Real Deal Meditation:Don’t Be Fooled

Don’t Be Fooled

In my years of doing healing work I have talked to many people about how to heal yourself. I have many people come to me and tell me that they want to get off their medicine or “have to” stop their medicine for some reason.  Then they look at me and ask, “well, what do I do next?” Here’s how I usually answer:

Let’s talk about a little common sense for a second here. First I am going to ask you is this:  Have you told your doctor what you are doing or what you are planning?  Second I am going to ask you, what are you doing right now for your illness?   Third, what are you willing to give up to heal and how much are you going to change in your life?

Telling your doctor what you are doing is very important because the medicine you’re on is trying to heal you in its own way.  You need to know why the doctor has taken that particular route for healing.  Plus you have to look at the side effects of getting off the medicine. Always remember to be smart and see what you’re getting into. 

I have asked you what you are doing for your illness to have you think. For example if you are still smoking and you have lung cancer think about it, does it make sense? What’s the first thing you could do to step toward health?  If you have sugar diabetes and you have not refined your diet to the best of your abilities, then take a look. See what could be your first step.  This is change. This is work.

The last question asks how much are you willing to give up and how much change are you ready to make?  Your life is connected to your body.  Look at the body, it will tell you what kind of life you live.  If your lifestyle is making you sick then you need to change it.

What I have done to heal myself was not easy.  It was a complete change in how I thought, how I treated my body and how I lived. Is it impossible? No, it is very possible! I did it and that means you can too but don’t be fooled.  Make a plan. Use common sense. Use the knowledge around you.  Make the changes that need to be made in your life and stick with them.  Then ask yourself, when you make positive change in your life, don’t you already feel better?

Real Deal Meditation: Sometimes You’re Alone

Sometimes You’re Alone

In life there are times that you are alone.  There are people all around you but no communication.  Talking happens but no connection. That’s why personal connections are so powerful and so necessary. They keep us from feeling alone.  As time goes by some connections fade and new ones get created. That is how life is.  Then sometimes you are just alone, maybe by choice.  Nothing and no one can reach you because you have become unreachable. You just want silence. You just are. 

Sometimes I go into those places and act like I am in a bad mood; not snapping at anyone but acting distant and standoffish so I can be alone.  I want to feel alone sometimes; quiet, just listening to my inner self with no interruptions, no outside stimuli.  Meditation is great for that too but that’s a set time that I put aside.  The alone time I am talking about is during the activity of the day.

When we see each other’s eyes open we want to connect and talk and share what we are doing and thinking.  But sometimes I need a whole day or two to just be alone, with my eyes open.  I might be in public at work, doing my job performing my duties, just wanting to be alone with my thoughts.  So if people ask, I share with them that I am thinking about a problem and I just need to be alone and I carry on. 

Sometimes it is so great being alone. You don’t have to react to what people talk about.  We all have our ways of sharing with people that we are listening and that we care about what they’re saying. We validate each other’s feelings and laugh or cry with each other.  We talk out our problems and we give advice.  This is all good, it helps remind us that we have community. But, it can also take a lot of energy and sometimes you have none to give. That’s when I go into my alone time.

Give it a try.

Real Deal Meditation: Recognizing the Observer

Recognizing the Observer

I have talked to you over the last couple of weeks about heaven (soul) and earth (ego) and the observer (higher-self).  I can only explain how I see it. I have been meditating for a very long time now and over the years I have fine tuned my mind to see through the observer’s eyes. But the observer has always been there.

Long ago, before I was meditating or had even heard about meditation, I experienced the observer (my higher self) through my gut.  It was a raw physical feeling. My gut would act up when I was in danger or under stress. I was living a wild life and constantly putting myself and my body in danger. My gut kept speaking up and I ignored it for a long time. Eventually it started to scream and my Crohn’s Colitis manifested.  Then I could not ignore it any longer. My observer (higher self) protected me through my gut and helped me find a new path.

