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All Posts By

Michael Brian Baker

September 18, 2017
7

The Medicine of Gratitude

By | Purification | 4 Comments
A somewhat intimate share for eyes that care-
For many many years we have gathered together to shift and transform through the breath in a co-creative container that has been in part, formed by the lovely soul known by so many as Prem Baba.
Every closing has been deeply mystical and powerful, rooted in source and translated from Portuguese into English. What many have not known is that the “hinario” or hymn that we have closed with was written while being sung to the Ganges River in Rishikesh by Prem Baba himself.

Watch here:

In January of 2017, I was planning a journey with the intention of receiving some much needed healing for myself. I had just lost the 3 most influential and important people in my life to cancer. Little by little I was completely take apart at the seams.
I had never sat with my two of my favorite teachers who are still “in body” and I knew deep down that it was time to prostrate myself at the feet of someone who could “see through me”.
My first “go to” was Ram Dass who’s retreat in Hawaii had a waiting list 100 deep. I researched my other “top picks” and found that the Prem Baba Sanga was offering a silent retreat in the hills of the Himalayas so I quickly registered.
Simultaneously one of my dearest friends, who is no doubt the finest Western student of Peruvian, Shipibo teachings I know was planning a retreat to Terapoto for a 21 day dieta. Due to a lag in response from the “silent retreat” registration team and my desire for “intense cleansing” I booked the trip to travel with friends to Peru.
 I was heart broken not to have made the decision to travel to India to see Prem Baba but the journey inward that my time in the jungle provided was just the push I needed to clear and process the losses I had incurred and replace those voids with the “internal self love” required to open up enough to really “see” my life again.
Upon returning to the states, much more unfolded. The work was not yet close to complete and I had not yet even begun to establish contracts for the 2017 season. Maybe it was time to take a break from the work, put the chacapa and microphone down and get a job at Walmart? I don’t quite know where I was at that point but erasing any memory of what I had become which was inauthentic or illusionary while in Peru had invariably been completed and I was working with a blank slate.
The first call I made was to Sridhar Silberfein. For those of you who do not know Sri, let me first say anyone with as big of an appetite for sharing divinity with others, who serves in the way he does cannot possibly please and hold the patience required for the amount of egos and attitudes that this guy does without going completely mad. He is largely responsible for brining many Hindu Saints to the West including but not limited to Amma, “the hugging saint” who sees hundreds of thousands of people per year. Even though he was traveling abroad, he still had time for me and communicated in a timely manner through his staff.
I shared with him I had just been cracked open and that I had no contracts for his infamous Bhakti Festivals for the 2017 season. It was within the next few weeks following that I would come to learn that not only would we be included in both the May and September festivals, but none one other than Prem Baba himself would be traveling to the United States to facilitate satsang in the very same room that we have been singing his songs for the past 6 years. I was over the moon! I would still get to sit with him but he would be coming to me! LOL, when it all seems as if it i falling apart, more often than not, it is falling into place.
I did get to sit with Prem Baba and actually was gifted a private meeting with him before his final teaching at the festival. Thank you to the loving souls who facilitated this for me. It was literally a dream come true.
More important than anything else was his teaching. Oh the way baba works is incredible! I love that many who do not yet understand the internal methods for liberation have still to look forward to their awakenings. Like tasting a fabulous dessert before it is served to your family knowing it is going to blow everyone away!
He weaved a share that began “God Head” deep and yet held so much joy and playfulness, to not get cracked wide open by the sheer exposure surely suggests of deep, “pain body” or simply exposure to the wrong teacher. But what teacher who is so adept at love could be wrong?
 He spoke primarily of relationship and how the most challenging shift at this time in the true “seekers” evolution is the transition from suffering to joy. Simple? Maybe not so much. It may seem simple to some but the energy that is required to stay present moment to moment can be daunting. Why? Simply because we are programable beings and much of that has been up and to this moment, suffering.
Baba explained of the instrument of gratitude and how if we account for the present moment, that there is nothing but “peace”. Then he gave a simple yet profound tool. “Stop Complaining” he said gently in Portuguese. Then remarked, it is not easy because our default is to suffer.
Just to begin to notice the frequency and programed baseline of complaint that I generate is a profound reflection. It is one slippery slope but one I plan to traverse with great attention and intensity.
Life is great here in the now and I do not want to take that for granted. It can change at a moments notice. I send love and support to those who are working through injuries and the loss of loved ones, depression, hopelessness and just general dissatisfaction. I will the day to come where all of my thoughts are as present and conscious as when I focus to create healing and peace.
We are all just walking one another home and I want to be a great date!
I am so very grateful for this beautiful life and I praise our journey and awakening together as one.
Thank you to everyone who made this year possible and blessings beyond compare to our sacred guardian team!
August 15, 2017
5

