WHAT IS FULLNESS?
I remember standing by the Pacific Ocean one afternoon. I had just delivered one of my first energy work sessions in LA and walked over to the beach in Venice right afterward to ground. My body was still buzzing from having shared in such intimate space - space where people could let down their guard. Where they could cry, and laugh and feel held by something far greater than what they had known.
As I touched the water with my toes and let my feet sink into the sand, I too could feel myself held. A knowing fell through my body like a sheet landing gently on a summer clothesline and I let myself go into the vast ocean before me. “You’ve got me. We’ve all got each other.” I whispered to myself. “Nothing to do. No one to be.”
For me, fullness is a state of being. Of contentment, of ecstatic aliveness, or feeling fully.
At least that’s how I understand it. But my understanding is only one perspective. Which is why I’ve started a journey and exploration to understand how others understand fullness.
From chefs to entrepreneurs, philanthropists to teachers, I’m curious about how it is that people find satisfaction. What does it feel like? How did they realize it?
I believe that everyone has a key to the secret of living a fulfilling life and that there are as many keys as there are doors of experience. Fullness for one person might be the care of their mom’s cooking. For another, fullness might mean justice for the underserved. Our experiences of fullness are as varied as our backgrounds, histories and lineages.
For a while now I’ve been hosting virtual dinners with The Feast as a way of bringing people together around this idea of fullness and fulfillment. At each dinner, I’ve been asking people “What does fulfillment look and feel like?” The answers to this have been as beautifully diverse as the people answering them but each of the answers shares a similar quality. A warm feeling. A content feeling.
Here’s what some people said fulfillment is…
Having more people feel seen, valued heard
Being me, while doing things that I couldn’t imagine I’d be able to do given what I know now
Being of service to the greater good
Having great conversations about the future
A nourished inner and outer ecosystem in all of its glorious complexity, messiness and elegant simplicity
A caravan of light
There were so many more moments and notions, each one welling up a huge bubble, a feeling, of fullness. In those moments, coming into connection with what fullness means for others, I found some of my own. It didn’t mean eating more. I didn’t need to stuff myself to the brim with extremes. It was an often gentle, sometimes funny, but always warm experience. One where I could let my guard down and just be me, resting and fully relaxed in the contentment of those around me. Nothing to fix, nothing to hold, no need to worry. A sheer sense of belonging to others who were with their own fulfillment.
This is how we are meant to be, especially in community. You’ve got you. And I’ve got me. And together, we can revel in the joyous expression of fullness together. The experiences we have shared may have very well been the fruits of learnings, life and suffering, and who knows where will go from here, but for now, we have this moment and each other.
This, to me, is fullness. The embrace of the completeness of life, together.