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Fine Tuning

March 15, 2018
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.

Gratitude for this work!

From Thoughts & Feelings by McKay, Davis, & Fanning. New Harbinger, 1981

February 2, 2018
0

The Things my Teacher Never Taught Me

By | Fine Tuning, Offerings | No Comments

“Liberation can be accomplished by that pranayama which is attained by disjoining the course of inspiration and expiration.”

– Patanjali

 

The question we often hear is, “If I am infinite & an expression of the Divine, if I am what I affirm of myself in my daily practice – then why do I sometimes feel so small, incapable, and fallible?”
Getting a taste of our limitlessness divinity creates multifaceted results. On one hand – we know we are more than just human. And on the other hand, we are still human. 
The enlightenment process is a one of discovery, surprise, and even discomfort. Unwinding the layers of resistance, releasing stories we’ve wrapped around ourselves to comfort us from the winds of vulnerability – can sometimes come as a shock to us!
Breathwork Training with Michael Brian Baker has been called an enlightenment experience, and it is the full ride – moments of deep resonance and personal healing, bliss, awareness of self, and relief knowing that the secrets hidden from ourselves can be seen and profoundly loved on. It is deep, and even challenging as we face aspects of ourselves we have hidden away for fear of failure, success, or rejection.
This is why we laugh A LOT in our Teacher Trainings. In joy, we chuckle at our patterns, at the sweet, childlike nature we are striving in to “get it all right”, at the perfect, chaotic, mind-blowing, heartbreaking, beautiful insanity of it all.
We learn to see ourselves as love sees us. 
We have created a container where you explore the hidden aspects of YOU, of the mystery schools, of mysticism, neuroscience, sacred earth practices, and the evolution of humanity.
We share the tools that are sometimes infamously sidestepped or even missed in the excitement of awakening.
What happens when someone goes into a cathartic release on your table? What is happening when YOU are going through a cathartic release? How do emotional, mental, spiritual, physical imbalances play out when exposed to breathwork? What stops you from sharing your gifts when the world is requesting you at its table?
What does it mean to practice breathwork & other healing modalities where the facilitator and the recipient feel safe to heal and hold space?
We want you to have a solid foundation in knowing yourself & your empathic depth, and how this can be either a powerful area of mastery or a leak in your container as a facilitator. We unveil the tools needed to have your feet, heart, and body firmly planted on earth, so that you can stretch high into the etheric worlds, and have your internal safe container to come back to when you have completed your work. We want you to have the scientific information behind this work, the lineage which formed the experience we have today with the practice, the teachers who have passed it down, and why they have passed it down at this time.
Breathwork has the capability, when practiced with integrity, grounded education, morals, & safety, to transform heal and bring lasting and sustainable peace for the recipient.
If you have stayed with us on this ride, you know from your own experience, that this is true. Or, if you haven’t yet had the experience, you may feel the stirring in your heart, the birthing of knowing within you that there there is something more to discover in this journey towards healing. We share the hunger to see awakening happen on planet earth, both for the future of the generations to come, and for the sake of all sentient life.
Deep within our genetics is a code that yearns for liberation, be it from the grind that life presents, from the disagreements in relationships, “current state of affairs”, technology overload, dramatic changes in Mother Earth’s environment, keeping the body alive and vital in often toxic living spaces, and even from ourselves.
Who are you? What are you curious about? What are you birthing in this moment? What area of your life is experiencing the trembling or shaking vibrations of change?
Reach out to us. Share with us. Come be with us at a Teacher Training, at a Community Breathwork, or Private Session.
And know that whether you are emulating Durga with many arms managing your world with vigor, or are “stuck” a little or a lot – you are loved and  appreciated.

“Offering inhaling breath into the outgoing breath, and offering the outgoing breath into the inhaling breath, the yogi neutralizes both these breaths; he thus releases the life force from the heart and brings it under his control.” 26-2 The interpretation is: “The yogi arrests decay in the body by an addition of life force, and arrests the mutations of growth in the body by apan (eliminating current). Thus neutralizing decay and growth, by quieting the heart, the yogi learns life control.” – Krishna quoted in the Bhagavad Gita, interpretation by Pramahansa Yogananda

January 18, 2018
3

Grieving the Matrix

By | Fine Tuning | 3 Comments

In the mist of the morning, I look in the mirror and accept that one of the most deceptive enemies of the ‘Vital Arts Practitioner’ has caught up with me.

 

Age. At the very least, it is now in my field.

 

Silver grey has corroded the once deep brown whiskers on my face which detail the many sleepless nights working in realms I care not to revisit, although my exposure and travel through them has built a strength and knowledge within me that if ever called forward again would guarantee protection and a much softer landing after integration is actualized.

 

I sigh and am shifted into the gentle awareness that the time I am searching to reclaim, which has markedly “slipped away”, is actually chronicled on my chin, in the lines on my face, surrendered in my eyes. I have earned these “mortal” stripes and the compassion, clarity, magic, and wisdom that it brings cannot be traded for any amount of gold.

 

I witness two doves outside ascend harmoniously and land in unison atop a light post, and am reminded of the love in my life, partnerships and the commitment made when choosing this body: to experience, then share the reintegration of love and respect with the longing hearts that seek the blessings that come to those focused in service.