LSD, SPIRITUALITY, SEX “PODCAST” and “TRANSFORMATION MADE EASY” RETREAT

By | Offerings | One Comment

I’ve recently been included in a podcast series hosted by a dear friend and longtime fellow traveler Zach Leary.

Zack hosts a show called, “It’s all happening” and its content and guests have been nothing short of highly stimulating.

Some of my favorites included his interview with Andy Summers former guitar legend from “The Police”, Ram Dass, Jack Kornfield, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Daniel Pinchbeck,  just a short list of the shows I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.

Zach has the unwaivering gift of supporting and fertilizing “loving awareness”. He is thoughtful, extremely well read, thought provoking and has evolved from a lineage of great thinkers. Yes without going into it he shares the same last name as that Harvard guy who…

When he reached out to me about being on his show, I was a bit intimidated. I saw no way that I could be added to his great list of interviews and while I teach that “comparison is the poison of diversity”, I put it off for quite some time before reconnecting and being invited back to share.

For the past 6 years I have been immersed deeply in some of the most esoteric teachings known to mankind. I have traveled to South America and received a 100 year old, antique, Shipibo pipe and been accepted into a lineage that is as earth connected and simple as it is aware and in communication with the intelligences of the “inter-dimensional matrices”.

I was concerned I had traveled too “far out” and that I would not be grounded enough to share from an authentic place of service. Bottom line was, I was not yet ready to expose what I had experienced because I had not yet integrated enough to deliver from a well rounded, neutral perspective. Those who know me well will affirm that I am compulsively considerate of others organic processes. It is not my job or right to step on someones belief systems nor is it fair for me to reveal truths that are not yet ready to be received.

I’m proud of this piece of my character and my birthday is coming. I wanted to do something special. I sat in silence and in the stilness a vision of how my diverse group of friends act primarity from either their “left” anylitcal calculating brain or their “right” creative intuitive hemisphere came in very clearly. I felt into the imbalace and sought resolve. So many believe that to do really deep selfwork one must be disiplined and cut off from outside stimulation. Another belief is that the left brain cannot validate practices that are not “scientifically” sound. I was driven to bring the two together.

What if we could create a New Years ritual that combined left brain luxury with right brain spiritual transformation? This would really put the basic New Years Resolution to the test! I connected with another old friend to create a deeply transformational, spiritual retreat that would join the luxury and pampering of a five star resort with the impact that someone might expect to experience after a week with Anthony Robbins.  I am thankful those who may be interested in attending now have an introduction to what we are offering through this podcast interview.

It will be difficult to find the level of transformation and supportive, nurturing experience we are offering for this coming New Years. What many are seeking will occur swiftly and with great ease over one weekend. I know people who invest tens of thousands of dollars in life coaching and mentorship. I have never witnessed more powerful integration and results than when you tap into and are introduced to your own unlimited, renewable energy source.

This is the first interview I have done in 10 years within which I have not been self conscious in the least bit.

Please enjoy my talk with Zach. Time with him definitely reminds one that it is all happening.  We speak about hallucinogens, the inertia of sexual energy and how that translates to group breath experience, the technical mechanics of left brain spirituality and humility. He made me so comfortable, I even almost forgot about the microphones.

For those of you reading from me for the first time, I dare you to find anything more powerful with a similar sized commitment than the work I am offering today.

The days of the teacher, guru, life coach and mentor are fading quickly. You are your own master. Learn to look within, come play with us in September, then take what you have learned home with you and then share it with others.

