ECSTATIC BREATHWORK This Week~ Fri 5/21 @The Hub & Sun 5/23 @Liberation Yoga

With the release of my mentor and friend David Elliott’s second book Healing, a tidal wave of expansion is afoot among everyone embracing the work.  Why is that?  Self-Love.  I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve bumped into from my past in recent weeks asking me if I’m in love, what’s different about me, and if I’ve changed my hair (I’ve been using the same settings on my electric clippers for a few years, lol!).  The difference is an awakening, a deepening, and a ripening of Self-Love.  I walk around practicing the “feeling” of being in-love without an object or person to be in-love with.  It’s a feeling I’m cultivating and working with inside myself, in my heart.  There’s no end to the causeless joy I taste in this practice.  It excavates places within me that have not discovered this self-love, places of insecurity and self-doubt.  Through this “in-love” practice, I’m able to fill the empty crevices with lasting nutrients from my own heart.  I’m not dependent on anything outside of me for this fuel, and it’s catalyzing everything great in my life into a wave of expansion that only appears to have an exponential future of growth.

This week, I’ll be leading two healing workshops with ECSTATIC BREATHWORK, one at The Hub in West LA on Friday night, and one late Sunday afternoon at Liberation Yoga on La Brea.  You’ll know if it’s time to for you.  Just take a moment to pause, slow down, take a couple of breaths, and humbly ask your intuition to come forward.  Ask your intuition, “Should I do this?”.  If you get goosebumps, that’s your Spirit running through your nervous system...it’s encouraging you, it’s cheerleading you with a palpable YES!

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

Freedom and Fluidity with Sexual Energy~ 

Compulsion or Choice? The freedom and fluidity of choosing where to put your energy begins with a strong, rooted foundation. That foundation can be felt and experienced when you have anchors of support you consciously feel, recognize, and trust…anchors that are rooted solely from within, and then mirrored in all of your relationships.  

When:       FRIDAY night 5/2/10  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


Sunday, May 23rd ~ 4:30pm-6pm ~ Liberation Yoga (Hancock Park/Weho)

Stillness~
Stillness brings the gift of awake attention to the Truth of any given moment.  Stillness can be cultivated and deepened exponentially. Stillness is a profound expression of self-love.  Where could you benefit from the deeply healing elixir of stillness?  Where in your body, emotions, mind, and spirit could this stillness bring the kind of nectar that cracked, arid land releases on the first longed-for rainfall?

DATE:            Sunday, April 25th, 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  

(HuffPost) Returning Home In A New Place

For countless hours of innumerable days of many months over nearly ten years I had a sanctuary, a home-away-from home In Los Angeles. It went by the name of Elixir, and it lived on a quiet section of Melrose Avenue near the soon-to-be extinct Bodhi Tree Bookstore.

The lush bamboo garden at Elixir witnessed more turning points in my life than many of the people who know me best. Just about the only thing I haven't done at Elixir was have sex (although I have it first hand that more than a few relationships were consecrated there under a full Moon in the late night hours after the doors were shuttered for the day).

Everything seems to have a time and a season, and apparently the space that hosted Elixir may have traveled its lifespan as a gracious tea garden, creative crucible, writer's haven, and go-to spot for a proliferation of first dates.

The garden is still flourishing to this day, albeit unappreciated by anyone who'd be uplifted by it. The property sits empty, likely awaiting a wrecking ball for some high-end retail outfit that can afford the $35,000 a month in rent (note: Rent was at around $16,000 a month before a former sports agent went around Elixir offering the landlords double rent if he could use the spot to establish his own turnkey empire. His business barely lasted there two years.)

And now I sit on a plush red chair amidst bamboo tables in a light airy space flooded with the intoxication of California Sunshine at nearly any point of the day. While caffeine abounds, there's no rush to get in and get out here.

I'm in a very different neighborhood on a busier section of Melrose savoring Miriam Novalle's latest ouvre, T Salon LA (the original flourishes in New York City's hip Chelsea Market). Feng Shui'd without sacrificing design, T Salon brings a cool elegance with a flair for the lost art of welcoming. Novalle is the consummate host, shuttling between the tables of both coasts to ensure her commitment to service and style is fully delivered.

