Trust The Breath

A very special Meditation Intensive This Sunday ~

2011-11-30T18:11:00.001-08:00

THIS Sunday, December 4th ~ 10am – 1pm
$91 minimum donation

Embrace of the Beloved: Leading You Deeper Into the Heart of Love
A Meditation Intensive to Remember

What is the HEART of Love?
How could three hours immersed in the experience of it open you deeper to freedom, love, and happiness that aren’t dependent on circumstances or other people? What would it be like to be able to experience unconditional love inside yourself, for yourself, even when circumstances seem to be going awry?

There is a vast reservoir of strength, stillness, peace, love, and causeless joy within you. Learning to access it is our task. Meditation will be our means. Anyone can learn to enter the profound space of meditation, it's a simple matter of learning your way in. Each participant will be initiated more deeply into this inner space.

With a combination of sitting meditations, breathing techniques, ancient tools, and culminating in Ecstatic Breathwork, this will be an event to remember!

Don’t worry if you’ve never meditated or don’t feel "good at it". You’ll be fully supported and guided to finding the doorways that lead you into the places which deep true meditation opens. This is for all levels of experience.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear.

Join Us.

When:   Sunday, December 4th, 2011
Time:       10:00am –1:00pm

Minimum Donation: $91

Where: 140 North Swall Dr, Beverly Hills, 90211. Park on the street.

RSVP:      Send a paypal to "soulmatrix@earthlink.net" to hold your place. Please select "personal" and "gift" when doing your paypal.

BRING:      A folded blanket and/or yoga mat to lay on for the breathing meditation, eye pillow if you have one, Journal & Pen, any cushions for sitting on, water, and a smile!

Side Note: When selecting what to sit on for meditation, the guideline is to have your cusions/folded blankets high enough such that the top of your hip bones are above your knees. If your knees are above the top of your hip bones, your lower back will likely ache from trying to support you.

LOVE,
Scott

http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk
Follow on Twitter: Scott_Schwenk

Gaining More Power & Leverage In Your Life

2011-09-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

One of the preeminent social networking mavens, Brian Solis, put up this quote recently, "The distance between who I am and who I want to be is separated only by my actions and my words."

What are you saying? What are you doing? Who or what do you want to be?

A lot of my work with clients looks at structures and systems. You are in essence, your own ecosystem, dependent, and interdependent with more elements, people, and aspects than you can possibly imagine. Every aspect of your life is supported and maintained by a system of one sort or another, both those aspects that you cherish and the ones that you just can't seem to be rid of.

Clarity is key. Clarity in seeing what's what and who's who, here and now.

Pick an area of your life to focus on right now, to carry through this article. Choose an area that you'd like to make some change to. Got it? Good.

What do you want to change about it? Be specific.

How is it right now? What's actually happening in that area of your life here, now, in this moment?

You are saying and doing things both consciously and unconsciously to and with yourself and others that maintain this "reality". 90% of how it's going is coming from you, from your thoughts, feelings, and actions over time. That's good news. You can make a change. Now.

Many years ago when I was in sales, I remember being told that my actions today were creating my results ninety days from now. If I wanted to eat in ninety days, I'd better be on the phone, building relationships and putting projects in the pipeline now. This applies to every area of life, though my experience shows that the timelines aren't all as concrete as ninety days, some are longer, some are more instant. The variances are based on what we're dealing with. The more you pay attention, the more see the timelines.

Two of the main challenges that prevent growth beyond the known over time are placement of attention and broken agreements. See yesterday's article, The Superhighway To Happiness, where I deal with a first deep cut at how you place attention.

Before we move any further, what do you want? Yes, YOU! Really. What do you want? And are you willing to let it be important enough that your words and your actions move squarely in the direction of bringing it fully to life?

Today the bow is strung with arrow pointed squarely at broken agreements.

We all have a certain finite amount of personal energy that gets used in a number of ways, and unconsciously leaked in even more ways. If I give you a thousand dollars right now, tax-free, cash, to do whatever you like, how will it really and actually get spent? In 90% of people, there will be unconscious spending that does absolutely nothing at all to forward your stated and most precious intentions. The spending will be dictated predominantly by the five senses and how they want to be pleased temporarily, with nothing to show for it later. This is the the human condition. Until some form of conscious presence gains a foothold in the life and the game changes from habit to choice.

Where are your broken agreements? With yourself? With your family? With your co-workers? With your lover? Spouse? What have you said or implied to another and never followed through on? What intentions and resolutions have you so eloquently and emphatically stood on the bandwagon at New Year's with, only to forget thirty days later?

All these resolutions and intentions hang around like driftwood jamming and clogging the flow of a formerly pristine river. If you want to cool off from the heat and humidity of high Summer in this sweet river, you've got to clean out the driftwood and make room.

Make a list. Get excited about all the space you're making for yourself. Get lit up about having more energy available.

Take the list and deal with it, item by item. That might look like real honest conversations where you take responsibility for what you said and make it clear that you're either going to do what you said, or not do what you said. Just be clear. Communicate. Be real. Give up the people pleasing and be honest with yourself and the world around you.

Saying "Let's do lunch," when you've got no desire or intention to actually show up is a waste of precious life force.

What are you committed to? What matters most to you? Where are you actually spending your time? If there's a gap here, you have broken agreements with yourself. And if you're going into some sinking feeling of guilt or shame, drop it. Remind yourself of your intentions and simply get to work on cleaning out the driftwood, branch-by-branch.

Along the way, keep track of what your saying to people. If you're giving the sense you're going to do something, write it down, put it in your calendar and do it. Otherwise, don't give the idea that you're available for that lunch, project, meeting, or whatever.

Superhighway to Happiness

2011-09-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

MEDITATION

Whatever you're focusing on, you're experiencing. Simple. What's not so simple, until you've got the inner musculature stronger, is moving your attention at will. If you want to be able to do 100 pushups (yes there's an app for that too...), you've got to start with 1 pushup, well performed. Then you can move to two and 20, and according to the app, within six weeks you'll be doing 100 pushups if you follow the program. There's some work involved, and if you don't know why you're setting out to be someone who can effectively do 100 pushups (at one time), then when you hit challenges, it's easy to get distracted which leads to diminished results which leads to quitting. If you're human like me, you've done this in your life, at least once, if not more.

So what are you focusing on? What are you giving attention to? Do you like it? Does it make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Or does it make you a bit prickly, a bit difficult to be around when you're obsessing internally about your insecurities?

If you're suffering, you're focused on an illusion and relating to it like it's real, true, and likely permanent. Nothing is permanent. That's basic Tao 101, Change is constant. Yet when that feeling comes up, yes, you know the one....the one that takes you out of commission when you believe it....the one that your mind starts gathering all variety of "evidence" to support....when that feeling comes up, and your ego is building the case, there's an addiction at play. There is literally a secretion of hormones in the body, a particular order of neurons firing and the system gets habituated, or addicted to that feeling, however lousy it may feel.

Then there's the accompanying feelings of powerlessness to change that can come along for the ride. The next thing you know, the mind is chiming in with all the "to do" items that are more urgent and time-sensitive than actually stopping all action and getting back into your right mind, into the felt presence of contentment, or even authentic happiness.

At this point in my life it's clear, the only thing I have a say over consistently is my own inner state. The stronger my inner state, the more leverage I have in the outer world. The weaker my inner state, the more the prevailing challenges in the world have ongoing impact on every aspect of my life.

You can either become an organizing principle, or be organized and shuffled around by the chaos of the world. An organizing principle in the way I'm working with it here is a power point, deeply grounded into inner strength that is grown through attention and practice. Like an electro-magnet that turns neighboring iron filings into mini-magnets, you become this force that life organizes itself around.

So to begin this reversal of the power back to you, back to your choice to be happy independent of circumstances, we start with what you're focusing on, what you're paying attention to, what you're animating and perpetuating with your own life force.

At some point, this kind of self-reflection becomes an ongoing habit. Along the way, it's not only an enormous support, it's CRITICAL to set aside daily time for formal practice. What do I mean by 'formal'? Suit and tie? Cocktail dress and Jimmy Choo's? Not so much.

I mean specific scheduled times each day with set beginning and ending times that you don't let get preempted by anything.

What do I do during this time? Since the focus of this note is meditation, I'm going to suggest actually meditating. It can be easy, it can be enjoyable (which is a key to depth in meditation), and there's a tremendous amount of support for learning how.

I use the EOC Institute's "Balance" mp3 (http://EOCinstitute.org) nearly every time I meditate. It uses tonal frequencies through your headphones, masked in the sound of gentle rainfall to literally train your brain and nervous system to live in meditative states.

Working with a seasoned teacher shortens the learning curve tremendously and helps troubleshoot places where your attention is getting caught or stuck, and restoring you into the awe-inspiring free-fall of deep meditation.

Just start.

The Power of FREEDOM ~ Ecstatic Breathwork ~ Fri, Sept 16th 8-9pm at The Hub

2011-09-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

The Power of FREEDOM ~ Diving into Source of Life

This Friday night, I’ll be leading Ecstatic Breathwork at The Hub

Friday, September 16 ~ 8-9 pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       FRIDAY night 9/16 8-9pm (1 hour)
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $20 drop-in rate/or purchase a series
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com <http://thehub-la.com/> )
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com <http://trustthebreath.com/>
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com <http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com/>
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk
Follow on Twitter: Breathworks

"Entering the Heart of Wholeness" Chelsea Workshop, Sun Sept 4 ~ Private Union Sq Sessions Sept 3-6

2011-08-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends ~ I’ll be back in NYC offering a brand-new intensive workshop on Sunday afternoon, Sept 4th from 11:45am-3pm, “Entering the Heart of Wholeness” (scroll down for details), as well as private sessions by appointment (see below Workshop). I look forward to being with you! LOVE, Scott

Entering the Heart of Wholeness: Practices for Catalyzing & Deepening Embodied Freedom

SUNDAY, September 4th
11:45am-3pm
$91 minimum donation

In this intensive workshop we will work deeply with specific empowered mantras, breathing techniques, meditation, and contemplation to initiate and catalyze deeper embodiment of Wholeness, Freedom, and Causeless Joy across all areas of life.

Under the Guidance and direction of Sri Sri Sri Svami Purna Ji Maharaj (http://adfoundation.org), I am now bringing the teachings and practices that have and continue to powerfully expedite and unfold my own Path through every aspect of my work with you.

All levels of experience are welcome at this workshop!

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When: Sunday, September 4th
Time:    11:45am-3pm (arrive early to avoid being late)

Where: Moving Body Resources
            112 West 27th Stree, 4th Fl
            (Between 6th and 7th Aves.)

Minimum Donation: $91

Registration: Send $91 via paypal (select donation) to soulmatrix@earthlink.net

Bring: A notebook and pen, water bottle, a cushion or folded blanket for meditation and eye-pillow if you have one. We'll be sitting on the floor for several of the meditations, and laying out flat for the breath meditation. There are a few chairs if you’re unable to sit on the floor. If you tend to get chilly, bring a warmer layer to put on.

------------------

I’ll once again offer PRIVATE HEALING SESSIONS by appointment Saturday, Sept 2 through Tuesday, Sept 6th.

Private sessions are approximately 1hr 15min and minimum donation of $200. 48hrs cancellation policy by phone call for all sessions. Schedule a session by calling me at 310-922-4890.

Private sessions (unless otherwise indicated) will happen at:

Well Space
32 Union Square East, Suite 411
New York, NY 10003
212-539-1690

------

Love,
Scott
(310) 922-4890
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Ecstatic Breathwork & Gong Bath ~ Fri, Aug 19th 8-9pm at The Hub

2011-08-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

This Friday night, I’ll be leading Ecstatic Breathwork to the accompaniment of Italian Gong Master, Nicola Renita

Friday, August 19 ~ 8-9 pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

The sound of the gongs is wordless mantra, drawing you deep into the cave of the Self, the home of Wholeness, the Source of the One within.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       FRIDAY night 8/19 8-9pm (1 hour)
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $20 drop-in rate/or purchase a series
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com <http://thehub-la.com/> )
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com <http://trustthebreath.com/>
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com <http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com/>
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Gaia's Overdose

2011-07-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

Track marks up and down
Arms and legs
Trailed with our
Cast away past
The wrappers telling time
Strata of unmet needs
Straddling broken pipe dreams.

You and I aren't that
different Mama,
we're really just the same
in the bright fast car
gaining speed
in no one's name.
I can't take this pace
this drive for speed
I'm crashing over and over
doing it again
calling it a creed.

Your blood is so
translucent Mama
phosphorescent glow
winter morning pills popped
oozing through rivers
surging spring melt flow.

Needles stacked
Pickup sticks
Art without a show.
Strewn down stretching shores
Confetti for post-modern stage

Are you throwing me off your back
Mama
was it something that I've said?
Seismic fits and coughs
rattling the cage
the matrix with its deep red tear
ripping through carotid arteries of trade
a whole new signal to the brain.

You and I aren't that
different Mama,
we're really just the same
in the bright fast car
gaining speed
in no one's name.
I can't take this pace
this drive for speed
I'm crashing over and over
doing it again
calling it a creed.

You're clearly on a bender Mama
wracking in the pain
We're in the same fast car
Dying in no one's name.

All rights reserved 2011 ~ Scott Patrick Schwenk

Deep Bang, Less Bucks ~ New Format for Breathwork at The Hub

2011-07-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

This week marks the beginning of a new format for Breathwork classes at The Hub. We're endeavoring to bring the actual experience that the Breathwork opens up to as many people as are ready to Soar! Rather than full-on workshops, these sessions will now be 1 hour dives focused primarily on the experience of the Breathwork at the drop-in rate of $20 (or less if you're using a series pass that includes access to yoga, meditation, and breathwork classes)

Friday, July 17 ~ 8-9pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

Going Further

What is further for you? In a safe, strong, loving container, this Friday night, you’re invited to Go Further. Further into love, Further into self-acceptance, Further into the Unknown, Further into the Truth of You.

