Spring awakening indeed!

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Last night I led an Introduction to Focalizing here in NYC and it could not have gone more splendidly.  I was assisted by some wonderful friends and colleagues, the event was intended to be the run up to a short term Sunday early evening group that will be held in May and concluding before Memorial Day.  Above is one of the beautiful images that was created and the presentation is being edited for a YouTube video. I’m still basking in the glow of the good energy that was created.  The fee is only $75 for all three workshops, or $25 each. The topics will be:

Workshop #1 – Getting Unstuck: Workshop #1 will be held Sunday May 5th at 6pm at the Alma Mathews House (275 West 11th Street, Manhattan).

Workshop #2 – Intimacy and Sex: Workshop #2 will be held Sunday May 12th at 6pm at the Alma Mathews House (275 West 11th Street, Manhattan).

Workshop #3 – Relationships: Workshop #3 will be held Sunday May 19th at 6pm at the LGBT Center (208 West 13th Street, Manhattan).

Please send an RSVP email to focalizingnyc@gmail.com with your name, any questions you may have, and which workshops you would like to register for.

 

Spring has Sprung & Blooms are Progressing

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Wow, what a winter. There has been much suffering around my family, friends, clients and myself. Yet, during this same time I have been engulfed (in a good way) by life-giving projects, one tumbling out of the other.  After publishing Focalizing Source Energy: Looking Within to Move Beyond, more books wanted to be birthed building on the Focalizing book. To my own amazement, alongside my vibrant practice, all of them are already fully engaged processes and will be published over the year ahead.

Most exciting to me at the moment is that a small group of younger folks (<36y/o) have invited me to share the Focalizing process with their friends and others in their age group.  Since I feel that this age cohort is vital to a better world, I accepted the invitation and I am leading a Focalizing introduction on Sunday, April 14, 6 – 8 PM in Greenwich Village, NYC, followed by a three-Sunday-workshop on 5/5, 5/12 and 5/19 all starting at 6 PM.  Fees are under $26, the Introduction being less to help defray expenses.  There’s even a package deal. For more information contact: info@theinstitute.org .

Another interesting highlight and early development is my new relationship with ASKIMOTV. They are an internet company where you can immediately access seasoned experts in numerous fields by watching brief interviews online and other possible access. This successful venue launched in Israeli is quickly being migrated to English speaking countries and will be headquartered in US. I am happy to help them in this process and, to that end, below are five brief interviews online of yours truly in what seems like the beta stage of the launch. www.askimo.com has the promise to be a very compelling resource for all of us.

Below are my first interviews with them:

On Focalizing:  http://www.askimo.com/pages/PlayVideo.aspx?vid=3265#

On Addiction Release: http://www.askimo.com/pages/PlayVideo.aspx?vid=3266

On Trauma Resolution http://www.askimo.com/pages/PlayVideo.aspx?vid=3267

On Relationships: http://www.askimo.com/pages/PlayVideo.aspx?vid=3269

On Sexual Healing http://www.askimo.com/pages/PlayVideo.aspx?vid=3268

Enjoy spring, and please consider reading my new book so as to set the stage for what is to follow later this year

In friendship, Michael

 

 

Fall Awakening: Transcending Talk-Therapy

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I’m excited to share my new book, Focalizing Source Energy, to be released this fall.  This small book explains how many clients, colleagues, and workshop participants are transcending talk-therapy (as we have known it) with a no-shame, no-blame, right-here, right-now healing approach that is body/energy oriented. If you want to discover what will make your life happier, while giving it meaning and purpose, you’ll love the new book.

To celebrate this new release, my previous two books are being offered for FREE for the FIRST FIVE DAYS after the updated 2012 eBook formats are complete over the next few weeks.  They will sell for a very reasonable price, but you can take advantage of the free offer if you’re on this e-mailing list, so stay tuned for that.

