A couple of weeks ago I had a moment where the love that I am, and the love that is around us all, felt very present. In this moment there was a strong sense in me to ‘Be Still’.
So for the past couple of weeks I have been practising just this. Stilling myself whenever my head begins to wander away from the moment that I am in, I gently return to my body and make the very clear choice to be still with it.
I’ve noticed since making the clear choice to practise my stillness that whenever I am racing ahead and don’t pull myself up, something little happens to bring me back to my stillness. For example, I bump my hip, or I get a splinter when putting wood on the fire.
The other day I had a flower that landed on the bonnet of my car – it was fully open and simply there: what a gift this was as it was right at a moment where a little doubt was playing with me and I wasn’t being very still. For some time I have been connecting to the beauty of nature and how it can and does interact with us, and this moment was one of those moments that confirmed deeply for me that doubt was not warranted. By choosing to be still again, I could feel the appreciation and deep love of myself that was there to be nurtured.
Whilst living this stillness has been super supportive, I began to realise that I had not been fully enjoying my days. I pondered on this and felt that choosing to be still gave me the opportunity to become aware of how vulnerable I had been feeling as a woman. To avoid feeling this vulnerability I found I was trying to manipulate and control everything; a constant anxiety was with me as I was not allowing myself to live the joyfulness that I know I am.
With this understanding I decided to enjoy my day, my self, the tenderness that I am and my stillness in full.
That day, my drive into town was exquisite. I felt fully connected to the world and to nature during my drive, and could see and feel with such clarity. I felt strongly that my place in the world is equally as beautiful and graceful, as was the awesome nature that I was driving through.
I had many places to go to in town and much to do, yet everywhere I went, from the mechanic’s to the grocery store, I found myself observing and enjoying many beautiful moments of tenderness with people. One moment/observation in particular touched me deeply: this was to see and feel the tenderness and grace with which a man placed his trolley back into the trolley bay. In the moment that I observed this I could feel the true power of living my stillness joyfully. By choosing to simply enjoy my day I was supporting another to choose to live the tenderness that they equally have within. Every part of the day flowed with such simplicity and grace.
Driving home I was reflecting on the beauty of having lived my day with such joy, and how natural it is to live this way. As I was feeling this, I looked up while stopped at a set of traffic lights and saw a pelican flying around and around in anti-clockwise circles. As I watched the pelican, I felt so clearly that everything in life is just fine the way it is, knowing that love is all around me, nature supports and holds me and that my way of being that day is my true way of living.
I could feel this so strongly and when I had a moment of criticism for myself for not having lived this way before, I was able to let these thoughts go. Self-criticism takes the joy out of living; the pelican and nature were a confirmation for me that life is to be enjoyed.
This experience has shown me that stillness is so very much needed, but to live this in full means to take one further step and to fully enjoy taking my stillness with me to everyone I meet, be that a friend, a relative, or a stranger in the street. By simply enjoying my day I found myself more aware of what was going on for others. More than ever before I could clearly feel the choices being made by others, but even more beautiful, I had a clear understanding of why these choices had been made and with this I could simply allow them to be.
Simply enjoying my stillness, my self, and my day felt absolutely divine and true. Living my appreciation in full has shown me deeply that I am to be celebrated and appreciated and even more so, that I have a purpose in the world. People around me felt my presence, and God and nature confirmed it. The understanding specifically for me was “Walking, fully of JOY and GRACE each day, is all that is needed.”
My deepest appreciation goes to Serge Benhayon and the Esoteric practitioners who have supported me over the past few years. Their dedication to truth and love is unshakeable, igniting within myself the very same unshakeable love.
By Leigh Strack
Related Reading:
Stillness
Anxiousness, Stillness, God and Me
The Illusion of Happiness – Finding the Joy Within
Words on Serge Benhayon 
Life is so confirming when we live with the Joy and Stillness that is within, and all we have to do is stay connected to our essences, inner-hearts/Souls with the simplest of things, sharing how True appreciation works.
Living so still and connected to our body is our natural way of being. In our presence there is nothing from outside that can affect us, unless we allow it.
Living such a glorious life is a choice. Leigh love the way you gently claimed your space wherever you go and all the wonders you could enjoy and appreciate afterwards. Thanks for sharing so beautifully
Thank you Leigh, there is much wisdom to be felt throughout your blog from your experiences and the choices you have made. When I look over my life I feel I’ve had the most powerful effect on others when I’ve simply been in full love with myself and enjoying myself, and others have felt that, there has been no imposition just the tremendous presence of my natural self. Thank you for reminding me of the joy of simply being me.