I’m also feeling called to bring in more work with Sound. The Hub has a number of profoundly resonant quartz crystal singing bowls. The vibration from these quartz bowls moves through the physical and subtle bodies, melting through old structures, old beliefs, melting them back into simple vibrant energy that can be used as fuel for Anything.

Using simple tools of PERSPECTIVE, Awareness, and Breath, you’ll strengthen your tools for deepening your own process of Freedom...

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       FRIDAY night 6/17 8-9pm (1 hour)
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $20 drop-in rate/or purchase a series
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Enjoying Meditation, Tasting Freedom || Wednesday Nights 7:45-9pm @ The Hub

2011-06-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

ENJOYING MEDITATION, TASTING FREEDOM ~ Wednesday Nights at The Hub ~ 7:45-9pm

Every week I’m more excited than the last for these Wednesday night gatherings. There’s a building momentum, and a gathering depth, that’s creating a strong, safe, and vibrant container/space to go deep into the world of Freedom that meditation can open. Each week we’re standing on the shoulders of the previous week’s growth. Each week, we’re diving deeper into the direct experience of Silence, Love, Stillness, Renewal, and in the presence of others. Doing this work in a group setting is silently encouraging an unraveling of what it is to be deeply yourSelf in the midst of others.

Meditation can be FUN, and enjoying is a skill you can learn at any point, a skill that scales out to infinite depth and breadth and will impact every single area of your life.

Come!

We've made it super-affordable for you...priced like a yoga class so you can experience the cumulative effect of sitting with a group, the exponential expansion over time...

In a recent newsletter, friend, mentor, and the teacher who trained me to teach meditation, Sally Kempton, writes ~

"As a teacher, I've learned that the way something is said can literally shift consciousness. This is especially true of meditation instructions. When your inner field is open and receptive, a few words of guidance or a pointing-out instruction will open up pathways that can take you into the heart of being itself. That's one reason why meditating with a teacher and a group can be so instrumental in awakening your deepest experience in meditation. Because the words that point to stillness carry the energy of stillness, you can often go deeper inside with the right words than you do on your own. Then, when you're meditating on your own again, the pathway that the instructions have kindled is there to guide you."

ENJOYING MEDITATION, TASTING FREEDOM ~ Wednesdays at The Hub ~ 7:45-9pm

The Hub (http://thehub-la.com) 2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363

Click Here for Details ~ http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com/2011/05/enjoying-meditation-tasting-freedom.html

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Who Do You Think You Are? ECSTATIC BREATHWORK this FRIDAY 6/17, 8-9:30pm at The Hub

2011-06-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 17 ~ 8-9:30pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

Who Do You Think You Are?

“As a man thinketh in his Heart, so is he.” ~Proverbs 23:7

What’s occupying you? Where is your Attention (thoughts, feelings, and awareness) pulled consciously AND unconsciously? Is it the Truth of what you truly are as unfettered Freedom? And if you have glimpsed the Truth of what you and I are, where is there room for it to be more fully EMBODIED?

Using simple tools of PERSPECTIVE, Awareness, and Breath, you’ll strengthen your tools for deepening your own process of Freedom...

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       FRIDAY night 6/17 8-9:30pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Awakening Power through Tenderness and Strength this SUNDAY 5/8, 6:30-8pm at The Hub

2011-06-02T17:17:00.000-07:00

TENDERNESS AND STRENGTH = POWER

In the process of growing up and waking up, and building Strength, a vast number of us have lost touch with Tenderness....or have gone the other direction and built a sort of Tenderness that is missing Strength.

Tenderness without Strength can create relationships of massive codependence, carrying pain for other people as way to get love, blurred boundaries, and a painful sort of ultra-sensitivity.

Strength without Tenderness can produce human "islands", lone wolves, and an absence of real Communion with other people and groups.

I've been studying this in myself, sanding off the crust of old battle scars from my Heart, stretching its edges wider than is comfortable, and finding this incredible Power.

Which side are you more anchored into? Where is there room for more freedom? More Communion that includes your strength, that's grounded, present, and able to really Feel this world in a way that's not only empowering to You, it becomes a gift to every Community you're a part of, to the World as a whole.

This is an Exploration. We don't have answers. We're curious about what's truly Possible in Happiness, in Love, and in Freedom. With Awareness, Breath, and Trust, we're exploring. Join Us!

When:       SUNDAY night 6/5/11 6:30-8pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

TENDERNESS AND STRENGTH = POWER, Sunday, JUNE 5 ~ 6:30-8pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

2011-05-31T10:24:00.000-07:00

Sunday, JUNE 5 ~ 6:30-8pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

TENDERNESS AND STRENGTH = POWER

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       SUNDAY night 6/5/11 6:30-8pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

ENJOYING MEDITATION, TASTING FREEDOM ~ Wednesdays at The Hub ~ 7:45-9pm

2011-05-31T10:13:00.000-07:00

I am over the moon about this new class. Having fallen so deeply in love with my own practice over time, I'm compelled to infect as many people as possible with what the Poet-Saint Hafiz calls "The Happy Virus". Meditation can be FUN, and enjoying is a skill you can learn at any point, a skill that scales out to infinite depth and breadth and will impact every single area of your life. Come! And we've made it super-affordable for you...priced like a yoga class so you can experience the cumulative effect of sitting with a group, the exponential expansion over time...

In her latest newsletter, friend, mentor, and the teacher who trained me to teach meditation, Sally Kempton, writes ~

"As a teacher, I've learned that the way something is said can literally shift consciousness. This is especially true of meditation instructions. When your inner field is open and receptive, a few words of guidance or a pointing-out instruction will open up pathways that can take you into the heart of being itself. That's one reason why meditating with a teacher and a group can be so instrumental in awakening your deepest experience in meditation. Because the words that point to stillness carry the energy of stillness, you can often go deeper inside with the right words than you do on your own. Then, when you're meditating on your own again, the pathway that the instructions have kindled is there to guide you."

ENJOYING MEDITATION, TASTING FREEDOM ~ Wednesdays at The Hub ~ 7:45-9pm

· What if you could meditate easily and deeply enjoy it?

· What if meditation could open you to expanding your ability to consciously live from Joy, Love, and Freedom independent of your circumstances?

· What if meditation could give you potent and infinite access to the very Source of creative energy fueling the greatest expressions and innovations in Art, Music, Business, Science, and Awakening?

It can, and you’re ready, exactly as you are. Whether you’re new to the practice of meditation, a seasoned meditator, or somewhere in-between, these evenings are for you. Drawing on a timeless lineage of Living Wisdom, we’ll dive into this deep well of Inspiration, Rejuvenation, and Revelation, using these Wednesday nights to expand your ability to access deep meditative states and bring more ease, grace, and Freedom to every area of your life.

Meditation is so much more than a daily event, it’s a place to live from.

“Meditation is also a skill. It takes time to develop your inner ‘muscles’ of focus and to learn how to let go into the inner world. It takes practice to discover how to let yourself move along the pathways of the inner shakti, to stay aware without thinking, and to hold an inner state when it arises.” –Sally Kempton

“Many people have difficulty when they begin to meditate. They attempt to ‘conquer’ meditation, as if it were the enemy. That will never work. One must drift naturally into the meditative state.” – Dr. Svami Purna

Each week we’ll work with different entry points to deep meditation through several guided meditations and Q & A. You will leave these evenings armed with tools to continually deepen and enjoy your own experience of mediation, yourself, and life!

Chair and floor seating are both available.

$20 – Drop In / $75 – 5 Class Series / $140 – 10 Class Series

Suggested Reading ~ Meditation For The Love Of It, Enjoying Your Own Deepest Expereince by Sally Kempton available for purchase at The Hub.

The Truth Will Set You Free by Dr. Svami Purna available at Amazon.com

Scott Schwenk is a healer, teacher, writer, and lover of life known for his humor, appetite for Truth, and commitment to practice. Through the Grace of great Teachers and Living Grace, he has learned to be happy, have more fun, and find freedom in the moment.

Diving Into The 3 Faces of God ~ Fri 5/20-ECSTATIC BREATHWORK @ The Hub ~ 8-9:30pm

2011-05-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 20 ~ 8-9:30pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

Diving Into Perspective ~ The 3 Faces of God

1st Person = Ecstasy, 2nd Person = Communion, and 3rd Person = Oneness

This Friday night we’ll dive into experiencing these 3 perspectives, as the 3 faces of God.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       FRIDAY night 5/20 8-9:30pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Initiation Part 1&2 ~ Fri 4/29 & Sun 5/1-ECSTATIC BREATHWORK @ The Hub

2011-04-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 29 ~ 8-9:30pm & Sunday, May 1 ~ 6:30-8pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

Initiation 1 & 2: Opening To Grace, Receiving Support, & Doing Your Part

What are you longing for in your life? What are you ready to awaken to and embody on your Path? At the beginning of every leg of a True journey, there is an Initiation within through Grace. The more clear your intent, the more aligned your life, the deeper the Initiation.

We’ll work with Awareness, and the Power that moves through the Breath to invite Initiation. Between now and the weekend contemplate a bit on what you can let go of in your life, and what you’re being nudged to go deeper with.

Friday night, we’ll clarify and focus the intentions and plant the seeds. Sunday night, we’ll look at what actions your seeds/intentions need for you to move forward with and how. Come to either night or both!

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       FRIDAY night 4/29/11 8-9:30pm AND SUNDAY night 5/1/11 6:30-8pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35 each night
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

The Golden Vessel, an ancient story of Awakening

2011-04-27T16:23:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from an article I'm working on, this is my rendering of one of my all-time favorite of the Indian teaching stories I've heard over the years. Enjoy!!!

The Golden Vessel

Once there was a young seeker. From the moment he heard there was such a possibility as liberation, his heart ignited into a great blaze of mumukshutva, the burning desire for Enlightenment. With unquenchable thirst for the expanse of limitless freedom as his active companion, he set out in search of a Being who could lead him across the seemingly interminable ocean of human drama into the realization of the peace that passes all understanding.

He wandered for three full years from one end of India to another, sometimes going a week or more with only so much as a handful of dry mung beans to nourish his body. With a stone for his pillow, and a blanket of stars for his cover each night, the seeker began to get weary and depressed on his search. Would he never find such a One as could awaken him to the Truth of his own Self?

One day in a small Indian town bordering Nepal, he overheard some women gathering water from the local well animatedly discussing meeting “a being like no other” whose “mere glance opens the door of the Heart.”

A lightning bolt of energy shot through his nervous system.

“Where is He? I must see Him!” shouted the boy.

Looking down at his torn rags for clothes and his cracked, swollen feet, the women could easily have mistaken the young seeker for a common beggar. Yet the intensity of his focus, the trembling tears in his eyes, let them know this was no ordinary boy. It was clear he was on a mission, and wasn’t going to relent until they gave him some clue to the great Guru’s whereabouts.

Not only did they give him directions, these hidden angels of Grace helped clean him up with a bath, fresh clothes, and a steaming pile of chapattis for his journey. Precisely following the directions of the sweet Mothers, the boy climbed and climbed through jungle, over boulders, and barely through one very nearly overflowing river, bursting from the recent monsoon rains.

After three days journey, he made it to the Guru’s encampment. With folded hands and tears cascading down his flushed cheeks, the seeker found himself face-to-face with the great Master. Every sinew in his body was trembling in the somehow deeply familiar Presence.

“Why are you here?” asked the Teacher.

“I have heard that you are a friend of the Great Friend,” said the boy, “all I wish is His Liberation through Your Grace. Please Sir, would you initiate me as your disciple and show me the Path?”

“Yes,” said the Guru with a deep knowing smile, “But first, you must bring me the milk of a lioness, and only then I will initiate you.”

Thinking the area to be a jungle, and jungles as filled with tigers, he assumed such a task would be simple and set out immediately.

The task of gathering this milk is fodder for a whole other tale, for what he came to discover was that even more critical to the task is to have a vessel that can hold this rare substance.

At first he put it into a leather water skin whose membrane the milk promptly ate through and soaked into the dry earth. His second try was a wooden bowl, which he carefully balanced, endeavoring to preserve every drop, until three kilometer’s walk later he looked inside to see it barren.

Dejected, the boy crumbled on the weaving roots of ancient banyan tree. Already exhausted, the last little bit of energy he had left burst through his chest in a wild wail, melting through his eyes in a waterfall of tears of deep visceral longing. When he could cry no more, he fell into a deep, deep sleep. In this womb of silence the Devi of the forest appeared to him.

“My Son,” she said, “Your quest is not a loss. Now that you have used up all that you know, you are ready to learn. The milk of a lioness is the most acidic substance. The only vessel that can possibly hold it is one of pure gold. Between the roots where you are sleeping, about one meter below the earth, is such a bowl. It has been purified in a great fire, such that nothing but gold and gold alone remains. Dig it up and go to your Master, for you are now fit to be His student. Remember this lesson as your sadhana progresses; know what to hold and what to discard in the fire of Grace.”

Mortal Coil (POEM)

2011-04-15T06:47:00.001-07:00

Luminosity of cobalt

Weaving through the realm

My cells pulsing

With Your fragrance

Humming

Gravity

Instinctively drawn

Within

A breath releases

All and everything

From the grasp of separation

As a new door inaugurates

It’s first door-hinge creak

Swinging open to mark

An entrance and

An exit

From and to

What does not change.

The blessing of timeless wonder

The blaze of azure

Consuming change

Revealing

Voiceless voice

Infinite echo

A swirling dance of Your name.

