Day 2 Workshop 1 | Meditation
Whats IN the Way IS the Way with Mike George
An incredibly simple yet also complex statement, and as we sat through
this informative workshop we were guided to realise why. This statement is a
question you should be asking yourself frequently.
As we entered the room Mike George spiritual teacher, author and
motivational speaker was tucked away in the corner at the back of the room
sitting on the floor, smiling, resting his back against the wall. I'm guessing
a lot of people entered the room without actually noticing he was there. All
other workshops we entered saw the leader making themselves known, standing
front and center, welcoming clients in. Mike was different, he was taking a
much more subtle approach, watching people entering whilst sitting quietly in
the back. I spoke to Mike as we passed him - (I recognised his picture from the
show brochure) - I said thank you to him in advance and proceeded to find a
seat.
Attendees gently wandered in, choosing there space to sit whilst Mike
calmly waited at the back of the room until everyone had settled in. He then
comes and sits at the front of the room and begins to speak, you can sense his
calmness, it feels deep. This workshop was designed to take us through
emotional healing describing how we can use meditation and contemplation to
heal our own emotions.
Mike talked to us of Raja Yoga where Raja means Royal and Yoga means
Union – so Raja Yoga is the highest path to a re-union with the source, with
the divine. But first we have to prepare our self by learning how to
meditate.
The workshop is informal, interaction and questions are encouraged
throughout. Mike tells us of how he previously led a very stressful life which
eventually brought him to question himself and led him to where he is now; no
longer stressed, a student of the school of life, which is essentially our own
consciousness, and the author of over 10 books.
Mike talks about how hatha yoga tends to focus on physical postures
while raja yoga focuses on the posture and alignment of the energy of our
consciousness. Hence the practice of meditation. He tells us how we are
ultimately our own guide and navigator in this life. He talks of the
importance of restoring our true self-awareness as this is what we have lost
and this is the cause of all our stress and suffering.
He reminds us that the one thing we are not taught is self-understanding
and that this is essential if we are to manage our self i.e. our thoughts,
emotions and attitudes, in the context of our relationships. When we can begin
to understand ourselves this enables us to deal with everything else. It means
we can learn in and from the REAL school the school of LIFE. Mike also
highlights the importance of ‘unlearning’ as that is necessary to free our self
from the illusions and misperceptions that are the cause of our stress and
unhappiness.
Mike teaches us how perception itself is an act of creation, how we
bring someone into our own minds (perceive) is how we create them to be. This
then leads to projection of our self onto them. If we perceive/create them in a
loving way we project that quality of energy back to them. Similarly if
we perceive/create them in a hateful way. If there are things you have
decided that you don't like about someone your belief/opinion of them will
shape your perception and you project that back onto them. Meditation helps us
to open our eye and hearts to be mindful of this taking place within our
consciousness.
Marketing companies project onto us all the time. They feed us
ideas and images, encouraging us to lose our sense of identity in their
projection. This then influences our perceptions and the energy we project onto
others and the world. What we project bounces back to us, so if we
project love onto a person that tends to be what we get back, and the same for
all our emotions. It is really important to remain mindful of our actions and
our reactions; they affect us as well as others. Having been unconsciously
bombarded by others perceptions we need to truly get to know ourselves again.
Contemplate these;
"How do I
know what I know,
until I hear what
I have to say,
I cannot know what
I have until I give it away."
Ask yourself, how often do you actually tune in and listen to your true
self, not the myriad of thoughts and reactions running around in your head each
day, but your true self, how often do you listen to you?
Have you ever sat talking with friends and suddenly come out with a
really insightful comment? This is a moment where you have connected with your
inner wisdom, some call this intuition, but in fact you have listened to you.
It's only when saying something that you didn't know you knew and hearing
yourself say it that you can realise you know it! This inner wisdom is always
there to guide us but often we don't hear it as it is drowned out by all our
other racing thoughts. It's so important to make time each day to meditate,
contemplate, reflect, to relax our minds and connect with our inner guide to
discover what we know.
Mike encourages us to write something everyday, be it in a journal or in
one of our many digital devices, just write something everyday that comes from
within, from your innate wisdom, keep connecting.
So What IS in the Way?
Well firstly our racing thoughts are, but through meditation you can discover
what IS in the way in your life, what is blocking you. Many people experience
light bulb moments through meditation as they discover what's in the way for
them, which is usually what they are attached too in this life. What’s most
important is when you have a light bulb moment you must act on it, otherwise
you miss the opportunity to change.
We live in an amazing world but its technological advances also mean we
expect things instantly. We are agitated, time conscious, living a life full of
things we 'should' be doing. Regular meditation can help dismiss the 'should'
list and bring patience within but we cannot expect anything from it, we have
to wait for guidance from within and some will need to wait a lot longer than
others.
Mike then lead us through a short meditation to bring us all to a calm
and centered place.
3 Steps to Meditation
• Relaxation
• Concentration
• Meditation
Being relaxed in mind and body, feeling settled, will aid concentration
and this will nurture meditation. If you happen to become drowsy whilst
relaxing with the aim of meditating this is fine just go with it, if you happen
to nod off this is absolutely fine don't fight it, but remember that when you
wake from this dozing state that's the perfect time to meditate. Don't try to
stop your thoughts but equally let them go, just notice them, don't engage with
them, let them drift off like a bubble into the sky as you yourself drift
towards silence. Meditation leads us to inner peace and with practice we can
recall this sense of calm in our daily lives, for example when someone is
really pushing our buttons we can project calm to them by reacting without
anger this will then bounce back to us avoiding the mutual exchange of anger,
bringing balance to the situation.
