Your Ripple Matters // Anna Peterson Macsalka
“Being aware of your impact with your experience here: You are limitless - what you can do and the choices that you can make to bring goodness and kindness into the world,” Anna says with the calm knowing of someone owning their ripple in As It Goes 043 // The “Problem” is the Path with Zenimal founder Anna Peterson Macsalka.
As the founder of Zenimal, the screen-free meditation device making meditation accessible for everyone, Anna’s making waves starting with a very important part of our society - children (not to mention teens and adults… but we’ll talk about kids for now).
If you’ve felt the benefits of a meditation practice (balanced nervous system, reduced anxiety, improved sleep, increased attention span, greater capacity for kindness, improved sense of well-being, better immunity and resilience to share a few), I invite you to imagine a world in which we raise children with this foundational practice for well-being and flourishing. Imagine the good they will do, from their innate limitlessness, to create a better world. Imagine the kindness, peace, justice, environmental harmony, authenticity, and creativity that flourishes in this world.
That very large ring in the ripple begins with one singular decision of one parent, one teacher, one family member, one friend. It grows. The ripples overlap… like that the surface completely changes.
It all starts with you.
What Anna shared about our “ripple” rippled not only throughout our conversation but also within my heart and mind for months after.
One way to radically shift your ripple that Anna shared was rooted in Anna’s Internet and overall screen mindfulness (hence the essential and liberating screen-free nature of Zenimal)
“A huge thing for me is Internet awareness and social media and leaving comments. What if we just decided to stop with the negative comments and stop with the judgments and comments became more of, ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all?’ You can be so impacted by one individual that says something just so cold to you that maybe they think you’re above that, but very few humans are above being annihilated by a stranger for no reason.”
This goes far beyond the digital worlds of the tiny square “social” apps on our phones. What is we just decided to stop with the negativity. Period. Stop with the fear, the hatred, the separation, the judgment, the violence, the hopelessness, the inequality. How would we do that?
We start: If we don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
This begins with our self-talk. All the terrible, cruel, negative, fearful things we say to ourselves, about ourselves, to ourselves about others, to ourselves about the world - it stops with you, in the thoughts you choose to feed.
That begins with awareness of when we’re feeding those thoughts with our energy and value. Then we see if there is any productive and objective feedback that when delivered with love and kindness (delivery is everything) would be useful information for me to act on? If so, we find a nice way to frame it. As Anna succinctly shared - talk to yourself as you would talk to a child you love.
We swap gossiping and negativity for cheering on our friends, loved ones, and inspirations, and for hope.
Knowing their success is a mirror for our limitlessness and ability to succeed, inspiring us to keep going. We are aware that our gossip and our judgments are reflections of the places we reject and abandon ourselves out of fear of judgment.
We decide to stop perpetuating cycles of judgment, rejection, hatred, and meanness out of our own insecurity and instead have the courage and kindness to face the parts of ourselves that we’ve turned our back on, heal them, and fuel unconditional self love… (and guess what that does!) rippling out unconditional love and safety for authenticity of all.
We learn that our felt sense of being inspired is a cue for us to act in alignment with that inspiration whether its to try a sustainability hack or someone’s habit of holding doors open for others. We choose to “Be the change you wish to see in the world” (Mahatma Gandhi), instead of adding fuel to the negativity fire of hopelessness and despair, which is unrealistic and limiting because humans can do incredible things. Yes, that innately includes you.
We grow our awareness and discernment about our ripple.
We strengthen our awareness of our ripple by practicing noticing our thoughts, words, actions, habits, and character. We watch as the witness, that we train as during our meditation practice, to see when those choices (because they are all choices - "You're not responsible for your first thought, but you are responsible for your second thought and your first action.") are unaligned with goodness and kindness, with hope and optimism, with unity instead of separation, with love instead of hatred, with understanding instead of arguing and judgment, with building the world we want to live in.
MINDSET facilitates this transformation with all the wisdom and tools you’ll need to self-sufficiently empower your limitless, authentic ripple from within
14 Ways to Consciously Make Your Ripple Bring Goodness and Kindness into the World 💧
Genuinely smile at, compliment, and ask questions of those you cross paths with (everyone has something to teach you)
Hold the door for the next person
Pick up all the litter your cross paths with out of respect for the life our Great Mother enables and keep litter from going into our water and our creature friends
Be mindful of how much plastic you consume, opt for glass/mental when possible or ask if you need the plastic
Bring your own cup, bottle, and mug to places you know will give you a plastic cup
Say no to straws
Speak up with someone is gossiping or judging another to you, share the practice of non-judgment, and invite the other to join in on the love instead of hate
Be a safe space for others
Contribute your authentic gifts, talents, and passions to the world (the world doesn’t need more cookie-cutter squares; the world needs YOU
Keep learning, especially after you graduate and especially on subjects that interest you (there’s something there waiting for you)
Tend to your well-being (Mind, Body, Soul, and Wholeness) so that you can pour from a cup that runneth over
Embody peace because world peace begins within - “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” - His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
Live consciously and authentically (part of which includes your innate, true nature as Good and unconditionally loving - the “conditions” of our life since our birth separates us from this, the liberation is the unlearning and shedding of that which keeps us separate from our true nature, our Source, and each other)
Cultivate your spiritual awareness (which our brains are proven to be wired for) that all things are interconnected, interdependent and that “we are seekers of our path. We look across the vast landscape and ask, What is life showing me now? This awakened awareness allows us to perceive more choices and opportunities available to us, feel more connected with others, understand the relationship between events in our lives, be more open to creative leaps and insights, and feel more in tune with our life’s purpose and meaning,” than the default “achieving awareness” of modern life, according to Dr. Lisa Miller
Meditation is the FIRST practice of the seven practices empowering MINDSET for a reason - what we practice in meditation is the awareness, out of context, so that in our every day life, “in context” our awareness is strong and ever-present. We are more discerning and thus making more authentic, aligned choices every moment of the day rather than being on programmed autopilot (that we learned in response to our families, environments, cultures, dis-ease, and big and little “T” traumas as we’ve gone through life).
That is what creates a conscious, authentic life.
Whether you’re starting, picking up, moving off-screen, enhancing, or sharing your meditation practice, Zenimal is the ripple to make. Offering nine different types of meditations on each card, choose from breath, stillness, inspiration, relaxation, sleep, empathy, gratitude, awareness, and restoration.
Cultivate your ripple by cultivating your daily meditation practice.
Listen to our conversation with Anna on As It Goes
Check out Anna’s creation on the Zenimal website: www.zenimals.com
And on Instagram @TheZenimal
