Archive for December, 2011
Are You Living Your Life or Someone Else’s?
Tuesday, December 27th, 2011
It’s your life. How do you want to live it?
Experience it?
Share it?
Explore it?
Write it?
Experiment it?
Play with it?
Create more in it?
What’s the story of your life you want to be living?
Go ahead. Live it.
{Photo taken by Mary Anne Flanagan, Egypt}
Embrace the Unknown – Winter Solstice!
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
You are the breath before the Dawn. And you are the breath after the Dawn.
The winter season allows us to align with a slower pace. In the depths of winter, it is a natural time to retreat. The winter solstice is a wonderful time to reflect on our personal wellbeing. It is a celebration of embracing the dark. It is in the dark that mystery occurs, and ideas of all the seeds are germinated—these long nights provide ample time to explore possibilities.
Happy Winter Solstice!
Mary Anne
Creating Love Habits
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
Every thought becomes a habit. I want my thoughts to create more happy and peaceful habits. Do something every day that brings you more joy and more peace.
I am creating a vision for myself where what I say and do is in alignment. I am ready to create habits as a writer. When I am asked what I do, I will answer I am a writer. In a recent Poets & Writers magazine, Ellen Sussman shared her views on a writer’s daily habits. Sussman wrote, “But many of us are scared to commit to be a Writer, so we don’t commit to the job of writing. Take yourself seriously. Say you’re a writer. And if you’re a writer, figure out how to do your job.”
It’s easy to listen to the muse in your ear. The one telling you don’t have time. You don’t have enough experience. You don’t enough (fill in the blank). Find one hour every day to create your habit. Devote time for you. How you spend time is your habit. Create your love habit.
Commit yourself to more joy and peace. I am committing to being a writer. My vision is to write every day. I’m a writer – there I said it. Your turn!
Mary Anne
Our Breath Is Our Meditation Practice
Friday, December 16th, 2011
What would it take to liberate your breath?
Your breath is an inhale and exhale to Life.
Your breath is your meditation practice.
Your life is your meditation practice.
Breathe your liberation.
Breathe your life.
What are you breathing in?
What are your breathing out into the world?
Breathe in love and exhale it out into the world.
Here is to the liberation of your breath that allows you to become aware, awake, and alive!
Mary Anne
What Is the River Saying to You?
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Nature is a wonderful teacher — when we are open to listening. I was reminded of this while sailing up the Nile River in Egypt. Our boat captain, Ibrahim, would sit and listen to the river throughout the day. It was amazing to watch him listen to the river and just as amazing to watch him give instructions to his crew through hand clapping, gestures, and big smiles. The river had taught him all he needed to know.
As I sit in various places (including the New York City subway), I imagine Ibrahim in my mind. And I am reminded to listen — just listen.
What is the river of your life saying to you?
Has life been a raging river, a flowing river, or a still river?
The river is speaking. What is the river saying?
{Photo was taken by Mary Anne Flanagan on the Nile River, Egypt}
Breathing into Your Body, Emotions & Thoughts
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
~a meditation for the pyramid within of stillness, awakening, and peace~
Sitting up tall and straight, allow your spine to become like a paintbrush. Bring your attention inward. Focus on your heart. Take a breath. See if you can take a fuller breath. Bring your awareness to the pyramid within: your body, your emotions, and your thoughts.
Notice your physical body. What does your body feel like when it takes a fuller breath in and out? Ask your breath to travel in your body to where you need more attention or softening. What does your physical body need right now? Bring your breath there. Breathe gently in and out. Breathe into your body.
Notice your emotions. Where have you been emotionally? Allow your emotions to rise up. Send your breath there. Breathe into the emotion(s).
Notice your thoughts. What has your mind been dwelling on or avoiding these days? Perhaps there is one thought you have been repeating or many thoughts racing through you. Send your breath to your thoughts.
And take a nice full breath – in through your nose and out through your mouth – breathing your body, breathing your emotions, and breathing your thoughts. Fill yourself up with yourself through your breath.
Fill yourself up with your own light and notice how life is full of more joy and more peace.
Sit quietly and ‘breathe yourself’ and receive even more.
Namaste~
Mary Anne
Holy Intimacy
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
All relationships with people, connections with nature, and experiences are filled with holy intimacy.
How have you experienced holy intimacy in your life?
Mary Anne