The Ego Concern

On my spiritual journey I’ve heard a lot of talk about ego. Lots of talk about transcending it. Folks be watching for ego like the CIA looks for spies!

The truth is this… and don’t take my word for it, find out for yourself if this resonates:

The only one who is concerned about the ego is the ego. The one who says, “There’s the ego, s/he shouldn’t be there…. s/he is getting in the way” or “ IS the ego. Let me explain…

The Spiritual journey is about full self-love and acceptance, forgiveness and grace. The polarizing personal/psychological identity is the cause of our suffering. Not that the existence of the ego is a problem… but the tendency to polarize ourselves is. The ego takes on a separate identity from our Life because we polarize it, we say to a part of ourself: “you are wrong, you shouldn’t be that way” or “yes, this feeling/dimension is IT, this is what I need to experience all the time.” We take a dimension or energy of the human experience and get stuck on either having it, or not having it… we block the possibility of really experiencing it… and because of this we feel challenged to move right the fuck on with enjoying our Life. We get stuck.

So, when we polarize ourselves its like highlighting the same word throughout the book of our Life… and it stands out as more significant than the other words. Maybe we have a whole bunch of colours highlighting different words throughout the Life book. Some colours we like, others we don’t. But the funny thing is, we put a LOT of emphasis on those highlighted words. We focus on them so hard that we miss the periphery of how vast and beautiful each moment can be.

This is a lot of words. Does it make sense? Find out. Find out what happens when you let go into yourself. How to do that? There are many means and methods, they all lead to Presence, they all lead to the Self. Which is already here, except you’ve been distorting it with your attention on the limitation stories you have a habit of focusing on.

So a very powerful way is to focus on the breath, to keep returning to the breath. We can do this with a very relaxing and meditative breath through the nose, this method take a LONG time. The most powerful thing I have found is conscious connected breathing. This is the medicine which can transform your life into what you’ve always dreamed it could be. This is where my passion and purpose meet. You don’t need to get rid of the ego or fight it… you only need to love all parts of it. Make your ego your friend and it’ll follow you on the path and help you.

Allow me be a guide and friend on the path, I can’t walk for you or breathe for you, but I can show you a way…

You can believe whatever you want…

You can believe whatever you want about whatever.

But to be conscious of your breath as Life, to be conscious of your body, the energy and feeling inside of you... this is where true spirituality lives. 

To seek self-love above all else and then to pour that love into the world is what this planet-side trip is all about.

You can believe in the the Buddha or Jesus or Allah and 'follow' their teachings and still live a life of controversy, always trying to prove something. 

Love doesn't need to prove anything, it speaks for itself, it is easy to understand, it doesn't require the study of scriptures or complicated austerities. It does, however, have its Source within you... and there you must continue to keep your attention if you are to experience it as your Life.

This call to attention is what Reconnect is about. This 4-week supportive space for self-practice of meditation & breathwork will show you not only support in your practice, but where you are getting in your own way.

See more about it here: www.presentpaths.com/reconnect

Belly Stoner

As human beings we have the capacity to be very sensitive and collectively & individually have experienced intensity which causes the nervous system to go into fight or flight (sympathetic). This releases stress hormones in the body. If we experience enough intensity (what some call trauma) we begin to become accustomed to stress as a way of life... especially if we have not felt safe to express how we feel about that intensity. 

When children experience something that overwhelms the nervous system, they cry and integrate it on the spot. Animals shake it off. <Click here to Watch>

What we don't integrate gets stuck in our nervous system as a particular way of neurons firing. We unknowingly wire ourselves to protect against intensity and find we are living in a state of some limiting fear. 

