For much of my life I lived in a self-imposed isolation where I looked on at community as an outsider, wishing I were a part of it. I didn’t have the awareness that I was the creator of my isolation, nor that it was only my choices that led to the way I was living. I had a chip on my shoulder against the world and humanity, and whilst I still played ball, I did so from the fringes. I did what was needed to stay in the game but when my turn was over, I retreated to the sidelines.
But even while living this way, I craved engaging with people. I would look at others and think how lucky they were for having the dinner invites, social activity and community events they were a part of. With my arms crossed and a harsh glare, I wanted to be a part of it all and was annoyed I wasn’t.
Five years ago I began having sessions with esoteric practitioners and reading Serge Benhayon’s purple books. Gradually I began attending workshops presented by Serge and now I am a committed esoteric student of The Way of The Livingness.
Today, if I take a snapshot of my life in my community, here is what I see:
- A home that has a regular flow of people – other people’s kids here sometimes before school, sometimes after; friends over for dinner and popping in
- A gorgeous housemate who co-parents with me
- A workplace that is an extension of my home and where my workmates are part of my family
- Fortnightly Sacred Movement classes where I pair up with a friend, my hairdresser or a stranger and share deeply heartfelt movement and connection
- Supermarket shops where I know the butcher and we stop to say hello
- School parents who I love to have a catch up and laugh with at the bus stop
- Needing help with photography and calling a photographer friend whom I don’t know so well, but know through the community, and he gives me a huge amount of support and researches which camera will suit me best
- Endless support, be it with healing sessions and swaps, childcare, a friend to call, someone to edit a blog, someone to help with design work… it is endless.
This snippet paints a picture of the richness of our community.
And this community is not bound by geography – we’re global. The other day I had a quick Skype call with a woman I know in the community who lives in Germany, for some video training.
Within this global community we are all working for the same goal – to live on Earth the love we truly are. We’re not perfect at it, but we keep at it. With that same shared goal there is a deep level of trust with others as we know where the heart lies.
We are all there to support each other – in illness, in love, in disasters, in marriage, in pulling each other up to be more… whatever it is, we’ve got each other’s back.
This is the community of The Way of The Livingness. This is our religion and it is reflected in the way we live. It is what binds us together as a community. The door is open for all and you can come and leave as you choose.
The foundation of true community living can only be founded in Love and Truth and with that as a base –– Wow!
By Nikki McKee
Further Reading:
Family Love
True Family
How I Used my Mind to Protect Myself from Others
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
It feels so relaxing and joyful to live in a community and to the best of our ability all live with the same purpose of love and truth. You can trust people you have not known for long. It is quite remarkable the instantaneous relationships that can flourish and are now very normal. The Way of The Livingness is the way to love.
Wow indeed. When you experience firsthand what is possible when love and truth are the basis of how we live together in true community, you cannot but be inspired by feeling this is our potential as a humanity. With this marker it is more and more evident that the level of abuse that we have accepted as a humanity is not who we are, not acceptable and that it is through how we live together that we can end the abuse that we currently allow to play out on the many levels it does today.
True Community … now that makes my heart leap with JOY ✨💕 what I really loved about this (among a lot of things) was ‘A gorgeous housemate who co-parents with me’. We all are responsible for parenting children and young people. True community as you have shared is not just about neighbours, the street we live in, the village, town or local community centre, we are global and I really feel we underestimate the power of true community. The more of us that work towards true harmony and community, the easier it is for all parents, elderly, children, professionals. It should not take a disaster, or as is happening in London, an increase in knife crime and deaths of young people for us all to come together to work towards this.
What you have shared Nikki is re-imprinting what community is for all communities. Much more than being together based on shared interests or living in the same areas, which is essential what community currently is. But brings a whole level of commitment to working and being together – as one.
We need a base — a healthy one, and I know now and deeply feel that our foundation is so important to have from respect, love and truth. But that it is very much as we make it to be truly successful or not. There is a greater will inside us that magnifies that to be a loving healthy foundation (even made step by step) or one in denial of ones truth.
Growing up in the army overseas, we had a community where we would look after each other’s children and people would be socialising more or popping in for a cup of tea. At times there was a divide between the different regiments and a feeling that we were better than whoever. It’s clear that we put up the barriers and the borders of who we will and won’t accept for whatever reason and it’s all so unnecessary.
We hurt ourselves as well as those around us when we hold back our love and hold others to ransom for our hurts. Opening back up to the love we innately are and sharing that unconditionally is a much more joyful way to live, with a truly enriching sense of purpose.
I often think of a community as being one that is close knit but not that welcoming of others. But this is a reduced version of true community. True community is all-inclusive, regardless of background, beliefs, ethnicity, nationality etc. It fosters oneness and openness not separation. All we need to do to bring this into our lives is live in community with others ie. be open, accepting, transparent, inclusive, and this will inspire community in others. It’s a way of living not something to do.
As you shared here Lucy, I can feel that what we think community is, is actually not community, but separation. All of those qualities you mentioned very much need to be lived by ourselves without households and families first, so that we can all then take that same lived qualities out into our communities.
Thank you Nikki, your blog has given me an opportunity to appreciate just what the student body of Universal Medicine offers as a community. Whilst we are all each working through our own issues, ultimately we are doing so to simply live more love, equality, and joy together. This translates in many practical ways with the sharing of what we each can offer to support others, and as you say, it’s an all encompassing community as love is not lived with a special few but with all.
It is true, we create our own isolation and then hold others at arm’s length for not reaching out to us, and all the time all we want is to be an accepted part of the community. It’s as if we get in a cycle of self-abuse where we tell ourselves that people will not want to know us, but that is so far from the truth. If we accept ourselves, others will also.
Thank you Julie, it can be challenging at times to see our own part in how life plays out, I have found remaining open and willing to take responsibility and see situations in new ways is very supportive. Honesty becomes a doorway to more love if I am willing to see my part and simply nominate it and let it go to allow change.
Nikki – I really love this. You wanted a different kind of life – and you chose it and made it happen. We’re never as stuck as we think we are, and we’re only ever a couple of choices and some hard work away from the magnificent life we deserve.
Thank you Meg I loved your comment, it’s sums up well how we can stay feeling we are a victim, or make some changes and allow the life we would like to have. The process of change can be much more simple than we allow it to be, we think ourselves into knots and tell ourselves this is “our lot in life” when actually we are not as stuck as we think we are. We are indeed very powerful and whether our choice brings misery or love, our life is due to our own choices.
There is a huge amount to appreciate about the support that is there for us. When we’re open to giving ourselves the support that we need, we so easily see that it is readily offered through others. I used to think and feel I was totally on my own, having to work it all out by myself, but this is so far from the truth and now I can see how I used this story to keep me small and separate from everyone else. It’s always been about everyone, doing things together, learning from one another’s reflections. Life feels fuller and richer when we open up and allow others in.
When we retreat from life we are no longer living, rather existing. When we give ourselves permission to jump in and express who we truly are, the difference between these two types of lives becomes extremely apparent.
I love this – a confirmation of what community can be and the inspiration of it being lived… The Way of the Livingness.
‘The door is open for all and you can come and leave as you choose.’ I love seeing this love and openness is for everyone and it’s so genuine and beautiful. It’s supported me to be more accepting of love and support, and also more expressive of this with everyone I meet – and yes, I’m not perfect but I am willing to look at where I have gone into protection and remove the armour. Everyone is equally amazing- though some really connect and live how amazing they are and some don’t.
It’s a great comment Karin, I can relate to learning to let support in, that has certainly been something that has changed for me in this community, as is the developing understanding that loves goes both ways for it to be true – we let love in and let love out. And what a great line and so true, wisdom to live by “Everyone is equally amazing- though some really connect and live how amazing they are and some don’t.” Thank you Karin.
Embracing and living within a community is really a natural way of living, in the past we lived in smaller communities where it was easier to support each other, and now with the aid of technology we are still able to talk and support each other and the more people we meet, so our communities grow.
“We are all there to support each other – in illness, in love, in disasters, in marriage, in pulling each other up to be more… whatever it is, we’ve got each other’s back.” This is a community like no other, offering to each of us true love and equality, knowing we are here for one purpose and that is to live the love we innately are and reflect that same love to the world.
Opening our hearts is what brings community alive, that way we feel the connection to the equalness of us all.
As John Donne said ‘no man is an island’. We all need people we can call on – and who can call on us for support and friendship.
‘… we know where the heart lies’ and that captures it beautifully Nikki, when we live in a way that makes that the centre of how we are with ourselves and each other … this is where community springs from, and it’s accessible to all of us.
Are we not all looking for true community? A community that is founded in Love and Truth will always be inclusive as by nature we are all love in truth…. a global community, not separated by town or country.
Nikki I thank you for your very simple and true description of the Way of The Livingness. I know that I don’t always fully utilise these wonderful gifts that so many in our community share .
When we allow ourselves to feel that we are religious by nature, we connect with people with a purpose and that is to help one another in living this life on earth, a life that cannot be perfect but can be lived in a respectful an decent way we all deserve to live.
I’ve found when I have my back then it’s natural to allow others to have my back too and to support. This morning I messaged a question to a friend in one country and plan to connect and do some work with another from a different country and it’s all so normal. It’s what life could be like for everyone… appreciating and sourcing what qualities each one of us brings.
That is one of the benefits of our technological world; it can be used to bring us closer together rather than as a tool to separate. Global brotherhood at our fingertips 🙂
So true, its amazing to be able to have that instant connection, it means you can speak to anyone in the world at any point in time, and if used correctly it can help us build relationships and make us stronger together.
Yes, I just had an enriching connection with two lovely ladies in the UK, my early morning their evening. It was a very inspiring and productive time shared.
Beautiful article and a role model for us all. Sit back and see there are a number of ways we can choose to be in the community around us. We can withdraw, get involved, sit on the sidelines, dip our toe in or we can just be truly who we are and in that realise community isn’t something you need to go to or have, it’s more a apart of how we truly are and so all we need do is be and true community is the reflection from there.
The willingness to be open with each other and share our resources supports us all to grow. It is our nature to live in brotherhood.
Brotherhood is indeed our nature and we all have that ability, we just have to allow to feel that inner strength we all feel brotherhood will bring. And in that we have to let go of the individuality we so much tend to live our lives in.
When I was growing up I always missed having a big family. Then when I did not get married or have children I felt it would never be that way for me. But today I can say I have the biggest family imaginable, a global community of friends, fellow students, colleagues, people in my neighbourhood, the local community. It is beautiful to take a moment to appreciate the richness in my life that is there since I came across Universal Medicine.
“With my arms crossed and a harsh glare, I wanted to be a part of it all and was annoyed I wasn’t.” I love this, so very well observed. It is ridiculously amusing how obvious our behaviour and its consequences often are and yet we stubbornly dig our heels in.
