Hari Om

Sometimes, it is that which triggers our pain, our resistance, that also opens us to the healing.

"The healing comes from the place where the hurt comes" - The Bengsons

It is when we allow ourselves to have pain, to have sickness, to have disappointment, and to be uncomfortable that we can begin to bring even that into our wholeness and returning to wholeness is the definition of healing.

All In Love,

Michael

www.journeyhomemeditation.substack.com

[email protected]

Hari Om

Join me for my next live video in the app! Striving towards Monday - Friday at 8:30 am.

What part of all do you not accommodate? What part of your being is rejected, abandoned, feared, ignored, mocked, despised, hidden, or couched in shame? This part of you is part of your all, and you are part of the greater all. When we can understand that on a real, material, and engaged level, we can begin to accommodate “even that.”

Loving Everybody is not difficult because Loving Everybody is not the work. The work is learning how to love yourself. All of it. Every last part. The result is Loving Everybody.

Thanks for listening. Please engage with this project by emailing or leaving comments, questions, or suggestions here.

Always in Love,

Michael

[email protected]

Join me for my next live video in the app! Striving towards Monday - Friday at 8:30 am.

What part of all do you not accommodate? What part of your being is rejected, abandoned, feared, ignored, mocked, despised, hidden, or couched in shame? This part of you is part of your all, and you are part of the greater all. When we can understand that on a real, material, and engaged level, we can begin to accommodate “even that.”

Loving Everybody is not difficult because Loving Everybody is not the work. The work is learning how to love yourself. All of it. Every last part. The result is Loving Everybody.

Thanks for listening. Please engage with this project by emailing or leaving comments, questions, or suggestions here.

Always in Love,

Michael

[email protected]

Hari Om

A simple practice can be a boon to a complex life.

To use the breath as your central practice, you do not need to purchase complicated programs or perform feats of great athleticism. Your breath, as it is, is the key to understanding what you may be experiencing that is just out of reach of your awareness. Taking a few moments to share intimacy with your spiritual practice will have profound effects on the relationship you are developing with the parts of yourself that have become fragmented by guilt, shame, and dissociation, which is to say ‘unawareness.’ Take these few minutes to share in the practice of mindful breathing.

[email protected]

All In Love,

Michael

Hari Om

Today is a simple session focusing on the breath. Come spend 13 minutes breathing with us this morning. This practice is one you can carry through your days, and you will find that the more familiar one becomes with the breath, the more familiar one becomes with themselves.

Thanks for joining today. Find us at substack https://substack.com/@journeyhomemeditation

and reach out at [email protected]

All In Love,

Michael

Note: The audio for this broadcast was diminished a bit by not routing through the microphone properly, and it has no backing audio tracks. For a better audio experience, check out the podcast version of this program.

Hari Om

What we practice is what we become proficient in doing. This includes the things we do mindlessly as well as mindfully. When we experience discomfort or pain, we may have the tendency to avoid or dissociate from the experience, and this is most likely occurring unconsciously. As we do so habitually, we form this dissociated relationship as a way of being with ourselves and, of course, with those to whom we are in relation. Our family relationships, work relationships, and romantic relationships all suffer the loss of connection that we have created in our primary relationship: our relationship with ourselves.

There is no shortage of programs to purchase, gadgets for sale, and commodified religious and spiritual items to adorn ourselves with to “reconnect to our spiritual self,” but none of these are necessary. The most vital tool we have is to become aware of the breath and use this awareness as a teacher for what we need and how to provide for those things to ourselves, apart or together. The practice is simple, which is not always easy. It takes repetition, failures, experimentation, and, most of all, vulnerability to really form a strong and informed relationship with our own breath. It is not heroic actions that form this bond, but rather consistency and trustworthiness. You don’t need to take workshops that charge thousands of dollars to learn to become more intuitive with your own body; you only need to begin showing up and sustain your presence.

Simply begin to feel your breath, restricting it as needed, and pay closer attention to the smallest of details. These details are the quieter voices of your being, starting to come forward. Take heed.

All In Love,

Michael

Let me know what your experiences are in the comments, or message me privately.

Hari Om

What we practice is what we become proficient in doing. This includes the things we do mindlessly as well as mindfully. When we experience discomfort or pain, we may have the tendency to avoid or dissociate from the experience, and this is most likely occurring unconsciously. As we do so habitually, we form this dissociated relationship as a way of being with ourselves and, of course, with those to whom we are in relation. Our family relationships, work relationships, and romantic relationships all suffer the loss of connection that we have created in our primary relationship: our relationship with ourselves.

