When you can tune in to other people, it can be challenging to know your own boundaries. It’s tempting – and often we do it subconsciously – to get lost in their energy, to explore it. Or we tend to scan their energy, because we need to make sure that we can feel safe with them. For some skills it can be really helpful though. And if you are lucky it can be surprisingly funny and in some way meaningful at the same time. Like when I met this Hollywood actress.

Press Conference

I guess we all know Bridget Jones. And I was lucky to meet the whole cast (Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, and Colin Firth), at a press conference in Amsterdam, together with like 15 fellow journalists – for those who don’t know: I used to be a journalist. The conference wasn’t much different from any other press conference. But I do have to say that it was nice and fun to see these well known actors sitting in front of me, answering all kinds of questions. Colin was a bit more serious, Renée sweet and friendly, and Hugh was exactly like we know him from the screen: endearing and funny. I even remember a female journalist making a flirty joke to Hugh, trying to stir him up. But he didn’t take the bait – at least not on the record.

Autograph

I can’t remember exactly, but after 45 minutes or so the press conference ended. And all the journalists moved as quickly as they could to the table where the Bridget Jones cast was sitting. For the record: this was before the start of the selfies era. So Colin signed a bunch of notebooks or photos, and Hugh put his marker on a similar amount of things, but they were both a bit in a rush. They simply went off, as soon as they were allowed to. Only Renée was really taking her time to say “hi” to some of my colleagues, and to sign their pieces of paper, pictures, or whatever. So just armed with my own memo-recorder – I had to borrow a pen from someone else – I got in line to ask for an autograph of Renée’s.

Crazy Idea

But then I wondered: what would I do with her autograph? Put it in a photo album of mine? Put it in some frame? The thought of having her autograph became sillier and sillier. So I looked at her for some seconds, while she was signing for other people, and suddenly I got this ‘crazy idea’. Literally one week before I had read something that the famous Dr. Deepak Chopra, spiritual medical doctor, had written down in one of his books. Something like: “If you look into someone’s eyes, and say ‘Namaste’, your Soul will greet the other person’s Soul.” So I put the pen aside, and got ready for my ‘weird idea’.

Gripped

By now, the person in front of me had left, and I moved up one place and said casually to Renée: “Hi, Renée.” In the meantime the PR-people of the film company got hold of her, trying to make it clear to her that she had to leave. But she wasn’t impressed, pushed the PR-people and some security a bit aside, and looked for my face. “Have you ever heard of ‘namaste’?”, I continued my approach, expecting that she would say: “Sorry, but I really have no idea what you mean.” But instead, she was gripped by my question, said ‘yes’, and was suddenly all ears. “Well, I want to Namaste you”, I continued, thinking that it must have sounded really silly or crazy, ’cause there certainly ain’t such thing as a verb ‘to namaste’. But with the security and PR-people around her, trying to make her move, she looked me in the eyes, put her hands against each other in front of her heart, bowed a bit, and said: “Namaste.” And then her entourage tried to make her move again, this time successfully.

Namaste

Back then I was mainly excited, because it turned out to be so much better than getting an autograph of hers. That we had this tiny, personal moment together, in which we had greeted each other’s Soul – at least according to Deepak Chopra. Now, having become more aware of being an empath, I cherish that moment actually more. I believe I had sensed something in her energy field that would resonate with me, more than just an autograph. And I guess it must have meant more to her, this. More than showing some kindness of giving a journalist her autograph, or just telling about the movie, for the thousandth time. We simply connected at a deeper level – at an energy level. 

Anyway, unless she will ever tell me in person, I will never know. But I do know that being spontaneous and using your intuition can create great moments in life. And saying sincerely ‘Namaste’ to someone, while you look them in the eyes, can touch your inner being for sure. Just ask Renée.