You are currently browsing the archives for the peace category.
You are currently browsing the archives for the peace category.
May 12th, 2009 Joann Posted in abundance, forgiveness, gratitude, happiness, higher self, love, peace, relationships, true love No Comments »
May 7th, 2009 Judith Pennington Posted in God, Healing, Law of Attraction, Life, Manifesting Abundance, Meditation, Spirituality, abundance, consciousness, gratitude, guided meditation, inner wisdom, intuition, love, meaning of life, meditative state, negative thoughts, peace, prosperity, science and spirituality No Comments »
on Manifesting Abundance at Manifesting with the Law of Attraction
What is it that brings about healing and attracts love, joy, peace and prosperity into our lives? As a journalist, writer and author, I’ve studied science and spirituality for decades and perhaps like you have formed a seamless belief system that makes sense of everything.
So I’m excited when I see proof of it, which comes over and over again and most recently in an e-mail message from a new friend of mine in Pittsburgh. He wrote to say that when we hugged, he felt the direct transfer of something from me into his chest. It didn’t carry any emotional impact, but a physical shift in his energies transpired and the next day rid him of a misconception that had caused him a great deal of anxiety.
Could I explain what had happened, he asked? Were these two events connected? What isn’t, I laughed in delight, replying with the lessons my inner voice of wisdom had just been teaching me!
Bearers of light
I spoke to David of liking him from the moment we met, as I’d sensed something very special in him. He was coordinating the Sunday service at his Unity church, and as he stood at the podium, speaking so gently of love, my heart opened and I became aware of the high spiritual energies in the room. I was there to speak and my travel fatigue instantly melted away.
During the “meet and greet” portion of the service, I hugged David gratefully for the love he had given me. So it was not I who healed him, but the Love in him that did the work. When we are open and ready for change, love responds and Light flows into and through us, bringing about the transformation we seek.
My seven-year-old grandson understands this perfectly. He delights in creating “pictures” to give away, and alongside many of his colorful airplanes and butterflies are the words, “Love is in the air.”
In this cosmic sea of spirit, composed of energetic waves of thought and feeling, love flows through every person and event. I bring to you some gift of wisdom, a loving thought or touch, and you say something that enlivens me, perhaps opens my heart to a new understanding of us both.
This is what the Hindu mystic-poet Kabir meant in saying, “Sometimes we are a wave, sometimes the ocean. We come here to bring each other to God.” When we are calm and peaceful, we float restfully in the ocean of the OneMind, immersed in its expanded perspectives and at-one with its rhythmic flow. When we are disconnected, we break into separate waves, but even then we call each other back to the One.
Waves in flow with the ocean
What separates us from the OneMind and its peace, joy and fulfillment? It is always stress, fatigue, fear and distrust, tensing us into waves of rigidity and resistance. Many of us fear being hurt and shrink away from life, closing our hearts to the healing Love in and all around us. At times we feel cold and alone, perhaps rejected, abandoned, unsure and confused. But in truth, Love has not abandoned us. We have become oblivious to its presence.
This separation is why we so often feel lost and unhappy. The closed heart, by virtue of its separation, cannot be enriched by All That Is. The law of magnetic resonance, governing the law of attraction, cannot bring riches to poverty, nor peace and happiness to a conflicted bodymind trapped in anger or judgment. When we are experiencing inner conflict and are out of integrity with our souls, we feel a gnawing hunger, a thirst for what is missing, and usually try to satisfy this craving with love relationships, euphoric chemicals, career achievement and/or material possessions. Our busyness almost distracts us from the cold internal knot of separation, but not quite.
The only way back to the ocean of the OneMind is to open our hearts to the light and unfold, petal by petal, into our blossoming.