Love spoken here.

August 15, 2017
0

Reclaiming our Mental Focus and Balance

By | Fine Tuning | No Comments

If it seems like it is over whelming, when the brain is racing and there seems to be an internal battle between the yearning for calm and rest and what feels like an out of control mental gymnastics competition, there is an open opportunity for magic.

Taking a step back, expanding our awareness and looking at the evolution of communication and the way in which we live our lives, there is a path with clear markers that lead straight to why we are where we are.

Before television and radio, options for mental stimulation were of a more paced and balanced nature.

Reading and writing lead the charge keeping the minds work at an organic pace.

Radio and television brought about the jelly brain, leaving no cooperation or partnership for the brain.

Now we could just shut off and have information chosen by a, key word, “programmer” pumped into our experience without any filter.

The brain would lay dormant becoming weak and prone to images and sounds that would create belief systems full of illusion and plant fresh seeds for compulsive consumerism and the degradation of personal self esteem.

While millions watched images of what people “should” look and act like, judgment of the self took on a whole new meaning.

Today we have the information super highway. We click and click and choose and click. images flash before our eyes scrambling the thought process at break neck speed. the average someone spends on a page is barley enough to even begin to know what is being shared.

This constant flow of information is to many, our life blood. it has shaped our world, the way we share, grow and are seen. it also needs to be respected.

Take a couple days every week away from your computer screen.

The new kill your tv is kill your search engine.

So much to reflect on.

So much beauty in this world…

See?

August 11, 2017
0

15 Styles of Distorted Thinking

By | Fine Tuning | No Comments

“Filtering: You take the negative details and magnify them while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation.

Polarized Thinking: Things are black or white, good or bad. You have to be perfect or you’re a failure. There is no middle ground.

Overgeneralization: You come to a general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence. If something bad happens once you expect it to happen over and over again.

Mind Reading: Without their saying so, you know what people are feeling and why they act the way they do. In particular, you are able to divine how people are feeling toward you.

Castastrophizing: You expect disaster. you notice or hear about a problem and start “what if’s”. What if tragedy strikes? What if it happens to you?”

Personalization: Thinking that everything people do or say is some kind of reaction to you. You also compare yourself to others, trying to determine who’s smarter, better looking, etc.

Control Fallacies: If you feel externally controlled, you see yourself as helpless, a victim of fate. The fallacy of internal control has you responsible for the pain and happiness of everyone around you.

Fallacy of Fairness: You feel resentful because you think you know what’s fair but other people won’t agree with you.

Blaming: You hold other people responsible for your pain, or take the other tack and blame yourself for every problem or reversal.

Should: You have a list of ironclad rules about how you and other people should act. People who break the rules anger you and you feel guilty if you violate the rules.

Emotional Reasoning: You believe that what you feel must be true-automatically. If you feel stupid and boring, then you must be stupid and boring.

Fallacy of Change: You expect that other people will change to suit you if you just pressure or cajole them enough. You need to change people because your hope for happiness seem to depend entirely on them.

Global Labeling: You generalize one or two qualities into a negative global judgment.

Being Right: You are continually on trial to prove that your opinions and actions are correct. Being wrong is unthinkable and you will go to any length to demonstrate your rightness.

Heaven’s Reward Fallacy: You expect all your sacrifice and self-denial to pay off, as if there were someone keeping score. You feel better when the reward doesn’t come.”

-John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

Gratitude for this work!

August 11, 2017
0

The Foundation of Wellness

By | Purification | No Comments

I hope this communication reaches you finding reasons to smile. Especially if things are a bit intense for you now. Life is a classroom that will graciously give us the same lessons over and over again until we get them right and heal. No one came here to lead and unhappy unproductive life. It’s counter intuitive. It is against the laws of nature.

One simple lesson we often overlook is that the foundation of our happiness is related directly to the nutrients we put in our body. You wouldn’t put diesel fuel in a Lamborghini, therefore the fuel you put in your body dictates how effective you can be, controls the way you feel, function and experience walking in your world.