Returning (POEM)

2011-03-31T11:50:00.000-07:00

A spiral staircase,

A cozy nook,

Seeking happiness

In yet another book

Veils come down

A parting of the mists

The Avalon you seek

Always in your midst

The central channel throbs

Inviting you deep within

Humming

Pulsing

Dispersing all the din

Find your seat

Ride the breath

Sing the Name

Coursing through your veins

The nameless Name

Wordless Word

Felt

Unspeakable Silence

Full Summer Moon

At the trailhead

Of your weathered fingertips

Ganges

Galilee

Ride the breath

Find your seat

Sing the Name

Sink and be dissolved

In Her timeless mystery.

A Thousand Beatiful Swords (POEM)

2011-03-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

A thousand beautiful swords

Gleaming and graced,

How will you wield them

Will you deform your own face?

If your face be near

As well as far

Every stranger a looking glass

To see and heal

All your ancient scars.

A thousand beautiful swords

Full of strength and might

How will you wield them

To ravage another’s sight?

The brother’s eye you seek to

Pluck,

My dear one,

It is your own.

All this world’s

A hall of mirrors

No other faces,

Always your own.

Drink deep this elixir

Contained within my words

Let it reach every sinew

Every fiber

Every nerve,

Let it heal you of your afflictions

Your sorrow and your pain

Your oft regarded memories

So twisted, distorted, stained.

The fable writer lives amongst you

In your very house

Always crafting

Scheming

Have you feeling less than, scorned.

Drink deep this balm of Gilead

Let it lift your gaze

To the One who is eternal

Birthless, Deathless

Never on display.

These shops and stores

Catering to your tastes

Never quenching deep your seeking

Distractions for your pain.

Drink deep this clean elixir

Shake off your mortal coil

Come alive as Spirit

Amongst your brethren

And their toil.

You hold the light you seek

Dear One,

It’s never in another’s cave

It’s time to see the mirror clearly

Returning, free, unscathed.

There is no battle to be won

No flag that need be raised.

Your Holy Oaths

Serve only to protect you

While walking through illusion

Remembering This Grace.

Put down your weapons Dear One,

Sit tall

Breathe deep

And turn within

All answers of your seeking

Pulse bright along your veins

Be grateful I have told you

These words your soul lays bare.

Your faith is your protection

It’s drumbeat sings your Name.

The trust you hone

Will lead you home

Cleanse all the splinters

Beams and motes

From your downward gaze.

Join me on this journey

Dance o’er the quicksands

Lifted in your stage

You’re ready for this

Great emancipation

You never were a slave.

Freedom lives within you

Dear One,

And long before your grave,

If you choose it deeply

And walk it in my Name.

Ecstatic Dance of Shiva & Shakti: Tantric Meditation Intensive, Saturday, April 2nd, 10am-6pm

2011-03-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 2nd ~ 10am – 6pm, a 1-day Tantric Meditation Intensive
$150 (*$125 if paid in full by Wed, March 30th)

The Ecstatic Dance of Shiva & Shakti ~ Immersing in the Creative Power of the Universe

Shiva and Shakti are names given to aspects of your own Awake Self, they are essential and primal forces that give rise to everything you perceive and everything you don’t perceive. In the beginning there was One, the One became two...these two are Shiva and Shakti, form and formlessness, everything and nothing, emptiness and fullness, the Great Void and Supreme Love.

In this 1-day Intensive Retreat, we’ll journey deeper into directly experiencing the space between these two through Tantric Meditation, Ecstatic Breathwork, and Contemplation.

We’ll also work with a specific process for releasing the pulls of the past and future, those unmet needs of the past and wants for a future that pull Awareness from the direct experience of complete, whole, perfection in the Present Moment.

This retreat is about experience over theory. In the direct experiencing, the questions fall away.

Don’t worry if you’ve never meditated or don’t feel good at it. You’ll be guided to find and experience your own doorways, doorways that work, to lead you into the places that deep true meditation opens. This is for all levels of experience, an initiation into the next leg of your journey Home.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear.

Join Us.

When: Saturday, April 2nd, 2010
Time:       10:00am –6:00pm

Exchange:   $150. (***$125 if paid in full by Wed, March 30th)

Where: 1226 Havenhurst Dr. #9
                (Havenhurst is 1 block West of Crescent Heights between Santa Monica Blvd and Fountain Ave)

Parking:    Since this is a daytime workshop on a Saturday, you may be able to find spots in the neighborhood. No permits are needed until 7pm. There’s also the West Hollywood City Lot just South of Santa Monica Blvd behind Out Of The Closet between Havenhurst and La Jolla. The City Lot is $1 per hour in quarters and you can park there for up to 10 hours.

RSVP:      48hrs cancellation by phone for this workshop. (310) 922-4890

BRING:      A folded blanket and/or yoga mat to lay on for the breathing meditation, eye pillow if you have one, Journal & Pen, any cushions for sitting on, water, and a smile!

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Maya's Weave (POEM)

2011-03-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

Rolling dice

In Maya’s weave

A cinematic

Pixelated

Variegated

Chutes and Ladders,

Snakes and Ladders,

A rose by any other name,

She’ll meet you

Where you are

A perfect match

To occupy and

Satisfy.

As long as there is

A drive

A need

A thirst.

Yearning for more

Settling for less

Debting and debting and

Debting,

He forgets;

The light of a thousand Suns,

Endless Grace,

The True Face.

After countless

Climbs and slides

Some ancient

Memory arrives

Niggling

Twisting

Poking

Nudging you Alive.

Remember

She chides.

And vanishes once more,

Obscured by mind’s

Incessant absorption

On the surface of things.

Until you see

It’s you,

You see…

Shaping,

Forming

These infinite particles of light

Through words and

Sounds

Meanings lost and

Excitedly found.

Wheat-free

Breadcrumbs

Left behind

Shrapnel of trembling hands

Extensions of a Heart

Still questioning

As the tsunami of compassion

Tenderizes,

Breaks up the fascia

From centuries lived like Narcissus

Bent over

Fixated on the meaning in reflections,

Startled,

Jarred,

Shocked awake…

Back to the

Departure,

The trailhead

At the Center.

Inviting Abundance

2011-03-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

I just had an epiphany in the bathroom. Why so many of my 'a ha' moments happen there is still a mystery told only to the toothbrush by the razor in the dark of night while my breath is subtle in the warmth of my bed. Nonetheless, a lightning bolt around abundance.

I've heard over the years that to have more flow, you must put more in flow. I'm speaking primarily of money at the moment, and generally about any form of Grace that reveals through objects, food, needs met, money, love, and so much more.

All of these manifestations are made of the same stuff as Consciousness. In this great big bank account of the Universe, it's loud and clear this morning that the branch manager doesn't see any difference between love, money, or CREATIVITY. Output is output. Giving is giving. Expressing is expressing, and expressing is giving and output, and these are means of being in fluid exchange with the Universe.

There's a particular outlay of cash coming up that I've been secretly worried about. There, I said it, worried. Yes, I can be a closet worrier. This probably comes as no great shock to anyone who knows me well. They're just kind enough not to bring it up in conversation too often. I'm laughing out loud here as I write this. The chuckling is the irony that my ego would really earnestly try convincing me that I'm the only closet-worrier, when I know for a fact that this plague is flung far into the four directions of the globe. It's a human thing. It's a control thing. Or rather a fear of no-control thing where the threat seems real, the threat of great loss in the face of no control. Outcome? Worrying. Needless, pointless, fruitless frittering, twittering, and worrying.

Creative output in any and every form is a giving. This is recognized by the Universe as a part of circulation; participating in flow. And it responds in kind by sending flow back around to the giver. This flow can come in any number of ways, and noticing and acknowledging the return is as valuable to being in flow as the initial giving. As I write this, I feel lifted up, I feel energized. These are some of the immediate ways I'm being given to, exchanged with, and part of the Divine Circulation.

I could've easily kept on shaving, enjoyed the initial 'Eureka!' thought and intended to write something about it later. Something nudged me to sit down now and do it. This is another form of giving from the Flow. Sitting down to write it is me giving back, acknowledging and showing gratitude. Posting it on the blog is circulating the wealth with anyone who reads it. From there, someone may re-post it, have their own epiphanies, circulate some or all of this energy flow into their circles. It keeps moving. It's a Divine Commerce.

I feel abundant. And I am. Again and again, I come back to that line in the Yoga Vasistha, "The world is as you see it." What I focus on, I experience. It's so simple, I need to remind myself of it to keep it fresh and active.

Have an AWESOME day wherever you are!

Evolution On The Head Of A Pin (Poem)

2011-03-17T11:20:00.001-07:00

Evolution on the head of a pin,

Will it affect the world

With all of its spin

Racing up the spiral

To some imagined

Release from the chaos and grief of

An all-too temporary dance

On the head of this pin.

Let loose the hem,

Unstitch the control,

And let out the jib to

Catch this mighty wind

Whose only tack to

Lift my eye above to

See the vastness with which

I surround and hold

This swirling kaleidoscope

Formerly known as

The head of a pin.

Can It Be Any Simpler (Poem)

2011-03-14T07:14:00.000-07:00

Elegantly unfolding

Indwelt effusion

Luminous

In, through, and

As my Heart.

Your Infinite Smile

A radiance

Releasing all gravities.

Floating anchored

Untethered and fully yoked.

Is this your Grace or mine?

Our face has no name.

Can it be any simpler?

GRANDFATHER CLOCK (Poem)

2011-03-06T15:51:00.001-08:00

As I reach inward for the throttle of the poet

A boy of many ages

Stands at the foot of well-tred stairs to

An attic suite of rooms

Split into one

On this side of the veil of imagination,

A bedroom his father

Shot up from curious 8-year-old

Into decades marked by

Their vast difference;

From Vietnam War era Atheist Airforceman

In all that Thailand could offer a young man,

Life raging through his veins

To the Baptist would-be minister

If not for the mark of one divorce.

Standing even taller at this golden staircase

Facing the son of complexity,

A grandfather clock

Whose pendulum found

The middle-path of no further movement

Right or Left

In a time remembered only by

Black and white photos

Barely sealed in a curious chest

In the other more magical of the attic rooms.

Always reaching for the attic

Mostly restless in the lower floors

Sensing there must be more secrets

Whose mystery could feed the longing,

The longing that sits in my gut ,

The knowing and

Conversational whispering among my viscera,

The yes, indeed,

There is something more…

At times helium for the balloons of my imagination

And around certain bends,

The rusting anchors, no longer moorings for

Anything but the reminder

Of all the oxidation of impermanence.

It’s time to rise,

The wind at my back,

Seed stirring in my loins, heating, readying.

Each time Spring invests her renewal

I must hone my senses to give these seeds of power,

These seeds of Grace some fertile fruitful pathways.

They do

Like me

Reach for attic rooms.

They do

Like me

Hope for some uncomplicated

Distractions in the lower rooms.

You see, I must realize at some

Point

That I have been walking

In circles

Around the same block for centuries

Looking for entertainment in

A house with no lights

Condemned to pass

Into dust.

I finally willingly concede

In this Spring cleaning,

Letting the final vestiges

Exit the final stages of

My digestion.

Ecstatic Dance of Shiva & Shakti: Tantric Meditation Intensive, Sat Mar 19, 10am-6pm

2011-03-02T19:18:00.000-08:00

This has been rescheduled to April 2, 2011

http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com/2011/03/ecstatic-dance-of-shiva-shakti-tantric_21.html

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Keeping It Fresh ~ Springing Out Of The Box ~ Sun 3/6-ECSTATIC BREATHWORK @ The Hub ~ 6:30-8pm

2011-02-27T15:16:00.000-08:00

Sunday, March 6 ~ 6:30-8pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

Keeping It Fresh ~ Springing Out Of The Box

Where could your life use a little more flavor, a little more funk, a little more play? When anything becomes monotonous, it can lose the inner juice that makes life ALIVE. Shaking things up a bit, cleaning out clutter, experimenting, and getting out on the edge can bring a wave of energy, a fountain of freedom, and a torrent of fun to anything and everything.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       SUNDAY night 3/6/11 6:30-8pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Healer Training 1 Day Intensive ~ Friday, March 25th, 9:30am-5pm

2011-02-23T18:09:00.000-08:00

FRIDAY, MARCH 25th ~ Accelerated LEVEL 1 Healer Training Class

On Friday, March 25th from 9:30am-5pm, I’ll be teaching David Elliott’s LEVEL 1 HEALER TRAINING class at my home in West Hollywood as a 1-day intensive.

(This is the perfect thing to prepare those of you who'd like to step into the Level 2 Class with David over the weekend Sat/Sun March 26-27 at The Hub in West LA.)

Whether you're looking for deeper healing and capacity for Self-Love, and/or are feeling ready for more tools to help others, this class is for you, and a lot of FUN!

The Intention for this class is: "To bring out your gifts as a healer so you can heal yourself and others, and to give you tools and practical experience doing healing work that will solidify confidence in your own gifts, thus increasing your ability to see, hear, feel and intuit the truth."

"After watching Scott teach the class I realize there are parts of the class he teaches better than me. If you have any desire to be a healer take this class, you will learn a lot about yourself, your intuition, and healing!" ~ David Elliott

If you ever find yourself with people, this class is for YOU! $250. To reserve your place, please reply to this email or call (310) 922-4890.

When: Friday, March 25th, 2010
Time:       9:30am –5:00pm

Exchange:   $250

Where: 1226 Havenhurst Dr. #9
                (Havenhurst is 1 block West of Crescent Heights between Santa Monica Blvd and Fountain Ave)

Parking:    Since this is a daytime workshop on a Friday, you may be able to find spots in the neighborhood. No permits are needed until 7pm. Watch the signs for alternate street parking on Fridays. There’s also the West Hollywood City Lot just South of Santa Monica Blvd behind Out Of The Closet between Havenhurst and La Jolla. The City Lot is $1 per hour in quarters and you can park there for up to 10 hours.

