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I just spent 4 days on Safari in South Africa. Amazing! It was the trip of a lifetime and had been a bucket list item for a long time.
I was hosted there by my wonderful friend Ann Wilson (she wrote The Wealth Chef book, published by Hay House and available on Amazon).
Ann assembled a small group of incredible people, and the inspiration and wisdom shared and experienced was off the charts for me. I want to share just 3 of the lessons that I imbibed on this incredible journey with you:
1) Animals know how to make hay while the sun shines!
While we were there it had recently rained, everything was green, and the herbivores were making the most of the opportunity to fatten up. Interestingly, it’s the carnivores that struggle more in such times because it’s harder for them to see and track their prey through all the foliage. For them, the dry times (when the other animals have to come out from the trees to drink at the bigger watering holes) are the feast seasons.
What I took away from this is that everyone has their natural conditions of success. How I thrive and how you thrive might be quite different. When I spend the time to learn about myself, my natural flow and what conditions I need to succeed… as well as making sure I have the right beliefs to support my success… then I can really utilise ideal conditions when they show up. And I’ll also have a better idea of what I can do to create those perfect conditions myself.
I also took away the lesson that when conditions are good, enjoy them! Prepare for the next season, yes, but also live and savour this season and its blessings as much as possible.
Celebrate every season of your life for the particular blessings that it brings. Regret steals your joy, comparison steals your joy, yearning for things to be other than the way they are steals your joy. When you accept what is (even challenges) and you lean into working with them instead of against them, you can make the most of what is showing up. And, in the process, you truly show up to life and to yourself.
2) Diversity is strength.
The rhino isn’t worried about her fat thighs. LOL. Everything about the rhino is unique and beautiful. And the same goes for all the animals we had the privilege of seeing on safari. Every animal was so special in their own way. I was struck by how different their “vibe” was too. Every species has its own unique energy, and they are true to their inherent nature.
Although we humans are all one species, we come in so many unique forms and we all have our own beautiful and individual energy signature too. We are each unique. And exquisite in that differentiation. Yet many people berate themselves internally for being different.
Seeing so many diversely spectacular animals in nature taught me to have a deeper level of acceptance and respect for my own uniqueness as well as the uniqueness of others. In nature it is diversity that makes the ecosystem strong. That can be true for us too if we celebrate our differences instead of letting them divide us.
3) We can only be who we are.
The lion can only be a lion, the giraffe can only be a giraffe.
I can only be who and what I am. I can only be true to myself. And in being true to myself, I am true to all of life. Of course I can grow and evolve. But you know what? I’ve come to see this as more of a ‘cutting away’ process than an ‘adding to’ process.
For me, my growth is mostly about letting go of the things that no longer serve me. Letting go of other people’s ideas that I took on about how I should be and what being “abundant” means.
Rather than being a destination I’m going towards, it’s more like a homecoming. I’m in the process of coming home to my true self – to learning who I really am and what I really want. I’m learning what Abundance means to me, and I’m coming home to that. I’m not chasing what it means to anyone else.
Somehow, that makes it so much simpler for me!
As always, let me know in the comments if this post has helped you in any way.
To YOUR Abundance
Julie Ann Cairns