Life must be fed with life to grow and expand. This is not a diet but merely a new perspective on nourishing your body.

Up the ante on lightly steamed green leafy vegetables. Include boat loads of fresh asparagus and broccoli. No salt, no butter. You don’t need that stuff. Stop eating from your lips to your tongue and take in to account what your ingesting and how it serves you. Drink 32 oz of fresh green juice everyday. Visit the produce center at your local market and buy cucumbers, bunches of spinach, celery, kale, collard greens and anything else that looks vibrant and alive. Buy or borrow a juicer. Many people have them and never use them. Dust it off and plug it in. Include a half cup of apple juice if you prefer your juice sweet.

This is cheap, easy, a breeze to clean and the proper way to nourish the human body. Preservatives, pesticides, hormones and other additives in store bought, man made foods leave us bulky, malnourished and depressed. Look at the fuel you choose to put in your body and create a shift into wellness.

If you feel the need for an oil change, plan a cleanse. It is one of the most wonderful experiences you can give yourself.There is no time to waste.

During times of increased stress we can catch ourselves projecting our reasons for not feeling well onto others. It’s not really about anybody’s elses behaviors. Our not being at the top of our game is just a byproduct of an internal fine tuning that needs to be created to shift the foundation of our perspective on life.

August 10, 2017
0

We Come in Peace! Oregon “Total Solar” Eclipse Festival

By | Offerings | No Comments

Do you know… really know?

We were really humbled and excited to be invited to come and share breathwork at the Oregon Eclipse Festival 2017. We love the wildness of Oregon, the huge trees, fresh air, and the general feel of untamed, buzzing nature in the Pacific Northwest.

After a couple days of celebration, the reality sunk in that we would be out in the middle of nowhere with well over 60,000 people in a somewhat celebratory environment – that may even include the use of recreational drugs. Not to say that the proper relationship with plants and other potions is not valuable. Its more that – with the work that we offer, increased respect and awareness around consciousness and sobriety are a must.

The reason that we are bringing our work to Oregon Eclipse is to represent the population of our community that believes and knows inherently that we are the medicine, and that truly there is no need for recreational drug use in order to find non-ordinary, higher states of conscious awareness. While we in no way condemn the use of any chemical or compound, what we represent in our work is, healing, grounding, safety, nurturing transformation, and a protected space within this festival environment to be held, rejuvenated, and replenished with the energy required to go back out into the festival, full of vitality and breath-centered.

We come to this gathering to be in selfless service as devotees of consciousness and well being, as the particular astrological transit during this time is extremely heavy.

During a solar eclipse, we are cut off from our most vital source of life, the sun. This puts a lot of pressure on the earth. The sun feeds everything on our planet. Physically it feeds the greens which the animals eat, and so feeds the animals that many humans then eat. It feeds the leaves that create the air we breathe, and our cells and our bones with vitamin D.

When the sun is radiating down on the earth, it is also pulling up. Its heat creates a magnetic pull, pulling the blades of grass and leaves up and out away from the earth’s gravity.

In some indigenous traditions, the sun represents the masculine energy – constant, steady, unwavering. Its relationship with the Earth is as old as the Earth itself, appearing in the east and sliding down in the west, daily & rhythmically. When this source of stability has another object inbetween it and the earth, large enough to block out its light in totality, it creates a huge impact energetically.

To be honest, it can kind of make people a little crazy – its not just something to gawk at. Ancient Pagan traditions used to have huge celebrations & protection ceremonies when the sun was blocked, and the chi and sun ray life force was cut off. The reactions that people have during this time tend to lie in all of our shadow stuff – addiction, distraction, resistance.

At this particular festival, there will be large numbers of people off the grid, “celebrating” and cut off from service, comforts, and hiding places all together.

The truth is, its not a party. A Total Solar Eclipse hasn’t happened in 90 years – and what is the human life span? It can stand for a big change.

The Breath Center is a hospice for the Breath Centered, for those who want to go within and seek relief from sensory overwhelm.

We are the spot for awakening, rebalance, and raising the frequency to that of love.

