Posts Tagged ‘Gratitude’
What’s Your Favorite Joni Mitchell Song?
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
I spent this weekend listening to Joni Mitchell. There is nothing like Joni Mitchell lyrics to wake you up to what’s happening inside. Listening to her songs reminded how much healing there is left and how much more love there is available:
If I Had a Heart
Holy War
Genocide
Suicide
Hate and cruelty…
How can this be holy?
If I had a heart, I’d cry
Holy Earth
How can we heal you?
We cover you like a blight…
Strange birds of appetite…
If I had a heart, I’d cry.
{If I Had a Heart}
and… another song…
Love never looks for love
Love’s not puffed up
Or envious
Or touchy
Because it rejoices in the truth
Not in iniquity
Love sees like a child sees
Where as a child I saw it face to face
Now I only know it in part
Fractions in me
Of faith and hope and love
And of these great three
Love’s the greatest beauty
Love
Love
Love
{Love)
Love more.
Mary Anne
Believing in Your Potential
Monday, September 27th, 2010
I just came home from a Coaching in Medicine and Leadership Intensive with Harvard Medical School. In another blog, I will post some amazing quotes and ideas. I wanted to dedicate this one to sharing why it meant so much to me to go to this Harvard Intensive.
Back in grade school, I was never the best or brightest in class. Teachers often based my grades on my hard work, my creativity, and my enthusiasm. My report cards had remarks like, “Mary Anne is a joy to have in class.” While I may not have understood everything happening in the classroom, I had an insatiable curiosity and loved asking questions.
By the time I went to high school, I felt like I had to work so hard just to keep up. I started to feel very lost and struggled with many classes. By the end of my junior year, I prayed to get through one more year. Not knowing what I would do after high school, I met with my guidance counselor, who after looking at my transcript, told me not to apply to college. My counselor thought I ought to go to a trade school or find a job. She told me I wouldn’t make it through college.
As a Life Coach, I can look back now and see that this counselor didn’t see or believe in my potential. She never asked me what I wanted to do after high school or ask if I wanted to attend college. Fortunately, I had a religion teacher who told me I had a lot of gifts to share with the world. She encouraged me (along with my parents) to attend college and explore classes until I found something that brought me joy.
This teacher saw in me more than I could at 17 and encouraged me to explore and dream — she saw potential and possibility. I graduated college with honors and have gone on to do amazing work with non-profits as well as successfully start my own company.
Going to Harvard Medical school this weekend was symbolic for me. It reminded me that anything is possible and I have even more potential to celebrate.
Who believes in your potential? As Thich Nhat Hanh says, “We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.”
Mary Anne
How Are You Spending Your Time Today?
Monday, September 20th, 2010
Every so often I pick up Robert Grudin’s book, Time and the Art of Living, and read a passage that becomes my focus for the week (or longer). When I flipped open the book, here is the paragraph I opened to:
“When building a nest of time, be certain of its dimensions. Its duration should not depend on something unpredictable — a homecoming, a phone call, or your own whim — for then its outer fringes, beginning and/or end, will be weakened by uncertainty. It should be long enough for the activity it includes, not so short as to be rushed or so long as to be oppressive. If possible it should look out, like a room in a country house, toward some pleasant prospect of future time — a meal, a meeting, a rest. Protect these periods also from within. A telephone or television set or radio, for example, can ruin time as thoroughly as a hole in the roof or a missing door can ruin interior space. A confused schedule, conflicting obligations or habitual distraction all crack the walls of time, leaving us defenseless against an infringing environment.”
How will you spend today?
Mary Anne
National Yoga Month!
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
September is National Yoga Month! It’s a great way to celebrate mind, body, & spirit connections. I only started taking yoga classes this past January. It has been an amazing journey. Most of the poses still confuse me and it takes great effort to do a should stand, but I find that I can push myself just a little bit more each class. And what has really inspired me more than the poses is the ability to create a heart-centered practice that deepens my relationship with the Divine.
My yoga teachers start our class by asking us to dedicate our practice or our day to someone we love. ‘May each pose be an offering to a loved one or the Divine.’ What a beautiful way to start each day! When I look around the room at other folks doing yoga poses, I often think, “Will my body ever bend like that?” I am reminded to always come back to my breath. I breathe deeper and watch how my body is able to expand, and yet, I can clearly recognize the limits of how far my body will push itself — how much pain feels good and tolerable.
For me, yoga has been more than a trendy exercise. It’s been an experience of self-awareness and self-acceptance. I am perfect exactly as I am in this very moment.
I invite you to stretch yourself this month (in mind, body, spirit). Offer your practices or day to someone you love.
Namaste,
Mary Anne
To find out more information about National Yoga Month click the link: http://www.yogamonth.org/
OM Meditations & Contemplations
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
Let’s celebrate the summer with some sweet thoughts and questions and allow them to enter your heart. Gift yourself a few moments of going inside and listening to stillness. Watch your thoughts flow and become waves in the ocean. Just be.
