live the life we have chosen. I choose honesty, joy, love and integrity – Magical Nicole.
This is key. That we have choice and life is full of moments for us to each take responsibility for.
I love the analogy of the roses taking over from the thorns. When we only see and absorb what the thorns bring everything is yuk but I have noticed that when i observe the thorns and know that they are not me then there are many more roses. A gorgeous sharing, Nicole.
Anne we can get lost in the negative cycle of only seeing the thorns in life. Knowing there is always a choice to slowly see the roses in life and through dedication and commitment to appreciating moments and things in life and about ourselves – soon we see the magic in life majority of the time.
I actually feel so grateful to Serge Benhayon for opening my eyes to the daily magic that surrounds us all. It feels important to be able to see the beauty and universality of life that we are a part of.
The Magic of Life: making an appointment that actually didn’t feel True and the next morning the appointment is forgotten by the others. We know! Everything. From the past and in advance, if we but only choose to listen to our bodies. I love Magic, I love Life.
Yes, Floris, we get a lot of second chances!
When I was younger magic to me was an outer world thing, more a fantasie then anything else. Thanks to Serge Benhayon I have re-discovered true magic, which is in life all around us all the time if we are but willing to see and receive it.
Beautiful Nicole, your blog made me smile, bringing back the simplicity of enjoying every small, yet significant detail of life, when we acknowledge how amazing life can be if we begin to appreciate the gift of life we have been given, and the opportunity we have to grow within it.
I love how you write about observing complication and no longer choosing to allow it to consume you. This is invaluable. I’m getting how a complication can come up and I have a very clear choice. I can be consumed in it, react and what have you until I decide that’s enough. Or I can choose to see how it came about and respond.
I love your observation “with the simplest of choices life began to shift, the complication became less, and the magic of God began to take over: with every thorn came a rose, and after a while the roses overtook the thorns, a beautiful reminder of how life could be if I continued to choose me, to choose love.” It is great to know regardless of how far we are from the gorgeous magical picture you painted at the beginning of your article, one simple loving choice at a time slowly unfolds and returns us back to the love and magic that may at first seem like a fantasy.
Yes this is absolutely key: “By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” To feel the exquisiteness and beauty in the most simple daily tasks as you described so beautifully in your blog you have to be present with your body. Life can be so intense and if I do not take notice I am just thinking all the time and not enjoying the beauty that comes from being present with myself in all that I do.
When we observe and appreciate the magic in nature and life around us, then this opens us up to greater appreciate our own bodies and what we can bring to the society we live in. Thus as you’ve shared it’s so important to register all the miracles and moments of majesty we experience as this can support us to develop a much deeper and appreciative relationship with ourselves.
Let’s face it – life is full of whopping great thorns. It’s how we manage them that matters – and we are more likely to manage them well if we are living in a way that honours ourselves and appreciating all the amazing things in life.
Since bringing more of a focus to life, coming down from my mind and into my body and life I find it far easier to appreciate the magic and beauty of life and my day
When life feels flat, dull, ho-hum or boring I know I have disconnected from the Essence of me, from God and from the pulse of life that is all this at once.
What a celebration this blog is! Yes, complication used to absorb my life too Nicole – complication, drama, reaction, having conditions upon life. Wow did all that take up space and leave little room for stillness, love and harmony. I can feel the way that this harmony has come into your life (and our lives) and now, even though there is no perfection and we are not yet completely free of complication, it is as if we have got over the hump where the darkness, as you put it, was all-consuming. The balance has shifted.
I do so agree Nicole that life is utterly magical . . . that nature, the cycles, the seasons, the scents carried on the breeze, the twigs and grasses on an embankment in the afternoon sun – all of these and so much more – are totally magical. And there is a deep magic in our own human lives that constantly presents to us, even when sometimes the guise may look as if life is thorny! But if seen for what it truly is, the thorn can turn out to be an awesome blessing as some past illusory way of living is washed clean. There are both thorns and roses in life, each with its own value. What is so awesome is the way that we can now observe and not get caught up in an image of the way life ‘should be’.
‘Life is not meant to be hard’.. This is something definitely worth considering.
“A life that now has a flow and a consistency where the complication still presents itself, only now I am able to observe it, deal with what gets presented and move onto what is next.”.
When we live in a way whereby we are in connection to ourselves, tuned into our own rhythm, the observation becomes quite an amazing experience.
Seeing and building awareness of the whole picture is crucial – we can then make such choices as to how we live to remain in appreciation of that which reflects the beauty that we innately know from within.
When I surrender and feel the flow of the divine within and all around me, I am in tune with a greater pulse of life, that takes me out of the small self and the challenges of daily life, and makes each moment about the all, us all as one whole that cannot be separated (even though we try our best to believe we are individual). Nature reflects this oneness to us all of the time, and so to stop for a moment and observe it offers a true perspective.
‘I rarely was able to see the roses amongst the thorns; there were glimpses, but not for long and I certainly was not able to appreciate the full bloom from start to end.’
What a beautiful analogy to learn to appreciate the blossoming of a rose and having understanding for its thorns in the same time.
Getting too involved in a situation does nothing but exhaust us. Often I would find that I would obsess with a situation and think up all the different scenarios but in the end it would peter out and the outcome would be anticlimactic – lots of time wasted and left feeling drained.
Nicole, it is great to come back to this article, reading this I can feel how there is so much beauty, so much to appreciate and not take for granted, ‘Waking up each morning in true appreciation of the mist in the valleys, the birds chirping, being in awe of the rays beaming through the clouds from the sun, or in the remaining glow of the last full moon.’
Life is amazing as long as we go with the flow. Self love is definitely one of the main ingredient…
“Knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you” a strong reminder that at a time of so much division in the country and in the world that we always have the choice to remain who we are. This choice can be made no matter what other choices have been.
Life is truly magical as we are if we allow ourselves to truly live and be who we are naturally and innately. This is working progress in our expansion our openness commitment and responsibility to life and humanity. The magic is here for us all to see and reflect to us the love we are and to live this also.
“This beautiful quality that has taken me a long time to connect to, is one that I now choose for myself as a way of life.” I can completely resonate with this, I have been constantly making a commitment to work on my self and that comes with responsibility.
“Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?” I do now but I never used to. My opinion of life before studying with Universal Medicine was pretty dire, a thing had that to be endured until I died. However miserable that sounds it was true. Nicole, I love how you have re-connected to your childhood innocence and the grace that arises from feeling so fresh and joyful about life. You are living proof, along with thousands of other people self included, that we can re-claim our joy for life when we truly make the effort to connect to and care for ourselves and one another, heal our hurts and resume our real responsibility to express the joy of who we naturally are.
Why is it so hard to let go, and how can making our life simple make it so much more? When we try too hard, we get tunnel vision of what we want the world to look like and everything we think is amazing has a price tag in the form of the effort we have to put in to get this golden ring on the merry go round we have created. Life is amazing and has never needed any help. We just need to appreciate ourselves and take responsibility for our actions and life just unfolds around us.
‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.’ This is my focus because my thoughts are keeping me away from the magic you talk about Nicole. My thoughts can let me believe life is hard and complicated and then I drag me from one day to the other. When I am with my body space is opening up for joy and harmony to be felt and then I hear the birds, enjoy the rain or sun etc and thus surrounded by the magic of God.
Nicole this sentences made me smile as I only can agree that it is possible to change a life full of complication and drama: “Observing how with the simplest of choices life began to shift, the complication became less, and the magic of God began to take over: with every thorn came a rose, and after a while the roses overtook the thorns, a beautiful reminder of how life could be if I continued to choose me, to choose love.”
Once we open the door to love, many more reveal themselves. It’s like starting a journey of choices, each step confirming our divinity, but entirely at our own pace.
A lovely blog, Nicole. I love the beauty and wonder that comes through your words. And as I am starting to allow myself to be the beautiful woman that I have always been deep inside, but hidden, and allowing myself to live this truly loving live, filled with wonderment, love and beauty inside and out, I encounter and observe the old believes popping up from time to time : of not being good enough, that life is hard, that people are cruel and so on; and when that is exposed as being not true, I lately feel this old, almost forgotten, instilled guilt about feeling so amazingly good most of the time. Like I’m not allowed to enjoy my life so much. Good old christian sinner mentality still trying to have a hold on me.
Beautifully and inspiringly written, thank you Nicole. And it is not that the thoughts magically go away, the mind is always keen to run the show, but our practise can be to not let them take over. I carry on practising the shift from ‘mental chatter dominance’ to heart and body leading and the roses emerge of their own accord.
‘ to love the woman I am, to know I am not perfect and nor do I need to be’, love this line for all the wisdom it delivers…
Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again? If I am honest, I can’t say yes to this question, but I’m feeling I am just on the verge of opening up to all of life’s magical ways…..
When you choose to become more aware and you live in a way that your awareness increases, then it is important to confirm ourselves when we have that increased awareness.