Healing is one branch on the burgeoning tree that is my life. I am intrinsically and irrevocably an artist; an artist who's creativity is injected with rocket fuel through inspired environment (music, light, scent, and design).

Once again, I am at home. I feel the rush of excitement urging me to make no plans this afternoon other than choosing a tea, a table, and letting the surge of energy bubble into creation. I foresee many hours of writing in my new perch.

Without fail I'll spread the word of this haven everywhere I go. You see, I've learned that I must fertilize and nurture anything and everything that gives to me.

In my new economy, it's not enough to merely pay my money at the register and let that be the end of a transaction. Straightening a chair, tidying a restroom when I'm finished, and promoting a conscious business are simple ways for me to give back and ensure all my favorite things not only survive but also thrive.

Let It Go, Rise Up!

I was preparing to lead a breathworkshop at my healing space here in West Hollywood yesterday, and got inspired to download some new (new to my current iPod) music to to use in the Work. And I ended up creating a playlist, which I haven't done in about four years...a rockin' playlist that hit the core of the evening's focus ~ Releasing the Past as we wind down 2009.

Two of the Artists I called on are Michael Jackson ("Earth Song") and Whitney Houston ("I Didn't Know My Own Strength" & "I Look To You"). This inspiration that's moving so deeply for me around their work goes beyond the music and into their actual lived lives. Both of them have struggled intensely with insecurity and addiction fueled by and fueling the insecurity. Both of them have brought tremendous doses of inspiration, insight, and LOVE to millions through their work. Both of them have been under nearly insurmountable public scrutiny.

I wholeheartedly assert that the public scrutiny is a reflection of the insecurity and the energy of no-possibility, no self-love attempting to cultivate more of the same, both in these artists as Messengers, and in the listening public to keep things mired in illusion.

I am committed to setting the Artists and Messengers free, those who are willing...starting with myself.

Anyone can criticize. This doesn't take much intellect, reasoning, self-development, or self-awareness. It's ordinary, boring, and pointless.

"People judge what they are and rarely what they're not..."
~ David Elliott

Who are You? Remember that feeling, that knowing, maybe not so far away...the one that gave you the sense that there is something for you to step into in this life, something that would call on all of your gifts, that might wake you up further in the process, that could bring immense possibility and real actual Love into the World?

Have you failed at anything? Are you carrying the feeling of that failure around anywhere in your body, emotions, or mind? Even if it's not in your conscious experience, do you sense this resistance, this bit of stuckness that reigns you in, that pulls you back from birthing ALL that you are into your work, your writing, your Art, your Loving, your relating, your Living Fully?

What if failure is just an "idea"? What if there's not something in stone called failure?

Look out at the trees....find me a "good" tree and a "bad" tree. No such thing in nature.

These designations of good and bad are projections of the human ego arising out of fear and insecurity designed for one thing and one thing only, to keep inner division alive, to keep you and I feeling separate from each other, separate from our Source, separate from Love...and seeking wholeness, but not finding it.

I've had thoughts about Whitney Houston pop up in my mind on and off for about a year now; ever since I heard she was returning to music and in the studio recording, wondering how her voice would be after all the drug use and suppression.

Cut to last week. I had my Mom visiting for Thanksgiving week. She's obsessed with that TV show, Dancing With The Stars, and the finale was on while she was here. Whitney sang two songs for the finale. She reminded me of a video I once saw of a freshly born calf wobbling attempting to use its legs for the first time, with sheer determination to do it, no matter what. Tears were streaming down my face as I watched and listened, not because of the music itself, but because of the love moving in my heart for this women who's been through hell and back in full public view. A woman who's music stayed alive in her and brought her back to her feet. A woman who is a messenger, and whose message is stronger than the energy of no self-love, of addiction and shame and guilt. A woman willing to pick herself back up and sing again.

Before I started downloading music, I googled "Whitney's voice", and at the top of the list was a blog post by a self-styled critic who named himself after a well-known heiress. The blatant self-hatred projected as acidic attack on this women's re-awakened voice was nothing short of darkness and suppression.

Can she hit those same high notes with pristine clarity right now? Not yet. Maybe not again. But is technical skill the message of her music? Do I need to wait to write until I've gotten several PhD's in English and Writing before I let myself paint with words?