Seeing everyone as our absolute equal, whether we know them or not, whether we’ve had past history with them or not, and being honest about how and what we feel, are the foundational building blocks for communities, families and workplaces that support people to be more of who they truly are.
Taking a snap shot of what life would be like before and after Universal Medicine, life would look completely different, so that the after would bring about a change that would be undeniably amazing.
There is so much love and support within the community when we simply say yes to love, embrace and accept what is on offer. It can be easy to go into reaction, saying what about this or that, or that person looked at me this way – but this usually comes from a lack of awareness and understanding on our part. The more love we are willing to be with ourselves, the more we can then be with others and when we as a group are choosing to be more of the love that we are, then the magic really starts to happen and no longer do we feel the need to be guarded, rather we can re-build our sense of trust in humanity, knowing that people are only really the way they are because of the way the world has fashioned us to be through our hurts, but really none of those layers are the gorgeous tender beings that we all naturally are.
What you describe is true wealth, Nikki, accessible for each of us by opening up our heart, connecting with ourselves and the love we are and be willing to let go of things that prevent us from connecting, like old hurts and patterns.
That is gorgeous how you have embraced community life and living with others. So often we think we need to have our own place, live independently etc.. yet we are designed to be with people. We do not need to be in a physical relationship to live with others past a certain age either. It is a real joy sharing and connecting with others.
Beautiful. It is such an amazing feeling that I know there are people who I can trust and be open with and know that I would be met with love, and they don’t have to do anything for me.
This is a beautiful snapshot of the love, joy, support and respect that is lived by Esoteric Students. What is eternally more beautiful is that this love is not reserved for the community alone. It is a way of living that is shared with all, no matter your religion or creed, not in a perfect way but with a sincere intention of sharing the love for all that resides at the core of each of us.
And most love receiving this too… showing a way that is void of competition and comparison.
Being open and transparent allows myself to be seen opening my door to others – something I have avoided or shall I say I have lived in a measured way. Being honest and becoming aware of what holds me back in welcoming community into my home and being a part of a community where I live is opening me up to a greater expansion in my body. All I have to do now is to say yes and live it.
I’ve been in a few groups, forums and work teams and they are held together by an activity or an identity with a certain nationality or hobby most of the time. The community of the students of The Way of The Livingness is like nothing I have seen before. We are not bound by nationality, country, activity or educational standing. People from completely different demographics and ranges of life, but when we open up we’ll talk to anybody like a dear friend. I have many people in Australia that I’ve never met but do not feel alien from them in our interactions.
As a child I remember living in a small community where everyone knew everyone and support was all around, that certainly is not the case in town where most are strangers and reading this blog it actually is clear, there is a way of living which fosters the community connection or the lack of it wherever we live.
A real community was once the small villages we lived in and carried on as we spread to suburbia. We have gotten so big that we have returned to our home and used it as a castle to keep others out. The Way of The Livingness has fostered, community to be reborn to include everyone, everywhere all of the time.
Sharing our Livingness with those around us brings an honesty that we can all feel. So is it any wonder when people openly express it is because the honesty allows us to feel the start of something that is grand.
Love and Truth as a base .., what a way to live, and in fact really it’s the way to live, and accessible to all.
“whatever it is, we’ve got each other’s back”. And Hearts xoxo
I grew up in London and lived the majority of my life in large cities around the world and always felt isolated and longed for connection. It was only when I reconnected to myself and the love and truth that we all share in our inner most that I found community.
I now live in a small town in Northern NSW and absolutely LOVE it. I know the people in the local shops, I can drive and park anywhere, I connect to people on my morning walk, people drive by and wave, I have a super gorgeous husband, I enjoy connecting with people at our Local Chamber of Commerce, I have a connection to our gorgeous customers who phone from all over Australia, we have friends for dinner and to stay, I have a connection to people around the world as Nikki has described and I even get the joy of working with Nikki McKee who wrote this blog. The whole world is as connected as people are ready to be.
It is ‘Wow’ indeed Nikki. I am continuously awe-inspired and the degree of love, truth, openness, support and care that is lived and shared amongst the community. It is also very true that there is no perfection here, as we are in fact we are only just beginning to touch the surface of what it is to live in true Brotherhood. However, with the intention at heart to live the love we are as best we can, there is much that our current society could study and learn from here. For with the continual struggles with life, the general increase of illness, disease and unrest that we are all witness to in the world, reflected through this community is another way to live together more harmoniously, one that is working and is visibly reflected through the vibrancy of our lives lived. We are all here on this earth together; do we not consider that there is a higher purpose for this, such as embracing our togetherness and living in true community?
The thing I love is the understanding we can bring to each other — to allow to be open to another and support.. To make life about other people and equally the truth of you. Is a beautiful process of unfolding yourself within community life — nothing feels greater than opening up your heart, letting who you are and letting in everyone else (step by step more and more)..I appreciate this..
The way you live now Nikki should be a basic human requirement, we all need to be part of a community or the community as it seems such a natural part of our overall wellbeing. Sometimes though it almost feels like an unseen force is there trying to break down community and keep us separated with the closure of this and the closure of that due to lack of interest or funding.
Crossed arms, a glare and protective stance are signs of our self-imposed prison, one that we and only we are responsible for, no matter how much we want to blame the world, other people and circumstances.
So true Gabriele – and as we can see, and as are witness to everyday if we are willing to be honest, blaming is not serving us as a humanity at all.
Isolation doesn’t make sense when there is so much joy to be shared. We all are naturally part of a great community and it’s really beautiful to bring our part to the whole. Our uniqueness just finds its purpose when is shared with others.
True community is that which offers us a constant reflection of repsonsibility in order to be more of who we truly are.
There is a beautiful lightness in this blog that really shows that you are living what you write. How sad it is that many of us can live in isolation over many lifetimes when all we need to do is choose love and be open to what is there on offer.
Nikki, I know this kind of isolation- I used to be the same. Through the community of people from Universal Medicine I could reconnect to the feeling how beautiful it is to be connected with other people. What an amazing support that is in my life. Actually, I could relearn to trust in groups again.
I must admit that I’ve been a bit of a loaner for most of my life. Quite happy to be on my own. But over the last few years I have discovered the joy in opening to people and building a community based life. The support and love that is on offer is astounding, and it means I get to support and love others too! Why hold back?
Sharing is such an important part of our Livingness as is living with others. So much can be learnt from the Students of the Livingness and the way they naturally are a part of the community!
For me it is even not restricted to the Students of The Livingness- opening up in general for people allows other people in your life, that can share their wisdom with you. We often have dinners with non Students and it is absolutely beautiful.
Agreed Stefanie, the transparency and sharing that is opening up between everyone is amazing!
Thank you, Nikki, your appreciation of The Way of The Livingness and the true community we have developed is deeply felt. I would never have thought it possible to live in this harmonious and loving way with others, but having experienced it myself for a few years now I feel truly blessed to be a part of this global community that is embracing of everyone.
The support on offer from the community to everyone in it and anyone else is incredible, no matter a persons social or economic status, career or education etc no one is more or less
Reading this blog you can feel how abundant the author’s life is for living in a true community, and that it reflects to humanity that we do not have to be alone or be lonely, and that if there is a problem or an issue, there is always someone to talk it through with.
Before I became a student of The Way of The Livingness, I was already very social and active in my community, my work and had a wide network of family and friends. What was missing was a purpose and so my purpose became drinking and socialising. When I became a part of UM community, I was blown away because I realised how much work there is to do in order for the world to be harmonious. With that, I realised drinking all the time wasn’t going to support anyone. I woke up to people all around the world willing to support you to be all you are naturally, anything you need, projects, personal relationships work. It is a taste of what we can all have, instead of living our own little lives, we open up and everyone else, we are our best teachers, working as a team we can achieve anything. The incredible thing is, I have only just scratched the surface of what is on offer, I truly feel blessed but I am not really blessed, as it is open to anyone that wants a massive extended family. Best thing I ever did was become a part of this global loving network of people.
True Love is a foundation that can change our every movement so that we start to feel the way everyone has a relationship with Love whether they know it or not and this is so divine to see this reflection from others.
I have just spent the afternoon preparing food, decorating a blackboard, collaborating with others in a beautiful celebration of a friend and her family in a coming together that felt like true community.
I love getting to know people by their writing on this blog site. I love seeing the same names popping up. Even though we may not have had direct contact, I have to say they feel very known and familiar.
Yes, I do. I have always love the familiarity you get and how this is confirmed if you one day meet the person.
So True Jennifer, it is like we are initiating and three people are involved as you read every comment.
‘With that same shared goal there is a deep level of trust with others as we know where the heart lies.’ – Yes Nikki this is so true I know I certainly feel this trust, knowing that we are all equal and that there is a level of integrity in the way we are living to the best of our ability.
With the ability to communicate with people across the world these days and social media connecting us, never has there been more opportunity to be in touch with people. But true community comes when we are connected to ourselves first and bring that openness to everything we do from there wherever we are, talking to a neighbour next door or a person the other side of the world.
Community living is about love and collaboration – it is designed to pull each other up to the highest level we can… And not by our form of thinking, but by our way of living. In our daily movements, we either allow individuality to rise or brotherhood to be restored… Those two different sources will either confirm our ability to live in true community or not. So never is it about the outcome, always by the choice that originated.
The Way of The Livingness teaches us that we are here to be live who we truly are, as it is only then that we offer a true reflection and support to another through whatever means we choose to express in and also be inspired by their own. True community is this constant reflection of truth and appreciation for each other’s differences reflecting the love that we all are.
True community is the coming together of a group of people with a shared purpose with this purpose being to return to the great love that we are – back to our Soul. If we are in reaction or resistance to this we will seek a ‘community’ that will not ask us to commit deeper to life and to our evolution but mask it in a thin veneer of ideals and beliefs that get in the way of this path back home to the love within our hearts. Thus the many communities we form can be more about our needs and wants and what we can ‘get’ from each other (e.g. sympathy, personal gratification, an excuse to hide and not show our true self to the world etc.) than they are about supporting each other to arrest that which inhibits our expression of our love.
Very well considered and expressed Liane! It is absolutely important to check, why you are in a community. To hide or to grow. This is the evil of superficiality it can LOOK the same, but it is indeed something absolutely different.
True community seems to be a lost art of years gone by, where everyone was there to support each other – but the students of The Way of The Livingness have revived true community in their commitment to a standard of quality of relationships with each other and everyone else they meet
I have attended a few events recently where this community have worked so beautifully together to firstly organise and set up, and then at the end have again worked together to dismantle and tidy up in a way that is truly harmonious, efficient and even enjoyable, rather than making it a task. And it has been commented on by others who have not had experience of this way of everyone pulling together so beautifully, like a team of worker bees, and how impressed they have been by it. When we bring purpose to what we do, and we do it with love, there is no end to what is possible.
‘I didn’t have the awareness that I was the creator of my isolation, nor that it was only my choices that led to the way I was living. I had a chip on my shoulder against the world and humanity, and whilst I still played ball, I did so from the fringes.’ This insight I feel most of us can relate to. When we don’t get confirmed as kids we swallow what the world shows us we need to be and try to conform – in the meantime withdrawing and contracting trying to control life so as to minimise the damage. However, we do not admit to ourselves that we chose to withdraw rather than stay true and steady with what we knew and that choice was very much ours…
‘Supermarket shops where I know the butcher and we stop to say hello’, I know most of the staff in my local supermarket and frequently joke with my neighbour about how much we love the shop as it is almost like walking into your local butcher or greengrocer. It makes a huge difference to our day when we are open and connecting with those around us.
It just goes to show, and the community of people that live under the tenets of The Way of The Livingness reveal this in spades – that when we make our lives about purpose first and foremost, the richness that comes back to us is a million-fold. My sense of family now is global, the support I know that’s backing me is endless, and the love I know I am held in is as vast as the universe itself.
“I didn’t have the awareness that I was the creator of my isolation, nor that it was only my choices that led to the way I was living.” It’s very empowering to realise that we can no longer blame anyone else for what’s going on in our lives, and that we can take responsibility to bring change.. as change happens within ourselves and to our environment and in relation to those around us, we get to experience responsibility as very joyful (and by no means the drag it is generally portrayed to be).
Yes, Nikki, we all want the same thing…love… and with that as a common denominator surely we can work together to bring love back as the bedrock of our lives.
Just beautiful Nikki – I get every word you have said!
True community is what we know deeply inside and is very beautiful to live in and the appreciation and joy of this is something we really miss when we create the isolation and separation we live in in the world currently as it is. Universal Medicine is offering us the way home to living all we are from our hearts openly.
Community living starts with caring for ourselves and being open, the way we were all born and then opening the hole below our nose and expressing.
Ah! Ha! So that hole is not just for food that we tend to over indulge in>
The Way of The Livingness is the way to go in life as it brings back that joy, purpose and love in life we all crave so much until we have found it off course.
To get on with life and prove that you are capable in life is such a isolating way of living. I have found it difficult to let people in and allow support and when I do it feels so amazing. See all the pressures and expectations that I have put on myself has been fantastic to see and with the support of Universal Medicine it has been life changing.
I’ve been living with my house mate for 2 years. We are now feeling to expand into a place big enough for three. The evolution and consolidation we have done together needs to be taken out to include more people. Sisterhood turning into brotherhood. It feels like a natural expansion.
When a couple get together it is natural for the family to expand the level of love between 2 makes so much more possible.
It is really cool how easy it is for everyone to share their expertise these days one of the benefits of modern technology! I also appreciate that I am part of the most amazing people it’s called humanity !
What this global community his shown me is a community where judgement, jealousy and comparison are not the norm. Whilst there is no perfection and these emotions are sometimes there they do certianly not need to dominate and there is a way of being without them where inspiration and evolution is the norm.
Our innate instinct is to be within a community as demonstrated by the response to a natural disaster.
What shines out from your blog is that the support is always there waiting for when we chose to connect. I can relate to sending out vibes of ‘don’t come near me’ whilst craving the intimacy of true community. Becoming an active participant in The Way of The Livingness community has supported me to unpick the many layers of protection that I had erected and live in a way that feels true and ever expanding.
A community that is open to all, otherwise it cannot be community. Our lives are enriched by the people we let in, and the beauty of that is that we can never be overfilled with too many people in our lives. No need to be measured or guarded, for we learn from one another and everyone I have ever met has been my teacher, even when I have not realised it.
Yes, Stephen, I like what you are saying here about never being overfilled with people in our lives. With every person we meet, its just connecting to another member of our one big community.
We are definitely the creator of whatever happens to us, when we isolate ourselves from community living, we get isolation. It is so appreciative Nikki to stop and feel how your life has changed, by changing your choices. It is all pretty simple really.
This is so beautiful Nikki. “The foundation of true community living can only be founded in Love and Truth and with that as a base…” Yes, Wow! And no we are not perfect at it, but we are students, and are learning and growing all the time. There is an amazing feeling of support within our community, even when we get it wrong!
And as time passes so we are learning and deepening that Love and Truth and as we do that the community is expanding.
True Love as a foundation is what we all have been searching for and therefore “learning to grow all the time” from this our most divine connection.
Its beautiful what you share, true community is built on truth and openness and a willingness. When we open our hearts to others, they are all there willing to support. This is how a true community builds.
‘A home that has a regular flow of people – other people’s kids here sometimes before school, sometimes after; friends over for dinner and popping in’
This is so lovely and something I have dreamt about all my life. Though my home may not look like that, I can feel what is possible is having a love for myself, a willingness to deal with anything that comes up I may want to hide from the world because it feels yuck and let it go, where I am open and transparent, and my home doesn’t harbour any habits or secrets that I want to hide away. This feels like what it is to be open hearted, responsible and consistent.
“But even while living this way, I craved engaging with people.” I can really relate to this, when growing up I was isolating myself from my family by staying home claiming I did not like to go out with them, yet deep inside I loved to go. Only now at 26 I am breaking through this pattern and it feels great. The thing is that we don’t have to change but let go of our protection and we are naturally connected with everyone.
I love being a member of The Way of The Livingness community as it is so supportive and enriching. However, for it to be the loving support it is the basis is self-love.
There is so much to appreciate in regards to our communities and sometimes it is easy to forget how many wonderful and rich opportunities we have to connect in any moment of the day even if we pass someone on the street and smile we are in effect connecting with our community. A very cool blog thank you Nikki.
How much we choose to live inclusive of our community is entirely up to us. We always have a choice be open to people or not. But the more open we are to people, the more joyful experiences we have.
Yes, Nikki it is lovely to stop and have a ‘Wow’ moment and to realise how much my life has also changed simply by making different choices and truly listening to what was said when I asked for support. There is so much wisdom to be shared amongst the students of The Way of The Livingness and this has the ripple effect as we all reach out into the world and everyone becomes our world-wide family.
Did not the bible say; ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’ and does this not come about by living the “Love and Truth” first and foremost for yourself. So true community develops as we learn to Love ourselves from within. This is The Way of The Livingness. We start with being at-least gentle, then self-loving, on the way to Love.
‘A gorgeous housemate who co-parents with me’ – I have often observed in other countries how the community raises children and it is not isolated to the biological parents. It takes a community to raise a child which is something we seem to have lost as we have become more and more isolated from one another.
True community is about openness and allowing and supporting each other, but also about reading people and knowing how best to be there for them, as well as being open to calling out for support too as needed.
Recognising that at the heart of every community is ourselves… that community starts with developing a loving relationship with ourselves first, that then extends outwards and knows no geographical boundary either… local neighbourhood community and global community.
It is awesome to hear an appreciation of this community, for it really is a unique and loving group of people to be blessed to learn with as students of life.
It is natural for us to seek community and to live in groups together, as we learn so much from the reflections we receive, but we will always feel like an outsider if we are rejecting ourselves first.
We all crave that connection we can feel from the inside when we do not have that on the outside, in the communities we live in. This blog shows to me that the isolation that can be felt in this is because of us choosing to live in isolation because when we allow to live who we are, amazing loving people,there would be no way we will live in isolation as we will naturally connect to everybody we meet and feel to connect to.
A beautiful article on appreciation and love for community through firstly connecting with and developing a relationship with our inner hearts which then allows us to expand into community.
Thank you
We can search for this connection in organisations, clubs, the army, relationships, but as you say, trues community must start within our own connection to our hearts
You have captured it so well cjames2012. In this way instead of searching for ‘a community to give us this connection’, we find that the onus is on us to live connected to our own hearts and naturally imprint the foundations of any community we are a part of with such loving quality.
So true Chris. If we skip this essential step you’ve shared here it only leads to us experiencing a false version of community living.
Yes Chan … And I have experienced this so much in my life… For many people in organisations like the military are with so many of us look for this connection… I know I did
What I am now learning is that to be part of a true community comes with a natural responsibility as well as the great gift of being part of something that offers a reflection of truth and love.
The more we open up to people and understand ourselves to be part of community the more we live the potential and power that we have as it is in contributing to the life of all that we become who we are.
It’s so natural to want to be in community. I know I have shied away from this and still do at times. The community you describe here I am starting to open up to and trust and it’s so inclusive and glorious. It’s a way everyone knows but sometimes hurts get in the way. Not letting the hurts rule allows so much healing and one to come together in mutual respect and knowing we all have something unique and wonderful to offer each other.
A true community is what people really deeply at heart desire, and there are many forging the way and living with natural community essence as they go about their every day.
Community living where we truly allow, accept and appreciate and are a constant reflection for each other – awesome!
We all crave connection with others and yet so many people live in isolation and feel they are alone. It doesn’t make sense, when we open up we can see we are all the same, we are all one and can support each other when needed.
The hurt of not living the depth of true community we all innately know deep within keeps us from living what we miss so much. And so we go round and round in an ever confirming cycle of hurt and disappointment until we face and heal the hurt to such degree that we bring the quality of communion back to community life.
What inspires me most about this community is peoples commitment to open their heart beyond the confines of family, nationality, race, culture, age, sexuality etc.
Living with love, care and a deep sense of community is our natural truth, yet the experience of most of us throughout the world is far from this, and some of us live the complete opposite.
The support by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine to reconnect to the true essence of love that remains unchanged within our heart is invaluable. And the understanding offered about the many hurts and protective strategies that get in the way of us living our truth, as well as the support offered to find ways of healing such hurdles to living our glory, is empowering beyond words.
I am definitely much more open with people since I began studying with Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon. I feel that everyone is my community, not just those who are part of The Way of The Livingness.
The word community has been transformed for me through the presentations of Serge Benhayon. It is now such a precious thing that surrounds me every day, regardless of where I am in the world.
Many of us do share a single goal – to have great relationships and live in a loving community, but in order to achieve this it requires us to open up and let people see what we see, experience our angle and also to ask for support when we need it.
Well said, Susie, it is a community with the common goal that you express but because it is a community it does not mean it is exclusive. In fact, it is inclusive, open to anyone.
Community is so natural to us and there is something missing without it, for us and everyone we are keeping separate from.
I love being part of the global community that is growing and supporting each other to learn to live the love that all of humanity is made of.
So true Nicky and so beautiful to acknowledge the natural oneness and the joy of living in true community that flows form our very livingness and the support of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon in bringing this back into our lives for everyone to have the opportunity to feel.
How beautiful is true community! And when we don’t have it, just start living it! Life does not come with everything prepared for us and whatever we desire, we have to live it first so that it would be a normal way one day. This is a beautiful confirmation that we are really that powerful.
‘The foundation of true community living can only be founded in Love and Truth and with that as a base –– Wow!’ Wow indeed Nikki. Community living is way to live that brings responsibility, purpose, true support and an understanding of relationships much deeper for me than I ever experienced whilst living on my own.