Divinely and gorgeously expressed and shared. I love it. This is key: ‘learning to love and accept myself, I can now truly appreciate life and all that comes with it, thorns and all’
The beauty you not only feel within but have embraced in life can be deeply felt in your words… and will undoubtedly inspire others knowing that through learning to fully love and accept themselves and life, they too can turn thorns into roses.
Knowing that there will always be ‘thorns’ but making the choice to observe them, deal with them and move on and focus on the ‘roses” is a very powerful message in your blog Nicole, thank you; ‘A life that now has a flow and a consistency where the complication still presents itself, only now I am able to observe it, deal with what gets presented and move onto what is next’.
The activity of appreciation has a profound effect on feeling the joy of the roses, it always brings me back into my body rather than being in the head, and this feeling of feeling the joy, is priceless.
It is a lovely feeling to feel the consistency and steadiness of myself in life. What I witness may not always be lovely or beautiful, but the connection that is maintained to my best ability allows me to not absorb this but actually see it for what it truly is.
Life is truly magical when we choose to connect to our essence. It then naturally connects us to people, to nature and to God. We can all feel this magic as it is within us and it surrounds us but it is also a choice whether we choose to live it or not. I am learning to live this more consistently having experienced a glimpse of this magic of life, I know that life as it is, is certainly not normal or loving. So I am putting on my ‘L’ plates and taking each step at a time and each step is a lesson in itself.
And it is through the body and not the mind that this wonder begins… feeling that lightness, as you describe is key and a beautiful reminder that we are so much more than our physicality.
You are right Jenny, the mind is just part of the flesh that binds us to this place in the body we move around in. Who we are can never be contained!
Who we are cannot be contained or identified by our minds absolutely, if that were the case, we would all be in straight-jackets with the range of crazy thoughts that pop into our heads on a regular basis. If we don’t have a solid connection to what is truly us in the body however, we can be easily hoodwinked into thinking that we are made up of our thoughts.
Yes Nicole, life can be magical if we’re willing to open up to the wonder of all of what is at play around us…
A great blog that reminds one to not focus on the ‘what is not’, but to see the beauty in the world as well. And from seeing both the ‘thorn’ and the ‘rose’, we have a clearer choice.
Thanks Nicole, for an awesome reminder of how beautiful and magical life can be, perfect in all its imperfections. And a great place to learn to love again.
This is a beautiful blog to read; it highlights to me the importance of balance, something I didn’t have much of in the past as I also focused on the negative and wanted to fix it. There are no roses without thorns, thorns naturally grow on rose bushes but not making the thorns the focus, simply to be aware of them, while appreciating the beauty of the roses.
A great symbol of life the thorns and the roses – And thank you for the reminder – appreciating everything it is showing us and how we choose to deal with it.
“The thorns are there but they are not the focus”. This is a great approach to life, to stay aware of the beauty and approach the thorns having the awareness that the beauty is always there.
“Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day …… you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life…….. to build a relationship with your body that allows you to live in a way that leaves you feeling vital at the end of each day. Then to look forward to putting yourself to bed so you can get up and do it all again tomorrow.” Not far fetched at all Nicole, this is truly amazing and very much achievable, I see it around me in the Universal Medicine student body – People making their own loving choices according to what they experience and feel from their body.
I love your blogs Nicole. You offer such inspiration – particularly as they are so relatable to.
There is always a choice for us to light the world or to dull ourselves down. It takes courage to stand in the light that we are, after so long denying it, yet the joy that is possible far outweighs anything negative. Sometimes we live our lives totally focused on those thorns, getting emotional about them, unable to see that there is so much joy. It is worth knowing that this can be living in comfort because it is what is familiar. So, practice living in the light. See everything for what it is. Appreciate how far you have come and love those moments of rosey joy.
Its very important to be open to all that is here for us and this blog offers the awareness of how much is there to be felt seen and appreciated at any given moment.
Seeing the beauty in everything is a wonderful way to appreciate life. There is immense beauty in life, in so many things we can appreciate in life.
This is very inspiring, Nicole. Thank you. It is a great reminder for me to see the beauty that is ever present in our life.
Nicole – I love the way you explain the details of beauty in a day. There is so much for us all to appreciate – the wonder of the world, of God and our beauty is never not there, it’s just weather or not we choose to see.
A great reminder about perspective – how we can look at and obsess over what is not right in life OR we can feel in exquisiteness we are all held in, know we are supported and that nothing in our way is greater then the love we are from. Thorns can get a bad wrap and I’ve certainly been one to react to them. I’m starting to change my tune and see life as a series of moments for us to evolve. Love is not void in the thorns, they are still within the body and light of God.
Absolutely life has to be warts and all with total transparency! Otherwise we never get to smell the roses.
Life’s only Magical if I choose to live me in life and live my life with me. I’m opening up more and more to the Magic in life that’s surrounding me in full. Life’s appreciating me from every angle and supporting me to accept and surrender to more of me. Each day. As life knows (!!) how Grand and Special I am – offering me countless possibilities to re-trust, re-discover this. In order to be able to give back to life all that’s been offered to me.
I love feeling the lightness of my body as this reminds me I am not just my body that I am light first before I am form.
This brings me back to my connection with God and all of humanity, as we are all from the one light.
Beautiful reminder today Mary-Louise, that we are indeed light first before we are form and that my physical body is a vehicle for this light, and every choice I make impacts the amount of light this vehicle can hold.
This is excellent insight and yes I agree, the feeling of light in my body is so beautiful to behold.
‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.’- an empowering revelation Nicole. I too have experienced what you have shared here and have also realised that it is our responsibility to be aware of what is running our bodies. Through self-love and self-care we are able to build a marker of what our Love within feels like from which we are able to discern what choices honor this Love and what choices do not. We then are able to build a body of Love through which we can feel and know that this quality of Love is our natural expression, is truly magical and be open to the world of magic that lives to reflect that there is no end to the depth of Love we are and are part of.
The choice of body over mind brings with it a quality of life that is more than the mind can ever have imagined.
Kylie more and more I am realising that our body is the key. We just need to keep bringing it back to the body, over and over again. Making the body home base and not the mind shifts the seat of power and with it the perception of life.
“With every thorn came a rose, and after a while the roses overtook the thorns, a beautiful reminder of how life could be if I continued to choose me, to choose love.” This is a beautiful analogy when we choose ourselves more how all that is not reduces.
I love the point you make that it is not about being perfect but rather about being true and living in connection to the Love we are within. Being open to exploring the depth of our Love and the magic that this brings to our lives and to the world we live in offers us the opportunity to feel, claim, appreciate and reflect the richness of life that we are born to live.
A beautiful reminder of the life that is always waiting for us all to be lived. As it is the truth, that our Love within is truly magical. When we are connected to our Love we are connected to truth, we can feel our interconnectedness with all, all that we are and all that we are part of and all that surrounds us. With this awareness we are able to feel the truth in any situation and know how to respond in a way that supports, deepens and honors this connection. We can then see that there is a world of magic surrounding us, as the magic of God is ever-present to simply reflect to us the magic of Love that we are, to know the difference between what is of Love and what is not, and that the choice is always ours to choose the degree in which we live our Love.
I love this Nicole. Each moment we have the choice to connect to and feel who we truly are. I love that we have the choice to see the roses or the thorns. At times I get caught up only seeing the thorns, despite me having to look past many roses to see the few thorns these days. This lack of appreciation that I have at times, leaves me feeling heavy and weighed down rather than feeling the lightness and joy that is there for me.
Hello Nicole and there is always room for more appreciation as I don’t see things to this depth in every moment, “Do you see life as something that is truly glorious, amazing, incredible and full of magic; a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?”
This is a lovely re-take on – stop and take the time to smell the roses – and it deepens this expression. If we take the time to see and smell the roses, and appreciate the beauty in front of us and within us, it supports us to be much more engaged and in awe of life and those around us.
“My focus now is no longer on the thorns but instead on the roses; the beauty, scent, aroma, gentleness and delicateness that surround me every day – that same quality I feel around me is also within.”
To connect to our beauty within, and step by step say no to anything that tells us otherwise allows us to stand in full bloom and feel the loveliness of ourselves and others more and more.
When dwelling in the lack of self-worth or not being good enough it is no wonder when we cannot see anything else but the confirmation of our misery, i.e. we are only able to see what we are willing/choosing to see. The moment we start appreciating ourselves we also begin to appreciate the beauty around us. Appreciating is a two-way road, the more we nurture it the more we receive/see the preciousness in others.
Are we not all looking for the magic in life as something deep inside knows that it is there even when we are not aware of it for whatever reasons? So what does it need from our side to be able to see it? It is not just a passive matter but takes an active approach, an openness, a connection. As long as we do not feel part of the all we are part of and therefore are in constant interconnection, we will struggle with recognising the communication offered by the all.
