by Michelle Sheldrake, Brisbane
I have a photo of myself on my bedside table that has travelled with me ever since I first left home at 17. It is a photo of me as a baby, taken when I was about 10 months old. I’m lying on my tummy, arms outstretched, eyes wide with wonder (I guess fascinated by the camera). When I look at this picture I see a beautiful little being, full of wonder and innocence, ready to embrace life. But the clearest reflection for me has always been the feeling of love and joy that I see, especially in my eyes, which just seem to sparkle with some inner knowing.
Through the years I’ve often looked at this photo and asked myself “Where has she gone? What’s happened to that beautiful little girl with the sparkle in her eyes? Why don’t I feel that sense of joy and wonder anymore?” I recently looked at some photos of myself taken when I was at school at about 5 and 6, and I recognised the same joyful innocence, but by about age 8 could feel a change.
As I have been reflecting on this recently I realised that the inner knowing has always been there and for many years it’s been telling me loud and clear that something was missing. Something (well, in fact many things) did happen to that little girl and the way she used to be in the world. So I’ve spent many years searching for that missing thing, trying to find experiences and people that could recreate those feelings – travelling and living overseas, going to university, playing music, trying any number of different new age practices and healing therapies – only to still feel a sense of loss and emptiness. It wasn’t until just over 5 years ago when a friend suggested I see an esoteric healing practitioner that I felt something different. As my body became still I could feel my heart expand, and a sense of warmth, beauty and joy filled my body. There was a deep sense of re-connecting with a part of myself that I hadn’t felt for a very long time, and a knowing that this was true.
I know this now to be the love that has always been there, the very essence of me. It was never truly missing; it just got deeply buried under layers of hurt and protection, self-loathing, and beliefs and ideals about who I should be and what I should do in this world. I’ve spent most of my life being the good daughter, good student, good friend, and most recently the good mother… and judging myself harshly against these standards. All of this was reflected as a hardness in my body, a protection against the world, but also a feeling that it was a shield designed to not allow me to feel the self-abuse I was inflicting upon myself.
I continued having esoteric healing sessions, gradually building my connection back to me. I introduced gentleness and self-love into my life on a daily basis, learning to listen to my body and honour what it needed. I started developing an ability to be very honest about how I was feeling and the choices I’d made.
Not long after starting the esoteric healing sessions, my friend (who had told me about Esoteric Healing) told me about Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. I began reading Serge Benhayon’s books, all of which made sense to me and confirmed many things I’d often felt. Again, I realised that that inner knowing has always been with me. I then started attended workshops and healing courses which have only further confirmed my sense of ‘there must be more to life than this’. Of course there is, and it’s not about the things we can have in life, it’s actually in each of us. I remember at the end of my first session with Serge Benhayon being deeply connected to my body, to my inner heart, and I felt myself resting in a beautiful warmth that was emanating from within me. Over time and through my association with Universal Medicine I have developed a clear understanding of how I have made choices throughout my life that have led me away from what is naturally within me – love, joy, stillness, gentleness, harmony.
I’ll admit that for me living love and gentleness on a daily basis can still be a challenge, after all I’m not perfect, (and I no longer strive to be perfect!) but I know that the connection to me is only a gentle breath away and I can again feel the warmth and stillness of love in my body. But best of all, I can now look in the mirror and see the sparkle of joy, love and beauty in my eyes – I have found my way back to me.
A heartfelt thank you to Serge Benhayon and the other wonderful esoteric practitioners associated with Universal Medicine I have seen and continue to see. Each of you provides a truly loving support in my return to me.
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Michelle, you offer such a deeply beautiful reflection of the truth that our connection to Soul, to our essence, is always present and always ready to be returned to whenever we are willing.
We definitely need to break the belief that the incredible innocence and spark that we see in young babies is only in young babies, it’s always in us we just learn to cloak it and mask it and shun it, but that incredible openness and sweetness never leaves.
Well said Meg, as the Soul that shines through the eyes of a baby remains unchanged as our bodies develop and mature into adults. It is only that we change our relationship to the connection to our Soulfulness.
We go nowhere. We cannot because there is nowhere to go. In the meantime we can play games with ourselves and others.
Indeed, it only is breath away but make a huge difference, and I really wonder why I do not do that all the time.
Looking at young children and photos of ourselves is always a great reminder of our own love-liness, that we are always love, just not always expressing it. I sometimes react when things don’t go my way or when someone else is reacting and refuses to speak to me – it’s challenging to stay cool and to be love all the time, but then I remember the many tools and techniques presented by Universal Medicine and a few gentle breaths, or a tender touch or a purposeful walk, and love returns. We don’t always understand what is going on, but the more sensitive we allow ourselves to be, the more easily we can read what is going on for others.
Beautiful Elizabeth. Living from a place of innocence and love allows us to be reminded of the simplicity in which we moved, expressed and lived with once before. These moments, when we remember are very special as they bring us back to who we really are.
‘As my body became still I could feel my heart expand, and a sense of warmth, beauty and joy filled my body. There was a deep sense of re-connecting with a part of myself that I hadn’t felt for a very long time, and a knowing that this was true.’ beautifully described Michelle, this is exactly what we all can experience by having an esoteric healing session.
Every word of your sharing speaks about my experience too Michelle. How I feel in my body today, after Universal Medicine, is very different of how I felt before. Today I can recognize in my eyes the sparkle of joy that I had when I was a little girl, I can enjoy again being as delicate, tender and beautiful as I am. By seeing my living experience I deeply appreciate it and feel encouraged to stay walking in this way back to love, to me.