Losing individuality and living true community – the only way to go!
Every now and then I get the opportunity to live with a whole group of people… It can be such a beautiful experience, and the foundation for this can often be the sense of purpose, and if everyone feels this connection within their life then harmony seems to be a natural offshoot of the connections that are made.
I’ve always longed to have a loving family – but to have a loving community that stretches around the world and treats all as ‘their own’ is incredible!
A flow of appreciation for the opportunity to live in true community, this is a beautiful article, thank you Nikki. And in writing the word community just now I have spotted that it ends with unity… which is what we all yearn for and is the way for us all.
Deep down we all have the knowing that we belong to something grander than ourselves, a unity, we may just not necessarily be consciously aware of it.
Love that comment that the foundation of any community must be love and truth and that how we all are with these for ourselves in a community on a daily basis affects the health and vitality of the whole community. So it starts with our own commitment to living with love and truth and expands out to others.
A stunning encapsulation of the beauty of truly supportive relationships.
Like a child kicked out of class I have always had a resentful sense that life’s ‘not fair’ and looked to blame angrily my fellow classmates. Today I see that what occurs is my responsibility and that blame and shame just isn’t fair. Through this process I have, like you Nikki gradually opened up and started to let people in. And what have I found? That they are loving, generous, dependable, supportive and kind. Wise, funny, inspiring and sweet. Yes they have their hurts as I do. But I will no longer let these small blemishes block out the connection we all share. Community is always there – if we bring down the walls we’ll start to see the true beauty of humanity.
When we don´t feel being enough as who we are how can we feel at ease in the company of others, how when we expect others to be what we need them to be can we be connected with others.? Any form of judgment stands in the way of the communion we long for.
Nikki this is a great summary of just how amazing it is to be apart of a committed community and as you say we haven’t mastered it but we are willing and open to keep going and learn along the way. We do totally have each others backs and when we make it about the Love and Truth that we are, then there would be no reason why we wouldn’t. The Way of The Livingness is choice that brings true relationships with ourselves first and foremost and then with all equally after that. Yes a Big Wow.
I love being a part of The Way of The Livingness community, the love and support available is incredible. What I love about this community is that it is open to everyone.
The crazy thing is that so many of us feel isolated and alone all the while we live on a planet the enhousese more than 7 billion people. There is no reason to be feeling alone, there are so many of us yearning for connection and togetherness.
Since reading this blog I have been reflecting on just how incredible the community is, all my life I wished I lived in the past when communities where closer and everyone knew everyone else and supported each other. But what I have found in this community is something far more because it is an openness and love for everyone, if it is your taxi driver or the person on the check out, to another student or anyone you meet, it is not reserved for just one person or group of people.
What I love is that true community is not bound by location or geography, it is founded on Love as the common purpose and it is beautiful to live in a way that you can ask someone and get support in a very honouring and full way without physically really knowing the person.
I agree, it is love that binds and unifes beyond location and culture
Very inspiring Nikki. It is all too common for us to live seperate lives, but what you are sharing here is the richness and true values that can be gained from being an active part of your community.
When we work together as community there is purpose and from that a joy and a flow that is super lovely to feel.
I too love being part of a global community committed to being being love and sharing that with all. In the past I have isolated myself when I was struggling but since opening up to others I have found that the support is always there and it is reciprocal – I get so much from supporting others in a variety of ways and it is amazing to feel how much support is out there whatever we are experiencing.
It is amazing how the world around us opens up when all we have to do is open our mouths and express from who we are.
Could it be the most natural way of living is “community”? This existence with each other has a “base” or foundation, which is “Love and Truth”? If so why is society seemingly going in the opposite direction? Maybe the answer lie’s in the lies we live and perpetuate by seeking solace from a screen? From watching others do so much and playing games, which have no real significance for our evolution. So these distractions keep us from our True Expression, then we end up chasing something that is outside our-self. All you have shared Nikki is about communicating and Expressing with others, no matter who and where. So could this be a natural way of True Family and “community”? Then could it be the “Love and Truth” that lives within us all equally is felt and is resisted because everything in our family tells us life is all about family, which has no real community and thus not about True Expresssion?
The other goal we all share is that we know that we are not here on earth to make earth life better but that we are here to support each other to get out of here and back to where we all belong.
Whether we live and take part in community or not is often a reflection of how willing we are to let people see who we truly are.
Everyone actually has a deep love for people and community but what are we going to do with it when we feel hurt and repelled by the experiences we have made with it? We have a dilemma that leads to a variety of contradicting impulses and behaviours. It is only when we realize and heal the hurts that we set free the underlying love and come back to live the way we are made for.
Holding the values of live and truth is paramount in building community.
I grew up with no real sense of community, and love the ebb and flow of life now. Helping out at that occasion, or asking for support with something different. Likewise the opportunity to talk things through – to get a different angle is always invaluable. I remember thinking that isolated was less complicated, but in community is so much richer and deeper.
Many crave a feeling of belonging and of community – sometimes we seek it in hobbies and interests, in religions or cultures, trying to find others we fit in with and forming a group where we feel identified, accepted and safe. But the community that has grown around the teachings of Universal Medicine is something entirely different – it is not closed or exclusive and the love and openness shared are shared equally with everyone, and there are no boarders.
When a person lives in self imposed isolation, they remain in isolation even when in a group and conversely when a person chooses to be part of the All, they remain part of the All even when in isolation.
The activity of love is what binds true community.
Being open is the start to true community.
Yes, and letting the deep inner care that we have for everyone be shown and truly there for everyone.
Community living is gorgoeus! Whist we are not perfect, when we need the support we really do care for one another in a truly beautiful way.
The snapshot of your life sounds good. I would say building relationships, engaging with the community, connecting to/with others and living harmoniously is a vital element and part of our true wellbeing and you have confirmed this by sharing your own experience.
Your blog, Nikki, has allowed me to reflect on my relationship with people and community. In my 20’s and 30’s I worked in a position that was public facing and I was extraordinary in the way I could relate to people. My work file was full of letters and commendations not only from the customers I came across on a daily basis, but from my colleagues and supervisors as well. In the last ten years or so, I went in to a self-imposed hibernation of sorts which is what I felt I needed to do to begin to heal. Although in recent years I have begun my emergence from this hibernation, reading your blog has rekindled my innate ability to connect with people and I can feel my readiness to step up and start reaching out once again. Thank you for your sharing, Nikki.
Whenever I withdraw from community it sets alarm bells ringing in my body because it is such a unnatural state to be in. It is contra to every impulse in my body and yet it has been a place I have turned to when I have not wanted to take responsibility for choices that have been not so loving.
It is so so beautiful to hear stories like this in this day and age when so many are living in isolation and in hurt from the world. It gives a reflection to all of what is possible when you don’t hold back and open up your heart.
I feel that community living is a fundamental aspect of wellbeing – the awareness that we are part of something greater than just ourselves and our familial networks – and that the quality of our being-ness affects not just ourselves but the community we are part of too.
There are so many more opportunities to learn, from other people’s experiences, different situations. These inform my life in subtle and profound ways because I always open to different ways of doing things, to learning about how to live.
I love the feeling of community, I often wish we could go back to old-fashioned times where community living was at the heart of life (or so it’s portrayed in films!!). We recently had a survey questionnaire from our village and it asked – what is missing from our village? The first thing I felt was that there is no community, no sense of that we’re here together or you could turn to a neighbour for help, instead we choose to live in an isolated family units, but not enjoying our wider human family.
The community of The Way of The Livingness is the greatest blessing in my life, as I know there are hundreds of individuals there for support should I need it, who come from all walks of life but have the same deep integrity and loving respect for all of humanity.
Being community-minded has taken on a whole new meaning for me since coming across the Ageless Wisdom as presented through Universal Medicine. I would have considered myself a responsible part of the community most of my life, however now my view of what it means extends well beyond this. There is a great power we access when we work with one another, drawing on each persons strengths towards a common purpose. If that purpose is for the evolution of all, then mountains can be moved and miracles eventuate.
I like the way that you have described your community life, how it is very simple and does not involve being overly active or mission-driven, it simply is the process of living the practicalities of each day with the people in your life, but done so with an openness and a joy that makes every encounter something special.
At times in my life I too have felt like an outsider, and that’s no fun. When I first moved interstate, at a very vulnerable time in my life, my first action was to find what sociologists call a ‘third place’ – a place outside of home or work where we feel connected. In my case it was a cafe in a neighbouring suburb that reminded me of the cafes in the town I’d left behind. It was a place of solace, even if I didn’t know anyone or speak to anyone other than the service people there; a little bit of ‘home away from home’. Eventually I did get to know people in that area and that led to some work for and from a women’s wellbeing centre… and so it grew and my new city has been home for many years now. Community and connectedness is super-important.
I’m with you Nikki. I love the richness of the community I have – with my fellow esoteric students (and yes, the global nature of our group is inspiring!), my colleagues, residents in my local area, my clients, workmates, family and friends… it’s such a beautiful tapestry of connectedness on which to draw and rest.
Community to me is having an open heart and treating everyone with the same love and openness as family. It it does not mean you have to do all the stuff you do for family for everyone else, but it is about the openness and warmth that is offered to all. And so in saying that, it reveals that community comes from us, from us opening our hearts and welcoming everyone in, and letting the warmth that we are, out.
Thank you Nikki, it is great to reflect back and appreciate what true community is about where the self plays a lesser part in it and we open our hearts to welcome others to offer each other a reflection that supports us in our own evolution and be constantly inspired to be more of who we truly are.
An awesome before and after. I can relate on some level, mostly to the retreating to the sidelines part, but I knew what I was doing back then when I did. Seeking attention…despite the fact that it was the very thing I pretended I hated. It’s so interesting how ridiculous the games we play are, mostly with ourselves when we are not stopping to appreciate ourselves.
I have stood on the side lines of community and wanted to join in for the ‘good bits’ like the dinners and outings. But I can see that I don’t fully step in because of the responsibilities and challenges this also brings. This is where stepping into community is about love and opening up your heart to others.
Expression within our environment in an open and transparent way opens us all to the deeper awareness and responsibility, which means we are living with the power that we truly are. So what is this power, could it be living with our connection to our divine essence, thus connecting, which is available to all equally, and are returning to our true expression from the True Love within that essence?
I was feeling the same recently,Nikki. We are travelling to Europe soon and the beautiful connections we are making with other members of the community over there are amazing and supportive. I deeply appreciate the community that Serge Benhayon has supported us to create -this community is both local and global and is based on truly supporting each other in how we are living our daily lives.
With an open heart there is an abounding joy that cannot help but to be shared with all.
It is fabulous to understand that we are the creators of our own isolation. It kind of makes sense when you look at the behaviours we employ to shrink away, keep in the background, not open ourself etc., its like a strategic list. The great thing about seeing this clearly, is that it shows we can also be the creators of the opposite, such as all the lovely events in your current life you have shared here.