When I started meditating I started to see how my mind and thoughts worked in everyday life.  In the beginning I would see certain thoughts and actions that would hamper my path, but usually I would notice them after they’d happened.  As I put more time toward meditating, I started to see these thoughts and actions right as they were happening.  Then after a while and more practice, I started to see the thoughts and possible actions before I would react.  I found that I could stop a thought and choose a different action or thought before they took me somewhere that wasn’t healthy for me.  Now I can choose my actions to best fit the situations that I’m in.  Now I watch each situation and ask, “What is this teaching me and how is this going to fit into my overall creation called my life?”  This is all observer.

Fine tuning your mind by using meditation allows you to see through the eyes of the observer.  The observer’s job is simply to observe.  It’s observing your heaven, your earth, and your universe.  Using the observer helps you pick and choose from the mass amount of information from soul, ego, and universe, and collect what you need to manifest your life.

The observer is also my quiet place.  It is my safe place where I can shut out the inside and outside worlds.  It is the place where I can go and be who I truly am and that is pure energy.  I can just sit in this pool of energy without having to channel it anywhere.

This is the best that I can describe how my observer works for me.  I hope that maybe this post will help you to see through your observer’s eyes.

Real Deal Meditation: The Chatter Matters

The Chatter Matters

Reading and taking classes on meditation and learning the many schools of thought on meditation, I have seen an overwhelming belief that the chatter of your mind is your enemy.  It is often taught that the chatter does not have a place in your mind.  I too talk about finding the silence and seeking the spaces between your thoughts however, the chatter matters.

We experience three states of being.  I will call them heaven, earth and observer.  When we are born as babies we are heaven. As we grow, we learn the ways of the earth.  Earth becomes the dominant thought and experience. This is why  tools like meditation, prayer, and/or whatever helps you find your peace come into play. They help you clear your path to find the observer.

I find my chatter is sometimes true inspiration.  My chatter is my motivation to push forward when my fear is telling me to stop. My observer is sitting down and seeing each thought for what it is.  Meditation is not about removing chatter but having the opportunity to observe heaven and earth in every thought and every space.

This blog would not exist if it was not for my chatter. I receive questions and comments from you, the readers and my inspired chatter answers.   I use my observer to scan my thoughts and pick out the wisdom from my chatter.  Positive or negative, it all falls under chatter.  Remember, heaven is learning to be silent, earth is about survival. Together you’re alive. The observer helps you see the difference between surviving and being alive.  

 

Real Deal Meditation: More on Success

More on Success

As I have moved forward in life and defined success for myself,  I look down the long path that I have traveled and see that what held me on it so long has been the hope of being where I am now.  As I mentioned last post, early on I felt unworthy of success.  However, I turned that feeling into motivation. I remember beating off my feelings of unworthiness with a stick. I used my fears to motivate me to move past the thoughts that bound me to a life others told me was the best I could hope for.

Well my life has become a miracle. It is more of a dream than I can handle sometimes.  I see how everything has come together. The universe has brought together everyone and everything I need so I can make choices about which direction I want to travel.  I have surpassed any expectation that I had for my life.

Sometimes I still feel afraid but, this is where meditation comes in.  I have learned to watch my thoughts so I know it is my ego that’s afraid.  I also know and have faith that the universe is going to show me the way it needs me to travel.  It is going to give me all the right tools and my path will fall into place.   For the last twenty years I have proven my worthiness by using the ego’s fear energy against itself.  I used any fear that my ego generated and pushed through those invisible barriers of my mind. It was just those thoughts that were holding me back from being worthy.

The truth about ego is it would find it a lot easier to fail.  It is a lot easier to be unworthy, to fail and not try.  There is no responsibility if you do not try. With each step toward greater success I could just say “I don’t have time, I’m too busy.”  I feel I have lived a lot of lives just in this one lifetime.  I have played a costume of characters and am always reminded that being my true self is the one that takes the most trust because the script comes to me one moment at a time.