I reckon everyone is who able to (who has a photo of themselves as a baby) should have this with them as a reminder of the gorgeousness we truly are, then as you did, we can parent ourselves by looking at the photo and wanting the absolute best for the baby we see, so then give this to ourselves ✨ Universal Medicine indeed confirm there is so very much more to life than we are currently living.
Thank you Michelle, so lovely to read this again. I agree, I also tried everything known to man including the spiritual new age modalities yet years later I had the same experience of still feeling that “sense of loss and emptiness.”, that was there at the beginning of my journey searching for healing and truth. And what a great line here ” ‘there must be more to life than this’. Of course there is, and it’s not about the things we can have in life, it’s actually in each of us.” It’s so, so simple if we look within.
Thank you for the reminder that the love we feel as children never truly leaves us, it’s just hidden under the hardness.
What you have shared Michelle, is great as the “expansion” is felt through your divine words!
One of the keys to always hold as an eternal student of oneself, is the fact that we are already everything we need to be within. Therefore there is no trying to ‘be’ something or someone when we already are, we are just learning to let it out into our everyday.
‘there is no trying to ‘be’ something or someone when we already are’ exactly Joshua. This is what inspired the most by receiving the first workshop from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. There was nothing outside to reach, nothing to improve or fix in me, just my free choice to reconnect back within, a space where everything is complete and full of love. I can’t describe in words enough the joy experienced of that moment.
So true that our inner knowing and with it joy of life comes from within us. I spent years, and I am sure life times, looking outside of myself to provide me with answers and fulfilment only to find it within myself with the loving support of Serge & Simone Benhayon and all who are associated with Universal Medicine. The Kingdom of God truly resides within.
I love to re read your sharing and I thank you for the reminder that we are never lost to our inner most and the love that is within.
The Way of The Livingness invites all that are interested, to explore the wonderment we felt as children, in everyday life as an adult. This way we can enjoy life everyday rather than reminisce over a photo, for we can hold all the wonderment that a baby photo contains in the way we live.
Wow Michelle this reminds me so much about me – always striving to find myself. I used to think putting others first instead of me was it but, it never got me anywhere.
After many years of searching, after thousands of pounds and dollars later, I stumbled across an esoteric practitioner who I saw for sessions. There was something different about the sessions compared to other sessions with other modalities – they took me to a depth of healing no other has touched. I started to discover myself, I started to find my way back to myself.
Not to be disrespectful but this was pretty simple, “As my body became still I could feel my heart expand, and a sense of warmth, beauty and joy filled my body.” So all we have ever needed in this world has been not only with us all along but you only need be truly still to see it all again. We chase and create all manner of things when all we need do is actually stop, truly stop and be still. From here or this place everything is revealed and we can wonder no more as we now know, again.
Beautiful to re-read and confirm that change is possible, we just need to be open to connecting again with that little child’s world again. Sometimes that means we need help from someone as supportive as an Esoteric Practitioner as you did Michelle.
Its so wonderful Michelle you have made your way back and that little baby of joy and love is untouched and still full of herself.
“As my body became still I could feel my heart expand, and a sense of warmth, beauty and joy filled my body.” A beautiful confirmation that the love felt in early childhood is always with us just buried under the ‘stuff’ that we have chosen to hide it under.
Stepping up the joy factor – so many of us live in and with a sense of struggle. Finding our way back to joy and a lightness of being is an important part of the journey back to who we are in full.
Re-connecting back to our love and truth everything becomes more simple and true, it’s when we are trying to do it on our own and push through life that things get messy and complicated.
Realising that we are not broken, we have not lost anything and don’t need to be anything special to feel who we are is a huge step towards our true and every present inner wisdom. Everything is there for us – all we need to do is connect and address what we have put in the way of that connection.
Through pictures of ourselves, we can feel clearly the ups and downs of life and the varying quality of ourselves through that journey if we dare to truly observe. The key, though, is not to judge ourselves but to resurrect the beauty that was and still is inside us.
Sometimes I find that simple connection to me is somewhat difficult where my mind is ruling over me with thoughts of “I’m not connected”, “What do I do now?”. In this situation my awareness becomes my all – basically I come back to what I know works and this is my awareness. I’m aware of everything my mind is up to and any part of my body I can feel.
Beautiful Michelle, thank you for sharing your return to who you truly are, seeing the love and joy emanating from babies is so gorgeous to feel, knowing that this love abides within the heart of every one in the world, is amazing and all it takes is a connection to our essence via the gentle breath and a willingness to heal all the layers that prevent us from shining.
I relate at looking at baby photos of myself longingly and then I had children of my own, low and behold I had the same experience when I observed them. Their freedom, in comparison to the way I felt in my body, it reveled how tight I was wound. Reconnecting with the joy that I naturally had as a child is an ongoing journey, as you state in this blog, we are not perfect but I feel blessed to have role models around me that prove there is a way of living that actually guarantees our natural state of joy.
It is most beautiful to start living in re-connection back to our forgotten, un-lived part of ourselves, knowing full well that it is a choice that has always been available for us to make.
The sensations around my heart and chest area let me know when I am protecting myself and feel contracted. It hurts feeling the tightness and pain but acknowledging and becoming aware of it helps to let it go and feeling the hurt as to how it came about – dare I go there – truly heals the hardness and protection held in my body.
