Oh the Places You'll Go...
I'd like to share a moment of gratitude with you.
This picture below was taken in early 2005, months before I would depart for a year-long journey in Tibet.
That external journey was incredible, but It's humbling to think about where the inner journey of practicing meditation has taken me.
At the time the picture was taken, I already was filled with gratitude. Meditation had helped me get sober (like 100%, it was 7 years clean before I went back to plant medicine), supported me working a 12 step program (including the part where most people quit - the fearless and thorough self-inventory), and given me the clarity to leave a career I was miserable in.
But I didn't know that it would be one top layer of a longer healing onion.
That it would help me continue to heal at 11K feet in Tibet, with no running water or electricity.
That it would help me find the courage and clarity to leave an abusive marriage, and to have to presence to continue dropping deeper into healing with ice baths, sweats, breathwork, journaling and so maceremonies in community and privately.
And those ceremonies, being open to other realms and in a state of expansion were one of the places that meditation helped the most.
I begin every communion with mushrooms with meditation. And sitting with Grandmother, after the medicine has been drunk and the lights go out, when I go back to my mat, I bring my awareness to my breath.
So that I can stay aware and grounded.
So that I don't get lost in the barrage of energy and extrasensory experiences that's about to begin.
So that I can regulate my nervous system.
So that I can have the clarity to notice the things the medicine is teaching me.
It's humbling to think that this practice has led me here, to this moment.
Coaching and helping others find their clarity and integrate their own journeys.
When I think back on how I got here, practicing meditation is a huge part of it.
I'd love for you to join a workshop on using mindfulness meditation.
Hope to see you there,
Jonathan
About the Author
Jonathan Schecter
Jonathan's interest in the transformative power of the breath is driven by his own healing journey. After practicing meditation and mindfulness in the Zen and Tibetan Buddhist traditions for almost 20 years, he rediscovered breathwork during a dark night of the soul and was amazed at the impact the practice had on his life.
After exploring several types of breathwork and working to create his own system, he found Neurodynamic Breathwork and completed an extensive facilitator-training program that was equal parts breathwork, deep personal development, and training in how to hold space for expanded states of awareness and support others through authentic presence.
This training, combined with lessons learned integrating his own extensive experiences with plant medicine helped Jonathan launch his brand “Blue Magic Alchemy ” that provides 1:1 integration and transformation coaching, a podcast, breathwork and meditation circles, and information to support grounded exploration into altered states of consciousness.