Our Ongoing Spiritual Development Classes and Upcoming Retreats

The Higher Haven’s Dynamic Duo - John Ashbrook to the Left, PaulTootalian to the Right.

We enjoyed my teacher John Ashbrook’s quarterly Spiritual Development class in the Detroit area this past weekend. “Class 1259 is a Spiritual Event” reads the invitation, “a gathering designed for those who are dedicated to furthering their personal growth and life fulfillment.” A few of the top discussion topics were Emotions and Health, Possibilities of Balance, