“It is inner stillness that will save the world” Eckhart Tolle. He teaches that happiness is dependent on outside circumstances but inner peace is not. Could it be that if we can obtain more inner peace we will not feel the need to over consume the world’s resources?

Vakil, Sept. 30th is his birthday.

Dec. 17th is the date celebrated all around the world. His death is 1217, his union with his friend, Shams Tabriz.

When Rumi died in 1217, people from all religions came to the funeral. When they asked them why, they said, He deepened us, wherever we are.

Thank you for doing this work.

Coleman Barks

The Abrahamic Reunion stands out as a reminder that we are of one unified origin. In celebrating our human diversity, inter-connectedness and interdependence  we are ‘reunited’ in facing common challenges as one family.

I celebrate your achievements and congratulate your work.

S Nadeem Kazmi, Human Rights Advocate and Humanitarian Consultant.

Random Acts of Kindness Day encourages us all to get out there and be the light you want to see in the world.

Most people have heard the ancient saying “it’s better to give than receive”. This has now been proved scientifically. Recent research indicates that spending money on others rather than our selves provides those feel-good moments we all long for.

The results of a study published by the American Psychological Association found that people experience a “warm glow” when they put the needs of others before their own. People who remembered spending money on someone else felt happier than those who recalled spending money on themselves,” the study reported.

On Random Acts of Kindness Day on February 17th, people all over the globe will be encouraged to give to others be that a smile, a small favour or a gift.

Michael Kenton of Peace Gifts Shop says “Often, it’s the smallest act that makes the biggest impact, a simple gift with a beautiful message can transform a day, and make a life seem that much brighter”.

The charity Abrahamic Reunion England has used the opportunity to showcase the product range in its international Peace Gifts Shop – which can be found at www.peacegifts.shop. This design is available on a wide variety of gifts including T shirts, mugs and badges.

The Abrahamic Reunion England, the organization which promotes harmony in our multi-faith society, has chosen the run up to Random Acts of Kindness Day to encourage people to give meaningful gifts. These include items which typically feature a quote about peace from influential poets and authors from around the globe. The peaceful phrases and images which are seen on products such as mugs and t-shirts can help people achieve a calm and joyful state of mind ahead of Random Acts of Kindness Day.

Michael Kenton, trustee of the Charity Abrahamic Reunion England said: To quote Mahatma Gandhi. “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

World Human Spirit Day, taking place on Sunday, 17th February.

On the day, people all over the globe will take two minutes of silence at 3 pm Eastern Time for meditation. World Human Spirit Day organisers intend that the meditation session will help participants to find “the true spirit of freedom and peace” within themselves.

The Abrahamic Reunion England organisation now works tirelessly to promote religious unity, presenting at schools, universities and places of worship, and their members also specialise in prison visits to help inmates in their rehabilitation.

Michael Kenton, a Trustee of the charity Abrahamic Reunion England, said: “The Abrahamic Reunion is putting into practice the original goals of the founders of World Religion Day by bringing together people of different faiths to celebrate the essence of their religions. Peacegifts.shop the shop of the Abrahamic Reunion has created a design the mark the occasion”.

“This is the beginning of a small note that one of our peacemakers received from a prisoner after one of our sessions. ‘Salaam, It was an honour to have met you yesterday. As always it was a wonderful and uplifting experience. I particularly liked the way everything was organised with excellent discussions throughout the whole session. Can’t wait for next time.'”

Ahmed was one of the prisoners who also attended this session, said, “We have had the Abrahamic Reunion visit both HMPS Springhill and HMPS Grendon many times in the past, and once again this event was well received by the men in Springhill who are already asking when we can have them return.”

This latest celebration of World Human Spirit Day is just the latest triumph for the movement that was originally established in 2004, when spiritual leaders from the Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Druze communities came together in Israel and the West Bank and started this growing trend for inter-faith dialogue.

How can we bring peace to our minds? It is something that many of us have wondered after being burdened with the seemingly endless stresses of modern life. Depending on the kind of person you are, you may have taken a scientific approach to achieve a calm and quiet mind – perhaps trying to get the correct amount of sleep in order to wake feeling refreshed and restored or choosing endorphin-rich foods and exercise.

