Experiencing Fully Creates the Atmosphere for Self-Healing to Occur
In the fullness of experience, the heart quietly opens — and healing begins.
There is an innate desire in all of us to be part of something greater than our small, isolated self.
To be free from the limitations our subconscious mind imposes by recycling the past, day after day.
To expand our consciousness beyond ourselves.
Abraham Maslow called this expansion Self-Transcendence.
As explored in the previous article, Maslow identified 8 core behaviors and 14 Being Values common to self-transcendent individuals. When we begin to embody these qualities—not just theoretically, but through lived practice—we move closer to this state of Being.
For most of us, the path isn’t a dramatic spiritual awakening or mountaintop revelation.
It’s a spiral path. A human path.
One step at a time.
And that’s exactly why we’re here.
🌀 Unwrapping the First Behavior: Experiencing Fully
Maslow’s first behavior is to experience life fully, vividly, and selflessly—with full concentration and total absorption.
Let’s look at each aspect of this powerful way of Being:
👁️🗨️ Experiencing Fully
To experience fully means to bring all your senses into the moment.
Not just thinking—but seeing, touching, smelling, hearing, feeling.
Try this: Think of a moment in your life when you felt completely immersed.
What comes to mind?
For me, it was hoisting a sail on a windjammer in my 20s, a bagpipe playing in the background. I can still feel the rope in my hands, smell the ocean, hear the notes, and see the canvas rise.
That’s experiencing.
What memory surfaces for you?
🎨 Experiencing Vividly
This is the moment when emotion is so strong, so real, that it fills the body and spills out.
Sometimes vividly means joy. Other times, grief.
I remember sitting in my car crying after receiving hard news about someone I loved. I cried so openly, a stranger tapped on my window to check on me. I smiled, nodded… and once she walked away, I cried even more.
That’s vivid. That’s real.
💞 Experiencing Selflessly
This is service. The things we do every day for others that often go unnoticed—by them, or by ourselves.
Changing a diaper.
Walking the dog when we’d rather rest.
Holding space for a friend even if it makes us late.
These acts of quiet service are a form of sacred presence.
We forget how often we give. But the soul remembers.
🧘 Experiencing with Full Concentration and Total Absorption
This is flow.
That timeless moment when you are so engaged in something you love—painting, dancing, meditating, writing, listening, caring—that the world disappears.
There is no fear.
No worry.
No past or future.
There is only Now.
And in this Now, healing frequency lives.
✨ Final Reflection
How often, in your week, do you allow yourself to experience fully…
Vividly…
Selflessly…
With total absorption?
And what small shifts can you make to invite more of this into your life?
Be here now, as Ram Dass taught.
That presence is the ground of well-being—and the atmosphere where self-healing naturally begins.