RSVP:      48hrs cancellation by phone for this workshop. (310) 922-4890

BRING:      A folded blanket and/or yoga mat to lay on for the breathing meditation, eye pillow if you have one, Journal & Pen, any cushions for sitting on, water, and a smile!

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

TONIGHT! @ The Hub ~ Fri 2/18 -ECSTATIC BREATHWORK 8-9:30pm

2011-02-18T12:04:00.000-08:00

Friday, February 19 ~ 8:00-9:30pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

Full Moon Ecstasy ~ Immersing in the River of Love

The Heart carries a certain nectar (amrita in Sanskrit). This Friday night, with Awareness, ECSTATIC BREATHWORK, and intention we’ll take a bath in this sacred river that courses through an open heart. You’re ready. Come drink deeply and rejuvenate, drink deeply and refresh your resolution, drink deeply and return to the freedom of love without cause.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       FRIDAY night 2/18/11 8-9:30pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Embrace of the Beloved: Tantric Heart Meditation Intensive, Sat Feb 1, 10am-6pm

2011-01-30T14:11:00.000-08:00

Saturday, February 12th ~ 10am – 6pm, a 1-day Tantric Heart Meditation Retreat
$150 (*$125 if paid in full by Wed, Feb 9)

Embrace of the Beloved: Leading You Deeper Into the Heart of Love

In this 1-day Intensive Retreat, it’s all about direct experience of the Truth. This direct experience will come through sensing, hearing, seeing, and feeling, and quite possibly in ways you didn’t even know were possible for you. Using Ecstatic Breathwork, Empowered Mantra, Contemplation, Tantric Meditation, and other tools, we will explore the answer to this question ~ There is Love...so what must be the HEART of Love?

This retreat is about experiencing the answer to the question. We won’t be looking to theorize and add to your already full basket of thoughts. In the direct experiencing, the questions fall away.

What is the HEART of Love? How could an entire day immersed in the experience of it open you deeper to freedom, love, and happiness that aren’t dependent on circumstances or other people?

Don’t worry if you’ve never meditated or don’t feel good at it. You’ll be guided to find and experience your own doorways, doorways that work, to lead you into the places that deep true meditation opens. This is for all levels of experience.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear.

Join Us.

When: Saturday, February 12th, 2010
Time:       10:00am –6:00pm

Exchange:   $150. (***$125 if paid in full by Wed, Feb 9th)

Where: 1226 Havenhurst Dr. #9
                (Havenhurst is 1 block West of Crescent Heights between Santa Monica Blvd and Fountain Ave)

Parking:    Since this is a daytime workshop on a Saturday, you may be able to find spots in the neighborhood. No permits are needed until 7pm. There’s also the West Hollywood City Lot just South of Santa Monica Blvd behind Out Of The Closet between Havenhurst and La Jolla. The City Lot is $1 per hour in quarters and you can park there for up to 10 hours.

RSVP:      48hrs cancellation by phone for this workshop. (310) 922-4890

BRING:      A folded blanket and/or yoga mat to lay on for the breathing meditation, eye pillow if you have one, Journal & Pen, any cushions for sitting on, water, and a smile!

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Trusting Yourself, Trusting Your Path ~ ECSTATIC BREATHWORK in West Hollywood, Sunday 1/30, NOON-1:30pm

2011-01-23T17:33:00.000-08:00

TRUSTING YOURSELF,
TRUSTING YOUR PATH;
OPENING THE DOORS TO GRACE

Doubt separates the doubter from the Power of Grace. Grace is that aspect of Spirit that empowers, that energizes, that brings fresh new life, that births and Creates, among so many other manifestations. Where do you have TRUST in your life? Where do you have doubt? In what can you TRUST and/or TRUST more deeply, more actively?

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear.

Join Us.

These workshops are for all levels of experience and are nothing less than a tool for setting yourself free. We’ll use a simple yet powerful breathing meditation as the linchpin for the work. I call it ECSTATIC BREATHWORK.

When: Sunday, January 30th, 2010
Time:       NOON-1:30pm
Exchange:   $40
Where: 1226 Havenhurst Dr. #9
                (Havenhurst is 1 block West of Crescent Heights between Santa Monica Blvd and Fountain Ave)

Parking:    It’s best to park at a meter on Santa Monica Blvd or in the West Hollywood City Lot just South of Santa Monica Blvd behind Out Of The Closet between Havenhurst and La Jolla. The City Lot is $1 per hour in quarters. Other meters in the area are free after 6pm.

RSVP:      Due to size of the space, please RSVP to hold your place. If need be, we’ll start a waiting list. 24hrs cancellation by phone. (310) 922-4890

BRING:      A folded blanket and/or yoga mat to lay on for the breathing meditation, water, and a smile!

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

The Grace of Fierceness

2011-01-20T18:22:00.000-08:00

As I navigate the deeper waters of meditation lately, there's a lot I don't know. Acknowledging that while I'm practicing helps me to pry the ridiculously tenacious fingers of the controller OFF my meditation.

About half-hour or so into my meditation this afternoon (guessing here), I realized I was just treading water, so-to-speak. I was working with my mantra, allowing thoughts to catch my attention, and just generally feeling like I was in an all-too-familiar holding pattern. Ironically I've been feeling the same way out of meditation over the last several days. Actually, it's not really ironic at all. It's pretty much a "duh" type realization. No real rocket-science.

While at this seeming impasse, a type of active seemingly impersonal fire of anger-like energy starts to focus itself in my awareness. It's not anger in the sense of being mad about my experience and pouting about it. More like a focused, clear, and take-no-prisoners "Enough is enough" sentiment.

In the moment, I had the sense that this uprising of will could easily just pass on by and I'd be back in the malaise of sitting rather aimlessly. Grasping this fire and basically ingesting it into every cell of my body and awareness, I sharpened the intention to harness and focus this force through the Heart, to churn as much visceral self-love as I could possibly conjure, mix it into this fire, and PIERCE the stuckness -- not just once, continuously.

If it's true that God, Guru, and Self are all One, then all of it dwells within me. Waiting hopefully for someone outside to show up on a white horse and make all the differences in my life that need making is pointless. Until I make the shift deeply within, my life will continue to mirror exactly the places my attention is rooted consciously and unconsciously inside myself.

I've been feeling for some time that it's now time to take my life deeper, and I've been experiencing a lot of frustration about not seeing the kinds of support from places I feel like I've given so much support to over the years...the exact kind of support that my ego was convincing me would make all the difference for me in expanding the quality and experience of my world.

In this meditation, I just basically said, "Fuck it. If it is to be, it is up to me." I don't mean the little me that would go off like Chicken Little to do all the work of making the bread herself just to be right about how great she is and what a jerk all the other animals were for not helping her out. That paradigm is called Victim clothed in arrogance. I've danced that dance so many times it makes me nauseous just thinking about it.

This impulse of it being up to me, is pointing at a deeper aspect of self, a quality of will that I'm discovering has great power within it. In the Tantras there's the description of Iccha Shakti, the energy of will, and in that context, it's a very pure form of will with little ego around it, if any. I'm sensing, and hoping that what's dawning is the opportunity to sense, tune to, and work with that type of will. If it isn't it certainly feels like it's on the road to that zip code.

Regardless of the official truth on all of this, whatever that might mean, something turned today in meditation. The awareness that sitting isn't meant to be passive if it's going to lead to a deeper realization. Nor is it to be forceful. Both those are flip sides of the same hand, the same energy. Some how what got sensed and tapped today seems to run right up the middle. We'll see.

ADDENDUM ~ In re-reading this piece, I realized I left out a crucial piece from the meditation and the ardent (thank you Zaven for that word) firing up of intent. At the beginning of the shift in this meditation from the malaise to focused will, I had a vision of my Guru's feet. In the Tantric understanding, the feet are said to be an access point to the Guru's shakti or spiritual force. It's also understood that the outer Guru is a mirror for the truth of the Guru within.

At this moment of glimpsing his feet, I reached out and grasped them firmly in my hands, determined not to let go, and lowered my head to place it squarely on them, as my body flooded with goosebumps and my awareness felt like this giant bellows-like fantastically alive pulsation.

This firing up of will was not conjured by me alone. It was and is inspired by Grace. It has all the hallmarks of True Support. May I never forget. May I always remember.

Copyright 2011 Scott Patrick Schwenk, All Rights Reserved.

(Poem) An Ode To The Mother

2011-01-19T16:44:00.000-08:00

Scaling
Sliding
Slithering
along and
through the moist folds
formerly another Love Canal
void of spark
full of decay
Holding
Holding
Always holding back the flames
that would ignite
the passageways
of physical history.
A laugh,
an unexpected chortle,
into a snort...
unbelievably,
movement.
Several explosions later
Shaking
Breaking
Oh, YES!
I am Whole.
Letting go,
it lets go.

Scott Patrick Schwenk 1/1/11

All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2011 Scott Patrick Schwenk

Meditation For The Love Of It

2011-01-16T17:13:00.000-08:00

For many years, my most persistent experience of sitting meditation consisted of futile attempts to stop thinking followed by my chin landing repeatedly on my chest, fairly often accompanied by drooling on my meditation shawl. A bobble-head doll that leaked -- nothing like my inner pictures of the Buddha.

Meditation seemed like this illusive mountaintop to summit, only I kept finding myself barefooted and passed out in base camp.

Oh, I could chant mantras for hours on end, read and gather information with the best, but sitting meditation? That was something on the calendar for mastering “someday”.

That is, until I started working with Sally Kempton in a monastery tucked away in the Catskill Mountains of New York State over fourteen years ago. Then under her monastic name of Swami Durgananda, she graciously took on working with an eager group of twenty-somethings one night a week after most ashramites had begun settling in for the night.

A handful or more of us would gather in the small meditation hall, it’s walls quietly infusing the space with the echoes of countless mantras and the delicate lingering aroma of sweet smelling champa, under the quiet reflection of a single candle.

Walking to the hall for those evenings with Sally kindled a kinetic joy that sent armies of goose bumps through my body. It felt like getting on the train to Hogwarts with Harry Potter every week to soak up ancient wisdom passed along in secret.

I had my first blush crush on meditation, not yet a fully blown love affair, it indeed had my attention and held accountable by the promise that gained me entry to these gatherings, I was sitting every day.

Those evenings, writes Sally, were fodder for articulating the many precise and powerful doorways into what she calls “the meditation channel in your consciousness – a bandwidth of tranquility, energy, and joy”, doorways that overflow from her newest book MEDITATION FOR THE LOVE OF IT.

Having used ECSTATIC BREATHWORK as my primary entryway to meditation for coming up on seven years now, sitting meditation had devolved from that time in the ashram into becoming sporadic and infrequent.

Toward the end of 2009, I started noticing an inner pull to start sitting again, at first subtle, and soon relentless. Around that time, a friend gave me a copy of the EOC Institute’s Equisync CD. The disc uses a technology called binaural beats to literally meditate your brain. That night I loaded it onto my iPod, set up a meditation spot, put on the headphones, and was stunned. No bobble-head. No drooling. No passing out. Whatever was going on with this CD, it was keeping me alert, present, and available for meditation. I started sitting two to three times a day, and found those doorways Sally pointed to many years back wide open and patiently waiting for me begin working with again.

Within weeks, the profound stillness in my sitting practice was simply one pause away. Just taking time to internally pause in the middle my day, I’d notice this profound and palpable Presence of stillness and wellbeing wash over me. The more attention I gave to it, the stronger it would seem to become. My doorway is generally to notice what Sally points out as the delicate space between any two thoughts. The more I meditate, the more obvious and accessible this space becomes.

Drawing on the wisdom and grace of a timeless lineage of enlightened tantric masters, MEDITATION FOR THE LOVE OF IT is no ordinary book. It is what in Sanskrit is referred to as chaitanya; it is enlivened. What that means is that beyond the tremendous informational education, the book carries within it the ability to reveal within you the experiences it points at. I can rarely read more than a few pages at time before I feel an unavoidable visceral pull into meditation.

Simply put, this is not a book to be consumed on the way to literary prowess, it’s a delicacy to be savored, ruminated over, and kept close at hand.

RELAXATION, A Profound Inner Freedom ~ Ecstatic Breathwork Fri 1/21 8-9:30pm at The Hub

2011-01-16T16:52:00.000-08:00

Friday, January 21 ~ 8:00-9:30pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

RELAXATION, A Profound Inner Freedom ~

What is it to deeply RELAX? What will your life be like when you can RELAX in any type of experience or situation? What’s the difference between RELAXING and being lazy? How is RELAXATION one of the more powerful tools for Freedom and Unconditioned LOVE?

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       FRIDAY night 1/21/11 8-9:30pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

New Year, New Moon, New Start ~ ECSTATIC BREATHWORK in West Hollywood, Wed 1/5 7:30-9pm

2010-12-29T15:46:00.000-08:00

New Year, New Moon, New Start ~ Planting The Seeds of Intention

With the power of auspicious beginnings, a New Year, a New Moon, we’ll plant the seeds of Intention for 2011 and beyond. We’ll be taking the Work deeper this year, exploring the play between self-effort and Grace, how to recognize, be led by, and set free through Grace. What is Grace? How does it work? Bring these questions and your Intentions, a smile, and an open mind...together we’ll dive deep!

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear.

Join Us.

These workshops are for all levels of experience and are nothing less than a tool for setting yourself free. We’ll use a simple yet powerful breathing meditation as the linchpin for the work. I call it ECSTATIC BREATHWORK.