Meanwhile, others look to spiritual practices, using meditation and candle-lit baths to shake off the mental weight of the day. Recently, however, neuroscience has been connecting the links between the two disciplines and finding that Buddhists may well have a point.

Feed the Mind with Positivity

Ever heard of the Mind and Life Institute? A collaboration between the Dalai Lama himself and a team of scientists, the group was set up in the late 80s. Together, they have shown that mind training is a very real tool and that we can all use it to our benefit.

So, if you have ever stood in front of your mirror repeating positive affirmations to yourself, you have been working to train your brain. Whether you felt silly, or not, repeating this process on a regular basis will have had a great benefit to your mind, leaving you feeling more confident and happier in the long run. Meditation is also proven to help bring peace to the mind, as the brain is emptied of negative thoughts. With several types of meditation, the focus is on the breath, which, by releasing physical tension, also measurably reduces stress and anxiety.

Back in 2013, Barbara Fredrickson from the University of North Carolina, a positive psychology researcher, published a landmark paper that provides fascinating insights about positive thinking and how it effects our life skills. Her work is among the most respected in her field and it is surprisingly useful in everyday life.

She took groups of people and showed them different films. Some groups saw positive images while others saw negative images of fear and anger. Then each group had to come out and write about their experience and how they would react in a similar situation.

The groups who saw images of fear and anger wrote down the fewest responses as they saw less options. Meanwhile, the participants who saw images of joy and contentment wrote down a significantly higher number of actions that they would take. So positive emotions broaden our sense of possibility and open your mind up to more options in life.

She discovered that those who meditated daily had more positive thoughts than others who did not but that was just the tip of the iceberg. With her team of scientists, she found that people who experienced joy had useful side effects to their feelings that lasted far beyond the event.

In other words, when you are experiencing positive emotions like joy, contentment and love, you will see more possibilities in your life. These findings were among the first that suggested positive emotions broaden your sense of possibility and open your mind up to more options.

Fredrickson believes this is due to the happy emotions enabling you to see all the possibilities surrounding you. The more you feed your positive thoughts, the better you become at reading situations and taking advantage of what life has to offer. Noticing all the options available to you at any time enables you to build new skills and flourish through life, even if you are not having the best day, because you have trained your mind to see the positives whenever possible.

Indeed, this research only confirms what wise teachers have always known. Buddha began the Dhammapada with the words: “We are what we think” and science has since proven that our thoughts are creative and essential for creating peptides that become part of new cells in the brain, with positive thoughts creating more positive peptides and negative thoughts creating negative ones. So, the more you practice being positive and peaceful, the more natural it will eventually become.

Give the Gift of Peace

At Peace Gifts Shop, we want to help you train your brain for the better, which is why many of our products feature a quote about peace and how you can achieve it, while others feature a beautiful image to remind us of peace. We sell t-shirts, mugs, and posters, amongst other items, with phrases from well-known teachers, authors and poets from various religions, traditions and cultures around the world. Every time you have a cup of tea or put on your favourite outfit, you will be reminded of the phrase or peaceful image and it will become further ingrained in your memory.

Of course, once we have discovered peace for ourselves, it is natural to want to share the joy. Our products make fantastic gifts for your good friends and all members of the family. Despite our reasonable prices, these gifts will become priceless to the recipient, helping them to think positively and feel at ease with the world.

Even better, every penny we make from the sale of our items is put towards our charity which provides education, inspiration and action to promote inter-religious harmony in our multi-faith society and in the Holy Land. So, help us to spread the love, since a world full of peaceful people is all we could ever hope for.

Spreading harmony and tolerance among followers of the three monotheistic faiths and all the world’s faiths.

World Interfaith Harmony Week seeks to spread the message of harmony and tolerance among the followers of the three monotheistic faiths and all the world’s religions.

It also seeks to promote the common basis of “Love of God and Love of the Neighbour, or Love of the Good and Love of the Neighbour” among religions to safeguard world peace. Its message invites everyone to join together for peace.

