This was written by an old client of mine Kelly. She sent it to me this morning. It’s just so beautiful and points to the potential of what is on offer for us all. I am grateful to her for giving me permission to share this with you all.

Sandy Feet, Happy Heart

By Kelly Joice 

For the last 20 years at least, if you had asked me how I feel about the beach I would have told you that I really do not like it. Now those who know me know that I live 5 minutes away from arguably some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. White sand, crystal blue water, weather that is warm most of the year. How could I not like the beach?

The narrative I told myself was that I was the “kind of person who did not like sand”. Sandy feet especially. In my mind it was irrefutable truth. Maybe it was this anxiety that hung over me causing this, maybe it was a sensory overload thing, maybe it was just a matter of preference? My mind had attached all kinds of stories and meaning to this and I saw all these as truth.

Then one day I met someone who pointed me to look at life differently and talked to me about our true nature and how our mind works. She explained quite simply that we all experience the world from the inside out – that 100% of the time we are living in the feeling of our thinking not the feeling of our circumstances. You see our mind loves habit she explained, it loves to tell us the same story over and over because that’s how minds work. It is a kind of primitive survival mechanism. A lot of what we believe to be fundamentally true about ourselves is actually just a whole bunch of habitual thought.

And. Not. Actually. True.

I ferociously began to explore this idea, read books, blogs, listened to podcasts; emerging myself in this new understanding of the mind. I wanted to know, had to know about this more. For a while I only understood this on an intellectual level but slowly as my mind settled I began to see the unseeable. A tiny crack opened up to reveal a beautiful space between me and my thinking. It was a peaceful and calm space. The space was where I saw glimpses of my true nature. I was not an anxious person, overly sensory or any other labels, they were mere stories that were stuck on repeat. I had, and have always had, innate well-being. I was born with it and it has always been there. Yes, I had anxious thinking but that was just that. Thinking. I was not my thoughts.

My thoughts are the lens through which I experience the world. Being human means we can experience all kinds of feelings coming from our thinking but seeing that for what it is awakened me and shone a torch into the space of who I really am. I discovered it is actually really nice to hang out in that space.

Being awake to my true nature means I am now IN life. I get to experience life fully and wow, look at the potential and possibilities ahead! There are times when I get anxious thinking, insecure thinking, restless thinking and a busy mind but the difference is it is so much less scary now. I know it is just thinking clouding my lens of the world and that those thoughts will pass, they always do. The peaceful calm space is always there, always accessible and only one thought away.

I go to the beach now and love it. I have a happy heart and get very sandy feet.