There is no hiding from change and transition. But you can be more present with it, and choose to ride downstream with self love and compassion rather than struggle against the upward current. Swimming in a sea of conscious & unconscious, awake & sleepy, beauty and contrast, can either bring you down or open yourself to who you truly are beneath the layers.

Oregon Eclipse starts Aug 17, and we have 3 discounted tickets left.

Come be with this powerful community, hear the wide range of music, witness the art, the creativity, the ceremony of frequency rising in numbers.

Bring your love, if you dare 🙂

July 24, 2017
5

Trying to Hold it Together – Submitted by Audrianna Mercedes Jacques

By | Offerings | One Comment

Have you ever lost it?

Really lost it?
“Losing it” is a phrase often referring to an experience that differs from the collectives agreement of reality. It might look like being in the car laughing with one of your closest friends and everything slows, and suddenly you’re not able to breathe – not because of lack of oxygen or the seatbelt crossing your chest, but because everything becomes a simulation. The cars passing by, the skin around your bones, the teeth in your mouth, the whisper in your throat – has become a computer program, and everything you see is clouded by it. It could look like lying in your bed for hours completely entertained by the reality that everyone is God in a “meat suit”, fed by invisible cosmic stardust, followed by getting up to fill iced teas at your restaurant job to save money for a car…
It could feel like you are God, really, and that you could bring peace to planet earth just by being. It could feel as if everything around you is a cosmic joke, even the eating, drinking, & breathing parts.
This isn’t to say that you aren’t God, and that this isn’t a big cosmic joke… In fact the above examples rate high on the “awakening” meter, and are often times the byproduct of a powerful life experience, ingesting of an entheogen, or a disciplined spiritual practice. It can be difficult to go through such an experience, and attempt integration with day to day life, but one doesn’t have to think they are God to relate to what western medicine might refer to as a “loss of sanity”.
We live in a world where handbags cost millions of dollars while children are starving. Someone can stand on their feet all day behind a register caring for thousands of people, and barely be able to feed their families, while a new born opens their eyes for the first time to a life experience where money flows like Niagra Falls to meet their every need around them, and where intelligent sea life washes to shore filled with plastic bags while whole families are dying so that nations are supplied with gas to drive their cars to lavish parties.
What we are exposed to at times hits highs and lows that shakes logic at its very core, exposing us to a reality that seems truer than fiction. We can be left shaking our head and lose our grasp on what is real and what is not.
So how does science define what is real? Physical outcomes can be defined, yet when it comes to the “animation” that lends power to something, like what causes an organism to behave and respond to its environment, science can only go as far as genetics – which in itself is pure intelligence at work!
We are born, we live our lives, and, eventually, we die on this material plane. Humanity has little grasp on the roadmap of what happens to a person after death. There is an unknown that many of us choose to un/consciously bypass so that we can continue to eat our favorite foods, ignore pressing world issues and tuck ourselves in at night before the next day breaks.
Because – sleep and food matter to our bodies, right?
The truth is, this physical reality is sometimes very real. Have you ever looked into the loving eyes of a child? Or felt a loved ones embrace? There is an undeniable realness, in being present, in feeling the wind cool our skin, in the warmth of our morning coffee (or chamomile tea 🙂 ) If a child within our care went hungry, would we sit back like we were God and they were God, and this was all a cosmic joke – or would we take necessary action to nourish their hungry belly? Get it?
“Herein lies the paradox.”
(par·a·dox 1. a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.)
If we haven’t thought about it before, it can feel like nails on a chalkboard, rerouting the full steamed train of our very being. If we have thought about it – maybe too much – it can feel like entering a child’s room, one that constantly needs to be recleaned and reorganized, and makes us begin to frantically re-organize the space- to make it all make sense.
This isn’t real… and this is real.
The pain of life is convincingly real. The pangs of hunger, loneliness, confusion, illness and drama are unavoidable at times. We don’t have to think about it to feel the experience. Its a sunny day, and the birds are chirping – suddenly we remember the events of the day before, we lost a contract that could have “changed everything”, or an argument that brought something we valued to a screeching halt. It asks for us to respond to it – in a “real” “physical” way.
And yet, powerful realizations beg us to see that its not.
Once we’ve seen that we are not our bodies, that anything is possible, and life is a riddle, it can be puzzling to return our gaze to a world where we have responsibilities to a physical form and to other physical forms around us.
Have you ever seen a movie that really moved you, and then suddenly become overwhelmed and pulled yourself out to think about what to make for dinner – only to hear the people around you chuckling at a part that you just missed because your thoughts had taken you elsewhere?
Or been distracted when playing with a happy young child, and after their multiple attempts to engage with you they get frustrated and begin to “misbehave”, and suddenly you wish you could rewind and play with that happy child you’d missed just moments ago?
This is what resistance to “reality” can feel like. It’s where our potential for healing lies. This reality of work, education, food, politics, and relationship is not real (see “insanity” above), yet at the same time it is. It’s less about picking which side we stand on, and more about remembering who we are, and being present to ourselves and feelings the way we would be to a newborn baby. Do we cry when a baby cries? Not usually, but we can feel it.
By revisiting that racing train, by peeking into that cluttered child’s room, by getting more and more familiar with the sensation of nails grinding across a chalkboard, we can learn to steer our ship through the most tumultuous, yet necessary waters.
Swinging to one side of checking out of the movie, to falling head over heels into believing the power of our despair rocks our ship. It keeps us in a loop of an insane reality – which if anything, is stimulating!!
This is real… and its not.
Let’s play it like a game, where we are the observed, the observing, and the observer. Let’s feast, cry, paint, clean – and all the time remember that we are playing, playing a game where there is a thing called love, partnership, rollercoasters, fireworks, and pizza. Where there is heartbreak, war, hunger, and the unknown. Where anything truly is possible, and love & kindness are the most important things.
Loving more unconditionally. Increasing our ability to feel. Learning our limits. Being more in the world and less attached to it. Airborne, and yet grounded, moving, and yet still. God, and yet human.
The Paradoxal Real
June 6, 2017
1