Nicole, I love this and your image of the rose is so apt, we can see and smell the rose or it’s thorns, but to just see the thorns alone stops us seeing and appreciating the rose. I have often seen only thorns and now I see and smell the rose too (and I love flowers!), and this has come about because I’ve learned to appreciate me, to appreciate life and all it offers me, and to know and understand that I have a choice always in how I am, the rose or the thorn, and to remember context, that while there may be thorns they never come without roses – A life lived with understanding and tenderness; a life lived with love, a choice in each and every moment.
It’s great what you’ve presented about learning not to absorb complication but instead ‘observe it, deal with what gets presented and move onto what is next.’ This is how we can address any issues that arise too; if we observe rather than absorb then problems don’t escalate out of proportion and the ‘yuck’ of the issue is not taken into our bodies, which from experience can make us feel very tired and drained.
We had a lot of rain, especially last night, it was pooring rain. I listened to it for a while and thought to myself, wow, we are getting a big clearing through this rain. Life is magical indeed, it gives us opportunities in every moment to bring more of ourselves and to realize that we are all an equal part of the big part.
It really comes down to simple choices that either allow us to get involved and affected by dramas or not.
There is so much magic to be felt/known out there indeed Nicole and how very beautiful your sharing is on the subject of magic. Bringing our awareness to its subtlest of signs, and also those signs, that you simply cannot ignore, when nature is speaking loud and clear.
Just by reading your headline Nicole, I knew that this blog was going to be one of graceful reflection and deep appreciation. It is so true, when we learn to accept life, thorns and all – life is magic. The key is to remember that the choice is always for each and everyone of us to make, no one gets a ‘free pass’. Thank you for your beautiful reminder.
We always have a choice on how we see things, whether we see the thorns or a beautiful bloom …. I am becoming much more aware of my choices, all that I’m choosing to see ……
What a beautiful blog, Nicole, thank you ….. in answer to your first question, I would love to say a resounding yes. I do believe that life is amazing and full of magic and I know that I will come back time and time again as I will choose to with all my heart until we have all awakened to ourselves. However, I can’t in truth say that I live this truth every moment of every day. My question to myself is ‘Why not?’ …. Why am I not always choosing the exquisite connection with myself first and foremost, the gateway to feeling all that life offers us, the absolute amazingness and joy, the never ending beauty and truth, Heaven on Earth.
Life really is only as complicated as we choose to make it.
As I read I realised its not that the magic and beauty is not there, more that we close down to it, and the way I closed down to it was simply to be in my mind. What a terrible place the mind can be, and what a powerful thing it is, that it can seemingly make life feel devoid of the love, wonder, beauty, awe, magic and fun it is naturally so filled with.
This is a beautiful story of how it’s possible to turn life around. The power really is within us to choose how life is going to be.
I definitely used to concentrate on the thorns in life, Nicole, I used to think the issues and the problems were huge and often insurmountable. The thorns don’t go away but when we focus on the beauty of the roses, feeling the delicateness of the petals and the depth and richness of the colour, the thorns are pretty insignificant. Such can life be too.
” to know I am not perfect and nor do I need to be” I needed to hear this line this morning thank you Nicole, as today I am suffering from my own expectations!
To really appreciate life and the beauty and magic around us is such a gift to live our lives with, and, it’s simply our choice . A beautiful blog offering it all.
Hi Nicole, I felt somewhat challenged when I read the first paragraph of your blog and had to ask why do I not ‘wake up each morning in true appreciation of the mist in the valleys, the birds chirping, being in awe of the rays beaming through the clouds from the sun, or in the remaining glow of the last full moon.’ I realised that I have moments but these are only moments and not a daily occurrence. So, why do I not have this every morning when I know on those days that I do, it is glorious and amazing? That seems crazy! I realised that in the moments when I feel this amazingness, I value myself and my connection to God and thus feel part of the wonder of everything. By contrast when I get caught up in the ‘smallness’ of me, the parts that I have allowed to affect me, that aren’t truly who I am, I lose my connection to myself and thus to wonder all around. Choosing connection, appreciating ourselves and focusing on the roses allows the thorns to simply drop away.
There is SO much to appreciate about life; the birds chirping, our family members, our qualities, how our days turn out etc… but it seems there are two worlds, one where this is possible and another where life is dull, repetitive, disappointing – but made better with entertainment, checking out and technology etc…
Nicole it is amazing how narrow minded we can get and we can miss all of the beauty around us. Often we need a little nudge for us to fully open our eyes and see how blessed we are.
Roses are a precious symbol, they hold a dignity, divinity and beauty in their petals and bloom, and in how they open that can only reflect the body of God with us and of us.
Responsibility makes all the difference on how we perceive life. Being responsible for ourselves we do not feel that we are being bashed and victimised by it unfairly, we see life as something to learn from, not a trial.
I read this and I felt, how about in time every thron will become a rose…..”Observing how with the simplest of choices life began to shift, the complication became less, and the magic of God began to take over: with every thorn came a rose, and after a while the roses overtook the thorns,” The thorns are also part of the body of God, there for a purpose and in time the purpose will change, protection and defence will be less prevalent, the more we see the love and light in life rather than the thorns, they will not need to be.
‘Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day that allows you to feel what is needed to truly support you to continue feeling the glory that each day and each moment can bring?’ –
Tuning in, to the lightness and warmth in my body brings me back to my beautiful, natural self.
It can take time and it can continue to develop, there is no end point..”This beautiful quality that has taken me a long time to connect to, is one that I now choose for myself as a way of life.” Feeling the beautiful quality is priceless and it can come from a dedication to build self-love and care in to everyday life. There is nothing like ‘seeing the roses’…
This is lovely, so often we can be only too preoccupied by what we think is not working, our troubles etc, but do we take a moment to “…to see the roses amongst the thorns…” Roses as a symbol hold so much beauty and divinity in them. When we see the roses in life we cannot fail to feel supported and appreciative.
Nicole I love that you have shared so clearly that you chose your way out of how life used to be. You share that your life used to be more complicated and heavier but that now it is a magical experience on a daily basis and it is because you have made different choices. Life is like maths, we put certain things into it and that guarantees that we will get certain things out, it is wonderful in that regard as it will always reflect our choices back to us.
Life is magical if we so chose it and here in lies the crux for those who may find this not true, it is the choices that we make that makes it magical or a struggle.
The reflections that life offers us are truly magical, realising the beauty that reflects our true nature but not without that which we have chosen to become not this.
Surrendering to the love that surrounds us is something that I am now also beginning to enjoy, and it does make the world of difference. I do not have to have the answers or be a certain way, but can allow life to unfold and let the truth of my soul and the magic of God inform me. This is not at all a laissez-faire attitude, but a responsible knowing that I am a part of the all, that there are bigger rhythms and cycles which I can connect to if I get myself out of the way, so I can be in touch with what is needed next.
The secret to life is not to ignore the thorns and see the roses per say – for that is the path to illusion – but to be willing to see both as they are. Focus on one and not the other, and what you see will be clouded by your perception. The person who only sees a world of roses is a lost as the person who only sees thorns. The person who allows themselves to see both is both wise and free.
I love what you have shared here, thank you for this pearl of wisdom, I knew there was a reason that over appreciation sometimes rubbed me up the wrong way.
This is such a fantastic ode to life, it’s true, when absolute care and love is present you can’t help but look forward to embracing the day ahead and appreciating every moment you’re awake.
Nicole now that I’ve made a focus to not allow my mind to run my body I feel very differently, its also interesting that when I do allow my mind to take over how exhausted and drained I feel, trying to justify one thing against another. Complication takes over and things become very challenging. When this occurs its a stark reminder of how different it feels to simply follow the body, me and not a picture in my head or thoughts that spring out of nowhere.
David I have had the experience recently of letting my thoughts about a certain topic dominate my mind. I have felt very tangled up, unclear and at the same time stuck. Not only that but I have been a long way from my body. It’s interesting though that my mind still tries to convince me that I am right to be in this stagnant place as I have a ‘right to feel the way I do.’ Trap after trap.
Beautiful Nicole, I love the analogy of the roses and thorns, this article is very inspiring for all men and women to appreciate themselves and life and to focus on the beauty of the roses rather than focussing on the thorns, love it, thank you.
Seeing life as glorious and magical I have learned is simply a change of focus. Since, as you have mentioned, there will always be thorns around it makes sense to place our energy into those bits that are not thorny and continue to go deeper with those. That is not to say we have to ignore the thorns – we can’t that would be irresponsible but the key I have learned is to not give them undue indulgence – accept they are there, yes and do what needs to be done, but no more than that whilst at the same time in full appreciation of who you are, what you bring and what those thorns are teaching you.
“I rarely was able to see the roses amongst the thorns; there were glimpses, but not for long and I certainly was not able to appreciate the full bloom from start to end.” We can become so embroiled in life and all its problems that we fail to take the time to appreciate or nurture the roses. Studying and healing with Universal Medicine has enabled me to focus on nurturing and appreciating the roses first, within myself and within others, and to become aware of the choices that feed the roses more than the thorns.