Thank you Michelle, I can relate to losing a sense of myself that we see so clearly in childhood photos – that pure inner joy, love and innocence, and an ability to approach the world with a sense of wonder (despite the challenges). I felt completely buried under the experiences of life when I came to Universal Medicine, like yourself I had tried many things to resurrect myself, at the time something felt missing and I didn’t even realise it was me. The Universal Medicine therapies really work as they helped me release all the layers I was buried under, whether it was trauma, roles, emotion, beliefs or ideals, they have supported me to both uncover myself and to reconnect to me. The Gentle Breath Meditation was a big part of that reconnection to me also. It’s an ongoing, at times challenging, but very beautiful process to not just return to myself but return to soul.
Thank you Michelle! We are so fortunate to be in connection with Serge Benhayon and the Ageless Wisdom. It has opened my eyes to many things in this lifetime and especially to appreciate and love who I truly am, who humanity as a whole is also, equal Sons of God here on Earth this lifetime.
‘but I know that the connection to me is only a gentle breath away and I can again feel the warmth and stillness of love in my body.’ The Gentle Breath Meditation has definitely helped me reconnect back to my body, and it is from the connection that I feel from within, that brings me back to the love that I know that I am.
My own eyes and being have lit up in reading your blog Michelle… That your sparkle has returned, through your own choices to reconnect to all that you are, and the depth of inspiration and support offered by Universal Medicine and practitioners of the Esoteric Modalities as you’ve referred to.
Were that everyone should know the joy of such re-connection… In time, yes this will undoubtedly occur – and by the grace of seeing the spark within the eyes of one such as yourself.
Deeply beautiful, thank-you.
Looking in the ‘wrong direction’, or perhaps content with what’s on offer?
Without the reflection of someone truly shining here as Michelle has offered us, we simply don’t have the reference point to awake us out of what may seem quite an ‘ok’ slumber – we need to remember that there is a depth of joy awaiting us that CAN be consistently lived, if we but say yes…
‘There has to be more to life than this’ requires us to strip away the layers we have built and reconnect to all that is within and allow that out.
In us all lives a light divine as pure and pristine as the day we were born. Our task here on Earth is simply to remove all the layers that have come to stand in the way of our expression of this love.
And to remove those layers is to connect to that ‘light divine’, deepen and develop that connection and the light will dissolve the layers rather than endeavouring to remove the layers from the outside, which never works.
Yes this is definitely an inside job! ‘Deepen, develop and dissolve’…I like that.
The hurt and protection, ideals and beliefs that we layer on top of each other is rather like a heavy jacket created to shield us and stop more hurt coming in. But on the flip side, it also stops any of our spunk, our essence and our actual spark that fires us up from coming out and being shared with others too.
How gorgeous Michelle that you have returned to, reconnected with and ignited the sparkle you emanated as a 10 months old child. A very beautiful sharing, thank you.
It feels like we lose that inner sparkle, but as Michelle shares here that is not the case. In truth it just gets buried with hurts, beliefs, ideals and other external stuff of life. So our way home is not one of finding and seeking more and more vestments in the world but one of letting go and deepening our connection with what was once our innate way of being.
There are so many shoulds and shouldn’ts that can trip us up if we do not reconnect to our own inner knowing. Esoteric Yoga is a modality that supports me to do this, to come back to a feeling of harmony, the mind and body coming together as one.
There have been so many life lessons I have learned over the last twelve years since first meeting Serge Benhayon, it is hard to pinpoint the source of each one, but I think more than anything is like Michelle, to realise that deep essence, that knowingness has always been there, dulled in so many ways, but now emerging in its fullness more and more each day.
It’s so healing for me to look at pictures of myself when I was a young child – to be able to see so clearly the light, innocence, joy, wonder, love that is just pouring forth from every cell, that I know hasn’t gone anywhere, just got a little buried beneath some of life’s ‘mud’. But underneath that the light is still pouring forth, and every choice towards living more love for myself, clears away a little more mud and lets the light out.
Your reflection of the sparkle in your eyes Michelle will no doubt light up the sparkle in others too.
I love reading stories such as yours Michelle and the amazing changes people have made in their lives from attending Universal Medicine presentations and making simple loving choices that allow us all the space to deeply heal and return to who we truly are – this is a living miracle that is equally available to everyone.
It is not the knowledge or the teachings that make Universal Medicine such an amazing organisation, but the fact that they really provide you with an experience, a feeling in your body of what love, stillness, harmony, joy and truth are. And from that initial experience you are then given the tools that you can use to support yourself to make this your every day state of being. And that this is possible is reflected by those that live like this already, without perfection (as you are saying Michelle).
Michelle, I loved the moment in your blog where you describe that first moment you saw a practitioner and felt the re-connection the joy and wonder you had know so early in your life. It felt so beautiful, the moment of claiming something once again from within and the fact that it had been there all along – very beautiful, thank you for sharing this.
I used to think that it would be impossible to come back to me from the way I was feeling. I made it such a drama and I would then often focus on the drama instead of choosing to connect to myself. Connecting to myself no matter what is going on in my life is indeed ‘only a gentle breath away’. It simply requires a commitment to myself in surrendering and letting go and it has surprised me on numerous occasions how simple and effortless this can be.
It is so true that the ‘more to life than this’ is not found in the things that we do, achieve, or acquire but rather the ‘more to life’ is forever within us, it is who we are. It is through our connection to our stillness within where the love we are is known, that we can live the ‘more’ of who we are in all that we do. This is the richness of life that we all have the right to live, and in fact we are born to live.