Nature shows us what to do, especially in the springtime. Out of dark, quiet winter comes a season of warmth and renewal. Brightly colored plants and flowers draw us to the wondrous life force swirling into the curve of a leaf, colorful patches of wildflowers and the light mint greens of budding trees. Seeing the magic of spring, we remember how the Creative Force sweeps into every thing: in sheets of rain upon a rushing river; the pealing laughter in a child’s perfect cartwheel; the sparkling spiral star-dance of our magnificent Milky Way.
Because of this visible and invisible evidence of love, I trust and believe what my inner wisdom tells me: that all waves come to empty our darkness so that Light can flow into the bodymind, enabling us to gently unfold and flower into lives of beauty and joy. Our inner wisdom whispers that each and every wave helps us grow and is called, by our nature, into being.
When we listen to our souls very closely, we hear that this is our dearest wish and the work that we came here to do. The open heart knows this and does it willingly, with excitement and gratitude, understanding its soul’s purpose and the ultimate meaning of life.
The secrets of an open heart
All the same, life is sometimes like a banana peel. It seems that everything conspires to trip us up, throw us off-balance and slide us down some slippery slope, whereupon we close our tender hearts for our own protection. How to open the heart, then, when it closes suddenly or over time?
STEP 1. The most immediate antidote is to breathe and relax inside the remembered assurance that every wave comes out the OneMind and so must be a wave of love calling us back to Love. Knowing this, we breathe deeply and evenly, becoming perfectly present to the flow of air into the nose and back out of the mouth.
Your can deepen this relaxed, peaceful state of consciousness by counting breaths or following the wind of your breath into your diaphragm and back out of your body. Research has shown that focusing on the breath relaxes us, and focusing on two things simultaneously, like counting and the movement of breath, produces a deeper state of consciousness akin to meditation.
Another heart-opening technique, especially useful during conflict, is to close your eyes and focus on the space between your ears. Try this now, to see for yourself how this diffuses thought and relaxes the body. It works just as well when we focus on the space between the eyes or any two objects. Just as in a guided meditation, the act of imagining space shifts our brainwaves into the alpha bandwidth of vibration. This relaxed peacefulness neutralizes the patterns of overexcited, hyper-aroused physical tension that create most if not all illness and disease, according to neurofeedback research.
STEP 2. When we repeatedly experience this meditative state of mind, we extend it into everyday life and are better able to stay united with the OneMind. We are less upset by our own thoughts and by external events, so we live happier, healthier, more balanced lives.
Rooted in the transcendent perspectives of the OneMind, we consistently respond to life peacefully and the heart is better able to stay open. When conflict comes up, we breathe, relax and allow that wave of thought energy to wash into and through us, neither holding on to nor resisting it. This is called peaceful, nonviolent non-resistance. We “hold our seats,” as Buddhism teaches and remain peaceful.
It is easy to do this because we know who we are. We are souls observing our selves and what happens in this earth plane for the sake of learning. We are not trapped here, but choose to be here. In this sense of choice and freedom rests fearlessness, courage and the ability to stay peaceful.
By remaining open-hearted, we stay connected with our soul’s infinite wisdom and its creative solutions. We understand how to respond–what, if anything, to say–because our inner wisdom prompts us. In the silence we are able to listen to, hear, feel, sense and see the transcendent perspectives of our open, loving hearts.
Our intuition is an inner knowing of spiritual truth. It expands us beyond the ordinary thinking mind into the transcendent sixth-sense perspectives of inner knowing, feeling, sensing, hearing and seeing. Going deeper within our souls, we observe that any and all negative thoughts are erased from our minds and replaced by a clear sense of direction. At the same time, the Light heals physical discomfort, pain, stress and fatigue.
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Serenity through Forgiveness and Unconditional Love
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STEP 3. Sometimes our hearts are opened by another person’s kindly word, smile or touch, as with my friend David. Sometimes the opening occurs during a walk in the woods, as nature delights us and points the way home.
But what if someone is yelling at or demeaning us in some way that causes pain?