“Now after many years working on my own self-appreciation, learning to love and accept myself, I can now truly appreciate life and all that comes with it, thorns and all.” It’s quite amazing to realise that the view we have of ourselves is the filter we view all life through…and what we can or can’t accept about the world and our lives. By developing greater self-appreciation it is magical to view everything in a different light.
Coming to realise that “…. life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated, that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic” has been transformational for me. I can still at times get caught into the drama of life but that is now short-lived and instead more and more roses are coming into bloom – what a joy.
“By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” To stop our mind from running the show is huge Nicole, and one that I am still learning on a daily basis. The more I start to understand the power of appreciation the more aware I am of the thoughts that come in to disrupt what could have otherwise been an amazing moment. With this awareness we can bring ourselves back to the fact that Life is truly Magical. The more we start to appreciate life and the magical moments that are all around us the more obvious the negative thoughts are that come into to disturb these moments.
There are indeed many magical things that greet us every day as we open our curtains and windows on the world, and it is great to see the beauty of the roses – how often we focus on what is wrong in life and forget to observe the beauty that is there in everyone one, every thing. Beauty that reflects our own inner beauty. Beauty we can appreciate and allow to blossom.
Nature reflects us how delicate and precise is the process of blossoming. There is no step that does not count. For us blossoming is about choices. Blossoming requires the same level of delicateness and precision in terms of what we choose. Not all roads lead to Rome.
How do you support you to get the most out of a day? Again, it is fascinating the range of answers to this simple question that we can get and the different understanding of what getting the most means.
What makes you feel alive and well after you wake up? For some people, it is the feeling in the body, the silence, then the birds chirping and the sun coming out. For others, it would be the program that they hear in the radio, the expresso and the first cigarette. Choices….
Beautifully written Nicole, the sweetness, appreciation and joy in your days is felt. A reminder graciously accepted, thank you
The more I tend to the roses, the more come into bloom. I find that to accept the loveliness felt within myself, and the appreciation of it, brings out that quality in whatever it is I may be doing.
What a beautiful blog Nicole of what is awaiting for all of us when we choose to step off the merry-go-round of life as we have made it. The world around us expands more every day and as you have said, is full of magic.
At times life can appear being tough on us and lead to only seeing and expecting the difficult things all over again hence we can become blind for the beauty and magic. There is much to learn about perception, receiving and observing life that plays a major role in how we experience it, and further exploring not only our subjective perspective and interpretation but the true expression of what plays out.
I have come to realise is that to see life in this way is a choice that when built on overtime allows us to connect to the beauty of life.
We have a choice regarding life as either a vacation time away from God, or as a divine summer camp where we work alongside God for our return to our true essence.
I like this Eduardo, it brings the joyfulness and playfulness of life to the fore.
“my focus is now no longer on the thorns but on the roses” When I think about this it seems so absurd – that I would see past the amazing beauty, joy and colour of the rose (my life) and focus in one tiny detail that was a bit spikey. I have done this a plenty, and not surprisingly have then pricked my finger – which hurts! Look deeply at a rose, appreciate the magic in its design in full, bathe in the glory of it and the thorns soon fade into insignificance.
One of the things I get from this beautiful blog is how different moving feels through life in appreciation compared to moving in complication.
I found that to deeply appreciate what is serving us all is not just a nice thing to do – it is essential and life-changing. And to appreciate I have to become aware first.
As much I love the beauty of a rose, by looking and by its smell I learn to appreciate its thorns too. They teach me to be focused, careful and that I am a very sensitive being.
“Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body before you begin your day that allows you to feel what is needed to truly support you to continue feeling the glory that each day and each moment can bring?”
This is true appreciation and inspiring to explore.
The wonderment that you have so beautifully shared Nicole is something I find is deeply natural and it can be accessed with much more ease with the support from our bodies. When my body was deeply cared for and nurtured, everything started to change for me, the thoughts that debilitated and imprisoned me in complications dissolved and expanded into joy, so everything that is being received (i.e., seen) comes from feeling this deep joy and similarly is expressed naturally in joy.
“….to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life, to see the roses amongst the thorns, to build a relationship with your body that allows you to live in a way that leaves you feeling vital at the end of each day” – without a quality relationship with oneself, where is the meaning to life? I say this because when i did not have this type of relationship years ago, i found myself looking outside for meaning and feeling very empty in the process. What I’ve found gives true meaning to life, is living life in connection through a self-relationship that’s based on the body, honouring, respecting and loving it.
To feel and smell the freshness of the day as you describe Nicole, or wafting scent of a flower is very gorgeous and has a ‘stopping effect’ where there’s also the smell of appreciation, or at least the call towards this for ourselves, and what is in our life. The other day whilst walking contemplating on something, the wafting scent of a flower greeted me at intervals and i picked a flower to take in its scent even more…the next day i received some news to what i had been contemplating, and had not really taken in the news with any appreciation.. to later the next day after deeper thought, begin to feel a sense of it. Reading your post has been a great affirmation where i can feel the flower scented walk had been a forewarner of what was coming up for my self-observation – to appreciate!
I am now heading off in my day with a joy in my heart and appreciation for the life I am sharing. Inspiring and lovely blog, thank you Nicole.
I totally get how awesome it is on a beautiful morning when the sun rays are shining through the trees and the birds are singing. I love these mornings and I used to dread the rainy ones, they grey ones and I would then go into a grey mood… funny that because now I realise that even that is a choice and there is beauty in the rain, and there is a lot to appreciate on those days too and the sun hasn’t stop shining, its still shining regardless of the weather.
I was contemplating the fact that we often make the negative things in life out to be so big, and we give them so much attention, we think about them, talk about them and go over them again and again yet the positive things we just brush off as if they are irrelevant and nothing to get excited about. I know that when I shifted to giving the positive things the space to have the lime light, to celebrate and appreciate, that the negative things all of a sudden didn’t seem like the big elephant in my room. We make what we want out of what we have created in the first place.
How fortunate that we have the choice to feel and see the “magical” aspect of life. No matter where we are if we truly open up to Love, beauty is all around and in us. With thanks for your beautiful sharing Nicole and much appreciation of the teachings of Serge Benhayon.
Isn’t it amazing how our world can transform when we see the thorns for what they are, to wake us up so we can see the beauty and enjoy the aromas and all that life offers…smell the roses that are before us.
“and the magic of God began to take over: with every thorn came a rose, and after a while the roses overtook the thorns, a beautiful reminder of how life could be if I continued to choose me, to choose love.”
I love what you say here Nicole, this is living Yoga…when we live with this connection with our mind and body working together in unison. “By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.”
This is so true to really knowing every element that makes us tick; thorns and all is super important. I know when I have dodged trying to be exposed because it makes me feel uncomfortable and there was no need to go into doubt or fear. Appreciating our own Glory is a one relationship that we have the key to.
“Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more…” Beautifully said Nicole, being real about the challenges and chaos that abound in life but also the true beauty, stillness and harmony that can be there too.
Life surely is magical..and it is our choice whether we are present in and with the moment that allows us to feel and see the magic or not. Right now I can hear the birds greeting the day and feel the freshness of the morning. I could never tire of this.
The rose is a perfect symbol to use to describe our life here on Earth for it contains the duality of the light and the dark, the petals and the thorns, the Soul and the spirit, Heaven and Earth. And so it is that we exist in a world of seeming opposites until such a time that we are able to transform the darkness back to light and return in full to the true Oneness we are seeded from.
Your sharing spoke to me of responsibility Nicole. I can choose to feel and know the rose like beauty and more within me and around me or just keep choosing to see and touch the thorns!
Life certainly is magical Nicole. I couldn’t have said this 3 years ago but now I have experienced this magic and appreciation for life and for everything around me. What you’ve shared is so simple, to feel joyful, a lightness and love, we only have to choose to live in a way that supports us to return to this natural way of living and appreciating life, the magic that constantly surrounds.
Beautiful Nicole, I am often in wonder at the beauty that surrounds us even amongst all that is not reflecting this. Appreciation for all we are and the love we are held with really lights life up.
For life to be truly magical every moment does count – the more moments you claim, own as yours and add up together the more it holds and flows like it was meant to.
An absolute joy to read Nicole and you certainly are the rose you describe! How inspiring and empowering to feel and to know that we are absolutely in charge of our choices.
A delightful sharing, thank you Nicole.
There is a simplicity you share here Nicole, that we can choose the rose or the thorn and that will be our life, but underlying this is that our life is our responsibility and that we can choose to change in any moment… it is never too late!
Appreciation is key to living a magical joyful life… and when we truly appreciate ourselves we can appreciate others and the world around us.
Our choices make our life… we can choose the thorns and they will be our life, or we can choose the roses and flourish in full bloom!
It is amazing when the moment comes that we realise that we are absorbing everything that is happening around us and allowing it to run us and complicate us. Today, with that revelation I now live my life observing and not absorbing. Today, this means there is more ‘Space’ for love to be what I carry through in everything I am and everything I do. Life is truly magical.