Frozen With Fear

By | Offerings | No Comments

Sometimes Change is Downright Frightening

 

Until it is not anymore…

 

It was nine years ago that I sat with a “true yogi” friend of mine who had agreed to launch my “breathwork” practice.

 

I had no idea how to share the profound gifts granted me by my teachers. My day job in the financial markets had crashed and I had just returned from a journey to India, which was planned to show me a new clear path for my life.

 

Within a few weeks of deep meditation, James returned to share that we would be launching a new school called “The Breath Center”. He had even encoded mantra into the HTML of the website to ensure a foundation of service and protection to those who would come for the experience and teachings.

 

At that time, even though I held a somewhat normal job, I never quite fit in at the office, bypassing sequential offers from co-workers to “grab a drink” or “blow off steam”.

 

Immersed deeply in yogic sadhana, all I could think about was God, Yoga, Meditation, Fasting, Pranayama and being in service to anyone that would allow me to be.

 

It had been five years since I had been gifted profound awakening with Ram Dass and all of my traumatic, victim programs had been erased.

 

I didn’t have clarity on much but I was absolutely sure I had two things. The first was a very deep and intimate relationship with my guru Neem Karoli Baba and second was whatever I was to do next, it had to be in service to man and womankind.

 

Over the past nine years I have been equally tested and blessed. In reflection, the people that have come to “the work” and those who have stood by my side in building awareness and support of what we do, have been nothing short of super natural.

 

I always say that super natural is first and foremost, natural, with an “energetic charge” that is higher than average. Lets just call these folks naturally super!

This month, I feel called to pay homage to those who have stayed close to the work; to those who have believed in a higher vision of world peace and communal living. Those who gave all they have and stay connected with us energetically as we move into the next phase of our development and maturity. I’m also planting seeds of abundance and expansion for all of those who “are yet to come”.

 

You have and will become my family and my partners on path and now I pass you the torch. While it feels very difficult for me to let go and empower others to step into their genius, I know the time is ripe for the blossoming of others full participation in the support of me and this healing movement.

 

Eventually the “me” will be removed from the equation but for now the lesson is that we must allow ourselves to be lifted in order to create the same opportunities for others.