Real Deal Meditation: Meditation and Religion

Meditation and Religion

When I first started meditating I was using visualization and creating my healthy intestines.  But, with what I was reading about meditation, every book was talking about the spiritual side of it and finding God.  Authors talked about chanting and mantras and staring into your third eye.  I was reading a lot about Eastern practices and how to know God.

At first that scared this Roman Catholic boy from a small town in Massachusetts.  I could not really talk to my father about this because he would have said I was joining a cult.  I kept reading and learning, trying to look for books that had nothing to do with God but taught techniques for meditation.  I started noticing a trend that meditation was not necessarily about finding God but about training the mind.  As I looked deeper I noticed even the religion I was born into had its own form of meditation.

As I kept meditating I started to explore more spiritual reading and found that to change my life toward health I had to deal with the subject of God and my idea of religion. I started to think of God in terms of spirituality instead of religion. In my search for God I noticed there were many ways to celebrate he/she/it and they were all pointing towards the same end goal. I noticed there were many paths up the mountain to find God, the end goal being the connection to God.

In one brave meditation I asked for God’s presence in whatever form he/she/it wanted to share in my meditation.  I sat there, in a bright light (which maybe I conjured up in my own mind to simulate what I thought God would show up as) and said, “God, I do not know if I am going to hell or not after I tell you this but, from this day forward I am taking responsibility for my own spirituality.  I am not joining any group or church.  I am not going to go through any middlemen any more.  I know I might be wrong to ask for this direct connection with you but I feel this is my path and I have free will and I hope you admire my bravery. I will take the punishment that you feel fit, if I am wrong.”

That was the day my life expanded. It was the day I grew to believe in myself and that I was connected to God.  I feel I moved forward that day, better knowing the universal energy I love so much.

Real Deal Meditation: Getting Back to the Reason Why

Getting Back to the Reason Why

When I started walking my path it was to cure my body through changing my thought.  I was new to the world of meditation and the idea that I could create and steer my life in the direction that I wanted.  That idea was foreign to me, however, when I grasped it in my head it became my way of life.

As I moved forward with my creation of my life, to keep my forward movement I had to move my thoughts from sickness and health to creation of a healthy life style. It was not just about eating well, and exercise (which are important to my life) but about how to live healthy in the bigger picture.  I started to ask questions to shape my life such as what are the reasons for my existence?  What can I bring to humanity? What can I do with a focused mind and the power of intention beyond making healthy intestines? What could I create in Bob Stickles’ lifetime by using my beliefs in creation, intention, and thought?

As I moved into healing work, everyone would tell me to protect myself.  They would show me their ritual of clearing themselves and would warn me, and tell me not to be a fool about protecting myself during healing work.  I would smile at them and say, “I am doing god’s work, so I am protected”.  That sentence became my motto for my whole life from doing healing work to meditation to teaching… all of the above.  The sentence “I am doing god’s work” became my thought, my intention, and my energetic connection to god.  I would watch the signs that would be left for me, like people I would meet, opportunities that would be presented to me, challenges that would end up being aha moments.  I thought of it as if god were leaving me my next project and Bob Stickles would be the project manager.  I was thankful to meditation and the connection to god to show me what I could do in this lifetime.

Now to the point of this post.  Over the last couple of years I have seen the opportunities and the projects that god has presented to me. I have worked with them and many are done and a few are close to being completed and I will tell you I noticed one more thought, another aha moment came to me.  I noticed times that I forgot I worked for god.  I sometimes got so caught up in the projects that I forgot these are not Bob Stickles’ accomplishments,  but god’s.  I sometimes got caught up into the worldly distractions of my life and put my connection to god on the back burner.  I do love those aha moments.  Not that I don’t have free will, I do. I choose my connection to god.  

