January 4th, 2012
As we enter a new year, let us declare our theme for 2012. I have declared 2012 to be the year of adventure and outrageous bliss! My word for 2012 is PUBLISHED.
I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. ~Joseph Campbell
What is your theme or focus for 2012? What are you declaring 2012 to be the year of?
MY 2012 MANTRA
Wherever I am, there is outrageous bliss.
I would love to hear your theme, focus or word for 2012!
{Photo taken by Mary Anne Flanagan on the Big Island, Hawaii}
Posted in Life | 1 Comment »
January 3rd, 2012
It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day. It’s a new year. How do you want to be this year?
Keep asking. Keep celebrating. Keep being.
Happy 2012!
Mary Anne
Posted in Gratitude | Toning the Om
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}
Posted in Life | Toning the Om
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
Posted in Meditation | Toning the Om
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
Posted in Happiness | Toning the Om
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
Posted in Meditation | Toning the Om
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}
Posted in Storytelling | Toning the Om
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
Posted in Meditation | Toning the Om
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
Posted in Life | Toning the Om
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
Tags: Egypt, Giza, King's Chamber, Meditation, Pyramid, Spirit Journeys, Spiritual Awakening, Spirituality Stories
Posted in Storytelling | Toning the Om
As we enter a new year, let us declare our theme for 2012. I have declared 2012 to be the year of adventure and outrageous bliss! My word for 2012 is PUBLISHED.