 

Having signed up for this journey, I have gone through quite a stunning process that has thinned the veils and revealed truths that remain less than comfortable for me. These realizations have placed me in precarious situations where clumsy behaviors have left me open to internal deception and parasitic intellects that derive their security from the most potent distortion bought, sold and accepted by the human race which is “fear”.

 

When first I began to open, I was working a somewhat “normal” job fueled by fear anchored firmly in keeping a roof over my head, food in my stomach, and clothes on my back. It makes perfect sense that those concerns would be embedded deep within me as a result of my direct caregivers being raised by souls subjected to war, famine, and rampant disease.

 

This realization forged the capacity to associate as “witness” to my outer experiences which slowly developed the internal compassion to dissolve the program and pattern of fear which was buried deep within my foundation. I knew it had been propagated from generation to generation with little or no real presence to what was “current” in “my” actual life. I was carrying the burden of those “too distracted to be proactive”, caught in the program of yesterday and unable to receive the present of the present.

 

By the age of three, I knew I was different. This awareness was amplified when, fairly early on in my youth, I was branded with the belief system that if I didn’t follow the model set forth for me by my care givers, I would suffer a long painful life. To quote verbatim the words that would insure my failure as a developing youth, “This is not Michael’s world, you cannot do things your way and you will never live up to your full potential, if you do not… (follow the demands we have placed on you with little or no attention given to your design, gifts or desires.”)

 

When I began following a life of loving service, my long lost childhood knowing of sustainable, benevolent magic was reawakened, which by the way, has much more to do with a deep connection to the earth’s cycles and, more than anything else, concentration and focus on peace and prosperity for prolonged periods of time. Some refer to it as meditation.

 

Here is a very loose time line that I have seen duplicated many times over by those who choose to apply themselves to and through The Breath Centers Gestation Package, which I lovingly have coined the “The Adult Hogwarts” of our time.

 

First phase

Dissatisfaction with life path, loosing connection to all relations and finding that those whose advice has been trusted and followed are just as or more lost than we.

 

Second Phase

Realization that the focus on developing a career to provide a better life for our families and us is a major distraction that creates critical separation between our vital internal connection and those we love.

 

Third Phase

Clarity that whatever we choose as a new direction in our lives must serve humanity in a way that we can really get behind and that it must include and secure within it a platform for our creative freedom, humor and continued stimulation. It must also be sustainable, meaning it can support no one else’s dreams but our own and has to serve others with such impact that there is little need for old structures that “normally” accompany building a fulfilling life.

 

Fourth Phase

Choosing a focus of study enveloped in one of the many and varied healing arts and then experiencing doubt and discomfort around the change and objections that accompany ones awakening and separation from mass group consciousness and the ignorance that fuels it. Along with this comes the realization that our ingrained fear around not being able to “make a living” at it is has been unsubstantiated, as we have survived quite nicely albeit a couple bumps which happen regardless in any new life experience.

 

Fifth Phase

After getting some traction and time under our belts as practitioners, we begin to believe deeply in the art, it’s power, and our ability to facilitate it.

 

Sixth Phase

Believing we are actually “the healer” and becoming so full of spirit in the right hemisphere and the etheric, we become quite disconnected from daily “real world” responsibility and sometimes even become critical of the process and the systems that are in place to provide contrast for the change coming in the future.

 

Seventh Phase

The Fall – Spirit can get loud when we are working out of alignment. This is what I call the “Shamanic Spanking” period, where the newly awakening and all high being is thrust back crashing down to earth, be it by loss of loved ones, health crisis, or relationship dissolve. This could be anything that doesn’t mirror the high and holy life experience one has made for themselves while conveniently overlooking their own spiritual bypass and ego as it allows them to check out of their own continued process.

 

Eighth Phase

Consideration of leaving the whole thing behind and returning to the matrix as a result of too much time spent in the esoteric. Becoming somewhat apathetic to the great numbers of those resolute in denial and distraction and the feeling that the dissolve of the savior complex has left one with little to prop themselves up on.

 

Ninth Phase

The Slow but Subtle Return

We have all of the connection to the earth, multiverse, spirit and etheric we could possibly need. We have learned that boundaries and permission are the only way we can survive in the assignment we can now really never back away from. Beginning to take interest in the workings and limited reality within the matrix and involving ourselves in discussion and group mind set at which ever frequency it is holding, knowing very well that this is what we came here for and that including all forms of reality at all levels of awareness is the only way to meet each where it is currently residing. We experience a reflecting back of increased possibilities for higher ways of evolving without judgment, critique, or adding to the very energetics that arrest the development we have committed to accelerate and support.

 

Number 9, the completion of cycles. I am in so much joy I am sometimes uncomfortable with it. It is overwhelming to have all things working together in a way that is abundant yet requires great character and integrity, lest the lesson get tremendously loud. Great gobs of gratitude for the “caregivers” that created the perfect contrast to the discovery of life’s greatest dreams for without their perfect balance of shadow, we would not be basking in such Clear, Sparkling, Benevolent Light.

 

Celebrating grey, it’s a perfect balance between light and dark…(Wink!)

 

For the good…

 

Michael

 

 

 

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!