There is more to life than we acknowledge and we all do know this. Without this we miss out on the wonder that every life brings.
So true Jennifer, and the more we close off to this fact, the more stimulation we need from the outside to keep us going as we so miss the joy that naturally fills our hearts when we connect to the ALL that we are part of.
It feels like coming home when rekindling the deepest knowing we have always had within ourselves – no matter how long it had been forgotten, buried and hidden. It’s the only way home.
“I felt something different. As my body became still I could feel my heart expand, and a sense of warmth, beauty and joy filled my body. There was a deep sense of re-connecting with a part of myself that I hadn’t felt for a very long time, and a knowing that this was true.” And oh what a feeling! It’s the very thing we are all searching for.
I have so much appreciation for the valuable tools and techniques presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine that support us to re-connect with our true self and feel the warmth of the love and joy within us all to be shared with humanity.
It is by far the greatest tragedy that so many let ourselves be taken by life and circumstance, instead of staying solid with the inner knowing we have always had, and understanding where we find ourselves in life and moving through each circumstance with the wisdom and grace that is forever available.
I too have found that the simplest, but most profound healing tool is to “know that the connection to me is only a gentle breath away”. Yes it is that simple but it took me a while to accept this simplicity, having spent many years trying to find the connection to me through a myriad of complicated ways. Just imagine if very child was presented with this tool from a very early age, what a difference it would make to the quality of their lives, and that quality is what they will then bring to a world that is in dis-connection.
“I know this now to be the love that has always been there, the very essence of me. It was never truly missing; it just got deeply buried under layers of hurt and protection, self-loathing, and beliefs and ideals about who I should be and what I should do in this world.” Dealing with my hurts and removing my layers of hardness and protection has been one of the most revealing aspects since I came across Universal Medicine. Discovering the warm fiery love that sits inside us all (all of the time) is the most exquisite feeling.
Hi Michelle, it is lovely that you have found your way back to your sparkle as a baby. This is a great testimony to the life-changing presentations, workshops and healing modalities that Universal Medicine have on offer.
‘ I know that the connection to me is only a gentle breath away’ This is an awesome fact, that when we begin to focus on the quality of our breath and let it be gentle the whole body can also become gentle and release the hardness it has been holding to protect us and keep the world at bay. We begin to connect with that loveliness that you recognised in yourself as a child and has never truly left us.
We can feel the truth in our bodies. Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon just make sense and continue to do so after many years. The loveliest thing is that the truth is felt within the body and the love comes from within us.
The world certainly needs the teachings of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon at this time as so many people struggle with the chaos, the loneliness, the wars, religious strife, poverty, many forms of abuse, and so much more.How we have been living is not working. Reconnecting to ourselves in love is the first step to returning to brotherhood on earth for we cannot truly connect and feel love for another if it is absent within ourselves. You are well on the way in this journey, Michelle.
It seems almost crazy that we have all these amazing qualities and the ability to tap into them within ourselves and yet we make choices that consistently take us away from living them. However, sometimes just gaining the awareness through the Universal Medicine presentations that we are choosing this, is enough to make us stop and make choices that connect us back and begin to live them instead.
Thank you Michelle for a beautiful sharing, we are so beautifully supported by the healing modalities offered to us by Unimed practitioners, empowering us to claim the real beauty that lies within and has always been there.
It is beautiful to realise that the essence of me is always within me and is only covered by the layers of hurt and protection I have carried. It is up to me to let those things go, it is my choice to heal those things and to connect to myself. What a blessing it is to have been inspired in this by Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and all the students who are on the path of return.
I have struggled with asking for support and reading this blog, I have come to realize the beautiful gift it is to ask for support and to receive it. Sometimes it is so easy to be the one that is always offering support to others but deny ourselves the opportunity to engage with what is possible when we open up to the love that is there around us. Thank you Michelle for the reminder that we are all we need to be already and that if we take a moment to allow the space to re-connect whether by asking for help or choosing our breath, it all comes down simply to ‘choices’.
“there must be more to life than this”. I travelled through the first 55 years of my life with these words echoing in my mind, searching high and low for what I knew was there, but never was, only endless disappointments. All this changed the day I attended my first Universal Medicine workshop with Serge Benhayon; that was the day I finally found what I had been looking for had always been with me, and this was the day I knew that I had finally found my way back home, to me.
It is so true that many of us lose that sparkle in our eyes as we grow up. I can relate this to the way we choose to live and our daily choices. The dullness I have experienced in life is reflected in my eyes and in my body. Now, I too have started making more loving choices and when I look into the mirror I can see that sparkle in my eyes again and I can feel the joy emanating out. So, how we choose to live impacts on the reflection people receive from us and the more joy we emanate out the more people can feel that too.
When we judge ourselves – or others – against imagined standards of perfection we are setting ourselves up to fail and have a lack of self-worth. When we reconnect to our essence of inner beauty and love we are already everything and there is no judgement of ourselves or others and this light and love shines from the eyes and is held in a photo of a young child who has not yet learned to have judgement.
Great point Mary, if we are always trying to live to ‘pictures’ and images of perfection, we are setting ourselves up for failure and a way to feel less.
Such a beauty-full sharing 🙂 thank You.