The new book will coincide with a series of classes and workshops: Getting Unstuck & Finding New Ground: Focalizing – Going Within to Move Beyond (click bold for info), meeting four consecutive Tuesday evenings, starting November 12, and Gratitude: Discovering New Dimensions (click bold for info) at International Centre for Healing, Crossroads Antigua, West Indies on November 17 & 18, 2012. If will be held during Gratitude in Recovery Weekend, celebrating Crossroad’s tenth anniversary as an alum retreat, open to all in recovery.

Other events will be posted soon, or get on my email list for quick updates. Hope to connect and share all this with you.

To a good transitional season, Michael

 

Eros & the Cosmic Experience

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Eros, The God of Love & Creativity
Several folks have commented to me lately, “Nothing rattles you; I wish I could be that way.”  Yet, I haven’t always been that way. Life has been brutal, but in ways that have been enormously transformative. And, if I had to select one dimension that most informed me from the inside out it is Eros, the creative and sexual drive, and discovering the inner union between bliss and the cosmos.
A section from my book, The Journey Toward Complete Recovery, reminds me of the path that led to my present state. It is one of grounded presence, where I consent to all current realities. (Read section by clicking here.) Bringing light and compassion to whatever requires transformation, from cultural traumas that unconsciously split our sexual and spiritual natures, helps us integrate a deeply healing, cosmic perspective.
On the same theme, I will be leading a 4-week workshop on Healing the Sex/Spirit Split, on Tuesday nights beginning May 29th. It will be a state of the art, energetic experience of all that has evolved since my first 1984 workshop on the topic.
This summer I will be co-facilitating the 4th International Retreat for Gay and Bi HIV+ Men July 12-15 in Stroudsberg, PA.  The gay male populations affected by HIV find that sex/spirit healing invigorates very rich lives.
In other news, GoodTherapy.org recently published Part 3 (in a series of 4 articles) called:  Source Energy Optimizes Life: Escalating Source Energy through Trauma Resolution.
In this pre-summer mood, I wish everyone well, and hope our paths (virtual or otherwise) continue to cross in very good ways.
Until soon, Michael

 

Cosmic Reality Here Now!

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Our Milky Way Galaxy
[Click bold for more depth]

As I sit looking out the window at tiny snowflakes blowing about during this otherwise mild winter, I find myself musing on the cosmos. I just took a break from reading The View from the Center of the Universe, a gift from a client. While I ponder its new perspectives, I’ve had what I call another aperture opening in my awareness.

I have been blessed for some years with a holistic perspective of myself and our world. I see and feel the oneness, and no longer experience the separations: good/bad, male/female, rich/poor, Democrat/Republican. I hold no positions except honoring all that exists. And yet, reading this scientific exploration has strengthened my point of view in an unexpected way, by widening and deepening my outlook:
This new story of the universe is a gift so extraordinary that most of us don’t know what to do with it. We have been living for centuries in a black and white film. There were no obvious gaps in the scenes before us, so we didn’t notice that anything was missing. Becoming aware of the universe is like suddenly seeing in color, and that changes not just what’s far away but what’s right here. The universe is here, and it’s more coherent and potentially meaningful for our lives than anyone imagined.
My vision is being enhanced by color as I read this book, while my body senses the coherence of energy that makes up our world, perfect in this moment. Touching this realm we quickly see, in a quantum way, a giant, new potential; that a harmony exists for personal and collective healing that is simultaneously transforming our personal and global future. I am very grateful for View from the Center of the Universe.

Quick catch up: My second article in a four-part series Source Energy Optimizes Life was just published on GoodTherapy.org, a web site for the discerning.The piece, S.E.X. Expands Source Energy, describes the schism in our sex/love energies and how to overcome the primary barriers to healing.
In April, my 4-week course, Source Energy and Disease Transformation is being offered on Tuesday nights at the Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment in NYC. Check it out by clicking on the bold.
The recent Open Center course How to Heal the Sex/Spirit Split was amazing. A progressed version of that workshop will also be offered at the Open Center starting May 29.

Spring soon, Michael

A New Year of Transformation

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I had lunch yesterday with my best friend of over thirty years. He is being treated with chemotherapy for leukemia and has other health challenges, too. At one point in the conversation John told me that despite the physical torture of his treatment, he has never been so happy. He said, “All the crap, the fears and anger just disappeared, and I feel freer than I ever have in my life.”