Creativity and Skill are not the same. Art conveys messages of so many flavors and degree. Artists have always been the forerunners of change and growth. Some have had well-developed technical skill, others have not. And who defines skill anyway? What's the set-in-stone metric for that? There isn't one! It's fabricated and agreed on in the public without much if any reflection on the Truth of it. It's used to suppress the Voice, to close down conduits for messages of hope and Awakening. Like so many great and powerful medicines, it's quickly co-opted and twisted by the human ego.

What's the remedy? Drop the criticism and get creating, cheerleading those who are brave enough to step out and create.

What inspires me more than skill in Whitney's latest album is the transparency in sharing her ongoing journey through darkness into expansion, into embodying self-love. It's the same thing that inspires me about Michael Jackson's music and message. And the energy of no-self love, fueled by public flaw-seeking, and very public shaming, ultimately ended the life of a leading edge visionary who's messages, while uplifting, were inconvenient to fully live by the same critical public.

We can never know the full truth about the life of another, particularly those in the public eye. After getting behind the curtain where the little wizard orchestrates the world of entertainment and media while I was working for Creative Artists Agency (CAA), my eyes were opened to the reality of these businesses. There is very little about the entertainment business that is not a business, and one HIGHLY invested in controlling, molding, and manipulating public perception. Public perception IS it's commodity, and he who controls perception controls the purse strings.

Just because something is on TV or in a magazine, doesn't make it the truth.

But how many times have you and I been led to believe something we saw in the media and create an opinion, maybe even an opinion with a great deal of emotion around it, about a particular artist? Can you know for certain that it's True?

Let It Go, Rise Up! Create! Share! Don't let the voice of the critic within stifle your creativity. Don't let lack of skill around your gifts keep you from sharing them. Skill comes from discipline; working with the tools of your craft consistently enough that your creativity moves effortlessly through them. That happens through time and effort. And it's completely worth it! The voice of the critic (and there are plenty out there if your looking for them) will always attempt to suppress this Flow.

The more you and I Create, and choose to create regardless of the voice of the critic, we will and ARE out-creating the suppression, ARE embodying and spreading the wings of Freedom.

These seeming "falures" of the past are the very medicine for awakening and freedom NOW. By engaging with the energy of these experiences that dot my past, free from judgment, in the willingness of self-love, I heal. And I heal not just myself, but all of my relations. These places I've fallen down in the past are the places that I teach from now. As I bring more Awareness to these places, they become fuel for Creation, for Love, for anything and everything.

"That by which we fall is that by which we rise."
~ Kularnava Tantra

As the Moon waxes towards Full...

Prior to an awesome visit from my Mom for a triple-threat celebration of her birthday, Thanksgiving, and an early Christmas, I had gotten on a great ride with my writing. While she was here, I managed to work out a piece one morning. Other than that, I've been focused on relaxing, connecting, and entertaining.

Meanwhile, the amount of energy...physical, palpable energy, coursing through my nervous system has increased and intensified day-by-day, to the point of discomfort. And all as the Moon is waxing towards Full.

I've felt these sensations before, usually after leading a workshop closer to evening. Now it's becoming more consistent. That is, when I haven't written.

Dots are connecting quicker than ever lately, as I allow needed information to surface rather than being on some sort of blood-hungry hunt for it through my intellect. Mostly.

This energy feels like a burning and twitching in my nerves. Mostly in my arms and legs and the center of my chest.

It's the energy of Creation. It is here to support me, and work through me. However, far too many hours have passed without using it to Create. Thus the discomfort. Not like some sort of punishment...far too old-school of a fundamentalist point of view. Just energy on the move. I have to express it in productive ways.

This morning, the first thing to come out was a poem. And clearly that wasn't enough expression. The energy is still pulsing and throbbing in my nerves. As I was walking through my kitchen, intuition simply said, "Write more. Now."

It really doesn't matter what I write about either. So far, it only seems to matter that it be more of a stream of writing that flows, rather than moving it through a whole routine of thinking and figuring out. When I try to move it through my intellect, irritation, like a scratchy 1920's wool Army blanket next to the softest part of your neck. Ick...

It's gotta flow. The more I engage with the flow, the more energy I have, the more my mood lifts and expands...the more my Heart opens...the more I enjoy EVERYTHING as it is.

