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Tag Archives: focus
Coming To!
Kyle/Saint Simons Island 2017
When people ask me how to begin meditation, I suggest that they do the same exact thing that I did in the beginning.
- Sit in a quiet place in a comfortable position. You can sit on the floor, you can use a wall for back support, or you can sit in a chair. Sit up straight, but try to be comfortable.
- Now you want to keep your eyes and mouth closed and breathe through the nostrils. Inhale/exhale equals one complete breath.
- You can imagine that the air coming in is a color.
- You don’t need to take really deep breaths, but you want to, “breathe the body,” rather than it just breathing on its own. (Which it does a vast majority of the time.”
- Now you want to focus your attention on the breath for twenty-five complete breaths.
- When your attention wonders, (not IF but when) as soon as you realize that you have drifted away from the focus, you go back.
- When you have wondered away and you, “come to,” you go back to the focus of the breath. If you can remember what number you were on when you drifted off, then just start there. If you cannot remember, then you start over again at one.
- After you focus on the twenty-five breaths, then stop, “breathing the body” and just observe as the body breathes.
Now, the most interesting thing that came to me in the beginning was, “Holy cow! I cannot even focus on one thing long enough to count to twenty-five!” Often I would get to three, or maybe seven, and then the mind would re-mind me of a bill that I hadn’t paid, or of something at work…
When I got to the teens I was ecstatic!
Then came the day I sat down and with all of my might, held my focus in place for twenty-five breaths.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged breathing, counting breaths., focus, instructional, Kyle Shiver, Meditation exercise, Spirit Ministries
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A Log Truck Driver Meditates
At Center for Spiritual Awareness 2017
The other day I met a guy who told me he is a log truck driver.
I told him that my friends and I were in town at a meditation retreat.
“I meditate every day when I drive my log truck.” he said.
“Yeah” I said. “And I bet you have a good day every day because you sure don’t want to have a bad day when you are a log truck driver.”
“You got that right.” he said.
The conversation reminded me of a talk that OSHO gave where he says, “Race car drivers meditate while driving, rock climbers meditate while climbing, people who do dangerous things, meditate. They have to pay strict attention or they will die.”
Posted in Kyle's Personal Musings, Meditation, SPIRIT Topic
Tagged benefits of meditation, focus, Meditation, OSHO, paying attention
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The “Work” of Meditation
There are many different types of meditation, but the one thing that they all include, is focus.
You can focus on your breath, repeat a mantra, look at a candle flame or a spot on the wall, or you can listen to a guided meditation. Regardless of the technique that you use, the idea is to learn how to keep your focus and attention in one place for a length of time.
And this takes work.
When I began in meditation, I was using my breath. My initial goal was to watch my breath and count 25 breaths.
Posted in Energy Healing, healing, Meditation, SPIRIT Topic, Spirituality
Tagged focus, Meditation, meditation techniques, monkey mind
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Doctors Treating Pain with Virtual Reality
“The fact that you’re getting such huge reductions in pain using something that’s not a drug is a paradigm shift.” Dr. Hunter Hoffman
This quote is in reference to having wounded soldiers play virtual reality video games.
It works and it works really well.
They call it a “distraction,” as if you are saying, “Quick! Look over there!” while ripping off your child’s band-aid.
But they are using this technique to treat circumstances that are far beyond taking a band-aid off of a child.
Posted in SPIRIT Topic
Tagged focus, Kyle Shiver, Meditation, pain management, the SPIRIT Center, Tybee Spirit, virtual reality
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Living In the Now
So much of the time the mind is in the future.
The mind is already where we are going. It is already enjoying whatever it is that we are going to get.
Or perhaps it is already suffering from what it perceives is going to happen.
I do run across people from time to time who consciously live in the past, but for the most part I would say that people are in the future.
One of the reasons for this we are told is because of protection. Scientists say that as man evolved, it became very important for the mind to anticipate danger.
Posted in SPIRIT Topic
Tagged focus, Kyle Shiver, living in the now, staying present, the SPIRIT Center, Tybee Spirit
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The Beauty of Meditation
“That’s crazy!” he said.
“It is impossible to not think.” he said.
Then he said, “To think that you aren’t thinking is a thought!”
I knew right away that this man had not yet awakened and was still living in the mind. You see, there is a part of you that might say to me, “Kyle, my mind is racing and it won’t stop!” It would be that very same part of you that might also say, “Kyle, my mind is quiet and still and isn’t racing right now.”