There is no shortage of programs to purchase, gadgets for sale, and commodified religious and spiritual items to adorn ourselves with to “reconnect to our spiritual self,” but none of these are necessary. The most vital tool we have is to become aware of the breath and use this awareness as a teacher for what we need and how to provide for those things to ourselves, apart or together. The practice is simple, which is not always easy. It takes repetition, failures, experimentation, and, most of all, vulnerability to really form a strong and informed relationship with our own breath. It is not heroic actions that form this bond, but rather consistency and trustworthiness. You don’t need to take workshops that charge thousands of dollars to learn to become more intuitive with your own body; you only need to begin showing up and sustain your presence.

Simply begin to feel your breath, restricting it as needed, and pay closer attention to the smallest of details. These details are the quieter voices of your being, starting to come forward. Take heed.

All In Love,

Michael

Hari Om

To know the breath is to know the body. We spend a lot of our lives dissociated from our form, seeking spiritual escape through external methods and programs. This does not and will not work! We must return to the essence of spirituality, which is to be of breath. This is the basis for all of our existence. Come home.

Find us on Substack: https://substack.com/@journeyhomemeditation

Message me on gmail: [email protected]

All In Love,

Michael

Hari Om. This morning, I had some technical issues, and the microphone I was speaking into was not the microphone that was recording. So, this video has subpar-quality audio and no background music or sounds, but the content is still the content, and I am happy with this morning's contemplation. I especially love the mornings that have a little Wendell Berry sprinkled in them.

Sabbath Poems: X 1979

Whatever is foreseen in joy

And yet no leaf or grain is filled

When we work well, a Sabbath mood

What could it truly mean to release our expectations, and even so much as to release, completely, our attachments to a result? Krishna tells Arjun to do the dharma as it is given and release the fruits entirely to him. In the Bhagavad Gita’s second chapter, Krishna instructs Arjun to focus on his duty and release expectations not because he wants to gain the fruits for himself but because Krishna is telling us that working with expectation is a recipe for feelings of low self-worth, for scarcity, and for resentments. It is also the way in which we create meritocracy that lends itself to our greater separation from one another and, in the case of a religious person, from God. The duty we have is not necessarily the same as our job. Our duty is that thing we must do. We must seek food, water, and air, and it is our duty as well to protect the sources of these things. Likewise, we must cultivate love, affection, and relationships with both that which sustains us all and with one another. We are interdependent for our survival and for the joy of being so!

At times, doing what we think is our job, we will forgo the duties we have to these very basic things: clean water and air, food for all, shelter for all in need, and loving kindness. Just Doing My Job is the epitaph of humanity. This all points to us needing to have a deepened relationship to rest. Holy, sacred rest. The kind of letting go where can feel our bodies spark into life with the level of release we are allowing. This is more important than just ourselves feeling better. Feeling better is good, and it comes from being better at feeling. Chasing pleasure is not the same as this. We must abandon the chase and learn to allow the coming of joy, in all of our ways. This relaxed, restful joy is a path into interdependence and respect, and a way towards a celebration of our togetherness.

Hari Om. This morning, I had some technical issues, and the microphone I was speaking into was not the microphone that was recording. So, this video has subpar-quality audio and no background music or sounds, but the content is still the content, and I am happy with this morning's contemplation. I especially love the mornings that have a little Wendell Berry sprinkled in them.

What could it truly mean to release our expectations, and even so much as to release, completely, our attachments to a result? Krishna tells Arjun to do the dharma as it is given and release the fruits entirely to him. In the Bhagavad Gita’s second chapter, Krishna instructs Arjun to focus on his duty and release expectations not because he wants to gain the fruits for himself but because Krishna is telling us that working with expectation is a recipe for feelings of low self-worth, for scarcity, and for resentments. It is also the way in which we create meritocracy that lends itself to our greater separation from one another and, in the case of a religious person, from God. The duty we have is not necessarily the same as our job. Our duty is that thing we must do. We must seek food, water, and air, and it is our duty as well to protect the sources of these things. Likewise, we must cultivate love, affection, and relationships with both that which sustains us all and with one another. We are interdependent for our survival and for the joy of being so!

At times, doing what we think is our job, we will forgo the duties we have to these very basic things: clean water and air, food for all, shelter for all in need, and loving kindness. Just Doing My Job is the epitaph of humanity. This all points to us needing to have a deepened relationship to rest. Holy, sacred rest. The kind of letting go where can feel our bodies spark into life with the level of release we are allowing. This is more important than just ourselves feeling better. Feeling better is good, and it comes from being better at feeling. Chasing pleasure is not the same as this. We must abandon the chase and learn to allow the coming of joy, in all of our ways. This relaxed, restful joy is a path into interdependence and respect, and a way towards a celebration of our togetherness.