Hmmm….I had quite a strong reaction to the first part of your blog and I was like – no way – that is like fairy tale land – and as I read further, I realised I was in thorn land. And a comment here talks about there being both roses and thorns and it is our choice as to what one we focus on. Despite being grumpy this morning, your blog has reminded me that there is much magic around us and we can choose to focus on thorns or on the roses, even though both exist in our lives.
Wow, I haven’t even got passed the first two lines and felt I had to comment on the question. This question brought me back straight away to the truth of all that is felt and lived in my body and everything that will go into this day – profound Nicole, thank you.
“I have found there is no shame in saying sorry – no abject apologising that leaves me less than the person I am apologising to – simply honesty, which comes with the humbleness and willingness to learn from mistakes.” Absolutely, Nicole, there is no shame is saying sorry, it is just a matter of being honest and taking responsibility for what we have done. When we are being honest, how freeing it is for us as well, and how much better we feel in the body, which really lets us know when we are not being honest and not taking responsibility.
The magic of our very own connection is one that brings great joy to life and one to appreciate in every moment as we have the opportunity to share it with everyone and everything around us.
Making the choice to live from the body and not let the mind rule the show has been an absolute game changer for me. For so long I was lost in thinking that my thoughts were me and how they were often poison. By taking true care of my body, I have seen my thought patterns change. I can see the direct correlation between the quality in which I choose to live in and the types of thoughts that I am having.
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I so agree Nicole. There are some pretty hard times and difficult situations we can come across but there are always 2 ways to approach them and 2 ways they can affect us. The more I have appreciated nature and beauty the more I have been supported to deal with the attrocities I see come through people.
Nicole, this is really beautifully written.
What a beautiful Ode to Life Nicole. I love how you’re sharing your consistency, joy and wonderment. And that it takes self appreciation to be connected to the Beauty in Life. That is indeed constantly in and around us. We’re in fact One with Life as long as we choose to be One with Life.
‘My focus now is no longer on the thorns but instead on the roses;’ I still get caught by the thorns, giving them far too much attention which allows them to multiply. It’s interesting how when something is say 80% right or good how we can still focus on the 20% that isn’t.
Beautiful blog Nicole, easy bright and right. Beautiful time to start appreciating everything I am and everything about life.
Most beautifully expressed, thank you Nicole. An ode to life and the choices we make.
“My focus now is no longer on the thorns but instead on the roses; the beauty, scent, aroma, gentleness and delicateness that surround me every day – that same quality I feel around me is also within.”Yes, Nicole, this is key to really enjoying our lives, but then there is also so much to be learned when we take a look at the thorns, understand the possible messages they contain for us, all can be a point of growth for us at any time. But to give emphasis to the great beauty that surrounds us, is so, so beautifully supportive to us.
Life is meant to be appreciated, I am very appreciative of my home and the beautiful nature I have all around me, every where I look are oak tress everywhere. I know that at other times in my life I would not have been any where near as joyful just seeing trees and birds. I love that I can now see the beauty and divinity right in front of my eyes. Love being able to see clearly.
‘to look forward to putting yourself to bed so you can get up and do it all again tomorrow.’ As I am lying here in my bed this evening I can truly appreciate what a gorgeous day I have had today, because I spent it with me. What a moment to appreciate as it is not always that I can say this and certainly in years gone by it was nothing like this. I would crash out with my head on my pillow to forget the stresses of the day and wake up irritable and exhausted before the day had even got going.
A gorgeous sharing, thank you Nicole. And this is something that is open to any of us, it is purely a matter of our choices. I can relate to what you shared about not experiencing this great joy in every day until you began to truly appreciate everything beautiful about yourself, appreciation of ourselves, of nature, of the beauty that is available for us all to see, and allowance of the fact that we are not ever, and cannot ever be perfect. It is up to us and how we live that which affects how we enjoy our lives. Now this is great wisdom.
Its’ interesting what you share about complication running your mind, I realised recently that it was a level of abuse to lie in bed and think thoughts rather than surrendering to sleep. It does seem impossible when you are in the crazy and l like that you don’t say it magically happens but rather after years of choosing quality of movement you now have a different way of living.
The magic lies in seeing the roses and the thorns, not preferring one or the other, but being able to read what each of them brings to life.
Nicole this is amazing to read. I can heed so much you have said like fully committing to no longer allowing my mind to run my body. I’ve already begun this and realise, though my job has more to be done, I am not so stressed. This is already a miracle for me. I can feel there is so much to unfold as I follow my body’s wisdom
Hello Nicole and this is somewhat poetic, “Knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life, to see the roses amongst the thorns, to build a relationship with your body that allows you to live in a way that leaves you feeling vital at the end of each day.”
The Way of The Livingness empowers people to live with the thorns and the roses without being affected by both, as both are an illusion in a world of energy where we are divine vessels, here to express truth. Good and bad or positive and negative does not exist when everything is lived by our divine origins.
Relating your blog to waking up to heavy, heavy, driving rain this morning. It went on for an hour or more and stopped. Now what is there to be felt is the most exquisite stillness. A freshly clean slate with which to begin my day. That is also magic.
By separating the thorns from the roses we have made it about a part from the whole and we can only live in truth accepting that the whole is only complete by its parts.
Nicole this is beautiful and inspiring. I love the line “..to know I am not perfect and nor do I need to be…” I still struggle with this as I often feel that I don’t need to be perfect, but if I did something slightly different maybe I could be. Such a trap, and this means that I end up seeing the thorns rather than appreciating the roses. Thank you for sharing this Nicole.
A really beautiful blog Nicole. No matter what is going on in our life we do still have the choice to appreciate ourselves and really get to know who we are.
It is a choice how i view the world, and how i view the world comes back to me in so many ways. If i look at an event as a problem rather then an situation with unlimited possibilities, then it becomes problem rather then an amazing experience! Thank you Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for supporting me.
Focus on the roses instead of the thorns, wonderful Nicole. Or like I sometimes say, what you give attention grows, just like watering your plants. That what you focus on and give love, blossoms.
We so often make our contentment in life about our surroundings. Maybe we can feel this magic you describe Nicole, in the hills with gorgeous trees. But what about looking out of the high-rise apartment at the city slums, what about the graffitied alleyway next door to your work? For what you illustrate is that true beauty lives everywhere, but the greatest and most powerful landscape of all is our inner heart, and how connected we feel inside to the truth. This is the home and divine setting of all that’s magical in life.
“My focus is no longer on the thorns but on the roses”. We have a choice as to what we focus on in life. The thorns are still there and we need not be blind to them or pretend they are not there. But focusing on them and losing sight of the roses is a choice, as is seeing the roses, appreciating their glory and stopping to smell them.
Life was never meant to be hard, difficult or complicated. It only gets that way when we loose connection to ourselves, to God and to the whole of humanity. Connect back to your soul and life becomes a flow and magic is all around us. For Heaven communicates non-stop to us if we are willing to see the signs.
What you share here makes such a difference in the way I experience myself and life: “By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” Thoughts can be so harming for my body and make me get lost in them and the images they carry. And before I know my movements have changed and I can’t feel myself anymore.
What you have shared is a life of simplicity and content that many would love to have and yet few actually experience. The commitment to working on yourself, of deepening your relationship with yourself and therefor with how you relate to life, you are far more able to see the beauty for it is a reflection of what is within
What a beautiful blog to start my day with. Thank you, Nicole.
Yes life can be so magical! And the most beautiful thing about it is that life becomes truly magical when keeping life very simple and when you are connected to yourself. Then simply breathing can be amazing, let alone doing other things.
There have been times in my life where looking good was so much more important to me than whether I was warm enough or my feet were supported. At that point I choose not to connect with or feel the discomfort i was in. Now my focus has changed and I am focused on how I care and nurture myself first and how I look secondly. To see and smell the roses I had to accept that maybe i had been choosing to hold onto the thorns and it was time to do things a bit differently.
For me this blog is such a beautiful reminder to keep things simple and light, as this is who we truly are… and take off the ‘woe is me’ glasses that I can at times hold onto for way too long.
It is super important that we do not allow our mind and thoughts to take over what we feel, this is an universal issue that leads to illness and disease. For example if we continue to over ride the fact we are tired and keep pushing through the day thinking we need to finish our to do list then eventually we may collapse from exhaustion. Or if we continually think about what needs to be done and how and when we will do it then often we cannot sleep because our mind is too active and over a period of time this can cause sleeplessness.
It is such a different way of being to actually go to sleep looking forward to the next day knowing that it has the potential to be even better then the last day which was already great . Waking up with a spring in your step ready to get on with what the day may bring I never would have thought possible even up to a couple of years ago. But yes it is and self appreciation and appreciation of life and the magic of God has contributed greatly to this reality
If we continue to un-complicate our lives by choosing to make loving choices, this way of being will completely connect us to the fact that we have a choice and have chosen that choice consistently . Or! ‘Knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life’.