Celebrate by giving a gift from peacegifts.shop and support the Abrahamic Reunion, a charity creating peace between the religions of the world providing education, inspiration and action to promote inter-religious harmony in our multi-faith society. See www.abrahamicreunionengland.org

Happier Together. This is the theme of this year’s International Day of Happiness, and it has been embraced by Abrahamic Reunion England.

In the lead up to the International Day of Happiness on 20 March, the interfaith group Abrahamic Reunion has invited people from across the country to embrace the concepts of peace, harmony and mindfulness.

“Everyone wants to be happy – and life is happier when we’re together. So let’s celebrate our common humanity,” said a spokesperson for Abrahamic Reunion England.

But how do we do this?

According to the Harvard Medical School, happiness and health are closely linked. Based on this research, the study Positive Psychology has advised people to harness the power of happiness, mindfulness, meditation, and inner strength.

This means focusing on the things that bring you happiness and lowering your stress levels over a period of years through relaxation techniques and a positive outlook.

According to the Dalai Lama, happiness is a natural consequence of a calm mind. This is why he recommends mindfulness.

Buddhism teaches us that when a negative emotion develops, it obscures our view on reality. So giving a loved one the gift of a positive outlook can enhance their happiness in the most profound way.

To celebrate the International Day of Happiness, Peace Gifts Shop has designed a collection of gifts that celebrate the global community, and encourage everyone to become calmer and happier.

“PeaceGifts.Shop provides apparel around the theme of peace, so that we may all be encouraged to become calmer and happier,” says PeaceGiffts.Shop founder Michael Kenton.

Abrahamic Reunion England calls for peace not war, on National Winston Churchill Day

Abrahamic Reunion England is selling Churchill-themed gifts to commemorate National Winston Churchill Day.

On 9 April 1963, Winston Churchill was made an honorary citizen of the United States. Every year since then, we have taken time to celebrate and remember the UK’s greatest wartime leader – and the man who inspired the British people with a simple victory peace sign.

Churchill famously enjoyed a great relationship with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When Britain stood alone in Europe, Churchill inspired Britain to resist the evil of Nazi Germany and to fight for peace and democracy.

On this day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy hosted a ceremony which made Winston Churchill an honorary citizen of the US. This was the first time in US history that honorary citizenship was ever granted.

They are inviting people from across the world to celebrate Winston Churchill Day by giving a Churchill-themed gift from Peacegifts.shop, which is owned by Abrahamic Reunion England.

Some of these gifts include images of Churchill on a vast assortment of apparel, from t-shirts and sweaters to hats and bags. Become an advocate for world peace by spreading Churchill’s simple V symbol on the day that honours his legacy.

“During these difficult times, we can all be inspired by the words and image of Winston Churchill,” said Michael Kenton, founder of Peacegifts.shop.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope.” – Winston Churchill

“If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.” – Winston Churchill

Stress awareness month was established in April 1992 to increase public awareness about both the causes and cures for our modern stress epidemic.

Progress has been in increasing public awareness of the damage stress can cause but we have got a long way to go. According to the Mental health Foundation 74% of UK adults have felt so stressed at some point over the last year they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope.

Millions of us around the World are experiencing high levels of stress and it is damaging our mental and physical health. Stress is one of the major public health challenges of our time, but it still isn’t being taken seriously.

Stress is a major factor in mental health problems including anxiety and depression. It is also linked to physical health problems like heart disease, problems with our immune system, insomnia and digestive problems. Individually we need to understand what is causing us personal stress and learn what steps we can take to reduce it for ourselves and those around us.

Peace Gifts Shop was established to provide apparel which reminds us to stay calm, how to stay peaceful and why being at peace helps our lives.

Its now acknowledge that meditation can enable us to become calm but we all forget to meditate. Use gifts from Peace Gifts Shop as a reminder to stay calm. The benefits of being without stress and staying calm and well known.

“It is inner stillness that will save and transform the world” Eckhart Tolle

“Peace and war start within one’s own home” Mother Teresa

“The quieter you become the more you are able to hear” Rumi