The pattern you’ve described in life is so apt for many Michelle. Why is it that we shut down the beauty of who we are, that innocence and purity, then spend a good chunk of our lives trying to reclaim it by searching outside of ourselves? It doesn’t really make sense. Because what we have shut down and what we hold back comes from within and all we need to do is realize that, open up again and live life from the inside out. Easier said then done when one is caught in a cycle of seeking and relief and I too thank God for Universal Medicine offering true healing so we can all turn around and look within again.
Dropping the whole ‘perfection’ thing is such a weight of the shoulders! The more I allow myself to make mistakes and let go of perfection, the more I learn from them and see that perfection was actually holding me back from seeing my potential in the world. Letting go of being perfect is allowing space for me to get to know who I am and realise that I will not be awesome at everything – but I do know I have certain skills and qualities that I bring to humanity that are unique and needed now. Perfection was just an idea or an image that distracted me from this knowing.
So true Rachael – we are perfectly imperfect for good reason and that is because no one person is designed to do it all, but rather we have been co-created to work with each other with each of us bringing the All that we have been gifted with to all, without trying to ‘own it all’ for ourselves.
Great blog Michelle, So much happened since these photo’s of our early childhood, but they are always a great reminder of who we truly are and the sparkle we have within. I love looking at old photo’s and appreciate that I am on my way back, returning to the innocence of that young boy.
Michelle, this line struck me this time, reading your blog again-“a shield designed to not allow me to feel the self abuse l was inflicting upon myself”. lt took me so long in my life to realise that’s what my protection shield was also doing. lt was hiding me from myself. How many of us have done this? We put up guards to keep ourselves safe from others, blaming them for hurting us, however we fail to realise that we have already administered the abuse to ourselves first and foremost. lt is our own behavior towards ourselves first, that must be read and scrutinized because that’s where all the abuse begins. What we allow in after that is wholly and solely our choice. Ouch!
I LOVE this Michelle – Thank you for sharing your experience. This is a piece of writing written straight from the heart as your love and appreciation for yourself, your friend, Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and the esoteric healing practitioners is very evident. It is really beautiful that you have found your way back to you.
This is beautiful Michelle. That inner knowing never goes away even though it can be under many layers. When we hear the truth we recognise it and it makes total sense.
Looking back at old photos can be challenging but useful. When I look at the few I do have it is clear from a young age it is like the light and joy had been dimmed, and when I first found Universal Medicine I used to think it was impossible to feel like a child again or have the awareness I had as a child – it seemed so far away, but now I know it is possible.
Looking at old photos can be very useful to identify and appreciate where we are today. They show a path we have taken and in many cases a picture does speak a thousand words. With each glance of a photo we get more than a physical view but also I feeling, which is a invaluable evaluator. I love looking at old photos.
Great point Luke, I tend to avoid looking at old photos but as you say it is a way to deeply appreciate how much we have evolved. Thank you for the inspiration I shall be looking forward to seeing old photos now and feeling the difference.
Same for me too Linda, since meeting Serge Benhayon and attending Universal Medicine workshops and presentations I am now more connected to myself, to my family, to people and to God. Everything in life now totally makes sense to me.
Thank you Michelle, I can totally relate to your blog. It is incredible to read you have now found the amazing connection back to yourself and can now see the sparkle again in your eyes. It shows that our inner spark, joy and love never leaves us, we just have to learn to express it again. Awesome Michelle.
Looking at old photos of when we were babies and then across the years we can generally see the dimming down of the light and joy in ourselves. It’s a very confronting reminder that we did once feel full of self love and simple joy in ourselves, which we have lost over time for one reason or another. But it’s also very confirming to know that this is who we are still deep inside and that all the outer layers don’t own us and we can let them go bit by bit and re-discover that preciousness underneath.
I agree Helen, and it feels like more and more people are on a search to find out how to do this. They are feeling the emptyness of their lives and questioning the truth of what they think they see going on around them and what is “really” going on around them. l have found Serge Benhayon’s incredible courses and books such a clarification for me and a revelation.
l recommend ‘An open letter to Humanity’.
This book will open ones eyes to the ‘truth’ of what is really happening on our planet and in the Universe.
I too have so much appreciation for having found Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and the practitioners of the esoteric modalities that have shown me how to find my way back to me.
When we can find valuable tools and loving, simple techniques that enable us to re-connect, that is when life becomes a grander and more magnificent expression of unfolding joy, love and evolution. Universal Medicine was also the trigger that opened me up to the authentic ME again. Before then my life was an endless, exhausting, disillusioned search. l was not living life. l was just getting through my days, with only fleeting moments of lightness but never an ongoing feeling of consistently, true joy. Of course there’s always more work to do in my unfoldment, however now it is joy-full! l am becoming shiney again.
Yes, I’ve done this too Sally but it’s such a joy to be on the path of returning to who we truly are.
Beautiful Michelle, i too have been looking through photos of myself at a younger age and was really taken aback by the changes from a baby to a gradual hardening over time of not wanting to feel what was really going on. For me the gentle breath meditation and walking truely with myself are the keys that allow me to connect to the beauty i am.
It’s an interesting exercise to look back on our baby/child photos and then see how as we get older the openness and playfulness often gets replaced with protection or a need to be a certain way for others. The good thing is that this natural joy and beauty never actually leaves us (though it may not always seem so) and we can therefore reconnect to this essence that is always within.
Yes it is Angela, and isn’t it amazing how much we can read/see by looking at our photos especially when we look at our eyes, for example if we are joyful and sparkling or full of hardness and protection. We may be smiling in the photo but our eyes reveals the truth.
