Luxembourg author and cancer survivor launches book on building meaningful connections by finding own inner peace
Five years ago, doctors advised then-37-year-old Mary Faltz to say her goodbyes to her children as her spreading cancer had become untreatable.
The Luxembourger – who wrote her first book, about happiness, on her deathbed – survived against all odds and is now releasing her fourth book, Match Aligned!.
“Writing my books has been the greatest healer in the darkest days of my life,” said the single-mother-of-five who is responsible for children’s wellbeing and violence prevention projects at the education ministry. “This is when I reconciled with myself and cancer made me realign with my true self.”
Match Aligned! is a book about human connection and goes through the various steps to take to be at peace with oneself in order to make the most of relationships with others.
Faltz stresses the importance of checking in regularly to see if you are still matching with your friends, job, and even hobbies.
Faltz stresses the importance of checking in regularly to see if you are still matching with your friends, job, and even hobbies.
“By being open and not trying to control your life, you allow things and people that are aligned with you to come into your path,” she said. “It takes courage to let go of control but it lets you get to your inner peace.”
Faltz describes herself as someone who had unconscious “victim energy” with low self esteem after suffering from years of abuse as a child. Her abuser is now in prison.
“The people I attracted to my life, my reactions, my attachment style were determied by this ‘red thread’ through my life,” she said. “When you are misaligned with yourself you attract people and situations which are also misaligned with you. After cancer and after I aligned myself, I had good things come my way and my life started to change.”
Her book starts by making the reader aware of what makes them the person they are – the way they see the world and what shapes them. She stresses that our childhood experiences remain within our nervous system and never completely stay in the past.
She takes the reader through the steps of learning to accept what makes them who they are before moving on to learn to be grateful.
She takes the reader through the steps of learning to accept what makes them who they are before moving on to learn to be grateful.
“When you have the capacity and reflex to always see the silver lining, to end your sentence with ‘at least it’s not’, you reframe situations and have a different perception on things, which brings you more inner peace,” she added.
Faltz focuses on connection – with people, with what is going on around us – and encourages the reader to look up from their phones and absorb what they see and hear.
Her book also includes ‘100 dating insights’ and she believes people who are truly at peace with themselves can then go on to meet the right person.
“Don’t go into dating without doing any self introspecting or you will match with people who are misaligned with you,” she said. “Your frequency will match with the right person when you’re aligned with yourself, you will attract the right person when you are complete and understand yourself. If not, you will focus on a check list of criteria and years down the line you will notice you are not a good match at all.”
Faltz wrote all of her books in a short space of time and in a no-filter manner.
“I saw death too closely to be scared not to be me,” she said.
Mary Faltz’ latest book, Match Aligned!, will launch on Saturday February 14 during an event held at Cercle Cité on Place d’Armes in Luxembourg City from 18:30 until 21:30. Faltz will give a keynote speech, followed by an exchange with the audience before guests will be able to socialise.
It will be possible to buy the book and Faltz will be available to sign it. There will be an after party at a nearby venue which will be announced during the evening. The event will be moderated by Cordula Schnuer, editor-in-chief of the Luxembourg Times.