Life is the interplay of two energies that we often acknowledge in our
conversations with each other:
Human + Being
Form + Consciousness
Matter + Mind
Body + Soul
One is physical energy and the other is non-physical often referred to
as spiritual energy – the energy of spirit.
Meditation helps us to realise this and know that we are spirit and not
form. The longer you stay in meditation the deeper your awareness of being your
authentic self will be. It’s here you will find the contentment that is
deepest happiness, free from desire and overpowering emotions such as anger,
sadness or fear, which all have their roots in attachment. Meditation starts
with detached observation of your thoughts and feelings, which is when they
lose their power to disturb you.
Social well-being
Mike reminded us to be careful who you surround yourself with,
colleagues, friends. He recommended consciously finding others with a similar
inclination to encourage us wake up to our innate spiritual nature. Be mindful
of what you expose yourself too as we are coloured by the company of others. If
you surround yourself with a certain mentality you become that mentality. If
you overload on TV Drama you will be sucked into expecting disproportionate
reactions in your life too. You need to keep your mind happy, move towards
people and events that resonate with you as much as possible.
Attachment and Emotion
What am I attached to that is shaping my sense of identity? What
emotions do I feel frequently for they are signals indicating a false sense of
identity? Asking yourself these sorts of questions will help
generate insights and answers to help you live a more content life. Take the
opinion you have of yourself when you get up from a nights sleep for example,
we all form an opinion of our self each and every morning. One of the first
things we all do is look in the bathroom mirror, what do we see? A tired face,
this springs doubt in our mind we do this repeatedly every morning, noticing
the ageing process as we spot yet another wrinkle or the lines under our eyes
seem darker. We mistakenly identify ourselves with our body so it’s as if we
witness our own decline, with the tendency to feel more and more down about our
appearance. Meditation helps you to realise you are not your appearance but the
animating energy of your body and that you never age or decay as your true
self. The body is just the vehicle you inhabit at this time, yes it's
ageing but it’s designed to do so, you need to remember it is not you, it is
not your true self. We spend a lot of time and energy looking after our
external body, and some of us the internal matter too, but how about
remembering to nurture your mind, not just your fleshy mind but your psychic
mind, your very spirit, as this is you, your driving force, your truest
connection to the divine self and we should nurture it daily with meditation.
Mike explained how our emotions arise using an example of a scratched
car incident. The car is your car and someone else purposefully scratches it. Most
of us would call up anger as a natural reaction to having our car deliberately
scratched but in fact it’s our attachment to the car that causes our
anger. He explained exactly how the ego, the false sense of self, is
created in our minds when we identify with what we become attached to. This he
explained is actually the root cause of all our stress and suffering. We become
our attachments so anger is born from a case of mistaken identity as we
ourselves in this scenario became the car. This is not saying that damaging
someone’s property is right, but it's showing us where our emotions come from.
It is our emotions and our belief that they are caused by others that ensure we
condemn others rather than understand them. But we alone are responsible
for our actions and how we feel. Only when we realise this fully can we
learn to respond rather than react, act with grace and consideration rather
than blame and condemnation.
The workshop ended with a second meditation where I connected with my
inner self, I received 3 strong individual messages, the clarity of voice
honestly startled me, I wasn't expecting anything;
• I'm very scared
• I need to heal
• You can do it
Light Bulb Moment
I couldn't hold back the tears, sitting there with my eyes closed,
trying not to cry out loud the tears ran gently down my face. I thought this
may be a light bulb moment, but that was yet to come. These 3 clear messages
are all very poignant as I am currently recovering from a serious road traffic
injury received whilst cycling in August 2012, the incident left me
hospitalised initially through the physical injuries sustained and shortly
afterwards I was diagnosed with severe PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). I
am undergoing extensive rehabilitation and am currently unable to work due to
the physical and psychological injuries I sustained. These messages were truly
heartfelt and very clear, I could visualise just how emotionally hurt I was,
this is where the tears came from and later in a brief conversation with Mike
George he advised that I was attached to being fully recovered and on the other
side of all this, this was adding to my emotional state. This was my light-bulb
moment to help alleviate the emotional grief I have been suffering from being
so physically fit and healthy prior to the incident, to wanting my life back on
track. I actually need to focus on the clear messages I received during
meditation, I need to learn to accept where I am right now and let go of the
attachment to the desire to heal in order to do just that. I am very thankful
for Mikes wise words they helped me to realise I can try to find my way by
beginning to heal before even thinking about moving on.
At the end of each day...
Learn to re-run your day in your head, seek out your attachments, and
identify what is IN your way. Your attachments become your identity, which is
always a false identity and that is what’s IN the way, that’s the
obstacle. Use meditation, contemplation, reflection to ‘notice’ what you
are putting IN your own way...
Further information: You
can sign up for Mikes 'Clear Thinking' newsletter here; http://www.relax7.com/
(enter your email address here and you will be sent an email to activate
confirmation) Mikes two most recent books are The Immune System of the SOUL and
BEING Your Self.
http://www.relax7.com/diary/