It has been scientifically proven that deep diaphragmatic breathing activates the parasympathetic (rest & digest) branch of the nervous system, mostly because it stimlates the ventral vagus nerve which is responsible for sending signals to the brain to produce 'feel good' hormones, and brings the body into a state of balance and safety. The ventral vagus nerve also regulates digestive organs, lungs, heart rate and facial muscles ~ which is another reason we consciously relax the jaw when breathing - relaxing the jaw relaxes the pelvis and low abdomen and allows our breath to move deeper and caress the vagus nerve.

Notice what happens when we feel stress. Does the chest tighten? Breath shallow? Senses dim? Hyper-thinking? Negative e-motions? All of our energy is in the headspace and our bodies feel unsafe.

My goal is to help everyone develop a self-practice to self-regulate... after several times in breath circle, you should be able to breathe at home safely.

We can use a belly stone and feet flat on the floor to begin to practice bringing breath into the belly and working through any dense protective memories we have stored there. 

<Click here to Watch>

As we breathe deeper into our bodies our energy begins to feel more grounded and safe, not so jumpy. 

Through conscious connected breathwork we practice balancing the nervous system. The result is we can process life more easily and create new patterns in our lives ~ Ones of fulfilment and connection. 

There is a lot more science and esoteric wisdom that relates to what we do in the breath. I'll be sharing more of this later on... Until then, namaste 🙏

Meditation - an Unlearning

You may have clicked on a box that read “Learn to Meditate” to get here. If you did, my apologies. You cannot actually learn to meditate! But please don’t get discouraged because I have great news… you already Are.

Let me explain. Many people, myself included start trying to meditate because of some big challenges in life. Maybe, like myself, it is suggested to you by a therapist, or a friend or family member. If you try meditation, and by that I mean sitting still for a certain period of time, with eyes closed, trying to focus on a single point such as your breathing, then you know that at first it seems impossible to have a clear mind. In other words, thoughts seem to catch us and take our attention away from what we are trying to focus on. It seems we have no control over our own mind! Sound familiar?

A year or two after I start trying to meditate (and I say ‘trying’ because I was far from disciplined) I start going to yoga classes. There is a yoga teacher who tells me, “Some day you will find that you can choose whether or not you want to think and what you want to think about.” My reaction? Total disbelief. Lady, you don’t know what its like in my head, lol.

So here is the thing… some 14 years later and her prophecy has come true! How?

Practice.

But there is a twist. I don’t DO anything except for giving myself regular time and space to do NOTHING. Not a lazy nothing, a focused nothing. I simply focus on allowing myself to relax and let things be. Thoughts come, they go. Feelings come, they also go. My breath comes in, it goes back out. I have practiced many methods, and they all produce the same result in different ways.

I remember trying so hard to get my mind to quiet down so that I could experience all the peace and stuff that meditation promises. So, let’s get to my point about unlearning…

Where attention goes, energy flows. When we begin meditating, it is usually because we have lost control of our attention. Through habit we have unknowingly given our attention to certain patterns. Those patterns seem to help us make sense of things for a while, until we realize our insanity. Our attention and the energy that is directed by attention give phenomenal reality to the pattern…

When we practice meditation, we consciously choose - over and over again - to bring our attention back to a fixed point (breath, a mantra, a candle flame, etc.) and in this way begin to starve the old pattern of the energy we are feeding it… and the magic part is that we uncover more and more what we are - Conscious Awareness. Every time we realize that our attention is lost in an old pattern we consciously bring it back to NOW. In this way we are Unlearning what we are not, and uncovering what we Are.

Now the breath is the most powerful Now-Moment practice anchor. Then you may come across someone who, by holding the attention on its Source, can guide you to the Source. Then you may find you are Nothing, Nowhere, No One… and Everything, Everywhere, Everyone.

From here, Life gets magical… and the real learning can begin.