Your first line is a real thought-provoker Nicole and poses an important question; are we living ‘a life that you would want to come back and live time and time again?’ Similar to what you wrote about going to bed and actually looking forward to doing it all again the next day, asking ourselves these questions really exposes whether we are embracing and living life to it’s fullest, appreciating the magic of it along the way, or if we are living a life we would not choose to repeat and are contracting instead.
The rose analogy is gorgeous Nicole and really captures the different attitudes we can take to life; we can choose to focus on the thorns, the complications, the ‘dark’ stuff, OR on the flower and even though there are times when the flower is not there the thorns can be reminders that with water, sun and a bit of nurturing the flower will bloom again.
Thank you Nicole for your little uplifting reflection of how to live in the sunshine as opposed to moaning and moping around complaining in the dark damp shadows.
its a great point that we don’t stop often enough to appreciate all that is around us- the incredible beauty that surrounds us is apparent, the minute we stop to look around us, from misty valleys to sunkist dew drops on roses.
Its amazing how we can say complication used to consume us for days, and now a moment of complication feels terrible! What a transformation and proof that it is possible to evolve beyond these things!
How beautiful Nicole, life is about appreciating the roses, and the thorns. You are right sometimes it feels like life is getting on top of us and we get gloomy and grey , appreciation is the magic that clears that away and rejuvenates us again!
This is a beautiful reminder to focus on investing our energy and time in who we truly are – the powerful, beautiful and inspirational person. Any small so called thorns or weaknesses can still be seen, and called out, but for what they are – teeny tiny cracks that can very simply and easily be filled in because they carry no power what so ever in something that is so enormous and powerful.
I would have to agree with you Nicole, life is indeed magical and as simple and amazing as we allow it to be. Each choice that we make, no matter how small, has an impact on how we experience the world – it is the sum of our choices that determines whether we look out each day onto a gorgeous garden or an overgrown mess of weeds.
I don’t have this magic every day when I wake up but sometimes I do and that is enough to inspire me. I had an EBM session with Mary Louise Myers recently where I realised how often I still relate to the thorns and not the roses. Allowing myself to surrender to the whole of my body in this session connected me to a complete acceptance and appreciation of the all that is and of myself. I have since noticed how often I can be reeled in towards the thorns so to speak and it is only my choice to stay in the sunshine and continue to connect with the roses that keeps me there feeling the magic.
Gorgeous Nicole, such simple, relatable wisdom you have shared – thank you!
Absolutely gorgeous Nicole. ‘….making the choice to stop my mind from running my body’ how key is this to reconnecting to who we are? Aligning the mind and the body re-turns us back to harmony.
I never thought I would view life in this way, however when I have had a consistency of taking care of myself, appreciating myself, my life and others then I have days like this too. I am still working on the consistency to make this my everyday.
“Then to look forward to putting yourself to bed so you can get up and do it all again tomorrow.” – once upon a time I would have scoffed at a statement like this and dismissed it as rubbish because I was so exhausted and barely getting through my day. Now, I say ‘YES’ to what you’ve written Nicole because I love how I feel, I love being out in the world and bringing my light to everyone I meet, and then yes, do it all again tomorrow.
This blog feels like a breath of rose scented air. It is so supportive to be reminded that we choose what we feel.
Very beautiful blog Nicole. The minute I focus on what’s wrong (the thorns), I don’t see the beauty and magic in life.
Nicole not many people can say this from their lives: “A life that now has a flow and a consistency where the complication still presents itself, only now I am able to observe it, deal with what gets presented and move onto what is next.” Thank you for sharing that such a life is possible – if we allow ourselves to take the responsibility for the choices we made.
When we stop and feel ourselves for just a moment, it’s like everything around you comes into your sphere and you feel much more of a connection to nature and what is around you. That amazing feeling of being connected to everything all at once, never fades away, and never ceases to disappoint, especially when nature speaks so very beautifully in the simplest of ways.
What I love most about this piece of writing is that it shows how we are the ones getting in the way of connecting with the beauty we each hold within, regardless of what is happening around us.
Thanks for the reminder Nicole – this morning I went out for a walk as the sun was rising and the air very fresh. I was cozy in my jacket and while I walked I marveled at the colour in the sky, how it illuminated the clouds and even reflected in windows. And I felt how you described what a magical blessing living is and we only have to be aware of natures beauty to remind us of this. Tonight I’m feeling a little tired from the day so somewhere I let slip the joy of living and got on with the doing of life – when I remember the magic is patiently waiting.
Beautiful blog Nicole, as always. The magic of God, when connected to within ourselves, through appreciation and love, connects us to all there is, so easy then to see and smell the roses rather than a focus on the thorns.
After many years and the support of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon, I have learnt to take responsibility for my choices, the way I live and to appreciate myself, to love the woman I am, to know I am not perfect and nor do I need to be, that life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated, that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic. Nicole, I absolutely love this blog and this last paragraph, fits me to a tee. Life for me now is feeling pretty amazing, as after all, it is absolutely up to us and how we view life, and the view I have now, is inspirational.
As you share it is never about being perfect. What I am beginning to tangibly feel more and more within my body is how appreciation is key. As soon as we appreciate a moment of truth, clarity, beauty, magic, understanding … (the list could go on!), we then confirm this within our bodies giving an opportunity for a new moment of truth, beauty, magic … to be felt and seen.
Nicole what is so amazing about your line “Now after many years working on my own self-appreciation, learning to love and accept myself, I can now truly appreciate life and all that comes with it, thorns and all” is that it shows the God, Life and the Universe are full of love and inspiration. Yet it is our choices and how we are with ourselves that mean we can feel and connect to this or not.
Who would have thought that even roses can be dull when you choose to be weighed down by the thorns? And that there is at times seemingly nothing to pull you out of the dull, dark monotony of your days. I remember this feeling.
Thank goodness for the inspiration of another way, until that way became my own.
Thank you Nicole for sharing the magic you feel within you and in each day. You have restored all that magical innocence that we once felt as children in your adult life, fresh and untarnished. This too may sound ‘airy fairy’, but I know the truth of it too, an innocence that we all can, through our daily choices, restore within ourselves. Before meeting Serge Benhayon I had no idea of how to do this, although it was what I was deeply longing to do. Applying all the practical tools learnt through attending Universal Medicine workshops and healing courses has made this seemingly impossible task a real fact of life. Appreciating life, me, my nearest and dearest and people in general was not common for me but today is a huge part of my life and deeply rewarding. We are living proof that it is possible to truly heal and clear all that keeps us separated from our natural innocent and joy for life.
‘life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated, that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic.’
Life can be as complicated as we choose to make it; but why do it to ourselves? I fully appreciate everything you have said here Nicole; words that can only come from a body that lives it.
“Then to look forward to putting yourself to bed so you can get up and do it all again tomorrow.”
Let’s make no apology for a truly amazing, beautiful life, full of magic.
Thank-you Nicole for saying it how it is.
Gorgeous blog Nicole, one thing I love about my rhythm of getting up early in the morning is the quiet of the start of the day, opening the back door and feeling the freshness of a new beginning every morning no matter what the weather – but how it reflects so beautifully whatever magic it presents.
“A life that now has a flow and a consistency where the complication still presents itself, only now I am able to observe it, deal with what gets presented and move on to what is next.” Being a student of energy and the art of observation and discernment is a constant learning and deeply honouring.
A very poignant piece of writing for me this morning. I woke up and I felt the thorn. I told myself to appreciate the roses, and could see them but still not feel them. Reading this I am reminded to go much deeper and feel the air around me too, and with that I feel reconnected to me. It is so easy to get blinkered in our vision of what’s ahead, when really we are spherical and life is all around us.
Nicole – you remind me how simple it is to appreciate each moment. And this can be done in an instant dependant on the way we move, our choices at each moment and what we are prepared to let go of that is not us. I also used to like the struggle and being a victim as it kept me safe and not responsible, but to take back responsibility and what is happening in my life.
‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.’ I agree Nicole to be present with what your body is as different as day and night, wondering thoughts are making us so tired and distract us from what we feel in whatever is happening with and around us.
I love how you used the roses and thorns Nicole. Its so true, often we make the thorns out to be huge, and forget the magnificence of the rose… until we shift our energy to the rose that is.
Beautiful to read your blog Nicole as I noticed this morning how I tend to not acknowledge the lightness in my body and thus not appreciate who I am. And this is like closing my eyes to the Magic of God. The roses and the thorns they both have something to tell, the key for me is to observe and to see the blossoming of the rose no matter how many thorns are there.
An amazingly joyful blog to read reminding us to celebrate our natural beauty and that in everything around us ,to live life fully and appreciate our lives in every moment with no perfection just love .
“Now after many years working on my own self-appreciation, learning to love and accept myself, I can now truly appreciate life and all that comes with it, thorns and all.” Appreciating the greatness in yourself opens up the opportunity to see the greatness in everything else…
When we choose to take a moment to really stop and look at and feel the beauty that surrounds us everyday in nature, it is hard not to feel the magic of God in everything we see. The thing that gets in the way is that we all too often just take this beauty for granted as we are so caught up in what we have to get done. Taking the time to listen to the birds, to smell a rose or to watch a spider spinning its web can reflect so much back to us, and if we take the time to truly appreciate these reflections, how we are with ourselves and everyone else has the potential to change in a moment.
