Posts Tagged ‘Peace’
Forgiveness Brings Peace to All
Thursday, October 21st, 2010
“I want to forgive my father for kicking me out of the house, hating and rejecting me. And I want to forgive myself for believing him.” ~Email from a teenager
How has forgiveness brought peace to your life and your heart?
According to Positive Psychology founder, Martin Seligman, forgiveness can actually increase our overall health and well-being. As Seligman says, “People who are forgiving have less anger, less depression, less hostility, and are less neurotic and less vengeful. Forgiveness increases your own happiness.”
When asked if he has forgiven China, the Dalai Lama said (paraphrased): “They’ve stolen my land and country. I’m not going to let them steal my mind.”
To deepen your experiences of forgiveness, register for the upcoming 4-week course on radical forgiveness:
Resting in Radical Forgiveness 4-Week Telecourse
In this 4-week telecourse we will deeply examine forgiveness from many points of view. We will see where we are carrying the pain of not forgiving and why it is important to be free. We will spend time looking at the 4 levels of forgiveness.
You will leave the course with a deeper understanding of resting in radical forgiveness and the impact it has on your daily life. Guided meditation/imagery, deep listening, examining world views, and inspired writing are all a part of this course.
Mon., November 1, 8, 15, & 22, 2010. 8:00PM – 9:00PM(EST)
Investment: $99 (Limited to 10 participants).
Location: On the phone. The teleconference number will be given upon registration.
Pre-Registration Required: Email Mary Anne Flanagan at maflanagan@toningtheom.com
Peace Is Here and Now
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
In their new book, Peace in the Present Moment, Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie remind us that stillness and peace exists in the present moment.
The most import, the primordial relationship in your life is your relationship with the Now, or rather with whatever form the Now takes, that is to say, what is or what happens. If your relationship with the Now is dysfunctional, that dysfunctional will be reflected in every relationship and every situation you encounter. –Eckhart Tolle
I don’t know what’s best for me or you or the world. I don’t try to impose my will on you or on anyone else. I don’t want to change you or improve you or convert you or help you or heal you. I just welcome things as they come and go. That’s true love. The best way of leading people is to let them find their own way. –Byron Katie
Yes, Peace is Now.
Mary Anne
The photograph was taken by Michael Penn. To see more of his brilliant photography go to: http://michaelpennphotography.com/
What Is The Cost of Intolerance? Lives.
Friday, October 1st, 2010
As I read the reports of the tragic suicide of Tyler Clementi who leapt to his death from the George Washington Bridge after allegedly having his sex life broadcast all over the web, I am saddened by the disregard for basic humanity and dignity. More information will come out about this story, but the invasion of privacy and the bullying that takes every day is unacceptable. In the meantime, I send my thoughts and prayers to Tyler’s family as they mourn their loss.
According to the Associated Press, there have been at least 12 cases in the U.S. since 2003 in which children and young adults between 11 and 18 killed themselves after falling victim to some form of “cyberbullying” — teasing, harassing or intimidating with pictures or words distributed online or via text message. And according to statistics, gay and lesbian youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide.
I personally know the pain of wanting to hide my sexuality and even having suicide as an option as a teenager. Luckily for me, I was never humiliated or harassed. I didn’t experience the hate and intimidation that so many of our gay youth face.
Every time we destroy another human being in any way, we destroy something far greater than one individual or group.
What is the cost of intolerance? Lives.
Mary Anne
Why Meditate?
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
What’s the point? I am often asked this question after people have tried to meditate. Many people say that they can’t meditate. There is the misconception that meditation is about shutting down or shutting off the mind. In fact, it is the opposite. The whole point of meditation is to allow the mind to feel free. The best meditations happen when we can acknowledge our thoughts flowing through us without judgment. And like anything we want to cultivate, meditation is a practice.
Meditation is about cultivating the mind. The very word “meditation” in Sanskrit means “to cultivate.” In Tibetan, the word meditation translates into gom, which means, “to become familiar with.” Meditation is about becoming familiar with ourselves over and over again. It allows us to cultivate the chatter and draw out what we have kept stuffed inside.
Cultivating our mind is essential if we want to develop our emotional well-being, create inner peace, and our service to others. The more we attempt to block thoughts during meditation, the louder they will be. The whole purpose of meditation is to show us what we need—to allow our thoughts to arise and dissolve into mindfulness. This might mean allowing ourselves to set a course that is most desirable for our experiencing peace.
Imagine the benefit of giving ourselves a new experience of the world with each passing breath. All it takes to start is ten to twenty minutes daily to get to know our mind.
Why do you meditate?
Mary Anne
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
Honoring the Sacred
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
Honor the sacred.
Honor the earth, our mother.
Honor the elders.
Honor all whom we share the earth.
Four-leggeds, two-leggeds, winged ones,
Swimmers, crawlers, plant and rock people.
Walk in balance and beauty.
—Native American Elder
How do you honor the sacred?
In beauty,
Mary Anne
Stillness in 20-Zen
Friday, January 1st, 2010
As we start the New Year, may it begin with stillness. In the quiet places of our hearts, may we take a moment each day to breathe slowly and deeply, and then step into our day from a sense of peacefulness. I am not one to make resolutions, however, I do look at my year and set goals with clear action steps, and time for reflection. I am also starting a new accountability project with a friend that will allow us to share where we are at with our goals, express our learning, and any roadblocks. I am holding myself accountable to writing more and slowing down the pace. This might mean attending less events and an emptier calendar and it feels the perfect way to start 2010 (aka 20-Zen). In an effort to take this Zen approach this year, I offer some of my meditations as a way to explore stillness in 20-Zen.
