Nationality American | ||
Occupation Author, speaker, counselor Notable work The Gift of Our Compulsions: A Revolutionary Approach to Self Acceptance and Healing | ||
Mary O’Malley is a speaker and the author of Belonging to Life: The Journey of Awakening, The Gift of Our Compulsions: a Revolutionary Approach to Self Acceptance and Healing, The Magical Forest of Awakening, and What's In the Way IS the Way. She is a certified counselor in the State of Washington in private practice in Kirkland, Washington. She leads groups, retreats, and classes throughout the United States and in Denmark.
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Biography
Mary O'Malley grew up in Washington State and attended Puget Sound University in Tacoma, Washington.
Throughout her youth, she experienced an ever-deepening descent into darkness, culminating in hospitalization in 1968. The year after her hospitalization, after a number of suicide attempts, she had a life-changing realization in which she saw through the games of the struggling mind and experienced a full and complete connection with life which is the foundation of her work.
She then spent a number of years studying with Patricia Sun, Stephen Levine, Jack Kornfield and Pema Chodron, and Brian Swimme and she has done ongoing work with Adyashanti. As she grew in understanding, people started seeking her out and asking for guidance. Since the early 1980s she has been writing books, speaking to groups, leading retreats and working with people individually.
As Neale Donald Walsch says, “…paying attention to what is ultimately happening as opposed to what we observe to be happening can so affect your life that you may never have to endure emotional turmoil again. Ever!….This is where all true Masters live such as Stephen Levine, Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, and Mary O’Malley. These are people who understand and who some say have mastered life.”
Philosophy
"...start where Mary O'Malley, in her deep wisdom, would advise: curiosity and compassion. Just allow yourself to be curious about what your mind is saying, and have compassion for what you learn. Mary suggests asking these questions of yourself: What is the way through this? What am I really? What is asking to be seen? What do I need to say, do, or be that is for the highest good? What is needing my loving attention? What is the next step in my life?"
"The idea behind Mary O'Malley's work, and backed up by our action research, is as Mary so eloquently puts it, '...whenever we are compulsive, what we are really longing for is to reconnect with ourselves. We are hungry for the experience of being grounded in our bodies again so we can live from the wellspring within that connects us to wisdom, to our hearts, and to our lives.'...'All the desperate wanting behind your compulsive activities is really a longing for tender self-acceptance.'"
Too many women live their lives in the "I should be" mode instead of realizing that they're fine the way they are..."Love yourself," says O'Malley. "It's the most healing thing you can ever do."