Author: mkanthony

We have heard the bad news, haven’t we? We continue hearing more bad news, don’t we? Our world is bombarded by disasters, defeat, difficulty, disease, division, and depression. Some people respond by becoming obsessed with the bad news—letting it control their lives. Other people live with avoidance and denial—pretending all is well when it isn’t.

Mark Anthony, in his book Living an Authentic Life, offers a much better response to reality. We can change our way of thinking. We can enter a season of personal transformation. We can practice healthy disciplines of breathing, meditating, and loving. We can move toward healing, freedom, and peace.

Mark writes with honesty and compassion. Open the pages. Open your heart and your mind to a season where you can wave goodbye to harmful emotions like worry and fear. Open your life to venturing beyond the obstacles of life to find healing. Let Mark’s words bring you just when you need to live an authentic life in these times of uncertainty.

 -Chris Maxwell

Author, Pastor, Poet

Here’s an introduction!

Our life is constantly changing moment to moment, day to day and year to year.
Living authentically is an interesting and popular topic and one that I think needs special consider- ation. In life, we are being asked more than ever to check in with our true self (spirit), values and personality (ego) daily.
Put simply, authenticity means you’re true to your own personality, values, and spirit, regardless of the pressure that you’re under to act otherwise. You’re honest with yourself and with others, and you take responsibility for your mistakes. In life we are being challenged, prodded and pushed, creating opportunity that might promote transformational growth and change and even redefine how we live our authentic life.
Authentic is defined as:
“not false or copied; genuine; real.” And, my favorite defInition, “representing one’s true nature or beliefs; true to oneself or to the person identified.”
As an author and coach, I know in order to become more authentic and to seek this out in others, we first need to be open-minded. We attract the people and things we want in life when we’re open-minded and receptive. This often leads to opportunities and new ways of thinking that expand our minds and bring us ideas that add value and create change to our lives.

Live in the Moment and Be a Great Listener

“What day is it?” asked Pooh.
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh. —A.A. Milne
There’s nothing more real than a person who lives in the moment without worry or concern for needless matters. Who do you know that truly embraces the moment? Someone who doesn’t bother checking their smartphone every five seconds to worry about an email from Instagram or some trivial matter? A teacher who left a huge impression on you because of their devotion to their students?
Living in the moment means concentrating on exactly what is happening in your life at that precise time. It demands that we remove the baggage and clutter from our lives to live our best in the moment. Presence and concern for right now are achieved when we eliminate distractions. Like junk email!
Being a great listener is not just suited for conversa- tions with our loved ones or business partners. It’s also about listening to the very important voice inside our heads. Listen to your intuition. Do what your heart is telling you to do. That’s what an authentic person does.
Each second of every day we are being led by our minds and our hearts experiencing change. Otherwise, we are just standing still (paralyzed), going through the exact same moment over and over.
My family owns a funeral home and I made the

decision out of college that I would join the business. I didn’t know how much I would learn as a funeral director and mortician, but wanted to be part of the family business. Working in funeral service, I have spent years walking with people through a time of change when someone loses a loved one. I have had the privilege of helping others journey through loss, fear, pain, disfunction, and sadness, assisting them as they transition through their loss. I have witnessed healing, where grief left deep holes, I have witnessed pain and suffering, gratitude, remembering and celebration, and I have witnessed seemingly hopeless and sad situations transform into love. I have been blessed by this.
Through this experience and window into change and how transformational change can affect an indi- vidual, I’ve realized the value of change and its affect in our world. I’ve realized what a gift we all can be in our world.
Through this experience I discovered that until we learn to navigate change, we are stuck. We remain in one place with no movement whatsoever. Without movement, we become paralyzed and there is death. Death, because we are no longer challenging ourselves and are no longer moving forward in our living.
I’ve experienced a time of transformation in my life. After years of helping others on their transitional journeys, I wanted to know if I could do a better job of it for myself. I took part in a retreat where all of the participants committed to meditating for an hour every
day for one hundred days. After the hour of meditation,