Sometimes by simply asking for help or support we allow an openness between people.
So true, Nick. I am learning to ask for support and the beautiful relationships that are unfolding and blossoming before me as a result are truly inspiring.
For most of my life I avoided being part of community, even considered ways to withdraw from it as much as possible like living very remotely, but at the same time I was longing for being a part but simply didn´t know how to deal with the anxiety, insecurity, intensity, and tension that is brought up by being part of community or being with people. There is work to be done for a successful community life, first and foremost on oneself and then also by contributing a quality that serves everyone equally.
It is alongside others these days that I get to learn so much about life and actually about myself too. The richness of reflections from others and my willingness to learn makes for great opportunities to grow.
The most obvious type of community is the nuclear family. It is what we have become used to in our society and has become the norm. It’s interesting how when a group of people who are not blood related get together to form a community it draws much attention and suspicion.
Agree Rebecca – the idiom ‘blood is thicker than water’ still holds strong, implying that you can only let non-family members in so close, and that family is only your blood family…. A deliberate ploy to keep us at arms length from each other and not feel the powerful ripple effect of true community.
Wow! A nuclear family sound explosive, so let’s hope it expands then we all get to be an equal part and take part, without any explosion or implosion just an expansion that is inclusive equally for everyone.
Thank you Nikki for writing this blog because it has given me a stop moment to appreciate the family I have that is scattered all around the world. I may not be in constant contact with everyone and only see them maybe once a year but just knowing they are there feels very supportive as I go about my day.
Gorgeous blog. Its simplicity is felt. Living in connection with others is the key to truly being the love that we are! No need for protection. Be open and transparent and life flows lovingly.
The sharing of our lives with others is such a joy and is so natural to us in true community and the power and support we offer each other is volumeness in its extent if we allow it as we are divine beings in our hearts.
What a very real sharing of true community and the joy to be part of it that I feel too. The isolation we feel in life is simply us missing us in every way with both ourselves and others and not being in the oneness of us all.
There is something very simple, practical and humbling about letting ourselves get to know people in our communities; accepting each other and enjoying our unique expressions.
What a great way to really look at life, through the lens of community, how are we connecting with it, with the people and living in community, not from outside of it. There is so much for us to really feel into and just learn to get out there, unashamedly so, live who you are and not hide back from what you feel and who you are.
Beautifully said raegankcairney. The way we choose to interact with the people on our lives is a direct reflection of the relationship we have with ourselves.
What you have shared feels so natural and what is natural within our hearts, we can just start living it and it is really that simple! What we have freed ourselves to be, becomes more and more normal to everyone too!
“…it was only my choices that led to the way I was living…” This is such an important realisation to come to as it stops the blame and is the start of taking responsibility in our life.
It is quite amazing to find that when we move out of isolation we may find out that we are actually quite good and perhaps even particularly good with people.
This has been my experience. I spent so long telling myself I was no good with people, but it was all rubbish!
It’s great to be aware of the isolation I created in my life -and then also the over compensation that followed. So I’d oscillate between being off the radar to wanting to binge on every event going with no discernment as to what was going to support me in staying present with myself and loving myself without being needy. I’d get exhausted either doing too much or refusing the connections open to me.
This is a real work in progress but it’s like I’m feeling how I can open whether I’m with people or not- and vice versa. So not shutting down, retreating when I’m at home alone. Or not feeling bad if I choose to go for a walk at lunchtime to reconnect to my body again and just focus on being as I walk without talking.
This article offered a moment of appreciation that peeled my body with warmth, I almost sat back reflected and rested int o my chair and felt the holding support of community around me. Appreciation is the key here, it is all already there for us if we are open to it.
I love the inclusivity of this community
The thing is in my experience no one sets off to be isolated, separate and disconnected from others. It is our unhealed hurts and issues, and our choice to protect ourselves and go for security, which end up creating this self-imposed lonely prison that so many find ourselves trapped in.
Love, community and connection is our true nature. And the great thing is that, as testified by so many who have been inspired by Universal Medicine, it is never too late for anyone to start to turn things round.
‘The door is open for all and you can come and leave as you choose.’ – Indeed it is, it is a community that inspires by way of reflection, entirely up to each and every one what they choose to take away from it, if anything at all.
I tried to create community 15 years ago to no avail as there was no true love between the people involved. Now I am part of a community not from trying to but because the basis is love and it has evolved from love.
Community is an expression and we can express that common-unity with all we meet as we are all part of the whole of humanity.
Common-unity – Love it 🙂
It feels so natural to live this way Nikki. I love inviting friends and neighbours around for dinner. When tradesmen work in our house and it is lunch or dinner time we invite them to join us for a meal too. Meal times are a beautiful time of day to connect and share, anyone that happens to be in our home at these times are always included.
I lived most of my life protected and isolated, keeping people at arm’s length, but from bringing The Way Of The Livingness to my life the more I open my heart the more I feel the connection we are as a humanity, and it is such a joy.
I smiled as I read this as it has also been and is my experience. Both the self imposed isolation and now being a part of a global community. And this is possible for everyone when we start to drop our guards and heal the hurts the self impositions have caused.
I can relate to this – and in addition to healing our hurts, I find that key is to start to look at what we ourselves are contributing by our level of openness, commitment to life and our willingness to build true connections.
When we begin to take responsibility for our lives and see that everything that happens to us is our own making it totally changes our outlook on life. There is no-one to blame, no excuses, no if only… we just know everything is in ours hands to make the necessary changes to live another way.
Yes and after a short while we may realise how powerful that makes us.
I love this, Nikki – “We are all there to support each other – in illness, in love, in disasters, in marriage, in pulling each other up to be more… whatever it is, we’ve got each other’s back.” I used to want my life to be one of comfort and convenience, but I love now how the relationships I have developed over the years in this amazing community are based on the constant pull up to be more, as you say, because true friends never accept you being anything less than divine.
“True friends never accept you being anything less than divine” – beautifully said.
It feels so different when we share a meal together at another’s home and we all chip in, versus turning up and expecting to be entertained.
The greatest thing I have found from being apart of this expanding community is there never a hidden agenda! Nice, doesn’t exist! Support is never offered from the point of want or expecting something in return. Support to others is from love within and that we can assist others with, in what we bring to the community and the world so that we can all evolve!
To work together towards a common goal is the essence of good teamwork. If that common goal is to evolve back to Soul, then we have the workings of true Brotherhood.
And this community is opened to all. When we open our hearts the whole world in our community.
True community is our hearts desire.
So many people live in isolation, which is one of the most unnatural enforced states known to man. If we were to all suddenly stop resisting our natural urge to be together, then we would all end up in one big glorious pile of bodies. Arms and legs entwined, beautific smiles on our faces and hearts as one.
Why does it often take a huge disaster for us to come together as a community and share the love that we all hold inside for our selves and for each other? What is stopping us from living this each and every day?
So gorgeous to read Nikki, it brought me to tears knowing that I am so blessed to belong to this community of which you describe ” – to live on Earth the love we truly are. We’re not perfect at it, but we keep at it. With that same shared goal there is a deep level of trust with others as we know where the heart lies.”
True community, a lovely sharing. It is natural for us to live in brotherhood, to support each other and share our resources. We, as you did Nikki need to take the step, allowing others into our lives and being open to sharing ourselves.
I love when our home is flowing with people coming to stay for dinner or for the night, with neighbor’s children coming in and out to play, people coming to share our swimming pool etc etc. It is like the house and home come alive and are living their full potential…
This is what I love too, when we open our home to people our house doesn’t feel like it is ours, it feels like it belongs to everyone who shares it with us. Our house is an open house and anyone is welcome. It comes alive when there are lots of people in it.
Nikki I love how you have expanded on community to include the detail of your connections with others. Its a real expansion on relationships and how the quality of your relationships feed your connections to your community. Really beautiful.
From young life as it is did not make sense to me but I reacted to that by withdrawing and staying always a bit on the sidelines because I did not want to get affected. I realised in a chat this evening with my husband that this is because I did not have a solid connection with myself or had anywhere confirmed that what I felt was true. Without the connection and knowing you easily react but when you have the knowing and the loving connection with ourselves it is totally different. I love to go out now and enjoy building my relationships with people I know without making it a must do but I am more open to it than every before.
Loneliness is one of the epidemics in society. Here we have proof that such experience is not a natural outcome. In fact it is far from our true expression.
No, Golnaz, it’s not a natural outcome, we ‘reap what we sow’. We can choose to feel sorry for ourselves and feel that the world is excluding us, or, choose to connect, with ourselves first and then share our awesomeness with everyone else – no exclusions.
Loneliness and isolation are a choice to not be open to love and the support that is there if we so choose.
Nikki I have lived much of my life in self-imposed exile from humanity, I didn’t want anything to do with humans as I found them untrustworthy and unnecessarily aggressive towards each other. It has taken quite a while for me to break down the false misconceptions I had about humanity. All I now know is that we need to deeply appreciate each other and work together as this is the only way through group work that we can heal our hurts and move on from the false way of living we are currently adopting trying to make it work when it clearly isn’t.
I agree Mary, every act of love towards another is a offering of rebuilding trust in humanity, and an offering to accept that that love is equally in them and they are worthy of it. We cannot sit around and wait for the world to magically become the loving place we want it to be, we have to actively offer the world the choice to be that in every moment.
‘Within this global community we are all working for the same goal – to live on Earth the love we truly are. We’re not perfect at it, but we keep at it.’ – So true – the key is to understand that our contribution to the whole matters, no matter how insignificant it may seem. It is never about perfection but learning to become aware and consequently take responsibility for the quality of our own choices.
I can absolutely relate to playing ball with life but doing so from the sidelines, never really wanting to jump in and commit in full. But by doing so we are the creators of our own misery and yet to step out and step into life and what is all around us is truly a blessing worth embracing for all the joy it can bring.
True, this community is global. Not only through travel are we supported by others living overseas, but also through Skype and the internet we can support each other in a way that has never been possible for past generations. This is a blessing and a bonus!
It is interesting Nikki how you looked from the sidelines of your community and did not realise how you were excluding yourself, I have experienced similar situations. I love the way we support each other in community life, and how we communicate with people so easily now all over the world. We are one big community!
It makes no sense to isolate ourselves. We all live together in this world and we all need everyone to make it all tick. It’s an arrogance to assume that we can do it alone and that we don’t need anybody. It simply serves to keep us separate which is the opposite of where we need to be.
Our lives are so much richer when we open our hearts and our homes to people. I feel we don’t have to limit this to just family and close friends because with open hearts humanity is our family.
I too am a student of The Way of The Livingness and I too am finally learning to live in community, and I have discovered what a beautiful way it is to live like this. After living shut down from the world for way too much of my life it has been a big period of adjustment but I can now feel with every part of me that this is the true way for humanity to live, in union and in harmony with our fellow brothers and sisters, after all we are one big glorious family.