15 Minute Morning Practice

Wake up invitation! A simple way to have an epic day…

The Reflection

When I look in the mirror…

Sometimes I see

the old tired father overworked and beaten down by life

the smug and shrewd businessman always trying to create more

the arrogant young man yet to be humiliated and humbled by his ignorance

the young boy, awake to a new adventure

the holy man, enshrined in humility and service

the old grandmother, wise and generous

the pregnant woman, purposeful and courageous, processing her doubts

the young girl, playfully and creatively being herself

the hardened inmate, searching for honour and respect without vulnerability

the wannabe guru, who thinks he has something to teach everyone

the steadfast partner, giving love another chance

the religious man, falling off the precipice of his moral highground

the commoner, doing what she is told in hopes of a brighter day

the grandfather, reliving his youth with more patience and care this time

the addict, driven by fear and shame

the man with the badge, just doing his job

the elitist, with all her solutions to all our problems

the coach, positive and inspiring

the shaman, wild and mystical

the casket body of the departed soul, lifeless and yet at ultimate peace

the worker, putting in overtime

the vast ocean, inviting and terrific

the unidentified plant, exquisitely novel

the thunderstorm sky, soothing our sleep

the spiritualist, measuring dreams with the ruler of duality

the rabbit, looking for another rabbit to fuck

the silent owl, seeing with piercing presence

the computer, cold and calculating

the paramedic, on the way to another emergency

the performer, playing for the love of the crowd

the ripe fruit, falling from the tree

“Could all this be what I am” I ask the mirror?

My reflection nods back in silent affirmation ♡

© Jonathan Robert 2022

Universal Health Care -Breath*

Our breath is our connection to the flow of life itself within our bodies. Breath is responsible for keeping us alive.

Human biochemistry has identified chemicals our endocrine system produces (our glandular system which corresponds with the chakra system (mentioned in Sanskrit texts as far back as 1500 B.C.). The hormones that make us feel the highest emotions of love, happiness and joy are a balance of dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin. The parasympathetic branch (rest & digest) of our autonomic nervous system, when stimulated, sends signals to our endocrine system to release these chemicals. The sympathetic branch (fight & flight) sends signals to release hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, which are stress hormones to help us in the case of emergency. Our central nervous system is responsible for how we live, what we feel, our level of perception, our ability to process the constant change that is life itself… and just about every function of our body/mind.

As this human experience would have it, we have in the past encountered stimulation from the environment around us that seems to overwhelm our nervous system and kick us into the sympathetic (fight & flight). These impressions or traumas are stored in the energy body (the way electricity moves through the nervous system as neurons fire and communicate) and passed on from generation to generation. The same impressions then later express in the physical body as pain or ‘symptoms’ or stressful emotional states or overthinking. Whenever these old impressions are triggered we end up in a state of stress. Some of us are living in an almost constant state of stress during the daytime hours and only get some reprieve when we sleep. Others cannot even sleep.

Many of us live in a society which has worked very hard to ‘fix’ the ‘problem’. There is a ‘quick fix’ solution behind the counter of every pharmacy (or liquor store) and we pay for those solutions with the money earned from our stressful lifestyles. But what if I told you (and I already did) that your body is the only pharmacy you may need?

Balanced breath=balanced nervous system=balanced health=balanced life

Deep diaphragmatic full-range breathing does several things:

1) Regulates and balances our central nervous system

2) Stimulates the efficiency and natural functioning of all body systems

3) Massages and brings fresh blood and oxygen to our internal organs

4) Charges our body with fresh oxygen creating more ‘spaciousness’ in us

5) Stimulates our vagus nerve which allows our heart to relax and open

6) Increases the movement of cerebrospinal fluid within the spinal column, restoring proper function of our endocrine system and pressing into our pineal gland

My goal when facilitating breathwork clients is to create a safe and open space where our consciousness can relax and express freely through the body. Life already presents our share of intensity, and having experienced plenty of this myself, have found that a gentle yet focused environment allows us to restore the natural balance of our breathing pattern.

The result is a more balanced, healthy, harmonious and intuitive life… rich with context, feeling and clarity.

* This information is not medical advice, if you want medical advice please see a doctor.