How can each of us contribute to world’s peace?

How can each of us contribute to world’s peace?
Well, the answer is easy and it’s not at the same time. You can not change the world, but you can change yourself. And meditation is a tool everybody can use in doing that.

Bratislava Meditated for World Peace on Friday, September 23rd.

After long working week more than 130 people joined a conference organized by non-profit organization Heartfulness Meditation in Bratislava.
It was not only an incredible experience exchange by several inspirational speakers with background in meditation. Participants also had an opportunity to learn how to apply Heartfulness meditation in their own practice and actually meditated all together.

The key word as you might have noticed is – Heartufulness through meditation, where we connect to our hearts. Dr. Poul Juul, director of Heartfulness Institute for Europe is practicing meditation for decades. He shared some simple tips on how to start meditation. ‘Our brain likes repetition,’ he says, ‘don’t think – I want to learn to meditate. Think – I want to get used to meditate.’ The trick is regularity and willingness. Best is doing it at the same time, same place, eyes closed. Start small – 10 seconds, focus on one object (light in your heart, for example). Time will prolong as you go. ‚Meditation as such is a training of our mind system. Only doing it you become better and better. If you stop it, you forget it.‘ Dr.Poul Juul.

The first speaker of the event – Talley Varney – has been in education for 20 years working in positions ranging from Early Childhood to Secondary Education. She has worked in US Public Schools with refugee populations and spent nine years working with Native American communities in rural areas throughout the United States. She spoke about how we raise our kinds. How our actions can influence their future decisions and how important the connection in the relationship is. How important is the enjoyment of the moment. ‚Being peaceful doesn’t come automatic,‘ she says. But it’s not impossible. Peace is a feeling, not a thought. And our life is not in what we are thinking. It is in what we are feeling. We feel in our hearts. Here we come again to explanation, why it’s called Heartfulness meditation.

As the next speaker said: ’Meditation is a way to access our subconscious mind.’ Stanislas LL (works at the Consular Affairs division in Bratislava French Embassy. Prior to this he was working at Crisis Center in the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Paris and also served in India, China, Turkey) shared with us some statistics – if a person in average has 50 000 – 70 000 thoughts a day, 47% of which are not really connected to what we do, 70% of those thoughts are negative. He speaks about how our feelings are contagious. Both – negativity and happiness. Yes, happiness is a concept really difficult to define, but it means similar things to most people. And happiness can be contagious on brain level.
During the panel discussion several questions were answered by speakers mentioned above and two more. Ole Varning from Munich is a Heartfulness Meditation Instructor since 26 years: ’Wisdom comes from within. What we find within, we will not forget.’
Austrian born Art Historian and Cultural Scientist Barbara Sonvilla, a passionate Yoga meditation practitioner and HFN meditation trainer for more than 15 years shared her experience in how she started mediate when she was 30 years old mother of 2 kids. Meditation helped her to become more focused and organized.

You can not change the world, but you can change yourself. Start with small steps. Make your own peace. Everybody can meditate and many of us already unconsciously do. Meditate on the heart and make sure there is light.