I feel the same too Ingrid. We live in a remote area and we frequently open our homes to people from all over the world. We invite them in to share our home and our family. We’ve had some amazing experiences and learning from opening our home to people and this feels very natural to us. Like you’ve shared Ingrid, we are ‘one big glorious family’.
Yes, it makes so much more sense for us to share our lives and support each other, with every aspect of life from raising children to basic practical matters.
This is what I love about the community – with each other and with everyone else that we meet, there is an open door policy in terms of sharing our love, our experience and skill and our support.
What we’re capable of alone is incredible, and one person can make a huge difference to society no question… But the power of true community and working together is something else; multiple the above by 100!
The fact of the matter is that we feel richer for living in a community than when we isolate ourselves and stay on the sidelines.
“this community is not bound by geography – we’re global” The more we truly open our hearts to one another, the greater this community becomes, a community based on love, truth and commitment to life, whereby we are always there for one another and always supporting others and our selves to be more.
I feel that the essence of what is expressed here is the deep level of trust and love in oneself that is then shared.
It’s ironic how we can work hard to keep out the very thing we crave the most, to share our love with others and receive their love back.
So true Alison – we work against it partly because we don’t think we deserve it… but of course, when we value ourselves as part of the community then it’s easy to let the love and support in.
Nikki, your experience echoes my own in many ways. In my twenties, I chose isolation as a form of protection. Slowly and beautifully, I have dropped my protective guard and now see the value of community: giving, receiving, openness, borderless and non-selective. The more I’m at home and accepting of myself, the more I’m at home where-ever I am.
Beautiful to see the purpose of true community understood and lived by so many. From living in isolated pockets many of us are active contributors to communities global and local. Instead of separatism, individualism and closed family networks, the whole world is our community.
Nikki what a great blog that certainly reminds me to appreciate the amazing care, love, quality and commitment of the community that I am also part of. One that is worldwide and is not exclusive, a community where like you I know the butcher and we have people from work over for dinners, a community where we have friends around the world that take deep care of how they live and I know represent the values that we choose in our lives so can speak to any of them about anything.
So many people on this planet live in self imposed isolation when it is just a choice to step outside that and be open to all that is on offer. We all crave true community but lots of us get put off with what is not true and feels shallow or superficial, so when we do connect to true community it really does feel like we have come home.
That’s a great point kevmchardy- that we get put off by what is not true, which then confirms us in our choice to avoid people and not connect, even though this is what we are desperately wanting.
The beauty of our religion is there is no separation between us and the 7+ billion others on this blue marble; we are all a part of this vast community that is just a connection to the love and truth that resides within us all.
Yes, relationship with love and truth unites us all and is all inclusive. Simply being us in our natural expression.
I agree Steve – could you imagine if everyone no matter what, treated all others as an equal part of the community of humanity and equally deserving of decency, respect and love.
Living in isolation is a choice, an indulgence in self that keeps us away from true connection and intimacy with others.
We sometimes protect ourselves so that our vulnerability can’t be seen by our housemates, but when we can all live together without judgement then we can live openly, warts and all, and the support that is available is wonderful.
This is great Nikki, The Students of The Livingness are a community that are reflecting a Truly Religious way, which will be a template going forward, so in the future a model will be able to be studied.
I had tears of joy reading this. We are all part of true community if we simply open ourselves up to it.
Spot on Leonne, community is all around us and always has been, it is about us opening up to it and embracing it and also allowing ourselves to come out and be seen – a process I am still learning to allow and unfold into!
Gorgeous Nikki! Real community is harmonious interflow between peoples and where everyone’s invited… invited to be as best as possible that harmony with each other.. because anything not this is abusive and if sustained can no longer be held within true community.
We have the opportunity in any moment to make ourselves more open to others, to take a step towards deeper connections. That is the beautiful thing about this world, we are never bound to stay in the same patterns of behaviour but are entirely in control of forging the life we want to live. All it takes to start is the smallest step, the tiniest change in our intended movements.
Yes wow Nikki, a base of how to live. I so recognise how you were living on the fringes doing enough to be a part yet staying apart, this I know well, and I’ve added a chameleon quality in there in judging what needed to be said, when and how too … as I’ve broken this down I now live in a way that is more deeply loving, more real and I have a quality of relationship in my life that is beyond anything I’ve previously know or even previously imagined and it grows daily and I would not want it any other way. This is love lived and I’ve only just started to feel and touch it, there is more.
I love what you have shared about the community living which The Way of The Livingness naturally expands into. What I also so love about this is the openness of this community. No one is ever excluded or seen as separate, although they themselves may choose, just like you had chosen those many years ago to do, keep themselves separate. And that is also fine and they will be understood and loved just as much.
Even though we may perceive ourselves as sociable we can still be living in a way that is isolating. I have experinced this in my own life until a dear friend highlighted this to me. Realising that there is a community such as this amazing.
We are so blessed to have a global community that supports each other.
There is a huge amount of support and connection available when we ourselves are open to it – it’s just up to us to say ‘yes’, first, and not ever think that we have to do it all on our own -because we can’t, and we don’t. It’s just not how it works.
It is quite amazing to know that there are people all across the world who are living with the same principles and values, who would welcome anyone from this same community into their homes, and be treated like true family. There is so much to gain and nothing to lose form living this way.
Community is all around us all of the time – it is about us opening up and connecting with it. There is the community of The Way of The Livingness which represents many beautiful values and qualities, and then there is an even larger community of humanity that also holds so many beautiful people, so many qualities that we can all be inspired by. In the end we are like a large jigsaw puzzle where each person brings a piece to complete the puzzle and hence any one person in the world missing from this does not complete the puzzle – each of us are equally important. It is beautiful to have felt the community and its support from The Way of The Livingness, and it is equally important to connect and embrace the broader community, which we are all a part of all of the time – thank you Nikki for the reminder to keep opening our hearts and letting everyone in.
“Within this global community we are all working for the same goal – to live on Earth the love we truly are. We’re not perfect at it, but we keep at it.” This is my kind of community, it teaches me so much, and reveals where I am not living the love, confirms where I am, and lessens my need for perfection.
Nikki, this is wonderful to read how you have opened yourself up to people around you and allowing of the connections that we all crave and deserve.
It is the quality of a group of people that makes a community.
The more we are prepared to offer our community, the more comes back in return – on the other hand, if we keep ourselves isolated we stay isolated. It is simply a choice to be truly loving with ourselves, sharing that with people and being open to others.
One of the strange things I found is that quite a few of those people who isolate themselves would actually particularly thrive when they are a part of a community, as if they are going against their strength.
I really needed to read this today. Beautiful Nikki. Thank You.
Thank you Brendon, very beautifully felt.
Appreciation for what we already have and is before us and not longing for some ideal or picture of what we think we want makes an enormous difference to our relationships.
Beautiful Nikki, thank you
I was just talking to my husband how awesome it is to ask for support and that we are there for each other, how asking support is a re imprint for doing it so long on our own, it’s there to confirm our choices or expose our beliefs but mainly to appreciate who we are. Like you say; ‘We are all there to support each other – in illness, in love, in disasters, in marriage, in pulling each other up to be more… whatever it is, we’ve got each other’s back.’
I definitely know the feeling of isolation and find it in many places in my life. In the past I thought it was personal, it was because of me being wrong that people not connected easily with me but I am realising more and more that it is not me being wrong or people not liking me per se, it has been also my choices that I made in feeling not enough or worthy of being fully connected with everyone that created this in my life.
I have always been on the fringes of community looking in enviously but not actually being open to relationships, too hurt and self conscious to feel I deserved to be part of it.
But this community inspired by The Way of The Livingness has shown me another way where I have received such love, acceptance and support for whatever is going on in my life and also had the chance to support others. It’s something that is possible to be like in all communities we are a part of, and, when we come to consider how many we are a part of that’s an amazing amount of opportunities to be caring of each other.
When I stop and think about it, it really is incredible the community we have on offer, all united in a commitment to living a life of love.
I have been welcomed with open arms and deep earth and genuine care all across the world when I have met another student of the work, but equally this same openness and love is shared with everyone is our lives, not just each other.
People are connected when they are truly connecting, ie when there are mutual respect, acceptance and openness, interest and care for each other. To have such intimate and nurturing connection we need common values and principles or simply said a common truth and there is only one common truth for all equally, the truth that lives inside our inner heart, the esoteric center of our being.
I feel this very strongly Nikki, that we are here to support each other. I’m blessed to be a part of a worldwide community that holds an integrity and consistency in The Way of The Livingness that it everything true support is – with whomever it might be, in this way it is inclusive and far reaching.
A few days ago I met up with a small group of men from my local community. There was a simple joy in this meeting where we appreciated the value of coming together. It left me to ponder these very simply joys in life, as opposed to all the sensationalism we get attracted to through media, television and the like. Perhaps we have it all wrong and a life appreciating the simple joys is precisely the way to be.
Absolutely agree Richard and this is something I have also been pondering too in relation to my own feelings. We have a society which has many sets of priorities through ideals and beliefs which do not reflect our inner qualities and the expression of these. Crazy that we should forgo that which we are in it’s magnificence for what is not truly of us in the first place.
Well said, Richard, you’ve hit the nail on the head there. Maybe it’s about truly appreciating all that we already have, living each day in the fullness of who we are, deepening our relationships, feeling the connectivity and the grandness of what we are all already a part of.
Agreed Alison. The absence of appreciation for what we already have and are, leaves a void that is hard, if not impossible to fill.
We all have access to some extraordinary support as soon as we open ourselves up to receiving it.
Yes true, Carmel. When we feel like we are not getting the support that is required, we have to ask ourselves whether there has been a disconnection in some way, from ourselves and everything that is there for us.
When we are open to a community raising our children and influencing how we go about life then we start to see the sparks of brotherhood. We have championed our right to be individuals and do things “our way” and yes there are things that aren’t trustworthy in communities, but even more then is the need for individuals to come together and establish what true community is then.
We have championed our right to be individuals and do things “our way” – and we have become staunch defenders of it. But this keeps us in isolation and away from connecting to a wider whole that we are part of.
“The door is open for all and you can come and leave as you choose.” . . . beautiful Nikki and this is how true community works as it it equally open to all.
A group of people doesn’t equate to a community. Community stems from the quality of our interactions with one another, hence why you can feel more community in some towns, cities and homes than others.
This is so true Abby. We can live in the same place, with the same neighbours for years and years, but so often there is just a superficiality in the quality of relationships we have with those people. This is not something to beat ourselves up with, more a point of reflection to get honest about the quality of relationship we have with ourselves, for if this deepens, so too will all our other relationships which then spill out into our community and nourish and support true community to evolve.
Yes, the differences from commune to commune, from suburb to surburb, village to village can be amazing.