When we narrow our focus on the thorns in life then that is exactly our life and reality – full of thorns. What Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and Esoteric Women’s Health have presented is that when we step back from having our heads amongst the thorns we get to see that each stem ends with a rose. Lately I have found that on my daily walk if I bring my focus to the sun on my face or the terrain under my feet or just how my body feels it takes me out of the mind that very quickly focuses on the small and miserable things in life without any recognising that they are just a small part along the stem to the roses.
Leigh, I love your expression here. It is feeling the whole and not only a few prickly parts.
Every day I celebrate the magic in this life, from the tiniest feather that floats by me to a majestic tree covered in its autumn glory; all have a part in this world. Too often we are too busy dealing with the practicalities of life that we don’t take the time to stop and to observe what is being shown to us in that moment, so we may miss that offering of magic, but one thing is for sure there is always more magic just waiting to unfold.
Indeed there are no roses without thorns but today I see that thorns are there to be embraced and learnt from, so that the roses can unfold and deepen with every step.
We are so good at focusing on the things that go wrong in our lives, and the things we find hard to do, rather than the things we do well and that are simple and straightforward. How different our lives would be if we focused on those positive things and actually celebrated ourselves and each other for the beatuiful quality we bring to everyone when we do something with a grace and ease because it is simply part of who we are.
Responsibility and appreciation are our greatest healing keys to support our return to love with remembering and knowing the Magic of God that is always with us as we choose love over all else.
“I have learnt to take responsibility for my choices, the way I live and to appreciate myself, to love the woman I am, to know I am not perfect and nor do I need to be, that life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated, that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic”.
This is gorgeous to read – ‘…the magic of God began to take over: with every thorn came a rose…’.
Beautiful, Nicole. Thank you for sharing your ever-unfolding journey back to yourself and to God.
‘Knowing that in each moment you have a choice to choose you, to make choices that lovingly support you to appreciate life, to see the roses amongst the thorns, to build a relationship with your body that allows you to live in a way that leaves you feeling vital at the end of each day’, Nicole I wonder if we all do know this, but have chosen to bury it so deeply down that it feels like we never knew it at all.
My day just felt suddenly lighter, thank you for sharing Nicole
Your so right Nicole pondering that life could be this sweet is not something that most people even contemplate, for in the same way that our bench mark of good health is simply to be free of disease, equally our benchmark of a content lifestyle is to be stress-free. Well Universal Medicine have set a new precedent for feeling vital, energised, filled with appreciation, wonderment and joy is 100% possible in our day to day life.
The only way out of anything is to choose our way out, there is no other way.
Nicole you have a way of writing that makes things come alive. Reading your descriptions at the beginning of your story allowed my senses to experience them too, even though I am sitting here at my computer.
A beautiful blog Nicole, thank you for presenting your now ‘abundant bouquet of roses’ to share with the world.
Thank you Nicole for painting such a beautiful description of how life changes from seeing the thorns to seeing the roses if one chooses to practice and live the lessons presented by Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and the examples of people such as you.
This is fantastisc, truly inspirational to read your way in life. And it is so true, when we choos to appreciate what is there than we will see how magical life truly is. There is more in it than we can see when we choose to complicate it, which is only a trap for ourself to not live the fullnes of who we are.
I have found that appreciation does not have to be grand and monumental, it can be for the smallest and the simplest things, with every little choice to appreciate counting towards the greater whole that is your life, making appreciation key in re-establishing life as being about love and glory and not about an endless cycle of misery.
Beautiful Nicole, thank you. Without appreciation we stay stuck in a cycle of habitual thinking and beliefs that rarely if ever truly serve us. My life is transformed when I choose to appreciate myself fully and then others, the beauty of nature, the Universe…Appreciation is a doorway to a new awareness of life – so very much worth working on.
There are always going to be thorns in life but it is how we deal with them that makes the difference, as in do we go into major reaction and refuse to deal with things, essentially holding on or do we embrace the opportunity to meet them head-on.
Perfect timing, Nicole, for me to read this blog. It has taken years for me to really be able to appreciate all the love and support, the constant presence of the divine in and around me, in nature, in a smile. I was so hooked into my ‘story’ and definitely saw life from the ‘half empty’ perspective, but now it feels like the glass is overflowing because I am dropping the old protections and allowing myself to feel everything that has been there all along!
I can say hand on heart that Life is truly magical every single day, all from the choices I make.
Thank you Nicole, I can relate to both ways of how life can be and I feel in it. In more recent years since meeting Universal Medicine I am able to focus more on the roses rather than the thorns. At times I am ‘pricked’ by the thorns but the difference now is I know this is not true life just something I have created so I have the tools to ‘do some pruning’ to see and come back to the rose 🙂
‘Life is truly magical’ – yes it is.
A big key is accepting we are amazing, and that life is an amazing opportunity too, not something to be dismissed and hurried through. But an opportunity to learn and play along the way.
What a gorgeous blog to wake up to this morning Nicole. I love your analogy, It can be so easy to focus on the thorns even when the roses are right there next to them, it really does become a choice on which we prefer to focus on, the hard and arduous day that the thorns can bring or the beauty and richness of scent that is offered by the rose. Life is truly Magical it really is a choice to see it or not.
I find when I step back from life, stop being in it but instead observing it that there is so much to appreciate that we have around us. As I write this I can hear the birds sing, and can enjoy the peaceful early morning light. I can feel how much there is in my own body to feel and to love and I really get a sense of how this appreciation is a choice to take, a step towards loving a simple life or a choice to make things complicated and only see the challenges as complication. Thank you Nicole
Life is truly magical, so many people focus on the negative instead of the divine magic that is within us and around us, supporting us constantly every single day.
‘Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more… by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with.’ A beautiful sentence showing what the power of appreciation brings.
Great blog Nicole, one that many people would be inspired by. As a whole people in general (myself included) can focus on the negative far too much and not appreciate all the truly magical, spectacular, amazing moments that surround us in every single moment of every single day. There is so much to appreciate and love about life, people, ourselves and being here.
‘By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.’ This is crucial. We can make great choices with what we eat and how we look after our bodies with exercise and sleep but if we allow our thoughts to run riot at the expense of our feelings, then this is poison in our bodies.
Gorgeous blog to wake up to and appreciate this morning Nicole. What I am appreciating is how much choice we have. It is not just about what we choose to wear or eat, or what we will do when we get home from work, it is also in each moment about whether we focus on the roses or the thorns. Beautiful.
Another pertinent point you make is that life will never be perfect and that there will always be ‘thorns’ or issues around. As you suggest, simply observing them from a lived quality of appreciation and stillness supports us in not getting caught up in them but reading them for what they are.
Yes I can identify with this way of life. The treadmill struggle and trying to catch my breath. To the transition of breathing my own breath and living from who I truly am and not what is expected of me or living my life from avoidance or lack.
“..that life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated”. This is such an important statement to have made. The consciousness that says struggling and suffering are needed to have a worthy life is so far from the truth yet is a belief that many of us subscribe to and many run with. In fact it is a predominant one that we are taught from very young. I once subscribed to this view too but now know different. As you convey Nicole, living life from appreciation and stillness is not only a very real possibility it is a fact – should we choose it!
When I simply feel into your analogy, I get this impression that when you appreciate each moment, the roses are finally allowed to grow unrestricted – hence the observation that the thorns no longer choke the whole, and that the health brings forth more and more buds to be enjoyed not just by you, but shared with everyone around.
Nicole, this article is absolutely beautiful to read, I love this, ‘life is not meant to be hard, that it is not meant to be complicated, that life is truly amazing, beautiful and full of magic.’ I feel very inspired and uplifted by reading your article, I can feel how appreciating my life and not focussing on the thorns/the issues but rather focussing on the beauty of myself and life makes life feel amazing, thank you, a wonderful reminder.
From reading others comments I see the importance in realising the thorns are always going to be there, but when we focus on the roses, we bring more appreciation and joy into our days.
Yes I must admit to finding it easier to focus on the thorns still, however that is slowly changing. Maybe I would have laughed dismissively at your opening paragraphs not so long ago, but I do wake some mornings feeling very appreciative of the simple joys in life. As I am typing I can hear the bird chirping and it’s brought a smile to my face. It can be as simple as appreciating these small everyday moments.
Appreciating ourselves and each other has such an incredible impact. It turns the world upside down and inside out. Learning to appreciate ourselves is much needed as so few people do it well.
The greatest challenge in the presentations of Serge Benhayon is that we are not here to make this life a better life, but that we are not from here and are on our way to return to where we are truly from. Even just considering that changes a lot in the way we approach and see life.