we were encouraged to document what we learned, thought about, or discovered during our ritual. Many in the group chose to create vlogs (video blogs); I decided to write, so I started a blog chronicling the journey.
This personal transformation manifested clarity and creativity within me. It fed my desires. It has shown me how thoughts can be limiting. It has also shown me how growth is stymied by those limiting thoughts and fears. It has opened the door connecting me with my true authenticity, my source of being, my true nature, values, and personality.
Transformation can be a messy job. It triggers old ideas and patterns that we have buried in our subcon- scious. All of our triggers and fear are typically con- nected to another time in our lives; something in our past manifested them. To live in the present moment, we have to work on moving past those fears and trig- gers, recognize the old patterns and stories, so that we are not hiding behind those stories anymore. Through my practice of blogging and meditation, I have been able to uncover my own limiting thoughts to spur on my own growth. And while it’s a continuing journey, its one well worth the effort.
In addition to documenting my thoughts and discov- eries through my transformation, my blog allowed me to discover my voice and my genuine delight of writing. I have continued to write on my blog past the initial one hundred days, and I now have over four hundred posts. I have also written another book, “Living and Dying” finding hope and love on your journey through loss.

This love of writing combined with my desire to help others through times of transition led to the creation of this book. You will hopefully see, we all share the same or similar life experiences. It is only our individual stories that make them unique and different. We all experience birth, adolescence, puberty, adulthood, aging, changing jobs, and new relationships: all of these are shared experi- ences. We live them all differently, though.
My hope with this book is that as I share with you my experience and stories, you will recognize opportunities for transformation in your own life. That living authentically is a journey of self discovery through change, transformation and lifes tranisition’s.
To accomplish this purpose, I have included some of my writings from my own journey through transformation throughout this book. I want you to be able to see what I was thinking and experiencing while I was going through my periods of transition. I hope that by doing so you will see how embracing challenges and change in our lives will keep us moving forward.
I am not a doctor or health professional, or profess to have any magic solutions to life. My thoughts are simply mine as they applied to my lifes journey. My writings are a compilation of my energetic connection to source (God), my divine guides, Jesus, my Native American guide and archangels Raphael and Michael, and many close friends and family. Without them this writing would not be possible and I give up all personal responsibility for these words and thoughts, acknowledging with sincere gratitude and praise for being so blessed by them.

To be published soon!!!

“Blessings on your journey”

Continue reading “Living an authentic life – the book”

What we don’t need in the midst of struggle is shame for being human.

– Brene Brown –

Soon to be released !!

Introduction

Our life is constantly changing moment to moment, day to day and year to year. 

Living authentically is an interesting and popular topic and one that I think needs special consideration.  In life, we are being asked more than ever to check in with our true self (spirit), values and personality (ego) daily. 

Put simply, authenticity means you’re true to your own personality, values, and spirit, regardless of the pressure that you’re under to act otherwise. You’re honest with yourself and with others, and you take responsibility for your mistakes.  In life we are being challenged, prodded and  pushed, creating opportunity that might promote transformational growth and change and even redefine how we live our authentic life.     

Authentic is defined as: 

“not false or copied; genuine; real.” And, my favorite definition, “representing one’s true nature or beliefs; true to oneself or to the person identified.”

As an author and coach, I know in order to become more authentic and to seek this out in others, we first need to be open-minded. We attract the people and things we want in life when we’re open-minded and receptive. This often leads to opportunities and new ways of thinking that expand our minds and bring us ideas that add value and create change to our lives.

Live in the Moment and Be a Great Listener

“What day is it?”
It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
My favorite day,” said Pooh.” — A.A. Milne

There’s nothing more real than a person who lives in the moment without worry or concern for needless matters. Who do you know that truly embraces the moment? Someone who doesn’t bother checking their smartphone every five seconds to worry about an email from Instagram or some trivial matter? A teacher who left a huge impression on you because of their devotion to their students?

Living in the moment means concentrating on exactly what is happening in your life at that precise time. It demands that we remove the baggage and clutter from our lives to live our best in the moment. Presence and concern for right now are achieved when we eliminate distractions. Like junk email!

Being a great listener is not just suited for conversations with our loved ones or business partners. It’s also about listening to the very important voice inside our heads. Listen to your intuition. Do what your heart is telling you to do. That’s what an authentic person does.

Each second of every day we are being led by our minds and our hearts experiencing change. Otherwise, we are just standing still (paralyzed), going through the exact same moment over and over. 

My family owns a funeral home and I made the decision out of college that I would join the business. I didn’t know how much I would learn as a funeral director and mortician, but wanted to be part of the family business. Working in funeral service, I have spent years walking with people through a time of change when someone loses a loved one. I have had the privilege of helping others journey through loss, fear, pain, disfunction, and sadness, assisting them as they transition through their loss. I have witnessed healing, where grief left deep holes, I have witnessed pain and suffering, gratitude, remembering and celebration, and I have witnessed seemingly hopeless and sad situations transform into love.  I have been blessed by this.  