Michelle, what you have discovered works for you is shared in a way that makes re-connecting back to ourselves so light-hearted, simple and accessible- a gentle breathe away, getting honest about how we feel and even taking a moment to look into our own eyes to find the sparkle easily re-ignited…..
Michelle, a beautiful blog to read, and a true opportunity to reconnect back to ourselves.
So gorgeous to read Michelle, how at anytime we can stop connect and feel what is true again. I have a baby photo of myself as my wallpaper on my phone, and whenever I am being hard or putting pressure on myself I look at it and see me again, its a lovely support.
This is a beautiful blog to return to MIchelle. Thank you for your sharing your experience and what it means to you. I have often been my own worst enemy but have learnt so much through Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon’s presentations, plus the wonderful Practitioners.
Michelle it was lovely to read how you found your way back to love. When I look in the mirror I am able to stop and appreciate myself, the way I am able to smile just with my eyes. I remember before Universal Medicine how I would just glance in the mirror, but never be confident enough about myself to want to see what was truly there behind the illusion I allowed.
And the other great thing about love is that when we do choose to live from love, not only do our lives become more joyful and harmonious, but love inspires another to once again remember that they too are from love. They are not all the beliefs they burden themselves down with, all the hundreds of criticisms they lay on themselves, but actually an amazing whole and complete being with everything they are already within. From there life can become a true journey of self-empowerment and unfolding wisdom.
What is so great is that no matter what we put on ourselves or let the world dump on us, underneath there is that steady constant love just waiting for us to reconnect back to. Nothing can extinguish it and it is never really lost. Therefore it is only a matter of choice and commitment to accept and develop that love back in our bodies until we can know and live once again from that light, and only then are we able to fully be ourselves in this world.
It is so beautiful to look into another’s eyes and see that sparkle of inner knowing. In greeting someone the first thing to naturally do is to look them straight in the eyes as, the eyes can reveal so much of how we are living. For me the eyes never lie of how a person is truly feeling, no sparkle = no joy. Beautiful sharing Michelle thank you.
What a joyful way to start my day by reading your beautiful blog Michelle. As you write about the wonderful changes in your life as a result of connecting with Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, it reminds me of the many changes that have unfolded in my life as well, and the utmost appreciation of how far I have come in the years since. The joy that you share and the sparkle you now see from your eyes is so palpable, and makes me smile for me, for you and for many others who have made the choice to rediscover who they truly are that has been hidden for too long under the layers of who they are not.
Michelle a truly beautiful journey finding your way back to you. I sometimes wonder where that little girl that I see in old photos has gone as well. It is lovely to see her emerge gradually once again and to know also that really she hadn’t gone anywhere, just needed to be discovered again. Thank you.
Beautiful sharing, Michele, about your way back to the essence of love you are and living it, through the support of Universal Medicine and coming back to what you all the time have felt is true, represented through the photo of yourself as a little child that you have always looked at. Once long ago as a young woman, I had a dream of looking at a photo album of our family, seeing a photo of me as a baby and then I took myself out of the photo and had a beautiful encounter “with myself” that felt like a completion. This dream came into my mind, while reading your blog. And I agree with what you write: ” I know this now to be the love that has always been there, the very essence of me. It was never truly missing;”.
It’s quite a shock to look over old photos and map the desparkling of your eyes from a toddler to a teenager as we adapt to life around us and adopt attitudes, beliefs and values that we think are going to give us that joy and love we were naturally born with. Ridiculous really, as we have it all within and can reconnect to it in a heartbeat. So the next question is, why do we leave it in the first place?
That’s a great question Michelle “Where has she gone?” The question I have started asking myself is “why don’t I appreciate just how awesome I am” and as I do the love grows and grows because I am still as gorgeous as the day I was born and even before then so why would I stop seeing that! This is how we diminish ourselves so well simply by forgetting to appreciate all that we are.
Wow Kathleen great point, “….I am still as gorgeous as the day I was born and even before then so why would I stop seeing that!” I have found appreciation to be so powerful, it can be me appreciating the smallest thing that can change how I feel about myself in an instant. Thanks for the reminder!
What you say about the connection to oneself being a gentle breath away is true. In the Gentle Breath Meditation I found a tool that consistently returned me to myself, to feeling centred and to increasing awareness. This link is for an introduction to the technique which I highly recommend. http://www.unimedliving.com/meditation/gentle-breath-meditation/what-is-gentle-breath-meditation.html
” … but also a feeling that it was a shield designed to not allow me to feel the self-abuse I was inflicting upon myself.”
I relate to this shield, thank you Michelle for expressing it like this … and dissolving the shield is still a work-in-progress … thank goodness for Universal Medicine and esoteric practitioners.
I had been searching for nearly 20 years studying different new age healing modalities knowing that there had to be more to life and never finding the truth. In 2005 I attended my first Universal Medicine workshop where I felt myself re-connect to my inner heart and the search was over, I had found the real deal – myself and a religion that could support me to continue to know myself as the Son of God I had always known myself to be.
A big thanks to Universal Medicine, that so many people are sparkling again.
A truly beautiful read… your description of what it is like to be connected to ourselves and enveloped by the exquisiteness of stillness and love is just gorgeous and an experience that cannot but deeply inspires any who feel it, to be and live this on a daily basis.
