Mary Corning – How to Shift Pain into Purpose

Aired Monday, 5 August 2019, 12:00 PM EST / 9:00 AM PST

Life teaches us how to live, yet we often run from it, mask it, cloak it, resist it, and deny it. All the while life keeps offering us opportunities for a new perspective. ~Mary Corning

That quote comes from a deeply insightful woman who I’m so lucky to have shared an hour with. You’ll get to hear our conversation TOMORROW!!!

Shifting and getting out of the habit of pain… but how?

Mary Corning changes lives by defining the transformative power of pain. As a mentor, speaker, life consultant and writer, she clearly and compassionately models this process through her messages and stories. Mary extends her philosophy into her world of horses, where both people and horses benefit from realizing a different way to interpret challenge.

I’ve ‘adopted’ Mary’s book – Perfect Practice: A Philosophy for Living an Authentic and Transparent Life, as my personal self-love work book starting Now! August. I’ll share with you along the way some of the shifts and new wisdom I gain from the interesting perspective Mary shares. I’ve already used 1 technique as I observed my kitties but you’ll have to listen to hear the story!

A few things we discussed:

· How to shift pain into purpose, conflict into confidence, and fear into curiosity
· Recognizing the early signals of defensiveness within ourselves and others and making a change
· Letting go of the heavy load of obligation and creating inspired dedication instead

Mary has navigated her way through addiction and codependency. She has felt rejection and abandonment. She has suffered and pondered the depth of grief and loss. She watched as dementia transformed the mind of a loved one. She has received the shocking news of suicide. You might say her credentials are an advanced education in life. However, pain alone cannot offer wisdom. Mary had to be willing to look deeply into these experiences. She lived through them with a clear and conscious mind, and her heart prevailed. These are the experiences that brought her to the wisdom, but her willingness offered the understanding for applying it to life.

Mary’s education in life expanded when she met her teacher Ray Hunt. Ray taught her about horses, and horses in turn taught her about herself. This education required a great investment. She became completely dedicated to finding her purpose. Ray Hunt and the philosophy he taught seemed to fit her curriculum perfectly. That was thirty years ago, and she is still in class. A philosophical approach to horses or to life is not an education that ends with a degree. In fact, it never ends. And that is the beauty of it. Perfect Practice doesn’t mean we reach perfection—it means we never settle for less.

Mary lives in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, on twenty acres of land at the foothills of the Coast Range. She is blissfully married to her husband, Magnus, who is her life’s perfect partner. She has a best friend who vitalizes her whole heart with an unwavering friendship. Mary is passionately involved with her horses and dedicated to her work with people. She loves life, and her home includes two wonderful stepsons who have given her the gift of a front-row seat into youthful expression. Her constant companions and confidants are her dogs and cats. When she is not writing, working, or enjoying her home life, her favorite pastime is horse camping in one of western Oregon’s many beautiful forests.

Connect with Mary at: https://marycorning.com/