 

 

 

Real Deal Meditation: Reading Between the Lines

Reading Between the Lines

I was visiting with a close relative today, all of a sudden she looked at me and said “been reading your blog, you all right?” I said, “why are you asking me that?”  She said, “you know I can read between the lines.”  I sat back and said, “I am not perfect I too have problems.”  She said right back, “answer the question are you all right?” I answered with the word yes.

I also explained to her that to talk, write, and teach about meditation includes explaining that meditation does not take away problems.  Meditation is a tool to see the answers more clearly.  Meditation is a tool to help see clearly what you can change in your life to make it better, and the other part is doing the work to make it happen. 

She sat there for a second and said “it just sounded in some of your posts that you are struggling.”  I reassured that I was fine.  Like a lot of you I read about gurus and great masters and how they live(d) in ashrams and caves and summer homes.  I live in a house, I have bills, and I have a 46 hour/week job. I teach meditation classes and do energy sessions on the weekends.  I am married and have a mother in-law like a lot of you.  In my posts I like to have you see that I am a real person.  I want to show you how meditation helps me be human.

Real Deal Meditation: A New Life

A New Life

A good friend sent me a picture of her new niece recently.  My friend’s dream and one reason she became a Reiki Master was to share Reiki with her new niece. I expect that my friend will share the universal energy with her niece, but I am also confident that she will be there to help teach her new niece how to be the wonderful, talented, and beautiful person she was born being, as well.

I believe that in this day and age our culture is taking steps to promote self love, self worth and teaching these important values to every child. I can’t wait to see all these young children grow up and see the changes that they will make in the world.  I hope I will see that each child loves and sees god in every person they meet.  I hope they will see that all life is precious.  I hope to see a change in how we do business around the world where it is not controlled by money or power but by sharing, and sharing is the currency of this new economy.  I hope they learn to see our mistakes and the mistakes of the generations before us, and to have the strength to finish what we have started, to right the wrongs, to clean up the planet, to fight injustice, and to finish the fight for human rights.   

We have come a long way with teaching children so parents, pat yourself on the back.  My parents always said to me, I want you to have more than I did when I grew up.  There is no better gift to receive from a parent than the gifts of self love, self worth, and believing that you are important and that you matter.

Real Deal Meditation: Seeking The Path

Seeking the Path

When I first started to learn and research meditation I hopped from book to book, class to class, following technique after technique.  I read and practiced,  trying to figure out what I was supposed to feel like, act like, and think like.  I read different authors so I could emulate how they acted, how they felt and how they lived their lives because mine was not working for me.  It got to a point that I lost who I was; I lost what made me Bob.  I looked to all these great people who I was trying to act like because I felt I was not good enough, so I had to be someone else.

I believe in the beginning when we seek out our paths we all do this. We might not believe that the person we are is good enough.  We might think, hell if I am so great why do I need a path?  So we study, we read, we do classes, until one day we have to make up our mind.  We have to make up our minds about what we want, what we want to create, what we believe works, and we start fine tuning everything that we have learned from our reading, our classes, and from our practice and make it ours. We start fine tuning our practice. We share it with like minded people and maybe give a class.

The reason I am writing this post is so you understand that there will be a time that you need to create your own meditation.  Yes read, yes take classes, and yes find tools to help you live the best possible life.  But, don’t lose your truth to someone else’s beliefs.  Begin to sift through your entire understanding of meditation to find the pieces that work for you and build them into your practice.  Look to find ways to fine tune your practice.  Don’t be afraid to make changes in your practice. If your practice of meditation does not work dump it and start again.  Don’t waste your time trying to mend it.

Meditation is learning to hear the silence between the chatter.  That said, finding your way to hear the silence is that simple, but hard.  The secret is finding something you like. I like moving energy through my body so I adopted a practice that is chi gung and modified it to what I wanted.  I also find that the breath is a great basic tool to start with.  When I am not moving energy I am listening to my breath.  Good luck, I hope this helps.