Beautiful Michelle, I’m feeling quite gentle after reading your blog. I felt what relief I feel now that I discovered how to bring joy and the true me back to my life. My life sounds much like yours in the search for what I felt was lost. I’m so thankful I have now found the road back home through Universal Medicine.
I can relate to much of what you’ve shared Michelle. Especially the awareness of ‘there must be more to life than this’. I took this knowing and searched outside of myself and arrived at many new age spiritual practices that took me further away from the truth. Thank God for Universal Medicine delivering the truth of who we are, where we are from and how we get back to living Love in all we do.
Michelle you definitely have sparkly eyes these days, so glad you have reconnected to you!
Thank you Michelle for sharing. It is really clear when you look into the eyes of a young baby or child that within is a sparkle of all that is known, pure joy and mischief because they already know all the answers. To look into your own eyes as a baby and see that sparkle and now to return to that is amazing. The essence of who we truly are is never lost, it does lay dormant for a space of time, but as each of us that have re-connected to self knows, it is still there waiting until it is called forth again.
Hi Michelle, I get a lovely picture of a gorgeous baby and now the gorgeous baby has blossomed into a beautiful woman and all through introducing gentleness and self-love into her daily life – feeling her true essence of love, and that essence resides equally in each and everyone of us.
Deidre that’s a beautiful image, the gorgeousness of the baby has never left us, it just needed some water and fertiliser to blossom.
Michelle this was such a tender and loving blog that reflected my own journey and the journey of so many. It is so beautiful to come to the realisation that all we have ever sought lies within and the joy and love we desire begins with each of us choosing to live from our hearts. I too appreciate all that Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon have and continue to present as it has opened my eyes to the beauty and truth we can all live in, if we choose to live from our inner hearts.
“The connection to me is only a gentle breath away” – a beautiful reminder, thank you, Michelle. Just perfect antidote as I could feel overwhelm and complication trying to swallow me in this morning.
It is indeed a perfect reminder of how simple it is to reconnect back to the stillness of who we are. We are not the overwhelm, anxiety, frustration or complication (yet sometimes these emotions can catch us out). “The connection to me is only a gentle breath away”.
Michelle reading your article was so incredibly similar to my own life. The funny thing is it is only recently that I have realised that we can, as adults feel the same amazingness that we did as kids. Up until recently I actually believed that it wasn’t biologically possible ! I thought that when we become adults there is a biological change that prevents us from feeling wonderful the way that kids do. Now, yes now I know from my body that this is a completely false belief and that we can feel just as amazing as we did as kids. How wonderful is that !
It’s interesting how we can clock the changes in our eyes and how happy we were or weren’t as we get older through photos. I know many people experience the same thing – when they are young they are super happy and their eyes are clear and so beautiful, then as they grow it dims.. Makes me wonder about the way we raise our kids and the society we currently have. Definitely not so supportive.
Lovely to read your blog Michelle, and feel the changes you have been through. I love how you express “..the connection to me is only a gentle breath away.” It’s through that connection that you felt the love and joy that has always been there , but got buried beneath the ideals and beliefs that you took on.
loved the sentence “I can now look in the mirror and see the sparkle of joy, love and beauty in my eyes – I have found my way back to me” it says it all, Thank you Michelle.
Yes I agree Francisco, what a joy to read and appreciate Michelle’s blog and her choice to return to love.
A lovely blog. I can recognise having the hardness, the protection, lack of self worth you have written about and feeling so far removed from my true self, that I have often wondered who am I in truth. With the help and support of Universal Medicine, I am slowly finding and connecting to the person I was meant to be.
I love that you have re-connected to your inner knowing Michelle and that when you look in the mirror you can see the love, joy and sparkle in your eyes and know it has always been there just hidden under layers of ideals and beliefs. The choices you have made to be the love you naturally are is very inspiring.
It was a lovely blog. Thank you Michelle
Awesome blog about the beauty of responsibility! Thank you Michelle for sharing!
Very gentle Michelle thank you for sharing so honestly what brought you back to you . . .
Me too, Toni. The gentle breath brings me back no matter what and gives me confidence in my connection to myself, as a relationship that supports me and creates a solid foundation.
Thank you, Michelle. You have captured beautifully what hundreds have experienced – a return to love. Thanks to Universal Medicine, their relentless support and lack of judgement, I too am shedding the layers that have covered over the bright light that lovingly shines from within me.
What is now most obvious to me is that we are simply returning to who we naturally are, not trying to be something we’re not or that someone else thinks we should, but rather simply returning to being ‘us’ and as you say janetwilliams06, this is simply “a return to love.”
That’s it Angela, and why striving, pushing, trying to be better does nothing except take us further away from who we naturally are within. Understanding this has taken so much created and imposed pressure off needing to be something other than me. I get caught in this at times, but my body speaks very loudly that I’ve walked the other way.
I now take the time to look at myself in the mirror and love to see the light in my eyes which is a beautiful confirmation of the many loving choices I have made since receiving esoteric healing. It was a delight to read your article this morning Michelle.
This is a gorgeous blog to read Michelle, it is heartwarming, real and a beautiful reminder of who we truly are. Thank you
I liked your article Michelle and I can really feel the transformation that has occurred and the joy you are now living
This is so true Michelle – “I know that the connection to me is only a gentle breath away and I can again feel the warmth and stillness of love in my body”. It’s amazing how easily we can actually connect to that should we choose to – it does not go anywhere!