I like what you shared here Abby.
Abby you have nailed it here – it (community) is totally about the quality of the relationships and the interactions. Essentially there are lots of communities around, but it is for us to bring the quality of relationships to them all no matter where we go and no matter who we interact with. Hence we can bring the quality we hold to everything and everyone that we see or meet.
I adore this sentence; “Within this global community we are all working for the same goal – to live on Earth the love we truly are. We’re not perfect at it, but we keep at it. With that same shared goal there is a deep level of trust with others as we know where the heart lies.” Imagine if we all chose to live in this way what a stupendous world we would all live in, and I know that one day we will all return to this way of being with everyone, it is written in the stars.
Lets face it everyone craves community… it is built into us, whether we know it, admit it, or like it… its undeniable… like God, or Reincarnation …☺
Beautifully written Nikki, you have echoed a great deal I feel and experience as part of this community too. I have never felt so loved, supported, trusting and trusted, valued, seen for who I am, and most of all, I have had the opportunity to expand my understanding and experience of what ‘family’ means and what ‘love’ is.
Neither is restricted to those few I happened to be related to by blood or marriage, or to a close circle of friends. I definitely still have my closer friends, those I hang out with more than others, however the love I feel and share with everyone is the same love I hold deep within myself now as a foundation, equally available to everyone. Super cool… I wouldn’t have it any other way.
As child, I grew up in the suburbs of North London and I was acutely aware, by the age of 10, of the lack of community… we hardly knew our neighbours and I wondered why we all lived in our isolated pockets. I yearned to be part of something bigger, feeling that link with others and the wider community. Now being part of a true community that is global is truly beautiful and ‘wow’!
It does feel totally awesome to be part of a global community, where support and care has no boundaries. Something that I love and that really strikes me about our community is the agelessness, there is an equality between all which is not my experience of ‘the norm’.
I echo this. I used to ache with the sense of isolation I felt but like you Nikki, I also didn’t understand that part of this isolation came from the fact that I was contracted and didn’t reach out to people for support, or express how I was truly feeling. To admit you need support when you need it is actually one of the things that bring us closer together. I love nothing more to support another – if I am not open to the same incoming support then I am denying others of an innate natural impulse to express love.
Beautiful appreciation of yourself and the community you are a part of Nikki. I too feel very blessed to have access to a loving community. What I realise is that we can live this way anywhere in the world because when we are open to people, people are naturally open to us back.
Yes a global community not defined by geography, culture nor any other dividing factor but instead by a common purpose to truly support everyone.
Your words speak my experience too Nikki as I too have been very isolated at times during my life. All the support and love and the community we live in opens up with wide open arms and hearts when you open your heart to them too.
Our global community is absolute gold and the diversity we have across the world is truly incredible, so an interesting point to consider is why this is the first thing we attack or complain about in society? Racism and discrimination is rife, and perhaps this is a great distraction/stopper against what we’re capable of together.
So beautiful Nikki and all so true and from your heart “wow” the appreciation and acknowledgment you offer here is amazing to feel, know and be part of. All on our way with no perfection just a willingness to live truth and feel all there is to feel, and the oneness support and caring of this as true community lived.
Yes ‘Wow’! I too am opening to community living having isolated myself for many years. It feels awesome and so supportive. A joyful and loving way to live.
Yes, without a doubt this community is ‘Wow’. What is written here is an echo of my life.
I am also part of this community and deeply appreciate and cherish it. In truth, as a world we are a community .. we are one, it is as you say what choices do we make. Do we choose to be part of it or watch from the sidelines? For me this sums it up beautifully; ‘The door is open for all and you can come and leave as you choose.’ And it is not about being perfect but instead constantly and consistently chipping away at what is not love and choosing to be and live all the love that we are.
Thank you for writing this Nikki, for often I have felt the support of The Way of The Livingness community and often felt blessed to have each and every one of them in my life, even those I have not personally met yet. Where else in life can we say that people do not feel likes strangers to us and yet we have never met before – this is a true marker for all communities out there in the world.
Imagine the possibilities of a global community where we’re all here to support each other, I actually think we’re made to support each other and what we have developed in living isolated in separate families is not natural – we’re not designed to do it on our own. What you are describing here is a return to a super natural way of living.
I agree Meg we are naturally made to support each other, not in a needy or expectant way that separates us and makes it about the individual, but in a community way that is beneficial for all.
Your first paragraph was very much how I saw and treated life and I could relate to everything you said. Participating occasionally from the side lines when it suited me was my way of staying in the loop. I can feel now how back then I thought I was caring but it was based around my needs. Community Living is so much more than just ticking the boxes it is about truly caring and going the extra mile and doing what is true and not what looks good or for recognition. I have learnt that I can’t just dip in and out when I want to but that it is a way of living that encompasses everything and everyone.
‘With that same shared goal there is a deep level of trust with others as we know where the heart lies.’ I love the way you have expressed this Nikki and feel it resonates deeply with my recent experience of community and feeling how we are each at the heart of our community as we expand the love that we are and live it more every day.
“we are each at the heart of our community “. No one person is any more significant or lesser than another, that is what is true community.
What you show here is that it always comes back to ourselves, i.e. if we wish for something then it is in our own hands to make this happen, and not in a forceful way but by observing ourselves to then be able to see and remove the obstacles that prevent us from being open and in connection with the world.
What an awesome base it is to have and what a supportive community we are blessed to be a part of it. What I love is how when we have purpose everything flows and conversations turn from the mundane to what can be done and how can we be all that we know we are.
Great point James. Because when we accept ‘small talk’ as the norm in society (like always just talking about the weather or not being honest about how we truly feel when people ask how we are doing) then it feels like we sell ourselves short of the opportunity to learn and grow from our life experiences. But the relationships I have had within the community of students of The Way of The Livingness has been a life changing experience that has provided incredible understanding, greater awareness, and massive healing on so many levels, even through just simple conversations, because their is a commitment to be open and honest, and heal the past hurts and issues that we have allowed to get in the way of us all expressing the true amazing divine beings that we all are.
I find small talk effectively a way to fill the time and see it a lot at work. It feels so different when we take the time to connect without like syaing good morning, how are you and not simply carrying on walking actually meeting the person. The repsonse you get is so different when you allow another the space to simply be.
Wow indeed Nikki, what a transformation and one I completely understand. Your journey is a superb example of how The Way of The Livingness melts our self-made isolation and draws people together, as we break down the barriers that we have dragged in front of our innate love, and learn how to open our hearts to one another again. When we make our lives about love and truth, our communities naturally flourish.
Beautiful, Nikki. There is such joy in your words which I can share, because I too feel the constant support of living as part of the same global community, knowing that whatever comes up there are countless friends I can turn to for a reflection of truth and love (or practical knowhow!).
‘We are all there to support each other…’ I so agree Nikki. It feels wonderful to have a group of people who we can contact for support when needed. And vice versa. Learning to reach out for this support has been a learning curve for me though, but one I am mastering at last.
What a beautiful description of your life and how rich and amazing it is. At one of the courses in June, I realised and appreciated the depth of the connection and the quality of that connection I have with so many people. It is truly amazing and to be very much appreciated.
We are far stronger together than we are alone and I truly value the people in my life who I know support me and bring me up and ‘have my back’.
When we connect with others that community is the whole of humanity.
Support is always there, it is whether we choose to open to support or not.
Everyone on this planet, whether they know it or not is longing for a true community like this, no one wants to be lonely, unloved or unsupported and they don’t have to be, it is just a choice.
It is incredibly beautiful and supportive when I contact a friend to connect with and be inspired by and to share what is going on and where I’m at with myself in life. It is something that I have felt to do for some time but held back because of some issues that I allowed to get in the way. I have found there is always support around me… it may not come at the time I want it or in the way I expect it but there is no doubt now it is always there.
If ‘each man is an island’ then he has divorced himself from the truth that the sea that surrounds us connects us deeply to each other and does not ever divide us. Thus the ‘sea of separation’ that we all at times feel or have felt, is a landscape we have chosen and not the truth of what is there.
Indeed Nikki, Community living is actually very natural to us. It unites us to that one purpose, the purpose to grow and evolve all as one, albeit in our own peace and in our own time.
Withdrawal and isolation are self-imposed, no matter how much we think others are to blame. We get hurt and then carry our hurts like a shield, trying to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But the healing is in addressing the hurts and not running away from them.
Our hurts are like shield that protect us from others. While we have a shield like that up, letting people in is very hard and so is opening to community.
We are all meant to live in community, and it is only our own issues that stop us from doing so. I have spent a lot of my life being solitary and always wishing more connections and like you I have that now. But also there is much more to come and many more people to share times with, and life is much richer when life is no longer about what I can get out of it, but what I can offer others.
What a beautiful life. And I know that is also available to me and you have inspired me to step in more.
A beautiful appreciation of the life you live Nikki and The Way of The Livingness community as a whole. It is brilliant that even though we are separated by wide land masses, seas and oceans, we are still bound by support and a vast amount of inspiration always and it has inspired to continue to ask for support when needed and to grow and learn from the connections made all over the world. Just awesome.
For so much of my life I have avoided what is usually called community, it’s kind of ironic now I look back, how readily I embraced online versions like Facebook. In hindsight I feel a fair bit of this apprehension is because I’ve felt hurt or intimidated by groups of people before. Another element is that in all those groups I’ve felt segregation, elitism, snobbery and a false kind of togetherness that is there. It’s only since encountering Universal Medicine that I have encountered an organisation that sees the whole of humanity as community, and breaks down separatism relentlessly. When you make life all about Love as Serge Benhayon does, you can’t help see the equality and the connection we all share and so naturally community is always there. Thanks Nikki for opening the door this morning for me.
Wow! to this blog Nikki it is gorgeous and a great attribute to the qualities, support and care that make up the community in which you choose to belong and as you say “This community is not bound by geography – we’re global. …This is the community of The Way of The Livingness. It is our religion and it is reflected in the way we live. It is what binds us together as a community. The door is open for all and you can come and leave as you choose.”
The Way of The Livingness brings so much and shares equally with all those whose choice it is to sit at that table. For those who choose to be on the ‘side-lines,’ and not partake into the bounty that is on offer from The Way of The Livingness, the “door is always open” with arms our-stretched for a welcoming hug!
Thank you for sharing your story with us Nikki. I have stood back for most of my life too but through my connection to the Teachings of Serge Benhayon and the Ancient Wisdom I am finding myself for the first time in my life
When there is a common purpose that supports and is inclusive of everyone equally, community can only ever constantly grow, evolve and expand.
This says it all Nikki… “With that same shared goal there is a deep level of trust with others as we know where the heart lies.” We may not be perfect but our intention and focus is the same… to live with true purpose is so very inspiring.
I could have written the first paragraph… I used to not want to be a part of it all and would do my best to keep away from the world… and I laugh now as I love living in amongst it all and being part of a community. I was just fighting and resisting what I wanted most.