 

The Breath Center has been infused with powerful creative energies that are supporting a new phase in the services and experiences coming your way in 2017!

 

What has become increasingly clear as this movement expands is that “the juice” in the work is held in the collective. When we come together to form conscious groups holding aligning intentions for the healing of the self and the world that surrounds us, LOVE floods the experience with reckless abandon.

 

I’m sharing with you now, if you have not yet experienced these groups and the simple power of yogic pranayama paired with conscious sound scape and shamanism, if your “on the fence”, I gift you now this opportunity to unlock your heart and join us for this rare and intimate celebration of “all that is right” in this world.

 

Humility above all else

 

 

May 25, 2017
2

The Death of Obligation – Learn to Transmute Negativity into Creativity

By | Offerings | One Comment

Obligation is dead!

Learn to transmute negativity into creativity…

Ever made a promise you couldn’t keep?

Ever refer a trusted person to a service provider only to find out later they had a really bad experience?

Have you ever felt obligated to someone for making an introduction that didn’t quite turn out right?

I open and read about 5% of my emails. I have to admit I’ve even felt invaded when I begin receiving emails I did not sign up for. (Sheep Sound…)

We are very fortunate to offer life-changing experiences that make profound differences in peoples lives. Even still, the options available with which to share these upgrades remains aged, in moderate working condition, and faulty at best. In fact, this whole business of growing a strong contact list, creating a pipeline leading to the “large ticket” offering, writing blogs, updating websites, analyzing percentages and revenue to support a sustainable purpose is feeling a bit outdated!

To stay mentally fit, one of the practices I like to adhere to is to continually partner with our youth to learn from them, follow current trends of how they prefer to communicate with one another, and to understand what is most important to them. It’s an incredible feat to attempt to keep up! When I was young, those in “the know” sought “convenience”. Now it’s speed, agility, breadth, and ease.

What is most important to me is to continue to offer simple experiences that increase emotional intelligence, create opportunity for extraordinary transformation, optimize other’s performance, and increase trust through intimacy within a safe container.

So when I sit down to work on my website, or design a new email, I am sometimes surprised by the amount of resistance I face. I love this work – so why did I feel stuck? Do I feel obligated to master the art of technology?

Recently I had a business exchange with a brilliant, focused individual who was operating with the Energy of Obligation, and I reflected on what it is that drives us to respond in life.

Here are a few simple definitions of “Obligation”

Noun

  1. something by which a person is bound or obliged to do certain things, and which arises out of a sense of duty or results from custom, law,etc.

2. a binding promise, contract, sense of duty, etc.

3. the act of binding or obliging oneself by a promise, contract, etc

4. any bond, note, bill, certificate, or the like, as of a government or a corporation, serving as evidence of     indebtedness.

I have never met a single person passionate about something that has a debt and or penalty tied to it. Debt and penalty may even be key components that reside at the core of fear, greed, envy, theft and all things infertile.

I’m choosing to eradicate the energy of obligation from my life and those who surround me with the intention of creating increased accountability, completion and celebration. The “feeling” of being obligated does not contain enough octane to fuel a worthy life mission and feeling of accomplishment.

Is there a simple way to clear out limiting thought patterns and create a turbo-powered ability to respond leaving lots of time for individual “creative” endeavors?

I am suggesting there is.

I am very drawn to current research on the inner workings of the brain. New findings on the roles of the left and right hemispheres, how to engage the frontal cortex, increased and rerouted plasticity and the simple software upgrades available to support better overall life experience through better health. How do we achieve and maintain transformation on the deepest levels possible?

We are hosting a group training in the coming weeks in Ojai with like minded people who thrive on consistently growing and expanding their knowledge pertaining to cutting edge, performance practices.

Having a client base primarily comprised of life coaches, teachers, pro athletes and high functioning individuals got me thinking about the “privilege of responsibility”.

Whether we are working with top level professionals or those who request support through transition, stimulation, playfulness, commitment, and the length of our attention span are powerfully reliant on our passion.