Posted in Meditation, SPIRIT Topic
Tagged focus, Kyle Shiver, Meditation, quiet the mind, silence
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One Bite At A Time
The title of this blog is actually the answer to the question, “How do you eat an elephant?”
That is correct, “One bite at a time.” Of course you know how I love elephants, so please, no elephant eating around here!
But you get it. Elephants are huge. They weigh tons. If you were faced with this task of eating an elephant, it would have to be one bite at a time.
You get a diploma by taking one class or one assignment at a time. You stay clean and sober, by not using or drinking one day at a time. You write a book by writing one word at a time or one paragraph at a time. You walk a long journey by taking one step at a time.
Focus and Precision
Lets play a game together. Lets pretend that you come up to me and say “Kyle, you can have any car you want, just name it!”
Now I know there are car buffs out there, who know everything about cars, and they know exactly which car they would choose. But how about me? How about the rest of us? I personally am not a car buff, but I do like cars. I mean, who wouldn’t want a nice car? If I could have any car in the world, I would have no idea which one to choose! Which one would be the best for me?
Posted in SPIRIT Topic
Tagged focus, goals, intentions, Meditation, motivational, self-love, Success
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Three Giant Secrets(That will change your life)
It seems most natural to me, to focus on things that I don’t like. It is easy to focus on what I’m afraid of, the habits that I have and wish I didn’t, who I don’t really like, and what isn’t going my way. Sometimes I even catch myself worrying about how things will be when I retire, and I don’t even want to retire, because I love what I do!?!?
There was a point in my life(about 7 years ago now) to where I couldn’t get above water for air. I was drowning fast. My brain was locked on to all the things that I had wanted and not gotten, all the things that had gone wrong, all the things I didn’t do right, and all the people who found success, while I sank. I felt that I was a loser, and I was losing fast. That is what losers do, right? I was angry at God, because I had tried my best to do what I thought was His will, and the results weren’t what I had hoped them to be. Other people had big hit songs, record deals, they got their songs cut by famous artists, while nobody ever looked at me. I wound up living in Savannah, and playing “Brown Eyed Girl” in bars 5-6 nights a week. This was in fact “making a living playing music”, and trust me, there are worse fates, but this was not necessarily what I’d had in mind back when I started out. I had intended to become a star, and to make lots of money. I had intended on soaring above little things like health insurance premiums, and cable bills, and leaky roofs. I’d have an assistant that handled those things for me.(We all need a good assistant don’t we?) As it turns out, life threw me a curve ball, as it will do to us all at times, and I didn’t know how to hit it. So I didn’t even try. I just put down my bat, and sulked home, where I sat in misery. You can sit in misery, doing nothing, for a long time if you choose to. Several years went by before I realized that I was about to crash. I was about to lose everything I had. Heck, I was so mad that I was ready to throw away everything I had, and everyone who loved me. Luckily for me, I realized that what was wrong had to be me. Even though I didn’t understand very much, I did understand that it was time for me to get up, brush myself off, and get back in the game! I wasn’t just angry. By this time, I was infuriated. This made me all the more bound and determined to get back in the game and to learn how to hit those curve balls.
Posted in SPIRIT Topic
Tagged attention, challenges, focus, giving up, habits, how to win, Kyle Shiver, manifest, Meditation, self examination, Success, the SPIRIT Center
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Reiki Enegry Healing
The Power Symbol
I’d like to begin this blog by telling you that at first I was skeptical of Reiki energy healing. Even though I was born a musician and have always had music coming through me, have always had visions and art coming through me, even though more than most people I meet, I know that there is “something out there”. Even though in 1994(19 years ago) I dedicated my life completely to my natural talents, with the understanding that the reason I had them was that I was supposed to use them, and I have been taken care of ever since. Even with overwhelming evidence, I still wasn’t sure about this energy healing business. Instead of dismissing the idea, I decided to investigate, and give it a try. What I have found thus far, is that Reiki is in fact, very real. In my first year of practice, already I have seen amazing results, both on myself and my clients. Also, I believe that my abilities can become even stronger, as I practice and develop. I felt that this clarification was needed, because there seems to be many people who are not so sure about Reiki. I can only assure you that if I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, experienced it in my own life, if I don’t know it to be true, I have better things to do than pretend. Thank you for reading on.
Posted in Energy Healing
Tagged attention, energy, focus, hands on, healing, Meditation, Reiki, sensitivity, spirituality, universal
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