When: Wednesday, January 5th, 2010
Time:       7:30pm-9pm
Exchange:   $40
Where: 1226 Havenhurst Dr. #9
                (Havenhurst is 1 block West of Crescent Heights between Santa Monica Blvd and Fountain Ave)

Parking:    It’s best to park at a meter on Santa Monica Blvd or in the West Hollywood City Lot just South of Santa Monica Blvd behind Out Of The Closet between Havenhurst and La Jolla. The City Lot is $1 per hour in quarters. Other meters in the area are free after 6pm.

RSVP:      Due to size of the space, please RSVP to hold your place. If need be, we’ll start a waiting list. 24hrs cancellation by phone. (310) 922-4890

BRING:      A folded blanket and/or yoga mat to lay on for the breathing meditation, water, and a smile!

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Ecstatic Meditation ~ Doorways To The Infinite ~ Wed 12/22 7:30-8:30pm at The Hub

2010-12-19T21:53:00.000-08:00

I’m so excited to be stepping in to substitute teach the Wednesday night Meditation Class at The Hub this week. Sitting practice continues to be as evocative and important for me as my Ecstatic Breathwork practice. Whether you’re learning to sit for the first time, have been sitting for years, or feel like you’ve never quite gotten the hang of meditation, this class is for you...and a ticket for this great ride is only $20. See below for details....you’re ready for this!

Wednesday, December 22th ~ 7:30-8:30pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

Ecstatic Meditation Workshop ~
Doorways to the Infinite, Entering The Heart

Join me this Wednesday night at The Hub in West LA. Whether you’re new to a practice of sitting meditation, or have been on the cushion for decades, I invite you to come dive deep...into the Cave of the Heart.

Based in the tantric worldview & fueled by Living Grace, these Meditation Workshops are for meditators of all levels of experience. Encouraging you to connect deeply with the Truth of Who and What you are, these Meditations catalyze and empower your personal practice. With each workshop, you’ll find yourself going deeper into the Heart. As you realize the abundance of this Heart, you’ll see it mirrored in every direction.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       WEDNESDAY night 12/22/10 7:30-8:30pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $20
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

Based in the tantric worldview & fueled by Living Grace, these Meditation Workshops are for meditators of all levels of experience. Encouraging you to connect deeply with the Truth of Who and What you are, these Meditations catalyze and empower your personal practice. With each workshop, you’ll find yourself going deeper into the Heart. As you realize the abundance of this Heart, you’ll see it mirrored in every direction.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

There's A Freedom

2010-12-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

There’s a freedom

Whisperin’ in my ear,

‘I’m here, I’m here.

Lay down your burdens

Sweet one,

‘Cause I’m here, I’m here.

Well your Daddy done

All right, and

Your Momma’s been up

Nearly every night

Hopin’, prayin’, wantin’

Your life to be so bright.

Yes, oh, yes

My dear,

They done all right

They done all right.

Let the past

Be past

And the night be night.

I say it’s time,

It’s time,

For you to

Come all the way Home

Tonight.’

Scott Patrick Schwenk 12/15/10

Love Can Be Trusted, It Never Wanes ~ Ecstatic Breathwork Fri 12/17 8-9:30pm at The Hub

2010-12-14T14:25:00.000-08:00

Friday, December 17th ~ 8:00-9:30pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

Love Can Be Trusted, It Never Wanes ~

Love never changes. Love never leaves. Love never arrives. Love is always right here, where You are. Are you experiencing it now? Now is the time. If you’re not experiencing Love now, you’re likely to hold onto past moments that looked or felt like love, and this holding onto the past marks the body, the emotions, and the mind, pulling you out of present time. Experiencing Love within, in the present moment, is a practice that erases these distractions that pull you out of time. Experiencing Love within, in the present moment, tunes you to Grace, to unconditional support, from within. It releases you from chasing happiness through people, circumstances, and things outside of you. It preserves and strengthens your sense of Self. It reveals countless blessings. It is a practice, until the practicer fully dissolves into Love.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       FRIDAY night 12/17/10 8-9:30pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Bathing in Grace ~ ECSTATIC BREATHWORK in West Hollywood, Wed 12/8 7:30-9pm

2010-12-03T14:29:00.000-08:00

BATHING IN THE WATERS OF GRACE

The completion of another year is upon us. How you end one thing determines the energy you bring into, and how you begin the next. Will you choose to complete 2010 and begin 2011 consciously? This Wednesday night, through the power of Awareness and the tool of Ecstatic Breathwork, we’ll take a deep bath in the waters of GRACE, cleansing, letting go, releasing the past, and opening every nook and cranny of the body, emotions, mind, and Spirit to the Awakening of Grace.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear.

Join Us.

These workshops are for all levels of experience and are nothing less than a tool for setting yourself free. We’ll use a simple yet powerful breathing meditation as the linchpin for the work. I call it ECSTATIC BREATHWORK.

When: Wednesday, December 8th, 2010
Time:       7:30pm-9pm
Exchange:   $40
Where: 1226 Havenhurst Dr. #9
                (Havenhurst is 1 block West of Crescent Heights between Santa Monica Blvd and Fountain Ave)

Parking:    It’s best to park at a meter on Santa Monica Blvd or in the West Hollywood City Lot just South of Santa Monica Blvd behind Out Of The Closet between Havenhurst and La Jolla. The City Lot is $1 per hour in quarters. Other meters in the area are free after 6pm.

RSVP:      Due to size of the space, please RSVP to hold your place. If need be, we’ll start a waiting list. 24hrs cancellation by phone. (310) 922-4890

BRING:      A folded blanket and/or yoga mat to lay on for the breathing meditation, water, and a smile!

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Lightheartedness, Ease, and Flow ~ ECSTATIC BREATHWORK ~ Tues 11/30, 8-9:30pm @Blink To Light in Glendale

2010-11-29T15:24:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, November 30th ~ 8:00pm-9:30pm ~ Blink To Light Yoga Studio (Glendale)

Lightheartedness, Ease, and Flow

As we move into the final month of 2010, what have you not yet fully completed? What do you still need to integrate and digest to be ready to create 2011? How can cultivating lightheartedness, ease, and flow GIVE you energy to complete things and ENJOY yourself and the process? What have you been unable to digest from the last year or longer ago? Now is the time! How you end one thing is how you begin the next...

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

DATE:            Tuesday, November 30th, 2010
Time:             8:00pm - 9:30pm (come early to avoid being late)
Exchange:              $40
Bring:            Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                       for the breathwork.
Location:       Blink To Light
                      412 1/2 S. Central Ave
                      Glendale, CA 91204
RSVP:           You can reserve your spot through Blink To Light (818) 468-8724.

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

On The Verge Of In-Between

2010-11-28T11:56:00.000-08:00

I'm on the verge of being present in a way I didn't even know existed. And I'm writing about it as a way of feeling the texture of it, immersing in it to get to know it more deeply. Even though I know theoretically that there's no such actuality as "inside" and "outside" when it comes to consciousness or the Absolute, that it's one big everything/nothing/everywhere/nowhere, directly experiencing it is a whole other matter. So there's this direct experience that's been making itself known over the past week while my Mom was visiting. That in itself is wholly fascinating to me as well -- taking a leap in awareness while intensively with family. Habitually, those were the times when I'd feel I'd lost a lot of the muscles for presence and awareness by the end of a week.

So this sense of something is becoming increasingly more apparent. I had to laugh that the most noticeable spike of Awareness to seemingly kick off my noticing of whatever it is that's going on (I know, I know....could that sound any more vague? Ha ha ha....), happened while watching BURLESQUE with my Mom on Friday afternoon.

I found myself magnetized by Christina Aguilera's character's unwavering focus, passion, and commitment to developing herself, for being the absolute best at her craft without suppressing or damaging anyone or anything else along the way. This fierce laser-like focus is undeniable. (As a sidenote, that I'd be getting head-to-toe goosebumps in a musical-like movie with Cher and Aguilera made me question my butch-ness, ha ha ha).

Watching Aguilera's character, I immediately went to the thought, 'What if I gave that kind of consistent focus and attention to the Presence (this is what I call 'Reality' or the 'Absolute' or the 'One without a second' or 'Pure Consciousness')...what if my attention to this Presence were unwavering, allowing it unfettered movement through all of my being? What would be possible for the people who come to work with me? What would life be like?

The answer felt a bit like walking in the airport and suddenly getting on one of those moving sidewalks, only at hyper-speed...everything accelerated, and immediately. The only way to have some sense of balance is to completely let go of control, to relax, keep focused on the Presence, and wait to be moved and directed.

As I came out of the theatre, I stayed with it. And I noticed that it was drawing focus. People were turning to look. This was the first test of remaining focused on the Presence. It's not about me. It's not me they're looking at. It's the same Presence that moves through everything, and somehow it's more noticeable in this moment. Rather than need their looks to fill up any empty places within me, my job is to let the Presence fill in those places, as only it can.

In the following days, up to now, something keeps reminding me to let go, relax, and return my inner gaze to this Presence, and to be noticing it everywhere.

It's strange to attempt to articulate it at this point. But there's a felt difference in looking at the trees outside the window by my writing desk in an old habitual way as separate objects that I'm looking at, or looking at them, and even feeling them, as part of this same energy flow that I'm feeling moving through and as my own Awareness. And yet the eyes still "see" trees. The feeling is very different though. It feels more Whole. There's a diminished sense of urgency within me. I didn't even know how urgent I can be a lot of the time (about who knows what, just urgent), except in retrospect, in these moments where there's so much less of it.

Writing about it is such a paradox for my mind. There's this ease-full contented feeling of nothing to do, nowhere to go, and yet knowing there are things to do and places to go today at specific times. The sense that's becoming more pronounced the more I focus on it, is that none of these activities are about getting something.

Back to my thought in the movie, 'What if I let my job be to 100% give all my heart and focus to this Presence?' And the response is a loud, "HELL YES!" Going and seeing 127 HOURS last night made this focus even more compelling. This guy must cut off his own arm to survive (true story).

Suzuki Roshi, a great Zen teacher, often taught, "Death is certain, the time is not. What is the most important thing? Focus on it."

I know I'm not my body, my thoughts, or my emotions. Yet I can still be seduced into those worlds. And it's not about avoiding or denying my body, thoughts, or emotions either. It's this in-between place of focus. I'm on the verge of in-between.

Surrender

2010-11-24T21:27:00.000-08:00

There is
only Love
inside this gateless gate.

Masquerading
as myriad
forms
shifting
like the sahara
always still
and only
crystalline sand,
as
there is
only Love
outside this gateless gate.

Scott Patrick Schwenk 11/24/10

Freedom from Insecurity in Relationships ~ Freedom to Love ~ ECSTATIC BREATHWORK, Sun 11/28, 4:30-6pm @Liberation Yoga

2010-11-22T10:19:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 28th ~ 4:30pm-6pm ~ Liberation Yoga (Hancock Park/Weho)

Freedom from Insecurity in Relationships ~ Freedom to Love

Continuing on from our theme last month of “freedom from debt, freedom from the past”, we’ll shine deeper clarity into the area of relationships. Most people will be drawn to look at human relationships, and in particular, romantic relationships. The lens for this workshop is a little wider, to include relationship with people, resources, and Awareness. How you relate to yourself is how you relate to your world. Do you come from a place of deficit or insecurity in any of your relationships? How would deeper self-love and self-trust help you to feel more expanded, clear, grounded, and able to ENJOY all your relationships?

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

DATE:            Sunday, November 28th, 2010
Time:             4:30pm - 6pm (come early to avoid being late)
Exchange:              $40
Bring:            Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                       for the breathwork.
Location:       Liberation Yoga
                      124 S. La Brea (btw 1st and 2nd)
                      Los Angeles, CA 90036
RSVP:           You can reserve your spot through Liberation Yoga (323) 964-5222.

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Your Deepest Heart's Longing ~ Ecstatic Breathwork, this Fri 11/19 8-9:30pm at The Hub

2010-11-17T11:38:00.000-08:00

Friday, November 19th ~ 8:00-9:30pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

Your Deepest Heart’s Longing ~

What’s that one thing, deep in your Heart, that you most long for, most yearn to experience? What FEELING would you experience with this longing fulfilled? Now is the time.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       FRIDAY night 11/19/10 8-9:30pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Ecstatic Breathwork in NYC ~ Evening Workshop 11/10, Healer Training 11/13-14

2010-11-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

Wow! It’s already time for me to start packing for next weeks healing work in NYC! I’m very excited to be back on the East Coast with you and this work. Fall has always been my favorite season growing up in Upstate New York. The fiery colors of the turning leaves always woke something beautiful up inside of me. The amber smell of the leaves composting, cozy sweaters, group dinners, fireplaces, and coming together to celebrate life!

I’ll be teaching an Ecstatic Breathworkshop Wednesday night, November 10th from 7:30-9pm in Chelsea called Deeper Awakening of the Heart. And on Saturday and Sunday, Nov 13-14th I’ll teach David Elliott’s Level 1 Healer Training at Maha Rose in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. I’m still keeping my eyes and ears open for a good light easy space to offer private sessions by appointment on Thursday and Friday, Nov 11 & 12th. If you have a space you’d be open to having me use, please reach me as soon as you’re able. DETAILS BELOW on the Workshop and Healer Training.

Chelsea Ecstatic Breathworkshop - Wednesday,November 10th, 7:30-9:00pm

Deeper Awakening of the Heart

The Heart is a physical organ that exchanges blood, oxygen, and vital nutrients with every bit of the body, sustaining it’s life. The Heart center is the steward of self-love, entryway to refined intuition, and doorway to the Joy, Connectedness, Completion, Wholeness, and Universal Love so many of us have spent years, money, and precious life-force seeking on the outside. What’s possible in becoming anchored more deeply in the Heart? In your own innate Wholeness?