I looked at John and said, “It’s not just you. I’m also feeling the best and lightest I ever have. And, it’s not unique to only us. I’m seeing a remarkable shift in many clients and other friends.“

On my drive home later, I had a vision that what we are going through is a collective transformation threshold. We are letting go of previous perceptions of who we should be, and becoming more aligned with who we really are. It is all about collective energy.

Source Energy, which I also call love, teaches us that giving love is the way to be truly happy. When consciously coming from Source, giving (and receiving) love creates harmonious ascending circles of more love.

While there is great suffering in our world, as so many struggle, there are also countless people finding themselves on a path of freedom, joy and contentment through connecting with their own Source Energy. It seems what we call spiritual awakening or transformation is no longer the exclusive domain of ardent practitioners, rather it’s within the reach of all of us, and I am amazed at how often I observe it.

I have begun a series of brief articles to explain and explore this expanding phenomenon. In the first, published by GoodTherapy.org called Source Energy Optimizes Life (Part One: Finding Source Energy), I begin to roll out the basics in a simple, easily used process for making the connection. Click on the bold title above to read it.

Additionally, I have been given the opportunity to lead a 5-evening workshop to further share my experience in making this connection. I will be helping participants access expanded Source Energy by dissolving one of the greatest barriers we have in becoming fully whole beings. It is the culturally induced split between our sexual energy and our loving, or spiritual energy. This NYC Open Center workshop begins January 9th. Click here for details.

Happy 2012, Michael

Bob’s Death; A New Threshold

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[click bold for more depth]
Last week, my eldest brother, Bob, died after years of health challenges. We were never really close, though his daughter is my godchild and a cherished part of my life; my brother and I had opposite worldviews.  I dreaded his forwarded emails that I politely asked him to stop sending. They came anyway; he was determined to save me.

 At the time of Bob’s difficult passing I was reading Lynne McTaggart’s new book The Bond that was highly recommended by my friends at the Institute forNoetic Sciences. In this groundbreaking book we discover scientifically that “the essential impulse of all life is a will to connect rather than a drive to compete. In fact, we are inescapably connected, hardwired to each other at our most fundamental level—from cells to whole societies.”

I was given words in The Bond for a different perspective that has been shifting inside of me, casting a palpable energy beyond me. Bob’s death highlighted what the book refers to as “relativity awareness.” It grounded my own notion that competition as a fundamental human urge made no sense.

I have been writing about wholeness and what it means to us for decades. Yet, Lynne’s book catapulted me to a new threshold of envisioning it everywhere.  I suddenly experienced my dying brother from his inside out, and all around. Our differences lost all significance and I felt a strong compassion, love and new connection with Bob that was real. It was a lovely gift to receive. And, it went out beyond Bob to every person alive. You could say that I am in awe, and it feels so full of new possibilities that I smile with gratitude for both Lynne and Bob.

As many of us are saying along with Lynne, “We sense that we have reached the end of something. The world as we knew it is going down.” The false view of us as separate is also going down, as we gradually emerge to the potential of a better future. Just as my differences with Bob were dissolved and replaced with compassion and connection, our new world-story can be seeing and giving from wholeness, or the Bond that is alive between us.  It changes everything in a really good way.

The Bond energy, wholeness, or the creative source energy found in stillness is where to look for a new world. Check out my resource page if you want to hop on the ride.

Happy fall, Michael

A Magical S.E.X. Experience

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[click bold for more depth]

Last week, I co-led a five-day retreat w/Claes Lilja (founder of Brotherhood Retreats) for HIV positive gay men from around the globe. Having previously facilitated numerous retreats, this one had some special ingredients that I am still happily digesting.
My contributions to the group were primarily in the areas of Disease Transformation (click to read article) and Sexuality & Sacred Sex. For the latter, we approached healing the obstruction many find between their sexual and love energies by shifting what we know about sex. We explored it through the lens of S.E.X. (Soul Energy eXchange), agreeing on a definition of “soul” and defining the four primary energies exchanged: Love, Pleasure, Lingam (active), and Yoni (receptive).
In a process of healing touch (with clothes on) led by Claes we experienced the restorative circle of love energy that is present when lingam and yoni are consciously exchanged. This reframing of sex was fascinating to the participants, and I was amazed at the full body, personal and collective healing energy it brought to everyone’s barriers. I have encountered the subtle, yet commanding surge of energy that presents itself when attendees share more than one area of their life’s challenges, but never before like this time.

