Dare To Live

Hello! As you may or may not know, I'm currently living in Melbourne, Australia. Last year I was travelling Australia and working on a farm (!) to get a second year on the Working Holiday Visa. I've been calling Melbourne home since late October, and now in January, I'm still finding my feet and figuring things out. Like anything, there is a process involved in moving, in setting up, in changing. There are ups, downs and lengthy list of learnings along the way. Since being here, I've been working a lot on challenging things. I've challenged my relationship with money; my fears, my ideas about security, my ideas around scarcity/abundance, consumption and consciousness. I've challenged my actions, identifying when love or fear was guiding and acting accordingly. I've challenged my limitations, my passions, the transformation of what matters most. I've been reading and engaging in new ideas, exploring different areas and getting inspired by new voices.

I recently looked into the word  Maitri , which I’ve come across in meditation and Buddhist teachings. The idea of it has also come up as  Metta  which essentially is  ‘meditation focused on the development of unconditional love for all beings.’ Maitri  itself is a Sanskrit word  which can be roughly translated as an unconditional friendship towards oneself . Other definitions include loving-kindness, benevolence, friendliness, amity, good will, and active interest in others. My favourite definition comes from Pema Chodron who describes it as “unconditional friendliness,” toward ourselves. This beautiful terminology got me thinking about the word unconditional and what it can mean for us to live and love more unconditionally. Unconditional, of course, means not subject to any conditions. In my personal experience, the word ‘condition’ was the term applied to eating distress, and I’d take it to be relevant for all mental health challenges. This use of the word allows us

I like the idea of choosing a word for the upcoming year that we wish to fill it with. I've been inspired by seeing people doing this before and as someone who loves words, very much connect to it in place of making recurrent resolutions. Choosing a word reminds us of how we want to approach our year, what the focus is, what we wish to bring to our actions and thoughts.  I haven't chosen one word this year though. I was thinking of words the other day as you may have seen on Instagram  - words like abundance, hope, freedom, happiness, creativity, peace, joy, relaxation, clarity, productivity, connection etc. These are all wonderful words that I hope will be plentiful in my new year, however I didn't find myself decidedly drawn to any one in particular. But what has stuck with me recently as a resounding idea is 'See how free you can be' . I regularly listen to talks by the Buddhist Society of Western Australia and one of the monks concluded his talk with this s