In this Ecstatic Breathworkshop, we’ll work with Awareness, intention, and an ancient rhythmic breathing process to reveal the treasure house that is your Heart.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When: Wednesday, November 10th
Time:    7:30-9:00pm (arrive early to avoid being late)

Where: Moving Body Resources
            112 West 27th St, 4th Floor
            (27th St btw 6th and 7th)

Exchange: $40

Bring: A folded blanked or yoga mat and eye-pillow if you have one. We'll be sitting on the floor at first then move to laying down for the breath meditation. If you tend to get chilly, bring a warmer layer to put on.

------

David Elliott’s Level 1 Healer Training

Would you like to learn powerful efficient tools for taking big leaps in refining and trusting your Intuition, healing yourself, healing others, & deepening Self-Love as a gateway to expanding Freedom?

Join us on November 13 & 14th in Greenpoint, Brooklyn where I’ll be teaching David Elliott’s Level 1 Healer Training. If you’ve already taken the class, you’re invited to review it at half-price. Between taking the class and teaching it, I’ve jumped into the material well over 25 times, and I’m always amazed at how much more I soak up each time.

Here’s what David Elliott (creator of the Healer Training Series) has to say about the Level 1 Class:

“This 2 day course gives you the basic tools of this technique. Ideally students have read the book or listened to the audio of THE RELUCTANT HEALER and HEALING and become familiar with the written information prior to the start of the class. Once the class begins the process of understanding and connecting to your energy and intuition is initiated. The first technique used to connect you to your energy is an ancient breathing technique known as pranayama yoga. This technique has been fine-tuned by David with over twenty years of practice and use in healing. Just the breathing training alone will give the participants an incredibly powerful tool. There will be much practical application working with the breath during this 2-day course. Simultaneously you will be learning how to access your intuition through the openings that occur with the breathing - which will provide you with an unobstructed pathway to spirit. The intuition exercises have been specifically created for this class. Your connection to spirit will be powerful. Spirit always shows up as you learn to access it though your energy! Once this connection is made you will learn how to work with energy to bring about your own healing. This is accomplished by clearing the blocks on physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels. And finally the healing work segues into an understanding of how to work with others. You will have a partner each day to work and share your gifts with. Each person's gifts and talents are brought out to establish originality with each healer. The whole class is a lot of fun!”

"After watching Scott teach the class I realize there are parts of the class he teaches better than me. If you have any desire to be a healer take this class, you will learn a lot about yourself, your intuition, and healing!" David Elliott

When: Saturday & Sunday, November 13-14, 2010
Time:   9am-4pm (arrive early to avoid being late)

Where: 97 Green Street Apt G3
            Greenpoint, Brooklyn 11222
            (718) 757-2758

Exchange: $475 **Payment Plans are available for this class.

How to Register: Call Scott on 310-922-4890 or send an email to scott@trustthebreath.com, I’ll give you complete payment instructions.

Bring: A Notebook and Pen, Folded blanket or yoga mat, Eye Pillow if you have one, and any healing tools you may have (oils, sage, etc. and don’t worry if you don’t yet have any.) We'll move between sitting on the floor and laying down for the breath meditations. If you tend to get chilly, bring a warmer layer to put on.

Directions: You can take the G train to the Greenpoint avenue stop and exit the train station towards India street. You will be on Manhattan avenue. From there cross India street and continue walking north on Manhattan for two blocks. Turn left onto Green street. We are the cream colored warehouse at the end of the block. There are many doors on this building. Ours says 97 Green Street Apt G3.

Love,
Scott
(310) 922-4890
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

COURAGE ~ Ecstatic Breathwork at The Hub, Friday, Nov 5 8-9:30pm

2010-11-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

Friday, November 5th ~ 8:00-9:30pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

Courage ~
The root of COURAGE is the French word Coeur, meaning Heart. With that in mind, we will explore, dive deeper into, and immerse through breath, attention, and Awareness into what the Yogis and High Beings of the Himalayas call the Cave of the Heart, the place where steadiness, strength, trust, love, and COURAGE are waiting for You.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       FRIDAY night 11/5/10 8-9:30pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Party Crashers

2010-10-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

Who are these
naked
gnarled
nasty
interlopers so early in the morning
swaggering
down the hallways of my mind?

squatters.

squinting
they are
as the question
reflects the
flood light of Awareness
dissolving
shadows surfaced
not-so-sweetly
on the heels of
a night spent dreaming.

"Is it True?"
The ultimate
rechargeable
flashlight.

Scott Patrick Schwenk 10/25/10

Recognizing The Support

2010-10-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

As I continue to pay off more and more financial debt from my past along with deepening the conscious feelings of self-love, my vision for recognizing support gets clearer. And perhaps more clearly stated; as I continue to allow Universal Energy Flow to come into my life by opening the channels of receiving through deeper self-love, the more I recognize the support of Universal Energy Flow in my life. That might sound like a circular statement, and indeed the reality of it is circular.

The physical debt is simply a bookmark to remind me where I've left off in my growth and development in recognition of who and what I am as Love. When the financial debt has been completed, there will be other bookmarks and milestones in my evolution or devolution (depending on your perspective) back to embodied recognition of Truth.

The "mirror principle" (everything that shows up in my life as mirror of where I'm at within myself) is getting easier to work with. Or rather, my resistance to seeing it is less. Even when my resistance to looking in the mirror of my life circumstances feels like it's peaking, the memories of positively stretching past my comfort zone and getting the lessons continue to build a force within me that is more and more palpable, more available to me, day by day.

Today, the mirror is showing me that in my case it's all about support. Where do I feel unsupported? These are the places where I get to practice opening, trusting, and letting go of expectations around what my ego has made up that support should look like. How the heck can my ego possibly know what support looks like? Why would I look to it's notions, or past negative emotions, to let me know what support should look like in the present moment? It can't know. The ego is a perpetuated sense of separateness; it's a verb. It's the activity of perpetuating a felt sense of separation. If I'm letting my ego guide me to safety, I'm screwed. By definition, it's always going to attempt to steer me towards the feeling of separation. Feelings of Universal support aren't part of its benefits package.

It's funny to me sitting here writing this. Humorous because I still see the tendency to look to my circumstances, including how my ego is interpreting the support (or lack thereof) from people in my life based on how it sees their actions. Yet the ego is always looking through glasses colored by the lenses of separation. It's reflexive; it keeps turning back on itself. Maybe this is what the Buddhists are referring to when teaching about the "wheel of Samsara (suffering)". This endless hamster wheel of actions that perpetuate the same negative feelings, and which would try to convince me that since I'm still running that I must be getting somewhere. AND, if I run faster and harder that I'll get further. Further where? Around the same infinite wheel of same shit different day. Ha ha ha!

This is where it gets subtle for me, the keyhole into freeing Awareness, that is. Learning over time to work with my own Attention and rooting it deeper into a place of clear seeing, clear knowing, and clear hearing. Again and again, this brings me back to the teaching of the sages from the Yoga Vasistha, "The world is as you see it."

Learning to see with increased clarity arises from practices that shift the seeing from the eyes of separation to the Eye of Wholeness. This might be starting to sound difficult to grasp, or maybe even confusing. It's not. If it sounds confusing, you may be listening through the ego. If it sounds clear, you've likely meditated today, or engaged with a meditation-like practice that connects you to pure Awareness (the felt sense of Wholeness that ultimately recognizes no separation between myself and anything "else").

The most formidable act of self-support I can give myself on a daily basis is to meditate, to allow my attention to turn within to the Source of support; that which supports all of life, which animates all of life. From there, my actions, thoughts, and feelings become active demonstrations in my life of BEING SUPPORTED. It only follows that the mirror of my life will reveal supportive people coming closer revealing supportive circumstances.

Now here's the irony ~ even without being aware of this Net of Support, I've been supported by it all along. In having experiences of "feeling" unsupported by people or events in my past, I was and am, SUPPORTED through the negative experiences to want, look for, and take action towards experiencing a more supported life. So even the "negative" has been a form of active support in my life to teach me and lead me to the Truth about Love: Love is the Source of everything. It is always Here and Now. I am that Love, and so are You. When I actively live in this Awareness, life, people, and circumstances will look and feel supportive.

"The world is as you see it." ~ Yoga Vasistha

Seeing The Good

2010-10-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

People do things.

Often enough people do things I don't like. I used to give a lot of attention to internally grumbling about all the things I would think people were doing, why they shouldn't, and what they should be doing instead.

One day a coconut hit me on the head, I saw a tunnel of scintillating light which filled me with a peace beyond all imagining, and my disease of judgment was permanently and forever cured.

Okay, not really.

Actually, none of that happened.

I gradually became aware that all the judgments of different sizes and shapes were basically pissing away my lifeforce, and with it my happiness. A tremendous amount of the energy being cultivated by my spiritual practices was being eaten up by the energy of judgement.

One day, nearly two years ago I decided to do something about it. As a Capricorn, I tend to like structures. Not confining structures, not imposed structures, but strong supportive structures that I can stand on and see further, stretch my wings a little wider.

I'd heard about A Course In Miracles for years, and after reading another book that references the Course through and through called "The Disappearance Of The Universe" by Gary Renard, I was sold. The Course, in particular it's Workbook, lays out one year of short daily lessons that lead the sincere practitioner through reasons not to judge, the power of forgiveness, and ultimately the realization that nothing ever happened to forgive in the first place. It reveals that the idea of something being wrong in the first place is a flaw in perception, and that by healing perception, one is free from judgment.

It works.

I diligently went through the daily lessons, practicing these points of view for the entire year. And yesterday, I got to see some of the fruit of all this practicing.

Yesterday was a Monday. For the last 3+ years, I've been trekking out to Desert Hot Springs to teach at We Care Spa and do private healing sessions with the guests. People come from all over the world to cleanse, detoxify, heal, and retreat.

After teaching the morning breathwork class, I had some extra time between sessions and saw a voicemail on my iPhone from my Mom. 'Something's up,' I thought, 'Likely something intense.'

Sure enough, Mom left a very emotional voicemail that she'd just been told by her husband of fourteen years, and relationship partner of twenty years, that he'd been having an affair for some time. He'd brought this woman into their home of ten years more than once when my Mom was away. All this on top of being driven by very old wounds into addictive and reckless patterns around spending and online gambling.

She's my Mom. I love her. And I can be very protective, at the cost of my own lifeforce, over those I love. At least that's how it's been in the past.

Somewhere within five to seven minutes of sitting with this revelation, I let go. I was crystal clear that I was not going to help anyone, solve anything, or serve up some brand of equalizing justice by going into judgment and negative emotion. These weren't mere thoughts, I felt them. And I could feel my heart recognizing and choosing love. Love for this man. Love for my mother. Love for myself. Love.

I do not like what happened. I don't wish it for anyone. I do not like lying of any sort. My Mom reminded me over and over again, while raising me, that she'd rather have me tell her the worst true thing I might've done, than to tell her the smallest lie. "The truth," she'd say, "I can do something with. A lie isn't real, so I can't do anything with it at all."

Within a short time, I was in back-to-back private sessions. I wasn't going to cancel the sessions as people were counting on the healing. Nor did I need to cancel them. I don't need to be perfect or wait for the perfect conditions to help anyone heal. I have the tools.

I could feel the visceral support of all my past practices rising up to be recognized, and engaged to stay open, to anchor deeper into love, to let all the swirling thought forms and emotions MOVE. As I continued to breathe, soften my body, and remain PRESENT, all the inner dialogue about my step-father just melted into pure energy.

I know in my bones that he didn't choose the affair to consciously be malicious. Just as his spending patterns were not consciously chosen. His past unhealed pain, the insecurity he carries and hasn't released, manipulates his thoughts and emotions into actions that promise freedom, release, happiness, and pleasure, but only lead to more suffering and tighter bondage around his life and his heart.

How do I know all of this? I'm human. I've watched the same patterns in myself and thousands of people. We're not all that different from one-another, have you stopped to notice? There really aren't that many different varieties, just variations on a number of similar themes.

All in all, I was still a bit shocked, pleasantly shocked, but shocked nonetheless at the peace and freedom I was feeling with all of this. Not only that, but I was vibrating more intensely with energy than ever. And all of this was completely relevant in various deep ways to the healing sessions that day.

When I got to speak with my Mom live, I let her know I was holding a space for her to feel whatever would arise emotionally. I also encouraged her to notice and release the urges to project anger and judgment or any attempts to exact pain or revenge in subtle or obvious ways. "There's a heavy psychic cost to that way of operating," I told her, "And if it's freedom you want, if it's love you want, it's got to start with how you walk through this. Feel your feelings without suppressing anything. And remember all the good times you had together. Those really happened. Don't shred those. Use them to anchor in your choices to be peaceful and come from love. From these perspectives, you're going to have a much easier time knowing what to do, when to do it, and how. You'll have much clearer, stronger boundaries and guidance from Intuition as you're taking the steps to starting your new life."

I also encouraged her to ask all the people she's sharing the stories with to choose to send positive prayers out to this man. Sending anger and judgment will only magnify the cause of the addictions and lying into other future dramas.

She'll have easy moments with this, and challenging moments. I'm certain that this is one of the best things that could happen to her. The Universe doesn't mess with people for sport. Egos do that. With all the tremendous Grace that's circling around my Mom from friends, family, and colleagues, she'll come out of this a new woman. She'll emerge from this fire as the expansive phoenix that's been living within her all along. She's brave, beautiful, powerful, and gifted.

People do things. We like some things, we don't like other things. Perspective is everything.

Seeing the good takes cojones. Practice makes it easier.