We can ask that person to please calm down so that we may listen better to what he or she has to say. If the person does so and we wish to listen, but nevertheless begin to lose our peace, we can draw our full attention to the heart and center the busy mind in the heart.
The energy of the heart will relax our thinking. We can open to the heart’s love and ask for the OneMind to help us flow into Love, so that this light circulates into every atom and cell of our bodies. Be assured that it will. This heart-centering will help us listen better to the other person and return love. By the law of magnetic resonance, the other person will attune to our energies and grow more loving.
This has been proved in experiments conducted by The Mind-Life Institute in cooperation with the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. A Buddhist monk and veteran, 30-year meditator was placed in a room with a professor outraged by the idea of reincarnation. The man berated the monk loudly and to no avail. The monk listened placidly and did not flinch once; in fact, he was hooked up to electrodes and there was no “startle” response whatsoever. Finally the professor grew just as calm and willing to conduct a reasonable conversation.
Try this for yourself. Be the peacemaker and see what happens.
STEP 4. We can keep our hearts open by freeing ourselves from judgment. The verbal thinking mind loves to name everything and remember similar situations that it then relives and discusses with itself. The ego says, “Aha, I recognize who this person is, because So-and-So was that way, too. This person is devious and dangerous.” Even if the ego is right, this judgment narrows our perspectives and our ability to clearly perceive the full truth about the other person, who, like us, is much more than what was done.
A single, solitary judgment triggers a volley of thinking that closes the heart, blocks inner wisdom and separates us from ourselves, the other person and God! Moreover, constantly reliving the past keeps us from being fully present to the now-moment and serving as a creative, shining light to other people.
The antidote is not to let the thinking mind name, categorize, judge and persecute anyone–us included. We can move the naming, thinking mind into silence by teaching it that no matter what comes up within us or in external reality–an angry person, the loss of a job, illness, the death of a loved one–it is a wave of experience that brings healing and growth. It comes to rid us of what is no longer needed and to evoke in us anything that might be missing. In the world of Spirit, nothing is lost. All is accounted for.
STEP 5. We can be at-one with goodness by keeping our hearts open, rejoicing in the beauty of the world and seeking something to love in every person we meet, including the derelict on the street who teaches us that this is not who we want to be. Even if we feel repulsed, we can look at this person closely enough to find something in him or her to love. Some facial characteristic, some trait…because if love is in the air, it is also in each of us, even at our worst.
Do we have to judge or detest that derelict? My inner wisdom says no, because this person has just given me the gift of knowing myself. I am grateful for that gift and can reach out to return love without needing or expecting appreciation.
In my experience, we come here to open our hearts and love ourselves, others and God. If we feel cold and aloof or separate and apart much of the time, there is a very good chance that our lives are cloudy and gray.
Do you have all of the love, money, happiness and peace that you want in your life? If not, check to see if your heart is open and joyfully aware of the abundance in each and every precious thing in you and your life.
If your heart is closed, you can open it easily with these mind-expansion techniques which enable us to become present to the present. In opening to Love, you will be enlivened by its joy and peace, so that everything you need and so richly deserve will come to you. All else will be pruned away, healed, to make room for fresh growth.
This is the simple and magical secret of life: You have within you all the Love needed to create and attract the life you want. Love calls you to shine your light, for love and love alone will heal our world.
If we stay peaceful, we can catch the waves of love upswelling in our hearts and ride them with perfect balance into our everyday choices and actions for economic parity, social justice and environmental responsibility.
To create a perfect planet of peace and love, all we have to do is remember that love is in the air. We can bring its Light into being with the thought of it, the need of it, the hope of Love that is it. In this wave is the spiritual awakening of our world.
Judith Pennington is a writer, singer and coast-to-coast teacher of meditation and the evolution of human consciousness. She is the author of a ground-breaking book, The Voice of the Soul, about her extraordinary journey into inspired writing, the guiding wisdom of the soul and the science of spirituality. Visit her primary website, www.eaglelife.com, to check for a workshop near you, sign up for her free e-newsletter, “The Still, Small Voice,” and read complementary articles in her paid-for e-magazine, OneWorld Spirit, devoted to art, beauty, truth, spiritual politics and global peace.
