Experiencing Fully – and Creating Well Being
Experiencing Fully creates the Well Being atmosphere for Self Healing to Occur.
There is an innate desire in all of us to be involved in something that takes us beyond our isolated, small self. To be free of the limitations our subconscious mind imposes on us in its remaking of the past day after day. There is a need to expand our consciousness to include more than just ourselves. Abraham Maslow called this a state of Self Transcendence and identified 8 Behaviors and 14 Values that are seen in a Self Transcendent Person. (see initial article). When we reach this state of Transcendence, we naturally express these Behaviors and Values. The way to reach this state of Being for most of us is by practicing these behaviors and values in our own lives. (Every once in a while someone gets there through dramatic revelation – an out of body death experience, or a spiritual experience, or 40 days and nights in the wilderness, but most of us do it one step and a time). The path to Self Transcendence is the spiral path of life and, I believe, the reason we’ve chosen to be here now.
Unwrapping the Behavior of Experiencing Fully
Today we are going to explore Behavior # 1- Experiencing fully, vividly, selflessly with full concentration and total absorption.
Experiencing Fully implies experiencing with not only the mind, but all the senses. Seeing the experience, Feeling the experience, Smelling the experience, Touching the Experience, Hearing the Experience. When you think about the last time you experienced something fully, what comes to mind? Take a moment and let the image surface from below into your conscious mind. One image that comes to my mind is from hoisting a sail on windjammer ship to the sound of a bagpipe playing when I was in my 20’s. If I let myself, I can feel the rope, see the sail, hear the music, smell the ocean and the canvas of the sale. What is your experience.
Experiencing Vividly brings to mind an almost overpowering sense of the experience. Sometimes these attributes of experiencing fully can be negative. Vividly, for me, is an experience of receiving very bad news about a person I loved who was in the hospital. I remember going out to the car, sitting behind the wheel, and crying ‘vividly’. In fact, I was crying so hard that a stranger, a little old lady, came up and tapped on my window, asking if I was all right. “Sure” I said, smiled until she went away, and then went back to crying!
Experiencing Selflessly is about what we do in service of other beings. It’s a mother changing her newborn’s diaper. Or a nurse or therapist caring for a patient. Sometimes it’s just taking the dog for a walk when we really don’t feel like it, but once on the walk we notice we feel better. Its comforting a friend even if it makes you late for an appointment. Most of us do hundreds of selfless acts a day, but we don’t value them and therefore we forget them.
Experiencing with Full Concentration and Total Absorption is what happens whenever we are doing what we love to do! Time no longer exists. The world outside our focus does not exist. We are alone with our Being. We are “In the Flow” of our Life. What we are doing is unimportant. Maybe we are painting a picture, or meditating, or listening to music, or dancing, or… The rest from the world that Concentration and Absorption give us is the frequency of Healing. We have no room for worry, doubt or fear in that moment. Being one with what we are doing allows us to be One with everything in the Universe.
Final Questions
How many times during your week do you experience your life fully, vividly, selflessly with full concentration and total absorption? What can you do to increase this experience in the coming days and weeks? Developing this awareness, this Be Here Now as Ram Dass says, will enhance your Well Being and set the stage for your Self Healing.
Dr. Jill Henry, EdD
