Hello, dear listener, I’m very happy to be with you again today. Today I want to talk to you about something that’s super dear to my heart that may resonate with you. Lately I’ve been hearing a lot in my head, or in my heart I should say, I’ve been hearing my voice, my still, small voice repeating over and over again: I have a dream – from the beginning of the speech of Martin Luther King.
I feel that very much alive in me. I have a dream. I have a dream.
I spoke to someone a few days ago about going on stage and speaking to wider audiences, and he asked me, why did I want to do that? I said that I really have a very strong desire to bring more to the world. I can bring to the world a new perspective, a new possibility to really bring more peace, more gentleness, more compassion, and to actually stop the violence. And he said, I had to stop telling that story. But it is not a story. I really have a dream. I have a dream of a world where we’ll have happiness and a brotherhood of men – I feel that deep in my heart since a long time ago, I think it was already within me when I was a teenager. And although you know a bit of my story and that my son died in 2001, and I have shared a lot about my insights and how I grew from that. That’s not the reason why I have a dream. I actually have a dream because that’s who I am at my core. I have a dream of another world because I know it already exists within me.
I grew up in a family where conflict was constantly present. And still, somewhere deep inside me, I dreamed about a place where that would not exist. When I would write when I was younger, when I was a teenager writing poetry, or writing short stories, I was constantly writing about that. A world of harmony, of brotherhood, where there are no enemies, a world of inner peace. I actually encountered it within myself several years ago.
I still have this dream that we can work hand in hand all together for something greater – laughing, feeling safe, being happy all together. And it starts here within ourselves.
I was with a friend earlier. I was saying that what I see I bring in my workshop, what I want to bring into the world is actually to meet ourselves where we are.
Is it wanting to or thinking we should feel happy and laughing when we’re angry or sad? Can we meet the anger? Can we meet the sadness? Can you meet the frustration? Can we meet the loneliness, the emptiness, the lack of meaning, can we meet that?
Can we just stop and be there and meet ourselves exactly where we are. That to me is love.
That is making a choice at that moment to stop the violence in the world because I choose to meet myself where I’m at. So I’m not adding any more violence to what is already there by adding belief or feeling or sense or pressure to be different. And I believe that there’s something wrong with me. I shouldn’t feel the way I feel. But most of the time, we’ve heard our whole life that there was something wrong with us that we shouldn’t feel the way we feel that we shouldn’t be the way we are, that we should be different, that we should conform to society. We felt that if we didn’t hear it, we felt it, that it was threatening to be who we are. Because then maybe we wouldn’t belong. And what does ‘not belonging’ entail? Well, the possibility of death, the possibility of not being part of the tribe, the group, community. Therefore we choose unconsciously or consciously, to conform – to stop being who we are, to not listen to what our heart is saying, or our body is saying or to what the still, small voice is telling us. We choose to not believe in ourselves. We choose to stop listening to what’s true for us to be true to who we are. We shut ourselves off from ourselves – to fit, to be safe, to belong. And that need to belong and that belonging is still costing us the most important thing in life – which is being who we are. There is no happiness, there is no joy. There is no peace. There is no harmony. There is no meaning and purpose. We are not there wholeheartedly and entirely, completely ourselves.
We cannot be in a relationship with someone else if we are not already in a relationship with ourselves. We cannot be giving and fully in love with someone else, if we’re missing that love inside of ourselves. And when we shut ourselves off from who we are, we are missing so much. That’s the emptiness that most of us feel.
That’s the lack of meaning.
What is life about? Well, what if it was about you already?
Because how can it be about the whole world or something greater? When you are – the most important person in your life – is missing?
So, it’s not about being perfect.
It’s not about being someone.
It’s not about being someone else.
It’s about being you.
It’s about embracing the whole view. It’s about falling madly in love with you. Yes, you, you amazing person that you are. Amazing, extraordinary, beautiful, true. Be human, be messy, be the human that you are. Because when you love that messiness, and you stop trying to be perfect, you become authentic, then you are there.
And I know it’s not easy. I’ve been there. I still am sometimes. I still feel hurt by what some people can tell me. But do we have to stay there? Can we embrace the hurt when it is there? Can we embrace that? And can we give ourselves the space when we feel that way? Can we make up for what we heard, what we felt and embrace the beautiful emotion?
Whatever it is that’s there. To me, that’s love.
That’s just wellness.
That’s being who we are at that moment. What I want to teach is that all there is: is this moment. How do you make it count?
You count.
So the way you are with yourself is everything. It doesn’t start necessarily by going somewhere in the world and trying to make peace with people. Yes, it is important
but what if we, each individual, we’re taking the chance to stop the war within ourselves. Stop asking for myself to be somewhere else than where we are – to be different than what we are to keep shutting ourselves. What if we were just calling back all these parts that we rejected? All the things that we think we shouldn’t be, we shouldn’t feel? What if we were just calling it all back?