March 16th, 2009 Guest Author Posted in Meditation, Visualize, consciousness, flowing, giving, gratitude, living your dream, peace, success No Comments »
Take a moment alone and settle into your body. Close your eyes, relax and breathe… deeply, slowly.
Visualize yourself walking through the woods. Glistening, new-fallen snow carpets the trail beneath your feet. Breathe in the cool air and feel it refreshing you.
Exhale slowly, letting all your worries out with your breath. Spirit is with you and you are expanding your consciousness to take in the life-giving love that Spirit wants to share with you.
Up ahead, you see a beautiful, golden wildflower, standing tall, growing right in the middle of the snow. There is a glorious, warm, loving light beaming out from this amazing flower.
As you step closer to this flower you feel its light permeating you, and you feel lighter, like a weight has lifted. The purest love is flowing all through your entire body, energizing you.
Now think of something you’d like to change in your life. Imagine yourself experiencing this change in total harmony, success coming to you with incredible ease. See yourself celebrating your success. Feel the fulfillment, the joy, the peace that comes from living your dream. Take it all in. Let yourself bask in the glow of this feeling and continue breathing.
When you feel ready, give gratitude to your golden wildflower in the snow for its light and for helping you bring this wonderful change to fruition.
Walking back through the woods, you see that same loving light beaming out from you, too. Extend this light to everyone you meet.
Open your eyes, stretch and return to your day, renewed and energized.
Resource Box:
This 5-Minute Meditation by Avalon De Witt. Visit http://www.AskAvalon.com for more original content like this.
August 31st, 2008 Jeanie Marshall Posted in Affirmations, Personal Development, Theme: Peace, peace, positive affirmation No Comments »
"Today is an opportunity for peace."
… Greetings! Our theme is Peace at DailyAffirm, http://dailyaffirm.wordpress.com. These last days of the month we work with integrating and embodying peace. Following today’s affirmation are comments about the affirmation, suggestions for your process, and information about related articles.
About Today’s Affirmation
Every single moment is an opportunity for peace, as is each act, each word, each thought, each feeling. To be truly peaceful, you do not manipulate your environment. Your environment is a playground or playing field for learning and growing and experiencing. Peace comes from the inside. If you look to the outside for peace, you have too many possibilities that scatter your attention. The search for Oneness is complete by turning deep within. Peace is not an external process, even though external manifestations are part of the process. It is incumbent upon you as an individual to choose to be peaceful, regardless of what is happening outside and around you.
About Your Process
Today is the perfect day to reflect on all the realizations about peace that you have had this month. So, ask yourself what you have learned about peace, what you have learned about yourself, what you have learned about the world. Please re-visit your over-arching intention that you set at the beginning of the month. Perhaps you now have a greater realization of the words you used in your initial intention. Or, you may find that you desire to change some of those words so that they are more congruent with the person you are today.
About Targets for Love and Peace
Target: Abundance and Abundance Consciousness
Intention: We hold a vision of enLIGHTenment flowing into the consciousness of everyone on the planet, creating the REALization that there is more than enough for all, and manifesting the TRUTH of abundance.
About the Next Type of Affirmations and New Theme
This is the last of the Integrating/Embodying Affirmations, and the final affirmations for Peace. Tomorrow begins a new month and a new theme. For some of you, this may well be the most important theme of the year: Abundance. I find that when I say "abundance" others often hear or think "money" and even more specifically, they feel the lack of money. I do not equate money and abundance. And, trust me, if you stop equating the two you will experience more of both!!!!! Please stay with the DailyAffirm Process. If the first week is challenging, persevere. This is not a time to give up anything but resistance and your belief in limitation.
Make this a peaceful day!