Michelle, now to be the awesomeness that is written all over you, meaning it is already there.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful expression of your return to you, your love. I can feel your joy sparkling through as you celebrate and claim your love, the essence of you – so deeply gorgeous Michelle. It’s truly amazing how the simplicity of re-connecting to ourselves, our stillness, our divine love allows us to feel the glory of all that we are. A truth that, once felt again, we cannot deny.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful return to love story Michelle. It is a great reminder that what we are looking for is still there ready to be acknowledged and recognised, such as the” sparkle” we have in our eyes as small children, that is still there waiting to be seen again. Thank you also to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
Beautiful Michelle thank you for sharing your gorgeous return to you. “I know that the connection to me is only a gentle breath away and I can again feel the warmth and stillness of love in my body” – heavenly.
I agree Giselle – this is ‘heavenly’ indeed
I still find it incredible how we can hide our light for so long, with a knowing of that we are more but not knowing how. It is very beautiful that Universal Medicine presents us with the opportunity to come back to our inner child we always have got, but by being and a fear of being hurt have covered it up. And the most incredible is as you say the true us is just a gentle breath away.
Welcome home to you Michelle. I too have come home to me, thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
I agree Michelle. A big heart felt thank you to Serge Benhayon who has lovingly presented the way to reconnect to our inner essence that was always there.
This reminded me of when the sun is behind the clouds.. If it stayed like that for so long many people would forget that the sun is there at all. Until the stuff covering up the sun clears and there’s a beautiful ball of light- that was there all along 🙂
I feel all warm just reading your words “I know that the connection to me is only a gentle breath away” Beautiful Michelle thank you.
To see the sparkle in someone’s eyes, the aliveness and the depth of love is a great gift.
Your return to the love, gentleness, joy, stillness and harmony that you feel within is a great achievement Michele. This is the feeling I was searching for also, and I have found it through Universal Medicine.
Wonderful post Michelle, you expose the harm of “good” anything and that in all the trying that “being good” entails, we end up with such self-judgment that has the opposite effect of what one might expect – instead of being open and warm, we end up hard, defensive, protective and critical in striving for perfection. “Being good” (ideals) in this way is harming and a form of control that stunts the very essence of who we are and the truth that’s inside us from being expressed.
A beautiful blog Michelle. I can relate to so much in this. It has reminded me why I have been asking my mother recently for a particular photo of me as a baby – to see the brightness in my eyes and the look of pure joy that I want to return to. Thank you.
“I remember at the end of my first session with Serge Benhayon being deeply connected to my body, to my inner heart, and I felt myself resting in a beautiful warmth that was emanating from within me.” I love what you have said here Michelle and can completely relate.
Beautiful blog Michelle….it was lovely to feel the joy in your words, where you say – I found my way back home.
What I love abut this blog Michelle is that you show beyond doubt that the beauty of us always was there, from the very start. The myth of attainment, the sense that there is a state of perfection is somewhere out there to be found, is totally blown to dust.
There is a depth in the eyes of the person who has re-claimed and lives their connection to their stillness and harmony. There is a sparkle and shine that cannot be denied.
That is what you have returned to, and shared with us all.
Beautiful and inspiring.
‘The beauty of us always was there, from the very start’ – beautifully said, the myth of attainment is sure blown out of the water here.
I love how you have mentioned now when you see your reflection in the mirror you can see the sparkle, the joy in your eyes again – that’s such an amazing point to appreciate because a lot of us lost if for so long that it’s so awesome to say we have it back!
Such a beautiful sharing Michelle thank you.
Thank you Michelle. A lovely reminder that the playful child still is within us if we choose to bring her out
Michelle, your blog touches upon something that most people have experienced: at some point we leave ourselves behind and make substantial efforts to justify it as something normal. What we leave behind has a joyful flavour that we hardly connect again with. What is beautiful to reconnect with it is the feeling of coming home again and how big and familiar homes feels.
A beautiful story Michelle. I love how you describe being able to look in the mirror and see the joy, love and beauty in your eyes once more. Amazing how powerful reconnecting to our true essence can be.
How stupendously simple and empowering is it to not only feel the essence and true divinity of who you truly are, but to live that out in expression too, and with others equally seeing the beauty within them. Feel and let out the hurts and ideals, and love being you. Thank you ever so much Michelle.
Michelle, this is such a beautiful blog which really touched and reminded me of how I felt when I first came across Universal Medicine and how each time I choose to, a knowingness that this was absolutely joy and that I was home. I could feel the joy that is there in me, that somehow I’d lost over the years, and now know how in any moment I can connect to it. Your comment on being good really struck me – I too have played that good game and beat myself up on not meeting the standards, but on reading how you described it today, I got to feel how much I’ve been abusing my body doing this; it’s so easy to see how we might abuse ourselves with junk food but being good can often be worse, it’s such a pressure and it does indeed introduce a hardness and it hurts massively.
Thanks for your comment monicag2 and Michelle for this blog. What I just came to realise is that I have spent a lot of my life grumpy and or pretending to be happy.. and it is only in the last few years that I can say that with all the healing that I have done, with the support of Universal Medicine, I now have way more moments of joy than ever before. That is worth celebrating!
Beautiful Rosie, indeed those moments of joy are fantastic and absolutely worth celebrating and yet, the more we commit to us, to living us, the more normal these joyful moments become. And then it’s a different picture, we see any moments when we don’t feel that joy as abnormal, and we know we are innately joy always.
Hi Michelle. I too have deep appreciation of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for supporting me in my return to myself.