“We are all just a thought away from stillness.”
“Do it afraid. Do it despite yourself. Do it anyway.”
“You hold the Master key to the prison of your mind.”
“Bring love to all your work and inspired action will follow.”
“Rest in the place of great love.”
“I smile. You smile. The world smiles.”
“Life is full of music. What song are you singing?”
“Forgiveness is the window of the soul through which only light shines.”
“When stressful thoughts arise, breathe them, bless them, and blow them away with love.”
“Saying a prayer is expressing a big part of you to a bigger part of YOU.”
“How you breathe and how you feel are related. Breathe love.”
“Begin a resting practice of noticing the space between the words.”
May 2010 bring you a love-filled year with unshakable peace. Happy 20-Zen!
— Mary Anne
Forgiving – Radically & Peacefully
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
In one of my meditations this year I wrote the following: “How is not forgiving showing up in your body, your mind, and your relationships? Forgiveness is a means whereby ALL experiences and relationships happen FOR us. Forgiveness is the freedom of peace and the peace of freedom.”
Earlier this year I read Colin C. Tipping’s book, Radical Forgiveness – Making Room for the Miracle, and experienced a ‘radical’ way of looking at forgiveness. I contemplated the concept that everything happens FOR me and not TO me. I began to stop playing small, playing the victim, and began appreciating people for what they could teach me. As I became more open and available to life’s lessons, I was able to see relationship patterns and how I was responsible for all of them. Suddenly, I experienced an inner peace like never before. I was showing up in relationships with family and friends in peaceful ways. More of my relationships began to expand.
I began to deeply listen to shamanic and coaching clients I was working with and their struggle to forgive themselves and others in their life. Clients expressed how they were clinging on for dear life for an apology or to their anger over a situation. With this in mind, I asked how willing they were to look at forgiveness in a new and radical way. I invited clients to imagine all the energy it was taking to hold on tightly to the anger and hurt and instead imagine this space being used to create more joy, more peace, and more love. Upon reflection I have come to discover that forgiveness is a journey, a process, and a resting – of getting to a place within and just resting. As part of this journey, I have read some profound thoughts on forgiveness from many teachers. These quotes have helped me make room for more love and I am hoping they might do the same for you.
“Forgiveness does not mean that we suppress anger; forgiveness means that we have asked for a miracle: the ability to see through mistakes that someone has made to the truth that lies in all of our hearts. Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness. Attack thoughts towards others are attack thoughts towards ourselves. The first step in forgiveness is the willingness to forgive.” Marianne Williamson
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.” Martin Luther King
“I could see peace instead of this.” A Course in Miracles
“Forgiveness is realizing that what you thought happened, didn’t” Byron Katie
Are you open to making space for more love, more peace, and more freedom? As Mother Theresa says, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
If you are open to making yourself available to a radical way of looking at forgiveness, join me for an upcoming 4-week telecourse, “Resting in Radical Forgiveness”, starting Wednesday, November 18, 2009. For information & to register: http://toningtheom.com/upcoming-events/#resting
“Forgiveness is the freedom of peace and the peace of freedom.”
Peace, Mary Anne
Peace – There’s an App for That
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Peace - There's An App for That
“Do you want to identify a bird? There’s an app for that.” “Do you need to find a pizza place in Brooklyn? There’s an app for that.” “Do you want to find the place with the best surfing conditions? There’s an app for that.”After watching so many commercials about the iPhone, I have come to realize that they have over 35,000 applications (app). There’s an app for almost anything right at your finger tips.
This started my thinking about what other kind of apps could be added. What about having a peace app? What would a peace app look and feel like? What if just by hitting the peace app button, a whole screen opened up for us to fully experience peace? Perhaps that app already exists inside each of us and it is just a matter of accessing it.
There is an incredible CD, Celebrate Peace, by Snatam Kaur. This CD is about spreading hopeful messages about practicing and cultivating peace. Kaur talks about all of us sharing in the vision of witnessing peace everyday all around us. Kaur says, “Peace begins with choice, develops through practice, and spreads by example.” The question then becomes, are we willing to practice and share peace with one another? It starts with each person being peace. We can then see peace in each other.
Each of us can be the peace story. On a cold day in January 2003, an “old man” stands by the side of the road in upstate New York holding up a sign. The United States had just declared that we would go to war. And one man stood in bitter cold temperatures wrapped in a flannel shirt and wearing a winter cap with a sign that simply read – PEACE. That man was Pete Seeger. He has spent his lifetime teaching and living peace by cleaning up the Hudson River and singing songs of hope and peace. He just turned 90 years old this year and is still gathering folks to joyfully sing together. Seeger’s songs are about spreading peace and harmony throughout the world.
We can celebrate peace each and every day in small and big ways. We can speak kinder words – and listen to one another. We can practice peace in our everyday lives in how we spend time with one another, how we support one another, and how we collaborate with one another. Let’s celebrate every moment of peace. As Kaur says, “By celebrating peace, we acknowledge that it exists, call attention to it, unite around it, and inspire others to embrace it.”
Inside of us lives peace. Be peace. Live peace. Love peace. Give peace. Peace be with you – my peace I offer you. Offer each person you meet today your peace.
We are so much more than our technology – we are the human spirit.
Peace – There’s an app for that. Humanity.
This blog is dedicated to Pete Seeger for all his work and music that creates peaceful connections throughout the world.
Peace!
Mary Anne