Finding Peace Within

Your October Newsletter

October brings with it falling leaves, quieter days, and the natural slowing of the season - for those of us in the northern hemisphere.

It's a gentle reminder that peace is something we can cultivate inside ourselves, even when life feels unsettled.

Peace does not mean ignoring pain, or pretending difficult experiences never happened - it means making space for our emotions, our grief, and our truth, whilst also staying anchored in compassion.

This month's newsletter download (here) comes with some grounding exercises that support self-connection, during the changing of the seasons. It is an invitation to pause and to create art from the dancing of shadows in the light and to reflect on how the changing seasons and light move you.

Making Peace With What Cannot Be Changed

Sometimes we carry relationships that feel impossible to heal - whether with people still in our lives, those weve had to walk away from, or loved ones who have passed on.

Making peace doesn't mean denying our hurt or gaslighting ourselves into believing things were different. Instead, it's about holding both truths: the love and compassion we feel, and the pain or loss we carry. Both can coexist, and acknowledging this is a powerful step toward inner balance and acceptance.

Honesty Without Judgement

It's easy to think of certain emotions - like anger, grief, or resentment - as 'bad'. But all emotions have wisdom. They are signals, rather than flaws. Peace comes when we allow ourselves to feel honestly, without rejecting parts of who we are or demonising others. Staying true to your experience helps you heal without being trapped in cycles of blame or judgement.

Practice: Loving Kindness Meditation

Loving kindness (metta) meditation is a simple practice anyone can try. It helps soften our hearts toward ourselves, our loved ones, and even those we find it hardest to love.

Let me pause here to acknowledge that I believe forgiveness or loving those who have wronged you, is not essential to your healing. Particularly from abuse or any situation where the other party refuses to acknowledge their part in a situation - loving kindness meditation is not a fixed process that expects one way to practice it - I would gently invite a practice where sending loving kindness to self, is hard to do, by firstly beginning with loving kindess for someone who is easy to love, and notice how they might feel when you give them this gift and gently begin to get curious as to how it would feel to receive. When self love is the hardest to do, this may be a good place to begin.

Let us recap what is important to remember here - we can be in loving kindness and stay true to our experiences, to help us to heal without being trapped in cycles of (self)blame or (self)judgement -

A gentle practice to try, acknowledging when loving kindness is hard to receive:

1. sit comfortably, close your eyes, take a few slow and deep breaths to come to your natural breathing rythm, feeling at ease with your breath and connected to your breath and your body

2. begin by thinking of someone you love and say: may you be safe, may you be peaceful, may you live with ease

3. the invitation is to now feel how this person might be feeling, having received your loving kindness - and to see if you can move this feeling toward yourself, perhaps to within your heart space - and notice how that might feel, even in a small amount

4. if it feels right, you might like to say to yourself: may I be safe, may I be peaceful, may I live with ease - it may feel strange, as any new experience can - with time and practice, this new feeling can grow to be familiar and recognise a need that is fulfilled.

5. before extending your loving kindness practice to someone you are in conflict with, it may feel a greater need or more intuitive, to extend your wishes out to all beings, struggling in conflict, in the world at this time - or, if you are ready, swap this step 5 with step 6, below

6. bring someone to mind that you are in conflict with, if it feels appropriate - this can be anyone from a driver on a road who cut you up - may you be safe, may you be peaceful, may you live with ease

This practice does not excuse harm. What it does do is help us stay connected to compassion whilst holding firm to our truth. We can be in compassion but also communicate compassionate boundaries for ourselves.

The Wider Power of Metta

Scientific studies have shown increases in positive emotions, empathy, and self-compassion, while reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, and even some types of chronic pain. Some research suggests Metta meditation, or compassion training, may also alter brain connectivity, enhance social connectedness, and increase altruism.  

Some further studies with transcendental and vedic meditation have shown that when groups practice meditation together, the ripple effects are powerful - some finding significant reductions in crime and measurable increases in community wellbeing.

Meditation brings peace within, but also helps to cultivate peace around us.

Journaling Prompts for October

Spend 10-15 minutes writing in your journal - try reflecting on:

• Where in my life do I long to make peace - with myself, with others, or with a situation I cannot change?

• What emotions do I tend to push away, and how can I give them space without judgement?

• If peace lived in my body right now, how would it feel?

There are no right or wrong answers - this is simply a space to notice what is true for you.

Creativity Activity - Collage of Peace

This can be done alone or within a group, or pass around pieces of fabric between families and homes, to invite community connection and repair.

Gather magazines, materials, images, scraps of paper or fabric, or natural items such as leaves, or flowers.

Create a collage that represents what peace feels like for you this season. Use colours, images, or words that speak to your heart. It doesn't need to look 'artistic' - this is about giving your inner experience or collective experiences as individuals together, a visual form.

Display your collage somewhere you will see it often, as a gentle reminder of the peace you are nurturing.

With Love,

Amanda