Recently I re-visited the workshop The Livingness – Stage One, by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.

It was a beautiful gift I gave to myself to attend this one-day workshop, and what made it even more special was that I attended with a few friends from the Gold Coast with whom I had shared my study and learning about the Livingness for a few years.

I remember my first Livingness One workshop I attended about 8 years ago very vividly; how I just sat there, listening to Serge present and feeling clearly like I was finally home.

I remember I did not want to leave that day as I felt so held, like never before in my life. It was a huge marker in my life; a marker of confirmation of my own knowing of true truth and real love.

What blows me away every time I attend an event with Universal Medicine is the supreme quality and absolute integrity that is offered, from the first moment of any event to the last. And this workshop was no exception of course.

After a very interactive morning exploring the layers we have chosen to put on our true selves to seemingly protect ourselves, we delved into the Science of Appreciation.

Again we did some interactive exercises, one on one or with a small group of four. What happened here for me was absolutely huge – opening and deepening the awareness and the sharing of what beauty and divinity we see and feel in each other.

I was able to do the last exercise with an old friend from way back – over 8 years ago we had connected at the first Universal Medicine Retreat. Since then we haven’t really spent any extra time together outside of this, and we have only seen each other fleetingly at Universal Medicine events.

She started to share with me how much she appreciated me, who she felt I was, and what I meant to her. It was so beautiful to feel that there is a deep connection between us, even though we don’t hang out a lot. The amazing thing was that I did actually feel absolutely the same about her too and I felt my heart open so much.

Feeling her appreciation of me was such an amazing gift and confirmed to me my own feeling of the huge appreciation and love I had for this woman too.

I started to express how much I appreciated having her in my life, feeling how I was always aware of her being there, that we were in this journey and school of life on earth together even though physically apart most of the time.

Within all this beauty and love a sadness came up for me, for all the times that I had felt that closeness with her but I had not expressed it for whatever reason.

Once we finished, I realised that the huge love and appreciation I felt was also about Serge Benhayon, the whole extended Benhayon Family and the whole Universal Medicine team and the Student Body, with whom I have been blessed to share this extraordinary learning about ourselves and each other as we remove more and more of our protections and masks, and with that, by default, also learning about humanity as a whole; plus history, science, religion, philosophy, relationships, work, our divinity and every aspect of our daily lives.

I deeply felt this huge appreciation for everybody, every one of the 120 people present, plus another few hundred who were not there on that day, and the sadness of not having expressed this enough to most of them.

Writing this, I can feel that this exercise also showed me that I have not appreciated myself enough either – just for being who I am, without perfection, sharing this life with amazing people and choosing to grow and learn until my last breath of this, my present incarnation.

By Esther Auf der Maur, Gold Coast, Australia

Further Reading:
Self-acceptance and Appreciation Bring True Presence
Appreciation – A Pathway to Love
Being Still – With Joy