A few days after the workshop, I felt a new, multi-dimensional awakening, as if a strong channel had opened within me. I choose to keep absorbing my experiences from the retreat and notice where they take me. As my intentions have been to focus less on the past, I eagerly await to be informed by the very alive, emerging future happening all around us.
Coincidentally, the day after the retreat ended, the Director of Programming at The NY Open Center called to invite me to lead a five-week Monday night workshop in early January, 2012 on S.E.X. Though she knew this was part of my earlier repertoire, her offer seemed to come from totally out of the blue. How serendipitous was that? I found a new, affirmative energy in this work at the retreat, and shortly thereafter the universe gifts me with a venue to keep developing the process further. Very cool!
Michael

Recovery, Straight Up & Disease Transformation

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[click on bold for depth]

I can’t fully articulate how tickled I am enjoying Maer Roshan’s latest creation: The Fix: Addiction and Recovery, Straight Up. This daily website portrays the most authentic, multi-dimensional, in-the-moment perspectives on the addiction & recovery phenomena I’ve run across in a while. (Read the press reviews about The Fix: The New York Times, The New York Observer, New York Magazine, Salon, and NPR.)

The critics think something interesting is happening, and I’ve found it a healing tool that offers an unexpected humorous glimpse at our reality. It’s a gift from Roshan, the founder of Radar magazine, and radaronline, among other things. Always candid about his own alcoholism, he says, “there’s no rule out there that sobriety is supposed to be this dull, earnest monastic exercise. There’s tons of humor in the surreal situations that we find ourselves in. The Fix is certainly not going to ignore that.”

Humor is not only a significant element of the Fix, it’s a core component of individual and collective healing. While recently preparing for an upcoming retreat for HIV+ gay and bi men, (click bold for retreat information) I was inspired to write an article for GoodTherapy.org: Focalizing Disease Transformation, about my transformation of the disease of alcoholism and other serious afflictions. After a client read it, I was thrilled to be told how it beautifully portrayed her recent freedom from a 30-year-old, daily crippling eating disorder.

Healing can seem bizarre and paradoxical, just like our maladies.

One Love, Michael

Mary’s Tree and an HIV Retreat

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Almost 20 years ago, my dear friend Mary MacDonald gave me an apple tree for my then new home in the Catskill Mountains. Although Mary passed away 2 years ago, her spirit continues to be an important resource. Not only do I feel her presence while I’m working with clients, but as I arrived upstate yesterday, Mary’s tree was in full, luscious bloom. Thank you, Mary.


This springtime lift amplifies my excitement to be co-facilitating a Gay & Bi Men’s International Retreat: Transforming HIV – Awakening Our Lives, Thursday to Monday, July 14-18, 2011,atKirkridge Retreat Center, Stroudsburg, PA (in the Pocono Mountains).Further details & registration: http://www.pozretreats.com/index.htm

At this 4th annual retreat, along with co-facilitators, Claes Lilja & Sam Lipton, I will share my experiences on the Focalizing process for disease transformation. Focalizing allows us to respectfully set aside familiar thoughts and feelings to instead access our innate intelligence, reconnecting us with a natural resource that conveys new perspectives. Focalizing often illuminates previously unseen possibilities for moving forward with grace. In learning how to transform overwhelming life situations we can suspend our everyday-thinking-mind to a timeless source of change, developing a newly enlightened intelligence. Beingsurrounded by nature’s beauty at this retreat with my colleagues will enhance everyone’s experience. Please consider joining us, or passing this along to anyone who may benefit. Early registration is suggested, as retreat is limited to 30 participants.

Best Always, Michael