Dr. Laurie Pappas, a writer, educator, counselor, trained mediator, speaker, writer and metaphysician, is the Co-Founder of the Metro Detroit Center for Attitudinal Healing, a non-profit organization, and directed the activities of the center for 16 years. She has also conducted spiritual/metaphysical, counseling sessions for 22 years. Dr. Pappas has taught classes and workshops, and trained personal growth group leaders during this period of time, in addition to having been a frequent columnist for PhenomeNews, a large Detroit metaphysical newspaper in the early nineties.
As a young adult, while Laurie worked in elementary education, she began her search for the underlying causes of disharmony and discord among school children. Several years later, community service work for the hungry and homeless brought her attention to the role that the mind plays in creating abundance or scarcity, peace or conflict. These experiences led her first to the field of Guidance and Counseling, and eventually to the study of Metaphysics, where she was able to obtain satisfying answers to her questions and workable solutions to many of life’s challenges.
In the spring of 2005, Laurie was program chairperson of the 7th Annual Conference on Nonviolence, Peace and Prosperity held in Detroit. She is a recipient of the 2005 International Peace Prize, Key of Success Award, and Woman of the Year Award, bestowed by the United Cultural Convention of the United States of America for outstanding personal achievements to the good of society as a whole.
Dr. Pappas is author of two books; The Loving Heart: Navigating the Journey from Conflict to Peace, and The Loving Heart Companion: An Interactive Journal.
I send daily bits of wisdom, known as "Loving Heart Peace Bits" to my email list. These are meant to reprogram the minds of those interested in "seeing" through the eyes of Higher truth. To sign up, go to my website at www.lovingheartconnection.com. Have included here a few examples of these peace bits:
We've fallen down thousands of times and we'll continue to fall down because we all have a history with "fear-based" consciousness. We've been programmed that way. The question isn't whether we tumble. Rather, the question becomes what do we do right after we tumble? The more we stand right back up, the more we know we can. It gets easier and easier every time.
Get back on your horses and ride, ride, ride . . . . . . .
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Sometimes we spend a lot of time thinking about what we're not getting from someone in our lives. Try giving what you want to get. It feels lots better.
I know, I know, you're thinking, "but I'm always the one to give." And I say, "so what, giving FEELS GREAT! Why not be good to yourself?"
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The energy of your thoughts creates your circumstances and your feelings. Whatever you focus on expands. Are you focused on what you "want" or what you "don't want?" Think about only what you "want" to create. You'll be feeling better in no time!
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After I was hospitalized for 12 days with a rare, critical illness, having experienced acute anxiety from drugs and from a frightening situation, I resurrected with amazing new insights, greater courage, incredible strength and strong motivation to share with others what I had been given. Adversity aims to change us in wonderful ways if we allow it. Fire has always symbolized purification, and its ashes continually offer opportunity. I opened to the opportunity. You can too!
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Do you think your rational mind can figure everything out? If so, think again! Sometimes you try and try and try to understand - to make it just the way you want it, and you end up at a dead end. If you get quiet and listen, there's that still, small voice, an urging, a sensing of where to go, what to do next. Divine intelligence lives in you and guides you every minute, every day. Follow your intuition. It knows how you can access miracles!
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Giving thanks is such a powerful antidote to depression, frustration, anger, fear, disappointment or any other negative emotion, for that matter. In truth, it is a sacred, holy act that opens our hearts and shoots us to the stars!
I hold the philosophy that Peace begins within and that healing our fears and resentments is what we need to mend a troubled world. I maintain the viewpoint that we are each a spark of Divine Spirit Energy, and that the core of that energy is LOVE. If we work to uncover that core of LOVE, we can do much to help whole. I believe healing occurs when we learn to see ourselves, others, and our world through the eyes of LOVE and FORGIVENESS. And I believe that everyone, no matter who they are, has the ability to see through God eyes, through the eyes of compassion, acceptance and immense love. When we're in this state of mind, we feel our authentic connection with each other and our sense of separation (fear) falls away. The result is miraculous!