It's a process of discovery for me, this Creativity scavenger hunt. Everyday I write, another clue; another dot connected. I'm grateful for all the awareness being brought to me in these ways. It reminds me of my relationship to my roof-garden. Each day I go up with water and Love to the plants, and now a whole proliferation of new sprouts throughout the garden, each day attending to this journey, I see more growth. The plants are a little larger, a little greener.

Who knows where it all goes. It doesn't really matter, as it's all good!

Where's my Yerba Mate?

Where's my Yerba Mate? Grrrrr....

I know you've never woken up feeling "not quite like yourself" right? And do I even dare broach the ontological pandora's box asking the next question? Like, what is "yourself" and how do you know for certain that what you call you is the Whole and Actual You?

From the moment my eyes decided to pop open this morning, and for at least a good 45minutes after that, my mind was spitting up. You know, kind of like after feeding a baby. It's not really personal at all, it's not the baby trying to attack or anything like that, it's just the baby's digestive system doing what it does, and spitting up (hopefully not on your new shirt!). Mind's seem to spit up, that's just part of what they do.

This morning, mine was searching for something to make me feel insecure about. Had I not gone through this a few times before, I might've actually been seduced into believing some of it. But, alas, it's not my first rodeo with my mind, and probably not my last...yet.

I have a few things in my toolbox for such "joyous" occasions, and so the first thing was to set an intention to clear the static in my mind, the second was to clean something. While fully soaped up washing dishes, a little space opened in the mental cirque du soleil and I could see that behind all the threads of half-stories my mind was spinning, behind all of that, was just this strong pulsation of energy...a lot of energy. A lot of CREATIVE energy.

Intuition kicked it, 'I didn't write yesterday, I bet I just need to write.'

You see I've found myself observing lately that when creative energy doesn't get expressed in positive ways, it seems to get twisted up inside and fester as destructive energy. Could be negative thought forms, could be false ideas about people or situations, could be unbalanced emotions; anything to bring back the familiar experience of some degree of insecurity. Something other than the freedom of Self-Love.

Oh! And to top it all off, shortly after getting up, a wrong number called my cell-phone this morning, and he was feeling rather chatty. At first I thought it was someone I knew, because he was being so familiar with me and was certain that he'd reached the right person. When we' d established that I was a wrong number, he was already intrigued and becoming flirty, and agressively flirty at that. I felt the same part of my ego that was being seduced by the "spit-up" stories of my mind, feeling seduced by this stranger on the phone. I started to feel like I had age-regressed, like I was 6 years old. That I had to be nice, that I had to stay on the phone until I was released, and even felt the familiar pull of being wanted......until,

WAIT!!!

It was like clouds burning off with bright morning Sun.

'This is not LOVE. This is a seduction. I choose love, I choose peace.'

As quickly as I moved into the feeling place of Self-Love, I could speak freely. "This isn't my scene. I'm careful about where I put my energy these days. I'm sure you're a great guy, but I'm not into the whole anonymous scene." At which point, something in him seemed to become lucid, and the call ended in peace.

Back to washing the dishes. 'I need to write,' I thought, 'I didn't write yesterday, and I have a tremendous amount of energy moving through me. If I don't use it to create, I'm going to draw in more seductions from inside or outside that don't deliver anything but insecurity. '

So here I am...writing...expressing...trusting...and wouldn't you know, I feel clear!

Could it be that simple?

I caught a poem
by the tail the other day
embedded in the sand
next to a nearly dissolved
castle
under an old dented can of
Pabst Blue Ribbon.

You just never know
where these things'll
pop up next.

The sea just laughed
and carried on.

Scott Patrick Schwenk 7/21/09

Litany of LOVE

It just keeps
pouring out.
Is there no end
to this
litany of LOVE?
This is
a wild
and merry
band
of Creation
spilling over the rim
of more teacups
than potters
can bake,
Creation
cooking us
each and every
One
into more of
what already
and
always
Is.
The floodgates are
Open.
The waters are
Rising.
The writers have
heard
His trumpet
Sound,
Letting these words
fall through the hands
into valleys of
the imagination...
Rip-roaring through
aeons,
waking the sleeping
into this...
This ecstatic dance
of the
Divine.

Scott Patrick Schwenk 6/17/09