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Posts Tagged ‘Spirituality Stories’

We Have What We Need

Thursday, January 17th, 2013

“This is a work in progress, a process of uncovering our natural openness, uncovering our natural intelligence and warmth. I have discovered, just as my teachers always told me, that we already have what we need. The wisdom, the strength, the confidence, the awakened heart and mind are always accessible, here, now, always. We are just uncovering them. We are rediscovering them. We’re not inventing them or importing them from somewhere else. They’re here. That’s why when we feel caught in darkness, suddenly the clouds can part. Out of nowhere we cheer up or relax or experience the vastness of our minds. No one else gives this to you. People will support you and help you with teachings and practices, as they have supported and helped me, but you yourself experience your unlimited potential.”

~Pema Chödrön, Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears

{Photo by Mary Anne Flanagan}

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Tears of the Heart

Wednesday, January 9th, 2013

When the phone rang last week at my office, I looked down to see that the call was from a colleague and friend. While a part of me wanted to pick up the phone and connect, there was another part of me that was feeling very vulnerable and the sound of her kind voice would probably make me cry. In a conversation we had recently I said to my friend, “I knew all you had to do was ask me how I was feeling and I would start crying.” My friend responded, “Crying is the sweat of the heart.” She completely understood the choice to let the call go to voicemail and wait to speak. We had a wonderful conversation about self-care and how sometimes that means reaching out and connecting, while other times it means going inside ourselves and being quiet.

My friend shared that what helps her when she is feeling quiet is reading Louise L. Hay affirmations. When I hung up, I picked up my box of Louise L. Hay affirmations and chose a card to read and meditate on. The card I picked up read:

You are an artist of the spirit.

Find yourself and express yourself in your own particular way. Express your love openly.

Life is nothing but a dream, and if you create your life with love, your dream becomes a masterpiece of art.

My heart sweated and tears came. Thank you Jude.  

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Leaving My Nest

Thursday, December 6th, 2012

I’d rather live my dreams scared than look back and say I did nothing afraid. ~Mary Anne Flanagan

In Pema Chödrön’s book, The Places That Scare You, she writes about the experience of leaving the nest. In an excerpt from the book Pema Chödrön’s writes, “All too frequently we relate like timid birds who don’t dare to leave the nest. Here we sit in a nest that’s getting pretty smelly and that hasn’t served its function for a very long time. No one is arriving to feed us. No one is protecting us and keeping us warm. And yet we keep hoping mother bird will arrive.

We could do ourselves the ultimate favor and finally get out of that nest. That this takes courage is obvious. That we could use some helpful hints is also clear. We may doubt that we’re up to being a warrior-in-training. But we can ask ourselves this question: “Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?”

I sat in meditation to listen to the message of leaving the nest. This is what came:

Leave the nest of the past. Continue to remove the covering around your heart and fly farther out into the world. You have experienced tremendous heart expansion and have gifted it to others as well. You have chosen a path of self-love and awareness. Spread your wings to more people. Soar higher and trust that you have everything you need. Leave the nest – it’s time to leave the comfortable and fly into uncertainty. Continue to fly with vulnerability and engage the world with your whole heart – your wild, cosmic heart.

Amen.

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Relaxing into the Unknown

Thursday, September 20th, 2012

Welcome to the Unknown. As I sat in meditation this week, I was drawn to the unknown, unnamed, and unthought. As my mind started conjuring up fearful thoughts, my body fidgeted, I took a long inhale and exhale. I let silence fill me. And then my higher meditative self welcomed me home – welcomed me to the unknown. I am having a ‘reception’ for my unknown self. I am not ready to embrace it yet, but I will offer the unknown a toast.

As I read though my emails, there was a message to remind me just how much I can relax into the unknown. “It’s not impermanence per se, or even knowing we’re going to die, that is the cause of our suffering, the Buddha taught. Rather, it’s our resistance to the fundamental uncertainty of our situation. Our discomfort arises from all of our efforts to put ground under our feet, to realize our dream of constant okayness. When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment, or awakening to our true nature, to our fundamental goodness. Another word for that is freedom—freedom from struggling against the fundamental ambiguity of being human.” Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change, Pema Chödrön

How are you with uncertainty? What ways have you embraced relaxing into the unknown?

Photo by Mary Anne Flanagan

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Lessons Learned from Uncertainty

Thursday, May 17th, 2012

I have been listening to the message of uncertainty lately. There is some uncertainty about some of my projects ending and where to grow in the next phase of my business. I have noticed that when I am in my head, I want immediate answers. And when I am in my heart, I allow the universe to show me where to go next. Blazing the next trail requires me to align my head and heart in both the knowing and unknowing parts of  life.

And as always happens when I am open and willing to listen (without solving), the universe provides more clarity and a message. This time it came through my friend’s, Joe Monkman, blog post. He wrote this week:

“Are you open to believing that the next step awaits? Are you open to knowing that the path you have chosen is absolutely in line with your highest good? Are you open to continuing to forge what may seem to you and others to be an unusual path?

The unusual is calling. The extraordinary is beckoning. The road less traveled awaits.”

Yes, the unusual is calling me. I am certain of my uncertainty and open to seeing the next step that awaits. The road of more joy, growing edges, and bliss awaits me – for that I am certain!

Mary Anne

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My Journey Inside the King’s Chamber

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

On the last day of my spiritual journey in Egypt  I awoke early as our group was going to have a private tour of the King’s Chamber inside the Great Pyramid in Giza. After going through tight security, we were escorted by local police to this ancient site. We were guided along the side of the Pyramid toward a small opening. I was given the keys and asked to open the lock. My hands shook as I placed the key in and opened the gate. We were invited to walk along the long flight of stairs that would lead us to the top where we would meditate alongside the King’s tomb – a red granite sarcophagus.

The entrance was a long, dark, narrow stairway. Had I allowed myself to think about where I was, I probably would have panicked or succumbed to claustrophobia. Yet, somehow I knew I had to keep walking inside the chamber. My eyes began to adjust to the dim light inside and I began climbing up the narrow steps, while holding onto the metal bars on the side, and hearing my own heavy breathing.  I looked up to find others in my group, but all I could see were my own feet in front of me.

Was I climbing up? Climbing in? Climbing out? I wasn’t sure. I just knew I had to keep going – inside the Pyramid – inside myself – into the dark. I pushed past all the fears and kept walking. I crawled my way to the top of the King’s Chamber. The room was cold and dark with only a tomb inside. After some meditation, we were invited to lie inside the sarcophagus for as long as we wanted. I waited until I felt ready to step inside the tomb and lay down. With my eyes closed and arms crossed, I began to feel the ancient tomb beneath my body. I asked the tomb to liberate the burden of past lifetimes. The darkness I have feared – my own darkness, softened.

After more than ten minutes, I was ready to come out of the tomb. I was ready to climb out of my own tomb. What was inside the chamber?

Death. Life. Breath. Egypt. Home.

Mary Anne

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