        Through this experience and window into change and how transformational change can affect an individual, I’ve realized the value of change and its affect in our world.  I’ve realized what a gift we all  can be in our world.  

        Through this experience I discovered that until we learn to navigate change, we are stuck. We remain in one place with no movement whatsoever. Without movement, we become paralyzed and there is death. Death, because we are no longer challenging ourselves and are no longer moving forward in our living.

        I’ve experienced a time of transformation in my life. After years of helping others on their transitional journeys, I wanted to know if I could do a better job of it for myself. I took part in a retreat where all of the participants committed to meditating for an hour every day for one hundred days. After the hour of meditation, we were supposed to document what we learned, thought about, or discovered during our ritual. Many in the group chose to create vlogs (video blogs); I decided to write, so I started a blog chronicling the journey.

        This personal transformation manifested clarity and creativity within me. It fed my desires. It has shown me how thoughts can be limiting. It has also shown me how growth is stymied by those limiting thoughts and fears. It has opened the door connecting me with my true authenticity, my source of being, my true nature, values, and personality .  

Transformation can be a messy job. It triggers old ideas and patterns that we have buried in our subconscious. All of our triggers and fear are typically connected to another time in our lives; something in our past manifested them.  To live in the present moment, we have to work on moving past those fears and triggers, recognize the old patterns and stories, so that we are not hiding behind those stories anymore. Through my practice of blogging and meditation, I have been able to uncover my own limiting thoughts to spur on my own growth.  And while it’s a continuing journey, its one well worth the effort.

        In addition to documenting my thoughts and discoveries through my transformation, my blog  allowed me to discover my voice and my genuine delight of writing. I have continued to write on my blog past the initial one hundred days, and I now have over four hundred posts. I have also written another book, “Living and Dying” finding hope and love on your journey through loss. This love of writing combined with my desire to help others through times of transition led to the creation of this book. You will hopefully see, we all share the same or similar life experiences. It is only our individual stories that make them unique and different. We all experience birth, adolescence, puberty, adulthood, aging, changing jobs, and new relationships: all of these are shared experiences. We live them all differently, though. 

        My hope with this book is that as I share with you my experience and stories, you will see opportunities for transformation in your own life. That living authentically is a journey of self discovery through change, transformation and lifes tranisition’s.  

        To accomplish this purpose, I have included some of my writings from my own journey through transformation throughout this book. I want you to be able to see what I was thinking and experiencing while I was going through my periods of transition. I hope that by doing so you will see how embracing challenges and change in our lives will keep us moving forward.  

My writings are a compilation of my energetic connection to source (God), my divine guides, Jesus, my Native American guide and archangels Raphael and Michael, and many close friends and family.  Without them this writing would not be possible and I give up all personal responsibility for these words and thoughts, acknowledging with sincere gratitude and praise for being so blessed by them. 

        

The first blog I want to share with you is called “We Shall Hear Angels.”

“We Shall Hear Angels”

“We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.” – Anton Chekhov

What would make me think I have anything to say or offer the world?

Perhaps this is the one question we continue to ask ourselves that keeps us from doing just that thing. Speaking up, telling our story, sharing our intimate thoughts, ideas, and secrets put us in a scary position, and it is one that leaves us feeling vulnerable and open to ridicule.

A good friend said to me recently that it would be a shame to die with your story untold, closed off to those who might care, learn, or benefit in some way from that knowledge.

Do you ever wonder why your parents did this thing or that, and now they’re gone, not able to answer that question? I wonder what mine were thinking! How hard and painful their divorce was? I wonder how having a judge grant custody to my father over my mother must have felt to her and why it came out that way. I never asked, and they never said. I’m sure it was too painful for them, and now I’m left to wonder.

Growing up in funeral service and helping people through transformational events in their lives has given me the confidence and awareness to share my story. I mean, why not? It’s become evident to me that we all feel the same basic emotions of fear, pain, loss, joy, and peace. Although our individual stories may be different, these feelings are universal. 

“We shall find peace. We shall hear angels.” 