Copyright © 1994-2008 and beyond including all revisions, Marshall House. Jeanie Marshall, Personal Development Consultant and Coach, http://www.empowering-personal-development.com

August 30th, 2008 Jeanie Marshall Posted in Affirmations, Personal Development, Theme: Peace, peace, positive affirmation No Comments »
"Peace is a personal choice."
… Greetings! Our theme is Peace at DailyAffirm, http://dailyaffirm.wordpress.com. These last days of the month we work with integrating and embodying peace. Following today’s affirmation are comments about the affirmation, suggestions for your process, and information about related articles.
About Today’s Affirmation
Today’s affirmation is the motto of the Targets for Love and Peace Project which so many of you have been supporting this month with your Targets. It is up to each individual to make a choice to live in peace. Others can choose non-peace while you choose peace. The whole world has the capacity to allow for a myriad of choices. Make your personal choice for your personal world.
About Your Process
This is the perfect day to identify one part of your life in which to make a choice for peace. It may be that you make peace with piles of papers or undone projects. Or perhaps today is the day to make peace with a sibling or other family member. Or if a disagreement has been brewing in the neighborhood, that may draw your attention for your choice for peace. Choose peace to create a onederful world, your world.
About Targets for Love and Peace
Target: My Neighbors
Intention: We bathe people who are too heavy or hard on themselves in Love and Peace so that they realize that getting "the light" may not just mean "illumination with the warm, red light of God" but also "lightening up" in relationships and on themselves.
TeleSeminar Recording on "Money Prosperity Abundance"
This MP3 is an excellent supplement to the exploration of Abundance that we begin in two days. Do you want more money? more prosperity? more abundance? Allowing each to be a distinct container, you can more easily receive all that you need … and more. This one-hour recorded seminar includes a guided visualization that enhances and embodies the ideas. read more details on "Money Prosperity Abundance"TeleSeminar. Or check out all my Teleseminars.
Make this a onederful day!
Copyright © 1994-2008 and beyond including all revisions, Marshall House. Jeanie Marshall, Personal Development Consultant and Coach, http://www.empowering-personal-development.com

August 29th, 2008 Jeanie Marshall Posted in Affirmations, Personal Development, Theme: Peace, peace, positive affirmation No Comments »
"I breathe in peace, I breathe out peace."
… Greetings! Our theme is Peace at DailyAffirm, http://dailyaffirm.wordpress.com. These last days of the month we work with integrating and embodying peace. Following today’s affirmation are comments about the affirmation, suggestions for your process, and information about related articles.
About Today’s Affirmation
The DailyAffirm process now shifts to helping you to integrate and embody your thoughts and feelings about the exploration of peace during this month. Today’s affirmation allows your breath to assist with the integration. When you begin to clear (as, for example, at the beginning of the month on DailyAffirm or the beginning of a new awakening), I am likely to say "Breathe in peace, breathe out non-peace" or other such words and ideas. I find it helpful to use the in-breath to receive light or anything else that you desire while you use the out-breath to let go of darkness or anything that you wish to release. In today’s affirmation, letting go becomes as simple and matter of fact as breathing in and breathing out.
About Your Process
Today’s affirmation is an ideal one to chant. That is, to say the affirmation either aloud or silently over and over again, rhythmically. You may even find yourself singing the words so that you create a song. You can let your breath create the tempo. You can also use this affirmation to slow you down: if you are agitated, start by saying the affirmation quickly and then gradually slow down until you have calmed and relaxed yourself. Feel the peace.
About a Quotation
"Better than a thousand useless words is one single word that gives peace. Better than a thousand useless verses is one single verse that gives peace. Better than a hundred useless poems is one single poem that gives peace." -The Dhammapada (c. B.C. 300)
About Targets for Love and Peace
Target: Adult Children
Intention: We lovingly accept the adult children of the world who still feel like a hurting child within. We know that within us is a child who is ready to grow up and live fully in this life. We surround all children with our love.