Such a beautiful quality. Just like water with no ripple so its surface mirrors everything.
Thank you Leigh, and what a Joy it is to have a deepening stillness that is so obviously felt by others as a reflection of what can be lived.
I totally agree with you Leigh when you say
“My deepest appreciation goes to Serge Benhayon and the Esoteric practitioners who have supported me over the past few years. Their dedication to truth and love is unshakeable, igniting within myself the very same unshakeable love.”
Serge Benhayon and the Esoteric practitioners have supported many many people to rediscover themselves and reignite true love in their bodies which supports us all to walk full of joy and grace each and everyday.
There are certain days when everything seems to fall into place and there is a flow to the day and the magic just seems to unfold around us. But what if these days are actually every day and it is just us choosing to be tuned into this or not? And what is it then that determines if we tune into this or not? Is it just a random thing we wake up to? Or could the way we are, the quality of our movements be part of the contributing factor?
We can be our own best friend when we connect deeply within, or we can be our own worst enemy when we disconnect and allow other forces to take over.
Henrietta this is so true to be our own best friend by connecting deeply with ourselves gives us an inner strength which is so powerful. I haven’t quite got there yet but I have seen it in others that they will not be swayed from what they know to be true and this is because they have such a deep trust in their abilities because they know who they are in truth. It feels to me that when we know ourselves in truth then nothing can budge us from this.
Too be honest since meeting Serge Benhayon I have been on a path of self-discovery to rediscover the real me. Not the me that got completely bent out of shape through taking on other people ideals and expectations of who I should be and what I should or should not be doing. I had no notion for example that there was within my body such a deep stillness. This stillness was impossible to feel until recently because I was so anxious all the time and I fed this anxiousness with all the wrong foods and drinks that kept my body stimulated. Now I have a greater understanding that there is an energy that doesn’t want me or anyone for the matter to feel the stillness that resides in each and every one of us because when we do feel it there is such a desire to stay in the stillness that nothing else matters except to move in a way that keeps us connected to the stillness we can feel. And when we live from this stillness it is harder for the energy to get us. And another thing I have discovered is that this energy has an intelligence which feeds of our anxiousness or emotions and if we cut off that supply it can no longer exist; which reminds of the film Monster Inc. The people that made that film knew about energy.
“Self-criticism takes the joy out of living . . . ” That is so true Leigh. Self-criticism seems to be so normal for most of us that it is not a bad idea to bring our awareness to the fact that it is not normal and that there is an other way to be with ourselves. You gave us a wonderful lived experience what is possible if we choose to bring back more joy in our day to day living . . . that is really inspiring!
I can really see how self-criticism is a waste of energy. Nature doesn’t criticise itself, so perhaps we should be inspired by the stillness, flow, purpose and cycles that we are reflected by nature.
Self-criticism is a killer as it eats away at self confidence and then we are left with a feeling of worthlessness this can lead to us being very hard on ourselves. All this is coming from thoughts that we attach to thinking they are our thoughts when in fact they are being sourced from a consciousness we have aligned to. Change the consciousness and the negative thoughts are no longer there.
Being in the moment offers fresh sight – we see, feel and hear things differently. Flow is a great way to describe it.
Beautifull blog Leigh I could feel the stillness as soon as I opened it and it supported me to appreciate the stillness within me and to.
“Self-criticism takes the joy out of living”, Such a very wise reminder that when we allow our inner critic to raise its voice the joy that is always available to us starts to disappear and if we give the critic permission to keep on speaking the joy almost becomes out of reach. I know that I have been my harshest critic, and those I speak to about this also say they have been theirs. Crazy really, for if we treated our friends as we often treat ourselves, I’m picking we’d soon have no friends and no joy left in our lives.
What we call still is not the same across the board. What we consider to be still depends on where are we coming from and how open to feel what is there to be felt are you.
“I’ve noticed since making the clear choice to practise my stillness that whenever I am racing ahead and don’t pull myself up, something little happens to bring me back to my stillness. For example, I bump my hip, or I get a splinter when putting wood on the fire.” I loved these little reminders that we have offering us a moment to stop, reflect and reconnect back to ourselves.
“something little happens to bring me back to my stillness. For example, I bump my hip, or I get a splinter when putting wood on the fire.” Yes definitely, and it is great to embrace these moments of a stop and feel how we matter and it matters what quality we hold ourself in.