When the Whole Comes Into View

Today, I'd like to share an experience I had last night, at a concert with the Oslo Philharmonic and the Philharmonic Choir at the Concert Hall here in Oslo, Norway.

The orchestra was playing Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2—a work comprising five movements, or "chapters", if you like.

It is a complex piece, one that takes you from the most intimate whisper to the most expressive, powerful shout of the heart and soul. From the softest melodies to the loudest doinggg of the gong.

In the final two movements, two soloists join the orchestra—a mezzo-soprano and a soprano—and then, eventually, a huge choir.

As I sat in the audience, listening to the unfolding of this piece—the twists and turns of the music, the dynamic shifts, the sudden outbursts and stops, and the softest fading of the tones—I looked around and suddenly remembered something that was about to lift the experience to an entirely different level for me.

I remembered that every person in the room was part of a whole.

We were all expressions of something greater—of Creation, of a Source energy that connects us to something bigger and far more powerful than the little human selves we so often experience ourselves to be.

I remembered that we are not simply separate physical individuals who happen to be sitting together in a room, listening to a group of people playing their instruments or singing. We are manifestations of something greater, part of a picture far larger than most of us can see as we stumble through our lives.

We are all here to navigate, explore, discover, create and expand. We are all on the leading edge together, if you like, discovering and co-creating, doing our best to make sense of who we are.

But first and foremost, we are all beautiful, powerful expressions of energy. And yesterday, some of us were gathered together to experience the incredible beauty of bringing that vibration through us—as musicians and listeners together—into an expression first imagined by the composer.

In my remembering, I had stepped back a little from my own human perspective, and suddenly I could sense the Whole.

I felt connected to every soul in the room, and to the tones emerging from the musicians, and it was as though the entire room lifted with the escalation of the final part of the work.

I am not claiming that my focus—my own sense of alignment with a greater truth, with the energy of my own heart, the room and the music—caused the shift I experienced around me. Although it is said that one person who finds alignment within themselves is more powerful than millions who are out of alignment.

But it certainly elevated my experience.

And the elevation I had sensed in the room seemed to find its physical expression immediately afterwards, as the audience erupted into ecstatic applause following the final, triumphant tone.

To me, it was a beautiful testimony to the power of shifting our perspective.

It showed me how different an experience can become when we allow ourselves to lift our gaze and take in the Whole—the beauty, the power and the wonder that are present within any experience.

When we dare to ask, in any moment, What more is there to this situation than my physical senses can perceive? and then truly listen in wonder, the world opens.

And the heart can begin to sing—or simply settle into contentment and appreciation.

Because this world is full of wonders.

It is full of souls doing their very best to navigate with what they've been given on their path. Some struggle more than others, and some seem to thrive with greater ease, but we are all made of the same stuff.

We all come from the same place, and we all have access to the flow of life that surrounds us and moves through us at every moment.

We just need to listen.

So today, I invite you to try one little thing.

Wherever you are, and whatever situation you find yourself in, imagine stepping back a little and allowing yourself to wonder at the bigger picture: the energy, the souls of the humans or animals present, the connection, the flow.

Imagine that you can sense the life force flowing to and through us all, and allow that awareness to become part of your own experience.

Can you feel the shift?

It is your inner being, your higher self, sharing its perspective with you: the appreciation of all that you are, the appreciation of all that is, and the abundant sensation of allowing everything desired and appreciated to flow towards you.

It is your inner being adoring you, loving you, and knowing that whatever you do, you are worthy.

You cannot go wrong, because the path is still unfolding.

And you are unfolding with it.

Sending so much love from my inner and greater self to all that you are.

Emma