Make this a peace-full day!
Copyright © 1994-2008 and beyond including all revisions, Marshall House. Jeanie Marshall, Personal Development Consultant and Coach, http://www.empowering-personal-development.com

August 28th, 2008 Jeanie Marshall Posted in Affirmations, Personal Development, Theme: Peace, peace, positive affirmation No Comments »
"I act with purposeful awareness of peace in every moment."
… Greetings! Our theme is Peace at DailyAffirm, http://dailyaffirm.wordpress.com. This fourth week of the month we work with acting and claiming peace. Following today’s affirmation are comments about the affirmation, suggestions for your process, and information about articles. See top tabs and navigation bar links for more information, including subscribing to email alerts.
About Today’s Affirmation
Much of humanity is opening to a new conscious awareness. Humans are already conscious beings, becoming more conscious of consciousness. When you are aware of your own process and its purpose, you are intentionally conscious of being conscious. When you first become aware of something, you might experience pain or exhilaration or fear or curiosity. Awakening is a personal experience, as personal and varied as the awakening from nighttime sleep that you experience every day. Some grumble, some yawn, some leap from their beds, some sing to the sun, some reach for their glasses on the bed stand, some roll over to return to sleep. So, too, awakening from unconsciousness to consciousness and then awakening to purposeful awareness are individual processes. Today, awaken to the awareness of peace.
About Your Process
Do you consider yourself to be aware? Your answer is probably "yes" and perhaps even a resounding "yes!" To which my next question is: Of what? It may be very easy for you to say that you are conscious, that you are aware. To claim purposeful awareness is a step beyond being conscious. And yet another step is to be purposefully aware in every moment. Knowing that additional consciousness is available can be a source of great comfort. Are you acting with the enlightenment of peace?
About the Next Type of Affirmations
This is the last of the Acting/Claiming Affirmations this month. Tomorrow the Integrating/Embodying peace affirmations begin. Today is a good day to check for a final action you might want to take to demonstrate peace. Of course, each day forward you might want to claim and demonstrate peace. A re-visit of your over-arching intention for peace also allows you to integrate more fully all that you have learned this month.
Make this an awakening day!
Copyright © 1994-2008 and beyond including all revisions, Marshall House. Jeanie Marshall, Personal Development Consultant and Coach, http://www.empowering-personal-development.com

April 23rd, 2008 Joann Posted in Manifesting, peace, selfishness, silence, soul, true love, true self, universe No Comments »
The inner self or the SOUL is the one true self. The real you.
The SOUL is
… forever at peace
… forever one with the universe
… enjoys silence
… forever loved & in love
… forever
… always secure
With your true being, you have an unshakable confidence in yourself. You know you are a complete being and sharing yourself is an act out of true love and not out of selfishness.
Your every action is selfless & yet you drive satisfaction by doing it.
Every moment is lived to the fullest, with purpose and you spent enjoying it.
Energy flows freely, purely & powerfully.
Every moment is magical & creative.
Giving is easy because you know you have so much.
Love is your reason for your every action.
One can never truly point where the soul is located and one can never fully understand it unless one lives with the soul. It is you, & at the same time so much greater than you.
Previously: The Self That Needs Love
This article may be reposted or redistributed in websites, electronic books, printed materials and/or other forms of publication as long as the author’s resource box is included. All links must be functional & must point to this site.
Copyright (c) 2008 Joann Ang
Joann Ang. She discovered the Law of Attraction by asking a question. Since then she has become an eager student of the lessons of the universe. She owns the website Manifesting: Life Magick and publishes the weekly ezine iManifest iMeditate. Through her website & her ezine, she hopes to empower people to achieve abundance, manifest prosperity, love, & good health. Visit her website to submit articles or get free ebooks.
