The lovely Denise Ferguson – yoga teacher, retreat facilitator and owner of the Yoga Sanctuary in Mairangi Bay, Auckland – is our guest blogger this week. Denise strives to get a positive message across via four modalities; how to thrive in life using yoga, meditation, kindness, and a good attitude.

In response to the Christchurch shootings last Friday, she wrote a moving article which summed up a lot of what we’ve seen around the country. A wave of compassion, kindness and love that is truely heart warming. They are standing up against racial slander, respecting differences, having open hearts and open minds, and rising up and refusing to let hate win. In the wake of such tragedy New Zealanders are coming together as one and showing the world that love does indeed conquer hate and that no matter how heavy our hearts are, we will be there for each other.

This is Denise’s article which was posted on the worldwide blogging site Elephant Journal, on how to fight hate with love, never with fire.

This is not a post I ever thought I’d be writing.

A post in response to hatred emblazoned upon a country in the wake of heart wrenching acts of violence. Terror has arrived in New Zealand but terror will not remain.

The title of this makes me uneasy because I don’t want to minimalise what occurred on 15 March, 2019 but I know that I (we) possess a power and I want to share it with you.

We hold the power.

To change the course of any act of terrorism is a power that we hold. New Zealanders also have the power to stabilise our reputation as a peaceful nation. You see there’s a thing called entrainment. This is a natural phenomenon that occurs when two entities synchronise their resonance with one another.

With consistency and time, the vibration of a weaker entity will change to match the vibration of the stronger entity. This is a law of nature and cannot be changed.

Kia Kaha (Be Strong).

Strength occurs when there is a perfect balance between Sthira and Sukha, or Steadiness and Ease. Practicing this can evolve our often misunderstood views of stubbornness or rigid opinions being strong. A ??? occurs that without its counterpart, steadiness will eventually weaken and become brittle.

Extremism toward hate and separation (terrorism) means that we need to remain stronger in our commitment to togetherness and love.

New Zealanders need this now more than ever.

What’s on our side? The fact that the heart organ and the heart energy centre (anahata chakra) emits an energy thousands of times more powerful than any other part of the human body.

Here’s the equation:

Terrorism = Hate

Our weapon

The powerful vibration that emits from an authentic coming together of a nation to love one another has to result in a balancing act. If our level of love equally matches a terrorist’s level of hatred, we will remain in battle and nothing will occur. If a nation’s level of love outweighs a terrorists hatred, we gain the power to create change.”

For the rest of Denise’s article click here.