Do you believe that life exists within well-defined parameters? Do you think some things are possible but that other things are impossible? Holding hard and fast rules about how the world operates can offer a kind of peace of mind, but is that really how life works? Does life really exist within rigid boundaries? What would happen if these lines became blurred? What if something that seemed completely impossible occurred right in front of your eyes? Would you be flexible enough to stay open to the possibility?
Power of possibility in Hawaii
I learned the power of staying open to possibility on my first trip to Hawaii at a Huna workshop*. On the first day we were learning about the power of love and how love can radically transform any situation – how when we love unconditionally we can achieve anything. Now, I’m sure many of us understand these teachings through our own personal studies and experiences. But how many of us have clear and irrefutable examples of this in practice? Well, on this day something irrefutable happened for me.
Chairlift of love
Our teacher picked 5 volunteers and asked one person (a tall and heavy-set man) to sit on one of the chairs. The other four (a mix of women and men) were to lean over and hold a metal chair leg each and I was the one holding the front left chair leg. The teacher asked us to go right ahead and lift the man seated in the chair off the ground. She counted to 3 and off we went… but nothing. There was no movement, no budging, no change whatsoever. We were lifting with all the strength we could gather but nothing changed.
Then it was time for take two – exactly the same goal but we were to take a slightly different approach. Before we started lifting, the teacher asked us to spend a minute or two sending as much love as possible to this man in the chair. We started to send him love – each of us connecting with this man and in our own way, imagining him bathed and immersed in love. Then the teacher said “Lift!”, and we actually did. We lifted the chair and this man completely off the ground and into the air; maybe a metre or more off the ground. We held him suspended in the air for a few moments and then we gently set him down. All the time with absolutely minimal effort on our part. It was as difficult as lifting up the TV remote control to change the channel.
We talked about the difficulties of lifting the chair off the ground the first time, and then about our experience of lifting him with love the second time. Everyone was totally in awe of the seeming “miracle” we’d just experienced. We couldn’t explain it but there was no way we could deny it. It really happened and for me it completely erased any rules I’d held about life and what is and isn’t possible.
Love & connection
I wonder if this is what happens when people say the “adrenaline kicked in and I just lifted the car off my child”. Although I’m sure there are many factors involved in those kinds of feats, I get a sense that at the core it really is all about love and connection. This “Chair Lift of Love” experience showed me the power of love and also the power of humans working together to achieve a goal. And I have to wonder, what else could we achieve with pure love and connection?
It’s time to stop underestimating what life can hold for you and for all of us. I encourage you to stay open to possibility and say yes to the many amazing gifts of understanding that are out there waiting for you.
* Huna is a term used to describe ancient Hawaiian tools of healing and spiritual development