April 10th, 2008 Other Authors Posted in Dreams, Life, Nelson Mandela, Steve Kennedy, bad luck, good luck, helen keller, peace, success No Comments »
Have you ever had something happen in your life that, at first glance, looked like a terrible misfortune but looking back you see that it was actually a valuable experience, which taught you something you needed to know? Sometimes, events that look difficult at the moment turn out to give us inspiration or new direction and focus.
A fable that I read many years ago sums up my point perfectly:
A farmer had a horse but one day, the horse ran away and so the farmer and his son had to plow their fields themselves. Their neighbors said, “Oh, what bad luck that your horse ran away!” But the farmer replied, “Bad luck, good luck, who knows?”
The next week, the horse returned to the farm, bringing a herd of wild horses with him. “What wonderful luck!” cried the neighbors, but the farmer responded, “Good luck, bad luck, who knows?”
Then, the farmer’s son was thrown as he tried to ride one of the wild horses, and he broke his leg. “Ah, such bad luck,” sympathized the neighbors. Once again, the farmer responded, “Bad luck, good luck, who knows?”
A short time later, the ruler of the country recruited all young men to join his army for battle. The son, with his broken leg, was left at home. “What good luck that your son was not forced into battle!” celebrated the neighbors. And the farmer remarked, “Good luck, bad luck, who knows?”
In my own life, as a teenager and into my early twenties, I got into drugs and alcohol and ended up broke, literally homeless, and in trouble with the law. I had no hopes, dreams or sense of direction in my life. I was as lost as anyone can be, at a crossroads, and in tremendous pain. I felt that there had to be something better than this. So I decided to choose something better for myself.
(Notice that I did not know what to choose, but I knew what I did not want, which was my first step.)
I had to stop drinking and drugging, get a job, and look for a way out, which wasn’t easy for a 22-year old. Boy, did I feel sorry for myself.
Looking back nearly 30 years later, what seemed like the end of the world was actually the beginning of a new world, which I might never have found had I not crashed and burned at such a young age. At 48 years old, I now live a life I never could have even imagined when I was 22.
Finding Opportunities within Challenges
This morning, I was talking with a dear friend who has just been diagnosed with cancer for the third time. She shared with me that both previous times she underwent diagnosis and treatment for cancer, she learned incredible lessons along the way. While she would not wish this on herself or for anyone, she can recognize the gifts her journey has brought to her.
She went on to say that after the shock of the news that the cancer had reoccurred, she had a realization.
While she doesn’t know if this third episode will be “her time” or not, realized that, either way, she needs to address some unfinished business with two of her children. While she would ordinarily prefer to avoid this issue, she now feels she must deal with it. Through her terrible news, once again, comes the urgency and courage to face her toughest issues head on. She has decided to be honest with her children and share what she knows in her heart needs to be said.
Successful people share with me, over and over, similar stories about some perceived terrible event like a divorce or illness or loss that changed the entire course of their lives dramatically. Yet that change may also have brought them to a place that is indescribably better than they could ever have imagined. Had those supposedly terrible experiences not happened, they might not have found the resolve to make other changes happen along the way.
I am not suggesting that there are no such things as tragedies or losses. What I am saying is that loss and pain can be just one aspect of a difficult experience; positives can result from making meaningful experiences out of our challenges. For example, one mother who lost her child to a drunk driver formed Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), an organization that has saved many lives. Helen Keller used a lack of sight or hearing to teach the rest of us important lessons about living. Nelson Mandela spent half his life in prison trying to bring peace to South Africa yet emerged from his prison cell to lead his country as its first post-apartheid president.
The next time you perceive something as really bad, try also to look for the gifts in disguise. It’s all in the way you look at it.
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Steve Kennedy is a professionally trained and certified co-active coach with a passion for “The Game of Business.” Steve new book, ‘Winning the Game of Business: The Entrepreneur’s Quest for Ultimate Success’, is due late Spring 2007. To learn more visit: http://www.winningthegameofbusiness.com