My first book, Living and Dying, is available online through my website, www.mkanthony.com. While I’ve already got my sights on the next book, it is a joy to be blogging as way to practice writing and sharing my thoughts, ideas, and secrets.

Every day I wake up excited to venture out into the world with my thoughts. As I sit here at the keyboard, nothing specific comes to mind, but after a moment or two these words come tumbling out. It is my sincerest desire to bring more love into the world, to shine a light so bright even a blind man could see, and that is a good thing. I invite you to show up, to live and not die.  So, we all can see the sky sparkling with diamonds!

 

The second one I want to share with you is “Still Singing.”

“Still Singing!”

A good friend said to me, “Don’t die with the music still in you.” It prompted me to write my book “Living and Dying” and to start living more authentically and honestly to the best of my ability. Over the past few years, I have created major change and restructuring and have begun a new journey in my quest for a personal peace and enlightenment. I believe I have more books, other professional opportunities, and continued growth and success ahead of me. I believe that I live in a world of infinite possibilities and opportunities, and I believe in you and me. I believe I have a song written in my heart, and it appears to the world in many different ways and in many different colors. I believe.

Don’t die with the music still in you!

So, as you begin this journey, be open to new ideas, be ready to be open and vulnerable, and be ready to embrace change when it comes to you. 

“Blessings on your journey”

http://www.mkanthon.com

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:

• When your loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
• Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
• Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy.
• Take naps.
• Stretch before rising.
• Run, romp, and play daily.
• Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
• Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
• On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.
• On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
• When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
• Be faithful.
• Never pretend to be something you’re not.
• If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
• When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.

“Blessings on your journey “

Www.mkanthony.com

We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.

– Carl Rogers –

How often do we really listen? When we listen with real understanding and true empathy, we have to drop our opinion, judgment, responsibility, take the time (as long as it takes) and just listen. Listening with real understanding and empathy is one of the most respectful and loving things we can do for another human being. Done well it has the potential of changing our world “ when we change the way we look at the world, the world we look at changes”. This is a very special space and one that opens the door for growth in all of us.

My wish for our world today is to truly listen, listen as if it’s the only thing you need to do. It is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.

“Blessings on your journey”

http://www.mkanthony.com

Think of death as a rite of passage.

In the days before effective medicine, our ancestors were guided by books and customs that framed dying as a spiritual ordeal rather than a medical event. (One of the West’s first best-selling self-help books, published in 1450 in Latin, was titled “The Art of Dying.”) A spiritually mature individual was expected to contemplate it ahead of time. Without abandoning the best of what modern medicine has to offer, return to that spirit. Don’t reduce the end of your life to a medical procedure or strip it of ceremony and humanity. Make sure you live and die as a full human being.

“Blessings” on your journey

http://www.mkanthony.com

Many of us must remember that we can only do so much for someone, as we are all here experiencing life in multiple dimensional frequencies.

We are all perceiving reality as a collective with our own unique way of translating our experience. It’s important to remember that holding onto the idea that it is our responsibility to save anyone is however a very difficult space. It’s a form of resistance in the natural order and process of personal evolutionary growth.

It’s by living in our own unique authenticity while holding the space for those as they learn through their personal experiences the very fabric and structure that growth is birthed.
I invite you to the idea of letting go of any attachments you may have surrounding being responsible, while holding the space of unconditional love and acceptance for all beings on the level and degree of their own personal journey of transformational growth…

“Blessings on your journey”

http://www.mkanthony.com

Not only do you grieve the loss of your loved one, you grieve the apparent loss of who you were and the future that has changed from the loss.

So true.

“Blessings on your journey”

Www.mkanthony.com

From my book “Living and Dying”

Listen

“The earth has music for those who listen.”
― George Santayana

Where do we go from here?
What can we do now?
If we see love in our everyday life, the world becomes a loving world. If we see hatred and suffering in our life, the world becomes one filled with suffering and hatred.
Reflect on our connection with how we get where we are, and where we are going and go there.
Reflect on our connection with emotions and how we feel and live a life of feeling
Reflect on the effect of our thoughts and how they affect the energy and connection in our world and become a participant
Reflect on how our connection in our world is created by our experience in our world.
Reflect on the connection of thought and emotion.
Reflect on your connection to all things and places.
Reflect on your connection to memories and the affect they have on you, in your world
Consider that we may need to create a new version of ourselves. At any time, we can redefine ourselves. We get to pick

“Blessings on your journey “

Www.mkanthony.com