Please note, this content contains no release or excuse for not taking action in ones life. Responsibility is not an obligation but is being gifted the “ability to respond”. Some of us do not have that ability. Clearly, it is a privilege.

We can, however, shift the way we perceive making promises “with great care”, the importance and weight of “giving our word”, and any feelings around obligation.

To do so, I recommend this innovative & transformational practice to expand awareness around how obligation prevents us from our highest and best intentions, and to increase conscious productivity through accelerated emotional intelligence and the fresh growth required to stay ahead of the competition.

Breathwork for Realignment

Simple Home Practices Here-

I am curious to know if others experience “obligation” internally and “responsibility” externally. Is obligation weighing on my morals and responsibility affecting others?

As I commit to increasing my passion for helping others while patiently waiting for new advances in communication technology, I shed “obligation” and replace it with my grandest creation. My best selling book, #1 Album and World Tour all lie within the fertile soil of my passion to create without “obligation”.

I do this because the truth is I am blessed to share this work with our community and the organizations creating a sustainable future for our children, I love progress, and I am so very grateful to be in service to something that makes a difference.

Michael

Coming soon!

Keep an eye out for a special invitation to The Breath Center’s Celebration of Michael’s birthday coming this September.

Also… look out for offerings of live recordings from Shakti Fest 2017!

March 16, 2017
1

Love has everything to do with It

By | Offerings | No Comments
Heart Hinarios Las Plantas Professors

Love

When looking for a pre-owned car, the first priority is to see what condition the automobile is in. Is it well taken care of, the engine regularly maintained and the exterior clean and free of damage? Has the previous owner put some love into it?

Humanity can be accessed in the same way. When looking in the mirror, what kind of condition are we in? How’s our physical body holding up? Our heart full, head calm and spirit connected?

If the day to day is less than nourishing, could the collective be experiencing the same?  How is the Human Condition? Are we part of something larger? Is there more benefit in focusing on our similarities rather than our differences?

The world stage is littered with questionable content and messaging. If death came calling tomorrow, would the last moments of this life have been spent full and satisfied? More importantly, would there have been enough love?

High functioning individuals understand the importance of the body – brain connection and the wealth of renewable energy held within the chemistry of love. Knowledge nurtures some understanding of energy and focused energy controls matter. Therefore, it may be of some benefit to understand that “true love” creates and releases pheromones, dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, oxytocin and vasopressin all of which have “positive” stimulating affects.

In order to relate and create in a positive way, the energy of love, which can be accessed when practiced regularly, is one of the highest frequencies to begin stimulating positive change and improved condition within the human experience.

Why this may seem far out for some, tapping into the experience of agape or “unconditional love” is within our control. It does not require a partner or outside entity to be accelerated and is fertilized by gratitude.

When I look around, my life is full. I am nourished by my relationships and when times become challenging, I seize the opportunity for growth through humility, a precursor for wisdom.

​​​​​​​This season, The Breath Center will be offering a three-day immersive experience titled,

“Reflections 2017” Bringing Illusion to Truth – Together as One.

The experience supports participants in the exploration of the interchangeable lenses they choose to view the world around them. It is a safe container for the step by step questioning of ones own internal dialogue, gently suggesting “If you spot it, you most likely got it”.

If the collective begins to pull together to see things through compassionate and tolerant eyes, then we may be able to initiate the change we wish to see in our communities.

The experience is spread out over three consecutive days and looks like this:

Day One: The Deception of Perception
Join us as we utilize sacred pranayama
to explore individual experiences of
through which lenses we choose to mold our world views.

Day Two: The Unlimited Power of Projection
Imagine a world where the “individuation” forms an effortless
alliance with divinity. Fear and greed are now obsolete, tolerance and
compassion the highest held principals to ensure fertile soils for future generations..

Day Three: Reflections 2017
Anchored in the present, encouraged to simplify. What are we being shown?
Making room for the new. How granularly are we attached to the story?
What we see is what shall be. Lets gather to co-create something beautiful!

We will be sharing this program in Joshua Tree California in May and September this season with more dates to be added shortly.

If you have benefited from these gatherings please share this years opportunities with family and friends and we look forward to continuing this sacred work together.