Freedom From Debt, Freedom to Love ~ ECSTATIC BREATHWORK, Sun 10/24, 4:30-6pm @Liberation Yoga

2010-10-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 24th ~ 4:30pm-6pm ~ Liberation Yoga (Hancock Park/Weho)

Freedom from Debt ~ Freedom to Love

Where do you carry debt from the past? Is it financial? Is it emotional memories of past experience? Debt, as I’m speaking about it, is anything from the past that still carries any power to contract you, and limit your ability to live HERE and NOW in the Truth of Love. This would include anything to do with money, relationships, difficult or painful past experiences, and memories. As long as you have any charge around any of these topics, you can know there’s room for you to experience more FREEDOM and deeper SELF-LOVE. Can you imagine the FEELING of having all forms of debt (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual) fully paid-off and/or completed? Your ability, willingness, commitment, and consistent practice of Self-Love, Awareness, and Presence NOW can and will set you FREE. Using the magnification from the Full Moon, Awareness, and ECSTATIC BREATHWORK, we’ll bring light and Awareness to the debts and pulls from the past to bring deeper Healing, Freedom, and Self-Love NOW.

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

DATE:            Sunday, October 24th, 2010
Time:             4:30pm - 6pm (come early to avoid being late)
Exchange:              $40
Bring:            Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                       for the breathwork.
Location:       Liberation Yoga
                      124 S. La Brea (btw 1st and 2nd)
                      Los Angeles, CA 90036
RSVP:           You can reserve your spot through Liberation Yoga (323) 964-5222.

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

It Can Give You Life!

2010-10-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

As I've been going much deeper in my own personal practice with the breathwork, and am back to doing it daily for about 30-50 minutes each morning right when I wake up, I'm noticing tremendous clarity and precision continuing to expand through intuition, awareness of Awareness, and so so much more. My friend and mentor in this work, David Elliott, just wrote this lucid piece about the Breathwork for his blog...like with the breathwork, there's much more happening in this piece of writing than just the intellectual information. Engage with it more than once....engage with it right after breathing....see what you notice in your own direct experience. Words are a fascinating thing...and only a small small part of communication....they're imprinted with consciousness, depending on the one delivering the communication and the degree of Awareness moving with the communication...LOVE, Scott

On the physical level “the breath” is the most direct way to exchange energy with the Universe, it is the direct link between cosmic forces and the bodies blood, ductless glands and nervous system. It is the way we pull energy in from the sun, stars, planets, sky, as well as from nature, trees, plants and the atmosphere. A consistent breathing practice will provide unparalleled clarity of mind through an instant experiential connection to Universal Energy Flow. This is often the spiritual practice you have been waiting for as it not only increases vitality and life force, but connects you to spirit. Whereas shallow breathing, into the upper lungs and chest, deprives the body of life-sustaining oxygen and energy because it is contracted and generally has fear at its base. Deeper breathing has a letting go property to it. It creates energy flow in the belly, diaphram, emotions, heart and chakra system with an expansive opening of love and healing not unlike birth. Shallow breathing holds one’s emotions throughout the body and has a consistent program of control to it. If you are accustomed to shallow breathing and tend to live a life with a lot of fear, sadness and anger defining your experience then deeper breathing is going to push your reality. It will push the illusions trapped in your body to the surface. Unfortunately it will feel uncomfortable (until it doesn’t). When the negative programing is cleared you will experience life in a whole new way. The breath is the one way I have found that does the cleaning process like no other, ultimately clearing the slate enough within your experience of reality for you to be able to choose love and joy as your life. Many try to choose love without doing the cleaning work and I would be the first to tell you that the power of love is immense. However, what you choose with your conscious mind is limited if your subconscious is saying the opposite. The beauty of the breath is it not only clears the negative energy out of the body, but it also puts you in a deep meditative state. Often the deepest meditative state a person has ever experienced the first time they do the breath work, and that is the most amazing combination offered by this practice. A clearing of the negative, a deep meditative state and a resulting open-hearted space to feel love from the Universe - all giving you the opportunity to bask in self-love in the most abundant way possible. Learn a breathing meditation, it doesn’t have to be the one I teach…and do it consistently. It can give you life! Love, David

Sacred Breath of Life ~ ECSTATIC BREATHWORK Friday~ 10/15 8-9:30pm @The Hub

2010-10-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

Friday, October 15th ~ 8:00-9:30pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

Sacred Breath of Life ~

How clear can you be when your energy is flagging and low? How precise is your intuition when you’re feeling challenged? When the charge in your life-force batteries gets below a certain level, how easy is it for you to connect with self-love, to even make the effort to recharge?

This Friday night, we’ll focus on recharge, renewal, and rejuvenation as pathways to the Sacred within. The more quickly you can learn to recharge, the more quickly you get back on purpose, in flow, and feel the tremendous support of Universal Energy Flow and Grace supporting you every step along the way. It’s crucial to learn to rejuvenate and maintain openness going forward. With a strong base of support from within, expansion into and recognition of your True Nature are natural...

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       FRIDAY night 10/15/10 8-9:30pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

The Source of Happiness is Within (Short-Cuts part III)

2010-10-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

Before my weekly trek out to teach at We Care Spa in Desert Hot Springs this morning, I was reading an article my friend and mentor David Elliott sent me from Buddhist Monk, Matthieu Ricard. In it, he distinguishes a fundamental difference between pleasure and happiness. He references pleasure as something that mostly comes from contact between the senses and objects and situations of desire. Pleasures have to be repeated, he notes.

Happiness, on the other hand, is an inside job. It's a quality of our True Nature. Not the nature of the ego, or the mind, or the emotions (which are all very related as one large mechanism known in Sanskrit as antahkarana).

So as I'm getting closer to Desert Hot Springs, I'm thinking about short-cuts in reference to Ricard's article. It seems so obvious in the moment -- short-cuts are nearly always about seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, with some seen or unseen urgency around making it happen NOW.

Without having cultivated habits around looking within for happiness, or even knowing it could be there, it's incredibly natural to look outside for something to do, a person to connect with, a object to buy, or something along those lines to experience the energy spike that comes with pleasure. One of the challenges with this is that once is rarely ever enough. If it feels good, the ego wants it again, and likely with stronger intensity to the experience. If the experience costs money, and there isn't any, the ego feels justified in using credit to buy the experience.

At some point the emotional, financial, and spiritual debt reaches a peak and starts moving in to collect on the debt.

In my own case, as I've been paying off the financial part of accrued debt (just recently passed the half-way mark and can feel the light at the end of the tunnel), I've been amazed at the impact on my intuition, emotions, and physical stamina. In my experience, the states of emotion and mind I were in at the time of delaying payment by using credit were also put on a delay. In taking the short-cut through using credit, I wasn't aware of the ways I was suppressing my own confidence and happiness and cultivating a stronger habit of looking outside for happiness.

I'm not suggesting that credit is bad. It can be a very positive thing when used consciously and positively. Good and bad are human ego judgments that don't have much relativity outside the human realm (ie; in nature -- find me a good tree and a bad tree...no such thing!).

Short-Cuts. The seduction to take short-cuts is everywhere. Whole industries are predicated on making life experiences faster, cheaper, and more readily available. Again, that's not good or bad. However, there are costs to it all (see http://thestoryofstuff.com).

This afternoon, I felt some pretty strong pulls on my energy and they're connected to some unpleasant feelings. My knee-jerk impulse was to want to call someone who I could talk about it all with and be done with the feelings. If I feel better after the call, but haven't myself digested the emotions, what happened? The other person psychically begins carrying them through empathy if he or she doesn't have the priceless discipline to remain neutral. It's a short-cut. But at some point, someone somewhere down the line has to do the spade work of sitting down and fully digesting the emotions (and/or sending them back to their source if picked up empathically).

Yep, I did try to reach a couple of friends. And I'm happy to say I didn't reach either of them. I sensed what was happening with me, and chose to slow my attention down, slow my breathing, and tune into what I was feeling. In the slowing down, it's easier for me to recognize self-love within. As soon as I can detect the feeling of self-love, I can focus on it. At that point, I have to stay focused. My thoughts seductively attempt to draw me back into the sped-up familiarity of the negative emotions. As I bring my attention to feeling my feet and deepening my breath, a smile cuts loose across my face.

How strange, I think, to be feeling happiness and discomfort at the same time. And yet here it is. I don't need to get anyone to carry my discomfort in order to find freedom. All I need to do is slow down enough to be present with myself and just observe what I'm feeling as pure sensations. When I look at them in this way, they disperse fairly quickly. My next task is to continue staying present, rather than get involved in thoughts about the past. My thoughts about the past only have an impact on the present when I'm entertaining them in the present. And I've noticed that when any negative emotion is up, it seems to color the memories of the past in such a way as to convince me to feel worse.

Happiness, while already existing within, is a discipline for me. It takes conscious, continuous discipline to choose happiness and stay present (which I'm experiencing more an more as being intimately related; presence and happiness).

In chatting to one friend who's a gifted professional dancer on the way back from the desert this morning about some of these themes, I mentioned my hesitation about having a conversation like this with some folks as some would say I'm over-thinking things, over-analyzing. Yet, we discussed, there's often a profound difference between the skill and awareness level of Michael Jackson's dancing and someone in a video dance jam class at their local gym. There's a difference at the level of interest in and passion for precision that comes from countless hours of cultivated discipline.

When it comes to the journey of Awakening and all the indwelling happiness, joy, and love to be recognized in the process, it seems to me that cultivating interest and skill in precise Awareness is my part in what allows for these highly sought-after qualities to be recognized and consistently experienced.

Connecting The Dots Around Short-Cuts

2010-10-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a fascinating ride for a long time now, and an especially focused ride with a lot of surprises and twists and turns in the last several weeks as I've been preparing for this morning's Global Healer Group with David Elliott on "Psychic Boundaries", with my home as one of the locations for it.

I set a very strong intention after reading David's focus for the group: To have clear, strong, boundaries based in abiding self-love and to take a big leap deeper with my capacities to work with intuition that's based clearly from the heart, from love that is Universal, rather than emotionally based.

Little did I know how clearly Life was listening, and the speed with which it would bring me circumstances so far outside of my experience, and seemingly out of the clear blue sky (even though I keep being reminded that there just aren't any accidents).

I'm more than pleased with how I'm noticing more and more support from within to keep reaching through the discomfort in a handful of situations and choosing to feel love from within. Even when the felt sense of love has felt like a tiny grain of sand, I know that once I slow down and focus, it's not long before the feeling expands.

Cultivating the ability to recognize and feel love seems less an issue at the moment, thankfully. Remaining fully anchored there is still a work-in-progress.

As I look backwards (yes, Mom, you're so right about hindsight always being twenty-twenty) at the moments when I've felt stuck, heavy, depressed, angry, afraid, or sad, they all have a similar feel to them. I sense them like textures, and this particular texture is the same, irrespective of which negative emotion it's attempting to stimulate in me. It's heavy, dark, intends to appear immovable, knows how to create confusion and drama, and withdraws in the presence of real love.

My relationship with this heavy teacher (yes, I choose to see it as a teacher rather than adversary), feels like it goes back as far as my consciousness has had some form of existence.

Generally, it seems to come into my space in costume. Meaning, it often has a very different initial appearance than the less than positive ways I've described it above.

One of its many enticing costumes over the years has been to present me with the opportunity to get something I think I want very quickly, and with little to no effort. The absence of the need for effort or patience can make whatever it's promising (historically: money, love, intimacy, respect, and being appreciated, recognized, and included), appear to have a certain sparkle or glamour that appeals to my ego.

It HAS to appeal deeply to my ego to get my attention. And it has had to be sneaky of late to get my interest in what would seem like unfamiliar ways. It can't actually look like a short-cut, as I'm on the lookout for those and cultivating my discernment with these trojan horses. It will try to look like something I've wanted, like say a really ready-to-go relationship. And in a case like that, it'll have the potential partner be incredibly appealing to my ego so that when this person so emphatically tells me how amazing, how beautiful, how hot, how smart, how talented I am, that I'll take the bait.

Why is it bait? I didn't grow up thinking I was beautiful, hot, or amazing. And there are still holdouts through my memories of growing up with these insecurities. So these "tantalizing" opportunities will do their best to offer to erase my past pain by filling me up with another person's need, want, and desire for me.

I'm not interested anymore. The glamour is wearing off. I'm beginning to see the pumpkin masquerading as a Maserati sooner and sooner each time.

And because everything in this vast world of duality is generally a mirror, I'm becoming more and more cognizant of the places where I have let the little boy in me think he was being loved through a person's infatuation with the tremendous energy the accompanies the work I do personally and professionally. I'm learning to discern the difference between infatuation and readiness. I'm studying it more closely than ever.

Getting deeply involved very quickly with someone who is merely infatuated with me based purely on the externals of appearance or life-circumstances, or glamoured by the energy associated with the work is a short-cut. It's a temporary gratification to my ego, that has a tremendous cost to my personal energy when the obvious need to de-escalate the romance arises and drama of one sort or another ensues.

The closer relationships in my life require me to be very conscious, and I'm setting a stronger filter for that consciousness to be reciprocal and based in self-love.

As a very clear example, and a strong communication from me to the Universe, I said to a friend this afternoon, "I no longer wish or need or am willing to date anyone who needs healing from me." I am no longer willing to let my work be an enticing pull to be in relationship with me as a friend or a lover. While I recognize that we all will continue to grow in relationship with each other, it is not my job, my interest, nor am I willing to be holding the role of the healer in my close relationships.

This is something I have used in the past as a short-cut to connect with the appearance of Love. As my experience of self-love continues to expand beyond my wildest dreams, I'm far less seduceable in these ways. On the heels of these last several weeks studying boundaries with a more refined magnifying glass, I'm definitely not interested in being seduced by anything that doesn't know Love.

Someone recently asked me, "Why aren't you trying to 'sell' me on working with you?"

I said, "Well, for starters, for this work to go anywhere, you need to be sold on working with yourself. My job is to be a witness, not a salesman. When the time is right for someone to engage with this kind of work, they know it, they feel it, and their Spirit nudges them along to the best places to do the work."

