Come Alive: The Future Is Now
Jennifer Hilton writes about The Haven’s Come Alive program and its transformative potential.
“You must give birth to your images. They are the future waiting to be born. Fear not the strangeness you feel. The future must enter you long before it happens. Just wait for the birth, for the hour of the new clarity.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
Lying on the floor, in the dark, I felt warm and comfortable. My eyes closed. Out of the blue a visualization slipped into my mind and I chose to go on a journey into the unknown. Amazingly, I was able to see and feel, deep in my body, that I was in the future!
I saw myself in the dining room at The Haven, sitting at a table with friends and mentors. I felt the sun on my back and a cool ocean breeze came through the window. The dining room was buzzing with activity and I was engaging fully in the conversation: listening, laughing and sharing with a leader team, feeling such incredible joy! My mind was not simply observing all this, but I was, in my meditative state, part of the magic and transformation that happens in a Come Alive.
As the visualization faded, tears were rolling down my cheeks. I was so happy – and I knew what was coming next!
Only two years from that day, I arrived on Gabriola Island to begin my Internship. I then became a Core program Assistant, progressing today to Faculty, where I participate in and design programs. Recently during a program I was co-leading, I reflected, with awe, that the place I’d envisioned was here, now! Joy and aliveness ran through me, as it had during that visualization years ago. The dark times, the challenges, the opportunities, the almost-giving-up,(but staying in anyway), the synchronicities along the way: this was a moment of grace for me.
Looking even further back, I realize I have felt that moment of grace often in my life. When I was 17 I visited Vancouver for the first time and fell in love with it. I knew in my bones this would be my home one day. It took over 25 years to get here, with a lot of adventures along the way. But today, when I walk along Jericho Beach or see the mountains on a clear day, I remember how often I pictured myself admiring those wonderful views and knowing that I would live here.
I recently attended a workshop at the Science and Spirituality Conference in Nanaimo with Dr.Joe Dispenza. I first discovered his work in the movie “What The #!Bleep* Do We Know!?” His passion is at the intersection of the latest findings from the fields of neuroscience, epigenetics, and quantum physics. His work validates my own experience of creating an embodied vision of the future.
One of Dr. Joe’s approaches to living a fulfilled, passionate life and achieving one’s potential is based on creating a clear intention – knowing what you want – and bringing positive emotions to that intention. Those positive emotions are key to successful outcomes. Though it sounds easy, we rarely pause to remember that thinking like this is important, until something untoward happens, like a crisis or change in our life.
“If you are not being defined by a vision of a future, you will repeat the same past.” – Dr. Joe Dispenza
This is often why people come to a Come Alive: something has happened to them, an ending or a beginning. People also come because they want “something more.” I believe the majority of participants have transformative experiences, “transformative” meaning “moving beyond the present form.” For five days, with an invitation to step into the unknown and a circle of support, people create experiences that inspire them to make changes in their lives. We see it time and time again. I love being “in” with people during those experiences. I certainly have had my own!
I think Dr. Joe and The Haven have a lot in common. They both invite us to do the uncommon; to step out of our daily routines, to shake things up, to relate in new ways to ourselves. We do this with our bodies, in our mind and in our spirit, and along with that ever-present circle of support, create those transformative changes for ourselves and each other.
New ideas inspire me. I wholeheartedly believe in synchronicities and I am learning and accepting more about living in the unknown. In the Quantum field (spoken about by Dr. Joe), possibilities come from being uncertain. It’s uncomfortable, but enlivening. Exactly how I felt in my first Come Alive, and when I stepped into leading at The Haven. My own transformational experiences, and watching those of others, has been an exceptionally moving and life-altering journey for me.
I am grateful for the privilege to do such work with people. The participants who show up at Haven for Come Alive and the many participants, friends and mentors I have met along the way inspire me!
I like thinking about the future (possibilities) more than the past, not “wishing I was there,” but knowing in some mysterious way that the future is already here! All I need is to engage in the NOW, and be more comfortable with the strange feelings of the unknown.
Step into your future and Come Alive!