As an invitation, feel free to close your eyes, sit with your spine straight, and take a few soft breaths. Then inhale a little deeper through your nose, and on the exhale, repeat the mantra OM (AUM). Do this three times. Allow yourself to really feel everything and become the observer of your thoughts. Feel free to focus on one question or statement below and just allow your experience to unfold.
The kinder I am to myself, the more kindness I attract.
If it is not love, then it is an illusion.
How much am I carrying around with me as a form of comfort or because I want to hold onto it to feel more secure? What am I willing to let go of?
What is something that teaches you to hurry up and wait?
The answers appear as the question of the heart.
How are you growing the garden of you?
Each person will have their own experience so the invitation is to be open for whatever thoughts flow through you. Allow your mind and body to expand into the experience (without judgment). Feel free to start with whatever mantra calls to you.
We are all one.
Mary Anne
Welcome Home
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
While attending a Journal Writing class at the New York Open Center, we were asked to do a guided visualization. The teacher invited us to think about having a conversation with someone who had passed away even if we had not met them before and ask them for a message that would be meaningful to hear. I sat with my eyes closed, breathing softly, and my Uncle Edmond from Ireland came to mind. I had never met him, but I had memories of how much my father loved him and was so upset after he passed away in 1983 at a young age.
I asked Uncle Edmond for a message. I listened intently and wrote the following:
You are the way; once you believe that and claim that, the way will be open for you. The past is always available, the present is always free, and the future is always open. Listen to yourself, honor yourself, remember yourself, love yourself. That is the way. You are home.
As the teacher, Catherine Ann Jones, said, “It’s not the past events, but the way we remember them.” And in the end, it’s about coming home to ourselves.
Welcome home.
Mary Anne
What Is Your New Story Behind the Rainbow?
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Recently, a friend posted a video of the song The Never Ending Story by Limahl. I had not heard that song in years, but have a vivid memory of singing to my 45-inch record.
“Dream a dream and what you will see will be
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds
And there upon the rainbow is the answer
To a never ending story”
How many times have I told a never ending story? Could there be a new way of telling a story – behind the clouds and upon the rainbow?
Just last week I was telling “the story” of how I started my company, Toning the OM™. I went right into the “never ending story” of how my mom passed away and I needed to find an outlet for my grief. For the past four years, I have told the story of my mom’s death as the reason I started Toning the OM™. In reality, it was my mom’s life that inspired me. It was her dedication to her faith, her friends, and her never-ending belief in me to do anything I put my mind to.
My new story is about how I created Toning the OM™ not because my mom died, but because she lived.
Mary Anne
Acorns for Sale – for a Penny!
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
When I think about how easy it is to market my business and speak about what I do, I remember the story of selling acorns for a penny. Back when I was around seven years old my sister, Dawn, and I filled an old blue baby carriage with acorns from our street. We went door to door and asked people if they wanted to buy an acorn for a penny. I have a vivid memory of seeing the smiles on the adults’ faces when they looked at the two of us selling acorns. No one turned us away. They all bought acorns from us – many even bought five or ten acorns.
I don’t imagine anyone needed acorns in their homes. They bought them because they knew the Flanagan girls, because it was a unique idea, and because it was a reasonable price. Years later, when I think about my coaching and healing business, I think of selling acorns for a penny. My business is based on building relationships, sharing unique ideas, and pricing my courses/sessions that allow for accessibility.
When people feel good about paying for something and want more, then you’ve done something far better than selling – you’ve made an impact, created a change, and built sustaining relationships.
I have more acorns for a penny if you want some.
Mary Anne
What Is Today Asking of You?
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
What is this day asking of you? It’s so easy to get caught up in the daily routines of life. We can mindlessly go about our business – getting our children dressed, having breakfast, commuting to work, running errands, or driving our car – that we forget about all the little moments in between that show us the miracles all around us. Are we willing to listen?
What’s new about today? What would you like to see change and are willing to do one thing to make that happen?
I have often heard people say, “It’s the way it is.” Yes, it is the way it is, until it’s not.
How will you listen to this day and all it brings you?
Mary Anne
Only Carry What Is Necessary
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
My office is going through major renovations. We have spent the past week packing up everything in our offices and can only take with us what is necessary. What a wonderful practice—to only carry what is necessary. It made me look at what I need vs. what I want.
How much am I carrying around with me as a form of comfort or because I want to hold onto it to feel more secure? What am I willing to let go of? Throwing things away or giving them away is such a practice in freedom. The emptier my office, the lighter I feel.
As I was packing my last box, I looked at my desk and saw my favorite pen, my coffee mug, a couple of books, and a Margaret Wheatley poster. The poster was rolled up and looking down I read, “Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world.” What a great reminder that stuff will come and go, but what remains are the relationships built and sustained. Meaningful conversations are necessary and are coming with me on my move.
Next week the walls are coming down—that’s a whole other lesson!
Mary Anne