I don't want anyone dependent on me for a sense of self. At some point they'll resent it, and get aggressive about it.

AND, selling anyone on working with me is an attempt to take a short-cut in expanding my work short-term.

It's far cleaner for me to love myself, focus my awareness on deepening and expanding this self-love, and in the words of one of my great teachers over the years, "Let what comes come, and let what goes go."

By the way, that last quote is not at all about being passive. It's not about being a victim of life's circumstances and just sucking it up.

The quote depends on a foundation of self-worth and self-knowledge which recognizes that everything truly lasting and worth having comes from the openings around abiding self-love. Self-love leads to awakenings, joy, peace, and happiness that aren't based on better circumstances. They're qualities of my True Nature. No one can give them to me. No one and nothing can take them away. It's my job to let these qualities live me fully, and from there to enjoy letting what comes come, and what goes go.

It's fine to take time open-heartedly exploring a situation before signing any binding contracts, physically or energetically. It may not feel like an exciting short-cut, but it may just preserve a tremendous amount of life-force down the road. I'm worth it. So are You!

David Elliott's Level 1 Healer Training ~ Nov 13-14 in Brooklyn, NY

2010-09-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

Would you like to learn powerful efficient tools for taking big leaps in refining and trusting your Intuition, healing yourself, healing others, & deepening Self-Love as a gateway to expanding Freedom?

Join us on November 13 & 14th in Greenpoint, Brooklyn where I’ll be teaching David Elliott’s Level 1 Healer Training. If you’ve already taken the class, you’re invited to review it at half-price. Between taking the class and teaching it, I’ve jumped into the material well over 25 times, and I’m always amazed at how much more I soak up each time.

Here’s what David Elliott (creator of the Healer Training Series) has to say about the Level 1 Class:

“This 2 day course gives you the basic tools of this technique. Ideally students have read the book or listened to the audio of THE RELUCTANT HEALER and HEALING and become familiar with the written information prior to the start of the class. Once the class begins the process of understanding and connecting to your energy and intuition is initiated. The first technique used to connect you to your energy is an ancient breathing technique known as pranayama yoga. This technique has been fine-tuned by David with over twenty years of practice and use in healing. Just the breathing training alone will give the participants an incredibly powerful tool. There will be much practical application working with the breath during this 2-day course. Simultaneously you will be learning how to access your intuition through the openings that occur with the breathing - which will provide you with an unobstructed pathway to spirit. The intuition exercises have been specifically created for this class. Your connection to spirit will be powerful. Spirit always shows up as you learn to access it though your energy! Once this connection is made you will learn how to work with energy to bring about your own healing. This is accomplished by clearing the blocks on physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels. And finally the healing work segues into an understanding of how to work with others. You will have a partner each day to work and share your gifts with. Each person's gifts and talents are brought out to establish originality with each healer. The whole class is a lot of fun!”

"After watching Scott teach the class I realize there are parts of the class he teaches better than me. If you have any desire to be a healer take this class, you will learn a lot about yourself, your intuition, and healing!" David Elliott

When: Saturday & Sunday, November 13-14, 2010
Time:   9am-4pm (arrive early to avoid being late)

Where: 97 Green Street Apt G3
            Greenpoint, Brooklyn 11222
            (718) 757-2758

Exchange: $475 ($425 if paid-in-full by Nov 1, 2010). **Payment Plans are available for this class.

How to Register: Call Scott on 310-922-4890 or send an email to scott@trustthebreath.com, I’ll give you complete payment instructions.

Bring: A Notebook and Pen, Folded blanket or yoga mat, Eye Pillow if you have one, and any healing tools you may have (oils, sage, etc. and don’t worry if you don’t yet have any.) We'll move between sitting on the floor and laying down for the breath meditations. If you tend to get chilly, bring a warmer layer to put on.

Directions: You can take the G train to the Greenpoint avenue stop and exit the train station towards India street. You will be on Manhattan avenue. From there cross India street and continue walking north on Manhattan for two blocks. Turn left onto Green street. We are the cream colored warehouse at the end of the block. There are many doors on this building. Ours says 97 Green Street Apt G3.

Love,
Scott
(310) 922-4890
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Awakening The Net of Support ~ ECSTATIC BREATHWORK This Sunday~ 10/3 5:30-7pm @The Hub

2010-09-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 3rd ~ 5:30pm-7pm ~ The Hub (West LA)

Net of Support or Web of Illusion ~ The Gift of Clarity

There’s a potent teaching story from India that’s been handed down through the generations. It’s about cultivating what in Sanskrit is called ‘Viveka’ or ‘Discrimination’. The story talks about a dirt road outside of a rural village at night. Walking along this road, up ahead appears something long, large, and ominous laying across the road. Is it one of the jungle’s enormous snakes waiting to make you into dinner? Or is it a large length of rope that fell off a wagon passing through the village? The mind is so creative...if it believes the object is a dangerous snake, watch the thoughts and emotions is spins, pushing adrenaline through the body. If the mind sees a rope, all remains calm.

We’ve all got circumstances. We’ve all got other humans in our lives. And most of all, we’ve got ourselves all day every day. When the Light of Discrimination is Awakened, Intuition and Clarity are available as part of a vast and potent Net of Support that is felt, recognized, and let in. When this lamp of discrimination is not lit, or dim, any one of us can get caught in the Web of Illusion.

This Sunday, we’ll work with the breath, and more specifically, the profound Awareness that moves on the breath to brighten this Light of Discrimination and Clarity. And here’s an extra tidbit ~ Self-Love is both fuel and an outcome of this Light! Join us!!

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear and Present.

Join Us.

When:       SUNDAY night 10/3/10 5:30-7pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Self-Love ~ The Ultimate Short-Cut

2010-09-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

In the last several days, my past has been coming back to revisit me. As I sit here at my desk watching my breath, grounding deeper into the Earth, feeling the sensations in my body in this moment....the dots are connecting with more lucidity. I've been clearing a considerable amount of credit card debt this month, which for me represents places in my past where I used the short-cut of credit to get something in the moment that I didn't have the resources to purchase with cash. Bear with me here, as I'm choosing to look much deeper than the surface of things where credit and debt are considered normal and a regular part of life for so many. I'm choosing to look deeper than ever at my relationship with resources, and how the amount of flow of resources through my life is correlate to the depth of my trust and love in my Self.

A handful of people have been surfacing over the last few days with whom I'd had situations in the past at times when my sense of self was projected so much more onto how the world thought of me...or at least how I felt the world thought of me. In each of these cases, I made decisions out of suppressed insecurity in the moment. In a couple of cases, they were decisions to engage in purchases or deals where my part of the exchange would be handled "later". Basically, on credit. In both cases, my ego seduced me into believing that the service or product was urgently needed, and would dramatically improve the quality of my life. And in both cases, in retrospect, I would've been fine without said "improvements" or waiting until I had the funds.

In these cases, the psychic energy coming to me has felt draining and more than a little aggressive. It's definitely getting my attention and cause for me to slow down, pay attention, and humbly ask my intuition to teach me...to bring me clarity so that I can recoup my energy, release the investments that left me open to these "feeding energies", and return to expansion and Love here and now.

Engaging in these deals without the funds combined with the strong "expectations" that these deals were going to somehow quickly save me from something, set me up to have my personal energy supply be wide open for feeding. The antidote? Self-Love. My real-time, in-the-moment practice of connecting with self-love has become deep, strong, and continues to grow. However, because I'm dealing with situations from the past, my practice has to be strong enough to be in the moment and fill the void of insecurity lurking from the past. It requires extra vigilance, extra clarity, extra neutrality, and extra self-love.

This is all coming to light as I'm preparing myself for David Elliott's next Global Healing Group on October 10th focusing on Psychic Boundaries. As he mentions in the invitation letter, really consciously dealing with Psychic Boundaries is the steepest gradient. It's steep because it's not obvious to most of us, most of the time. We've been so easily distracted by the surface of life, and by the idea that happiness is something to be gotten in transactions with the outer world and the people in it, rather than an innate quality of the Self revealed through abiding self-love.

So I've been more focused than ever these last couple of days in noticing the thoughts crossing my mind...noticing which people come to mind, how often, and what happens to my energy when thoughts of them arise. If my energy expands with a thought, I know it's probably based in Love. If my energy sinks or dissipates, I know the exchange is off, and that I must go deeper into self-love as I'm setting these psychic boundaries.

As I've been paying off debt again, I'm noticing a lot more frequency in the last two days of thoughts of people that come with a drop in my energy. This morning, the clarity from my intuition is strong. It's showing me that I'm revisiting places in my consciousness, places that in the past I've pulled away from out of insecurity...I'm being given fresh opportunities in these areas to stay present, deepen my breath, connect with the feeling self-love, and remain neutral...even when, and especially when I'm uncomfortable or feeling triggered toward negative emotion. As I choose love through the discomfort, I'm building stronger muscles for freedom. As I choose love, I see more clearly that it's only the ego that is uncomfortable. Love is my True Nature, and Love itself is content in itself. I'm re-orienting more of my attention to the Truth of who and what I am.

For now it's a process. I choose to make deeper peace with the process. I choose Peace. I'm demonstrating these choices to myself in the moment by consciously breathing into the old empty crevices with self-love, self-trust, self-appreciation, and recognition in the moment of who and what I am.

It turns out that Self-Love is the ultimate short-cut. The ego will likely always think otherwise. And in the words of Adyashanti, "Ego is always pretending to be the most important thing going on."

LOVE,
Scott

When All Is Said And Done

2010-09-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

When All is said and done,
will you
remember
to check your roots for
the Source of your nutrients?

Will you remember that
this very stem,
these proud emerald leaves
and oh-so-alluring petals
fluttering in the sweet afternoon breeze
are all on
the express train
back to the Nothing
from whence they came?

And will you
cling to the flittering flaky fragments...
ancient foliage finely ground to dust with
time's relentless mortar and pestle?

Will you then,
Dear One,
willingly remember;
You are, and
always have been,
This boundless pulsation of
Force
ricocheting through
all plants
Everywhere?

Scott Patrick Schwenk 9/20/10

Cleansing The Doors of Perception ~ ECSTATIC BREATHWORK, Sun 9/26 4:30-6pm @Liberation Yoga

2010-09-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

Sunday, September 26th ~ 4:30pm-6pm ~ Liberation Yoga (Hancock Park/Weho)

Cleansing The Doors of Perception ~ Preparing The Ground For Fresh Growth

“The world is as you see it,” says the Yoga Vasistha. It’s been a busy Summer for most of us, and for many, a rollercoaster ride through the gamut of experiences and situations ~ all of it an opportunity to grow deeper roots of clarity into what matters most. It’s time to wipe the slate clean with the approach of the Fall Equinox, deeply recharge your batteries, and set your course for the next leg of the journey. Suzuki Roshi, a great Zen master of the last century said that, “the most imortant thing in life is to find out what the most important thing is,” and to FOCUS on it. With the profound support of ECSTATIC BREATHWORK, Intention, and Awareness, we’ll focus on cleansing the past with gratitude, and setting the course on what matters most going forward, to YOU...and have FUN doing it!

DATE:            Sunday, September 26th, 2010
Time:             4:30pm - 6pm (come early to avoid being late)
Exchange:              $40
Bring:            Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                       for the breathwork.
Location:       Liberation Yoga
                      124 S. La Brea (btw 1st and 2nd)
                      Los Angeles, CA 90036
RSVP:           You can reserve your spot through Liberation Yoga (323) 964-5222.

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

"Embracing The Unknown" ~ This Friday 8-9:30pm, Ecstatic Breathwork at The Hub

2010-09-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

In the Tantric scriptures of Kashmir, Knowledge is revealed as being either limited and bound (which gives rise to suffering) or Living Knowledge which gives rise to Freedom. Learning to let go of limited knowledge through trust, surrender, and embrace of the unknown makes SPACE for Living Knowledge to be revealed with in, and with it, all the ecstasy, joy, love, and freedom we’ve been seeking through so many externals. Come dive in!

FRIDAY, September 17th 8-9:30pm ~ EMBRACING THE UNKNOWN;
ECSTATIC BREATHWORK at The Hub

In the Heart of the Unknown, the alchemy of transformation, Awakening, and truly LIVING await. Intellectual knowing is all accumulated from the past, and has its place...and it won’t reveal that Inner Splendor at the Heart of Who and What you are. For that, you must Trust yourself enough let go of the known and dive into the awesome, the Heart of Freedom, the Unknown. It’s the safest place of all in this free-fall. We’ll focus intention and the power of this Ecstatic Breathwork to reveal and let go into this Inner Splendor in all it’s glory!

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear.

Join Us.

These workshops are for all levels of experience and are nothing less than a tool for setting yourself free. We’ll use a simple yet powerful breathing meditation as the linchpin for the work. I call it ECSTATIC BREATHWORK.

When:       FRIDAY night 9/17/10 8-9:30pm
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))
Exchange:       $35
Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.
RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub 310-575-4200

These ECSTATIC BREATHWORKSHOPS are nothing less than a journey deeper into the experience and expression of who and what you are, a journey into the Heart of Freedom within. Through a simple and powerful breathing meditation, you gain and deepen the tools for seeing past your former limitations, gain muscle for being your own best ally, teacher, and healer, and deeply taste a place free of insecurity, full of self-love.

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Love Without Measure

2010-09-07T17:29:00.000-07:00

All these minutes
   Cascading over
The sun-bleached hairs of my toes,
   Tides of memory and
Anticipation
   Rising
Falling
   Giving way
To a world revolving
   Outside of
Ticking, tocking,
   Clicking and clocking.
You Who need no measure
   To dance, swirl, and
Paint the world
   With your colorfilled notes,
Your waters lapping at
   The sweet walls of
The cave of my Heart.

Scott Patrick Schwenk 9/6/10