I do have a tendency too to find the ‘hair in the soup’ so to speak, often missing the opportunity to appreciate the beauty of life, too busy with all the imperfections of it. However there is a lot of lovelessness in the world, but without appreciation we do not have a solid foundation to stand on to address this lovelessness and just get overwhelmed by its enormity.
“Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more… by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with.” Beautiful. Accepting and appreciating what is – rather than having expectations then being disappointed at the outcome.
“By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” This is so important. Allowing our minds to run us can allow us to spiral down into negativity. To feel our body – and appreciate from there – can make a huge difference to our day. Thanks for the inspiration Nicole.
Life as thorns and roses is a great allegory – we cannot change that fact, so it does not make sense to just focus on the thorns nor to just focus on the roses. We’ve got to embrace all of what life is and live it with all of who we are.
We have so many concepts and ideas how life should be and consequently are struggling to live up to that. What if we just surrendered to what is on offer and lived that in full one day at a time?
Accepting and allowing the choices of others (still a work in progress) is one of the things that has allowed me to connect to the magic of life. As long as I thought things had to be a certain way, I would get caught up in a lot of reactions. The more I am able to let go and know that I am purely responsible for myself and the reflection I offer, the more simple and joyful life becomes.
I certainly see and experience the great beauty and glory you speak of Nicole. I also of course see tremendous suffering, abuse and harm in the world all of which you could sum up as lovelessness. It is this lack of love that inspires me to live the love that we all are at essence and to come back and do it all again until such time as we no longer have any lovelessness left on the earth – it will take a while (many more life times) but will happen eventually!!!
I grew up surrounded by a ‘life is hard’ view and most of all life was definitely not magical… there was struggle, dramas, emotions and more ups and downs than an amusement park. And looking around most people were living like this too. I’ve now experienced how simple and joyful life can be when we see the magic in all things… and yes stop and smell the roses! This goes as soon as I get lost in focusing on the ‘thorns’ and even hang out there for too long.
Your blog Nicole and the appreciation you now live, is a powerful reflection of what we can all choose.
For a long, long time, I only focused on the thorns, thus life was hard and complicated and serious and a constant struggle…. What I have learned and observed about myself, is how much I hold onto the old and the familiar. Over the last 5 years I have learned to let go, since attending the courses of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. Now I actually enjoy the letting go, which supports me to embrace all the new that is waiting for me. Today my focus has changed, my attention is on all those beautiful and delicately scented roses that surround me wherever I go.
Nicole, so very true ‘Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more…’ It is amazing how so many of us a picture we strive for of perfection but the pictures never allow for any deviation, changes or the fact that we are here to evolve and things will come up for us to learn from. And when we drop the picture what is then possible can be even greater and in my experience usually is!
“By making the choice to stop my mind from running my body, and by not allowing my thoughts to take over what I was feeling, I began to feel differently.” When our mind runs the show it is always wrestling with problems and when we become aware of this and stop the internal chatter we are free to enjoy and appreciate the magic all around and within us.
So true Mary magic happens when we re-connect to our body so we can move in a way that honours that which is ‘within’.
Reading your blog out loud felt so amazing in my body and voice.
Beautiful blog Nicole – the moment I started to connect to myself and appreciate life with no self abuse is when I started to notice how beautiful the sky is and how much of it has been right above me all my life.
This blog supports an amazing healing for all. It’s gentleness and delicious simplicity I feel really invites the reader to stop and smell the roses. For me this is what I read these blogs for…an opportunity to see the world through another’s eyes and enjoy what that reflects inside of me. Beautifully crafted and deeply appreciated, thank you Nicole for taking the time to encourage us all to stop and consider the natural wonder that surrounds us.
Thank you for the reminder Nicole that the Magic of God is right there for us and it is our choice to open up to it and to live in connection with it.
So the roses and thorns are both always there. It is simply our choice as to what we see, attend to and focus our attention on. It is amazing to consider the shift from thinking we are surrounded by thorns to realising there are as many, if not more, roses around us too.
This is so true Matilda, “It is simply our choice as to what we see” in every situation, and too often we make the choice to see the “thorns’ in life, while the “roses” wait patiently for us make another more loving choice; but no matter what choice we make there is always a lesson.
Love this blog Nicole and it is so true, something as simple as appreciation can change our whole out look on life. Like you, I would focus on the thorns but since focusing on the roses and appreciating them first how I view my self and the world around me has totally changed and how my life unfolds moment to moment, day to day has changed too.
Appreciation is like putting on a pair of sunglasses yet still seeing the light that is right there before us.
Totally inspiring read Nicole, I had one of those days yesterday where a couple of things went wrong and I was struggling really struggling to see the roses from the thorns and I’m a gardener and the roses are in full bloom at the moment. I just wish I’d read this yesterday as I tried to cope by going into an old pattern of speeding up to get the job done with the result of a drop in quality and probably a drop in productivity.
A beautiful blog to read this morning Nicole. I feel that I can also appreciate the thorns next to the roses as they are there to teach us something very important as well. Without the thorns we would not be able to appreciate the roses for what they bring to life and visa verse of course.
There is so much more to life than just work and eating and sleeping with the odd TV time mixed in. There is a much bigger grandness at play than this, we are keeping ourselves and our quality of wellbeing small accepting any less than this.
This is a truly gorgeous piece of writing Nicole. Just like you 🙂
“Knowing there will always be thorns but also that there is so much more… by appreciating me and everything around me, the beauty began to outweigh the darkness I had once felt and lived with” – this is exquisite, and so profound. When I have an image of what I would like my life and the world to look like, the thorns really start to stand out, but learning that life is about evolution and it being all about energy, I begin to understand and accept the deeper level of love that is being offered for there to be the thorns and the roses.
“The mist in the valleys, the birds chirping, being in awe of the rays beaming through the clouds from the sun, or in the remaining glow of the last full moon. Feeling the freshness of the morning air on your skin and brushing across your nose as you open that first door or window of your home” – I do not have these things where I live, the air hurts my throat as I breathe and my eyes get itchy, and the moon gets mostly hidden amongst all buildings etc. – it’s got far worse than how it used to be many years ago, but I have learnt to live with much more appreciation than I ever did, so I totally agree with you, Nicole – that it is about learning to take responsibility for my choices, the way I live and appreciate myself.
I can relate to what you’re saying – my glass was half empty for a long time and I could never see or even think that it might be possible to regard it as half full or even fuller. Taking responsibility and making different choices have certainly turned my life around.
There are many opportunities to see the magic and blessings of life when we are connected to the inside and not focussed on the outside.
What is beautifully expressed here is the way we can deepen our appreciation of all that is going on, from the simplest of analogies.
I am amazed at how deeply we can immerse ourselves in appreciation and the rose is a perfect example of what to focus on, it’s many qualities and not its underlying potential to bruise us.
This is great Felicity ‘to not focus on the potential for it to bruise us’ – to still see the thorns but without fear of them and allowing the whole to be our focus. I love this blog Nicole and the reminder of how deeply supported we are by the magic and beauty of God around, and within, us all. Accepting and appreciating this certainly does bring a lightness and joy in our days.
This was a total joy to read. Accepting and appreciating our power to live gracefully and simply and with the understanding Nicole shares has been made so accessible through the absolute love reflected by Serge Benhayon.
Life truly is magical Nicole. I went on an early morning walk this morning and felt the stillness in the air, the moon reflecting its glow on the lake and I felt the majesty of being here to experience it. The joy of life is found in the moments we have everyday and I love that.
Beautiful kellyzarb I can feel that the choice to focus on the roses makes for a truly loving relationship with ones self.
Another gorgeous blog to remind us to continue to deepen our appreciation of the qualities and essence we bring, living in this fullness without the pictures of perfection. I feel this perfectionism and self judgement cannot be emphasised enough, as it takes away from appreciating in every way all the love we are and bring.
The gorgeousness we can celebrate within doesn’t depend on our outer surroundings. Whether we’re amidst nature or a built up city it’s actually about a choice we make to go within and feel the spaciousness and warmth that is there. We then can bring this same quality to our environment and day to day.
What you have shared Nicole comes with such an ease of life, something that we don’t always seen in those around us is the simplicity that is possible to live in connection with. Thank you for bringing my awareness back to the grand opportunity that life and nature and all the small moments bring to supporting my life to be simple and wondrous.
That’s a great analogy Nicole — not to focus on the thorns but on the roses themselves. I had a tangible experience of that this morning when I went for a walk — I was first caught up on what I wasn’t doing, how I wasn’t meeting my own expectations and I was trying to work it all out and find a solution! I got even more caught in this tightness — like a vice around my head and body. I then made a choice — to shift my awareness and focus and just enjoy myself. I put on some gorgeous music and walked along silkily and ever so merrily enjoying the lusciousnness I could feel in my body. When we focus on the rose that’s there always, the rose opens up more and more.
Yes Nichole ” Life is Truely Magical” I have just come in from watching the magnificent sunrise and hearing all the birds welcoming in the day. Your question “Do you allow yourself to feel the lightness in your body..”? Not as such but lovely reminder, another opportunity to appreciate what I bring.