Mary Ng’ang’a
I love music, dancing, animals, swaying trees and the power of the moon. I also enjoy supporting people who meet their needs authentically, and that is the drive for my work with children and adolescents living in informal settlements.
I often find myself searching for meaning in what I do. So far, my search has led me to a personal realization that an engagement is meaningful if it is aligned with my liberation, an awakening of who I really am. I am very grateful to have discovered love and meditation as my paths towards that. Love, for me, is an act of ‘going out’ in service of others, and meditation is one of ‘going in’ in remembrance of my truth. Attaining a balance of these two is my current focus. To me, youth leadership means offering myself for the wellbeing of youth. I perceive wellbeing as attaining inner awareness and peace, while actualizing various projects in our communities. I began my career with the latter, but I hope to support more and more youth to attain the former and, eventually, a consistent balance of both.
For me, Heartfulness meditation has been the simplest path to inner peace and contentment. It enables me to see clearly what is most meaningful to me and relate with the world in a pleasant state. What else is there to attain other than true pleasantness! I have also realised that the more we trust our gut, the more we get the knack of it. Not that there will be no mistakes, but in this process we are building a very essential life muscle! Keep your light on! No matter where we arrive, let us prioritize our inner guide. I do it through love and meditation. I am still learning meditation, but I presume that the genuine resolve to attain liberation paves the way for me.
A person whose insight I value deeply said, ‘The most constant thing in human life is that everything changes, but the distance between you and that which you would like to have remains constant’. I believe that it is important to examine one’s needs and set our goals wisely. Let us not blindly accept other people’s opinions, because while this can shed light, it’s we who have to do the seeing. Prioritizing inner awareness and peace will bring pleasantness in all aspects but focusing more on outer success will not.”