“I was just fighting and resisting what I wanted most.” Well said! 🙂
It is quite astonishing really the lengths that we go to, to fight what we want and who we are…. and how exhausting it is.. almost like there is a fear in having it all and shining like the star that you are.
I can relate to what you share of living as an outsider and wanting to fit in and thinking I needed to get somewhere or be something before I could fit in. What I love about the community you describe is that it is not exclusive, it extends to all and everyone is welcome to embrace that.
Just gorgeous Nikki. You have encapsulated true community living with such ease and lightness and I am someone who is delighted to be part of the same global community. And what differs between true community and traditional community is that we are impulsed by love and not delineation, need, obligation or duty.
Thank you Nikki, this is a very sweet piece about community and yes I absolutely agree – The Way of The Livingness is open to everyone, there is no exclusivity because it simply is the practice of being your true, loving and responsible self.
I can relate to all of your blog Nikki – that self imposed isolation is a lonely and exhausting way to live fostering various emotions including resentment and blame. And, then the new choices and deep healing through listening to Serge Benhayon presenting the Ancient Wisdom Teachings to return to The Way of The Livingness , ending the terror of the blame game and embracing an ever growing worldwide community.
I am travelling for study and am staying at another student of The Way of the Livingness and arrived with a delayed flight to a home-cooked meal, a cup of tea and a beautiful prepared room for me to stay in. It is such a supportive base to be travelling from. And I have offered that in my home as well. It is super-supportive.
Beautiful Nikki, in times past we have lived in true community where the one purpose was love. Once again this is being lived without perfection thanks to ‘The Way of the Livingness’, offering us the past lived again.
Opening our hearts brings out the richness of community, any community including neighbourhoods, workplaces, family, friends, and service for all. It feels so different moving through the day and the reflection is as well – am I open or closed for connection with my communities?
Truly beautiful to feel and be a part of. Thank you for writing this Nikki.
It is WoW what we experience in the religion The Way of The Livingness. It is absolutely an honour to feel and know what true family is. To accept love is firm in its development. That we have an already binding relationship with all and not just blood family. What I find invigorating and awesome is meeting ‘a stranger’ and feeling the essence of what they bring and live through The Way of The Livingness.
Amazing, connections and support through a shared knowing that community starts we how we are with ourselves and each other, responsibility,honesty and care…. We all know and yearn for true community, the only thing is we all need to make the commitment for our part in it!
What a blessing it is to read your blog. Through your words we can feel your acceptance of the responsibility we all have to be a part of our community (any community) or not. That if we feel isolated we need to ask if we are the ones doing the isolation.
What I enjoyed reading is how actually this kind of living in a community feels like one big family and is not painting a picture that shows a community that is withdrawn from the rest of the world but one that is truly caring, supportive, engaged and loving in every amazing and challenging moment. “We are all there to support each other – in illness, in love, in disasters, in marriage, in pulling each other up to be more… whatever it is, we’ve got each other’s back.”
Nikki, this is a description of what true community is, and can be like. A way of living where we support one another.
I am imagining this will spark all manner of comments as this article will light further the detail around what true community is. This is not a new thing or something introduced by a particular individual. If you look back through our history and possibly you could even see it in your childhood. They way we were and are with each other is key to everything. We can choose to go off and do all manner of things and yet everything eventually comes back to our connections to relationships. It’s how everything started and how everything expands.
Very true Ray, and not only does it echo our past history, but is the future for us as a humanity too. There is no other way to live but in true community, not just a few hundred or thousand, but eventually as a one-humanity!
I don’t see too many people speaking in this way. These days there seems to be more and more focus on protecting yourself and what you have, looking after your own more and more. Yet if we look back and then cast an eye forward what is life about, why are we here? To build tall buildings or to learn or relearn something else. If you look at what happens when the pressure is on, when the ‘chips are down’ so to speak we all seem to get together to support. There is no focus on who or what is what, just a dedication to get in and do what’s needed. This is who we are at our core, where we are from and where we are returning to and this is for all of us to bring forward.
Great point Ray, it is our true nature to get in and do what’s needed to support everyone, the whole, and it is where we are going… we’ve given the protective look-after-my-own-backyard a go and look where that’s got us!
Exactly and I agree but the changes have been subtle if you look at them separately but if you look at the whole picture you can see the path. We are living more and more in isolation to each other, whether it be physically or emotionally and in this isolation it’s only adding to our woes. When disaster strikes we all band together but the momentum is the other way and so we fall back to what we call ‘normal’ life. Have a look at how things have changed and ask ourselves do we like what it looks and feels like. If the answer is no then make an active change and don’t just get busy in life again. We are all aware in our own way about what is going on but what steps are we actively taking to turn this around? Articles like this are part of this turn around but we can’t leave this for someone else to do, we all have our part to play.
Yes also very true, we definitely go back to ‘normal’ after disasters strike and we’ve rallied ourselves in a show of brotherhood. It does show our true nature, and yes, if we don’t take responsibility for changing this in ourselves first, nothing will change on a larger scale.
We allow it to slip back, we get busy, need to do etc, have this deadline etc and don’t take the time to appreciate and see fully what was before our eyes. We go back to life as it was and don’t truly read and take stock of what has just occurred. Most in a disaster situation throw the individual tag in the bin and just get in and get their hands dirty and yet it seems one of the first things we pick back out of the rubbish. Next time you feel people truly work together outwardly appreciate it or inwardly if that’s all you have and see if it changes how you see the world and if it does appreciate that as well. Things can only grow or expand if you keep seeing and appreciating them, otherwise they get lost or past by.
Yes absolutely, if we don’t register and appreciate the shift in us and others during those times, and then further to that, see the ripple effect beyond the immediate, then you’re right, we do slip back into the old way of being. Part of that comes from not really connecting to what the situation was offering by way of reflection. It’s very easy to see those situations as mother nature and her unpredictability, ignoring the deeper offering that comes with anything that happens. Nothing is random and for as long as we ignore this fact, it will be easy to slip back into ‘old ways’ once the crisis is averted.
When we have something that we have done a thousand times in a similar way it becomes a pattern or some may say habit. Either way it is something we do almost automatically and without thought. If you decided to change that pattern but did nothing about it but then get busy or tired or distracted you would ‘fall back into your old pattern’…. meaning when we do something in a similar way over and over it creates a configuration in us that we know and that’s what we go back to. It doesn’t make the pattern true but more just familiar. To relate back directly to what we are saying around this article, here is a classic pattern that we need to break and the way to do this is appreciation for what we are truly feeling. You may not see a change overnight but little by little you will turn the tide on an old pattern that hasn’t served us well at all.
Yes understanding what it takes to make real shifts and be able to sustain them is definitely key. It’s like walking a well-worn (and familiar) path and then having to carve a new track. It requires new movements, of a different quality and nature to re-configure (as you say) that new track.
Totally agree with where this is going and when you walk this “new track” the newness only relates to the choice to move in a true quality and what you quickly feel is this ‘new’ way isn’t new at all but old and in fact the way the movement feels is timeless as it opens up space for us to be aware of more and life no longer flashes by or impacts you.
There is so much to share and work on within our communities, we are never alone, though as you share we sometimes make it seem that way and feel isolated. This is a beautiful reminder that there are always people to connect with, to share, for help, to work with, to laugh with, to be with…
Beautiful Nikki. When a community comes together with true purpose it continues to grow and deepen – and this is exactly what it is with the community of The Way of The Livingness. Globally, everywhere we go, we know we’ve got each other’s back and with that support we feel held to deepen within ourselves and bring more and more of the love we are to the world at large.
We seem to have seen a lot of this lately given the number of (publicised) natural disasters when people pull together to support one another. What you’re saying here is that there need not be an external catalyst…we can be this way anytime.
I am definitely ‘wowed’ by the fullness of your expression. I can very much relate to your experience before and since Universal Medicine and the community that has naturally formed not by any rules, outer guidelines, under any leadership or ideals and beliefs but by every single person making a very personal choice for themselves: to connect to and live from the impulse of their inner essence to the best of their ability. The key is that in our essence we all are the same, we know and share the same truth and purpose of life, adhere to the same order, principles and harmony. The community is the external expression of the inner one-unified-truth with the intention and endeavour to make it the way we live. This is a constant process and unfoldment with many steps of learning and healing, far from perfection or idealism, but a very practical committed way of living to expose, shed of and leave behind what is not of love, truth and brotherhood with every single fellow human being.
What you write here, Alex, is so true. There are no rules, just the common foundation ‘to connect to and live from the impulse of their inner essence to the best of their ability” and from this foundation everything else follows.
The more we open ourselves up and don’t make everything about us but for everyone, the more our lives expand and we become part of a loving community. I was part of a team recently that helped prepare for a friend’s wedding, and the joy of sharing the communal preparation was visible and felt deeply by many of the guests who were not familiar with this amount of love and joy, or with the way every little detail was given attention to bring about the most beautiful environment to embrace us all.
This reminds me of how angry I was about family and how jealous I was of seeing families out and about. I used to criticise them and make out how family wasn’t all it was cracked up to be but so missing those connections and being love.
And once I started dealing with my hurts and letting people in I feel everyone is family. And there’s so much more openness to be had especially about being part of communities around me but I know this is all so possible thanks to the support I’ve received and accepted from Universal Medicine who presented we are all equal, loving people.
I can very much relate Nikki, I was just on a Skype call early this morning with a friend from the UK supporting with college course selection and then myself supporting a friend yesterday with things she needed to start setting herself up in the kitchen and the best places to shop at. Until reading this I hadn’t stopped to appreciate just how normal this is for me now. Once upon a time, it was not normal at all, and felt extremely uncomfortable to ask for help or guidance with anything. Living in connection with each other feels like brotherhood.
Amazing Nikki, the turn around you have made in your life is spectacular and an amazing reflection of how different life can be when we start to make loving choices.
There is so much joy in how you have described living in connection with your community.
I can feel this too in Nikki’s blog and what a wonderful way to live and raise our children?
I have never enjoyed being part of a community as much as I do now – and expanding that community. There is something very special about meeting and connecting with others and when a ‘so-called’ stranger, becomes a friend…or even part of a true global family.
And what a truly amazing community it is. I wouldn’t trade it for anything as I cherish it so dearly. I’ve never in this life come across anything that is so welcoming and together even though it’s without perfection.
Beautifully shared Nikki, we can be the creator of our own suffering, shutting ourselves out from the very love, community and sense of unity we crave. I know I have held myself back from true family because i feel unworthy of being a part of it – but The Way of The Livingness community is something different all together – more than a group bound by ideals of beliefs, we are bound by a commitment to love and that means we are imperfect but dedicated and it is truly incredible – I have developed amazing relationships with people from across the globe and reached out to people for help and support I have never met but who welcome me without question and with open arms and a complete willingness to support – its amazing.