Everything we’ve been one day, everything we felt someday, and actually reuniting all of us. That’s exactly what I’m inviting you into – awakening through being alive. Being alive is encountering that messiness of being human, of emotions, of not feeling enough…and in that depth, what you encounter is the wholeness, the enoughness, the peace, which is you.
And isn’t that what it’s all about?
How and what kind of life can you create from there?
How can you live the life you’ve always wanted?
If you don’t start there, you have to be there to live this life. You have to be the one who’s gonna vibrate, resonate, and send the vibration to the universe to live the life you want. You have to become the one who’s going to receive that life because it’s already there.
So, yes, I have a dream.
And one of my favorite quotes is “Be the change you want to see in the world” from Ghandi. That’s what I’m trying to do every day. Be that change, to make myself vulnerable by being authentic with what I feel. To say when I’m happy to say when I’m touched, to be in whatever emotion can arise, collect myself, cry when I’m sad or hurt.
I have nothing to hide.
I can be vulnerable. I think it was five years ago, I was in a relationship. And it was several months, maybe six months we were together. It was beautiful because we had a very deep committed path together, and we were supporting each other in that so it was beautiful. But somewhere I could feel that there was something in the relationship that wasn’t on the deepest of that ‘in love’ feeling, of the passion.
It was a deep, deep friendship and beauty in love, but there wasn’t the passion. And then my ex watched some videos online, on YouTube, and he was very attracted to someone on the video that he saw. He knew this person was going somewhere to a festival in the States, and back then we were in France. And he talked to me about it. And when he spoke to me about it, I could feel that he was to meet this person, that this person could actually be sparking something in him and I was seeing him alive and beautiful. So I supported him. I said, Yes, I think you should go. It wasn’t about finishing or ending our relationship, but it also wasn’t about an open relationship or anything like that. I just felt that something was in him and I wanted to support that, because it was all about becoming more of who we are, and being true to ourselves. The thing is that he didn’t have enough money to pay his plane ticket, so I decided to support him there, to buy his plane ticket so that he could go and meet this woman who was also a teacher. And before he left, we started to talk actually about ending the relationship because I felt, well, if you go there and as I am in your life, you will not allow yourself to live everything that you might want to live. And I’m not open for an open relationship. But I’m open to let you go because I feel it’s right for you. And I love you. And that’s what I did. And the day where he was flying was the beginning of my retreat that I was to teach at, the first day. I drove him to the airport. It was so difficult. Difficult in a way because we were both crying, letting each other go, and we could feel it was really profound. I don’t know if it was sadness or the beauty of the love that we were sharing the depth of, but it was so hard to let each other go because there was a lot of love. But also we could feel both that there was a new chapter it was to be lived. I was crying like crazy. And then I left the airport. I went to my car, and I had to drive to my retreat which was an hour from the airport and I was crying, crying and and then when I left the airport, I just told myself Armelle, stop now.
There’s something new that’s coming.
And at that moment, I stopped crying. And I went for my retreat. What I discovered during this retreat that I was giving was that when I allowed my heart to be broken, I discovered a love that’s even deeper than what they lived. In that retreat I was giving, I was the one teaching it, my heart exploded. And because it exploded, everyone’s heart that was there in that retreat also exploded. It was amazing to see that.
I discovered that when I allow my heart to be broken, I discovered that it’s unbreakable. I discovered that if I don’t tell myself any story about what’s going on, I have unlimited love. And I can keep loving. Even when a relationship ends, I can support my partner to live what’s most important for them. Because I can feel it’s right.
Therefore I can be true to myself. And I can be true to the other.
That is my dream, the dream where we’re so true to each other and so true to ourselves, that we can support the awakening of consciousness in everyone. That we can meet everyone where they are, that we can love what is, instead of resisting it, and we stop listening to these false stories and thoughts – fake thoughts that are going on in our minds.
Yes, that is my dream – awakening of humanity. A world where there would be room for respect for all that is living. And I hope someday you’ll join me. So thank you so much, being there already listening, doing your part. Every one of us when we are who we are, and when we’re true, we make the difference. And the world needs you to be different. The world needs you to be you. What is your gift? Maybe it’s hidden in your pain. Maybe not.
I realized yesterday when I spoke to a friend that my gift was not hidden in my pain. My gift was there. I felt like I was born with it. What am I telling you today is that I have a dream. I realized I was born with it. I was like that when I was little. I just forgot at some point. And my son when he died, reminded me of the most precious, essential and important love in life – the preciousness of every moment. I now can share with you, all of you I have a dream. And I’m very grateful for that.
When I was 15, I wrote a poem that was all about living in the present moment, letting go, just being there. So wasn’t it already within me? And that’s the question that I want to leave you with.
What if being you was the change that the world is waiting for?
And what if now is the time.
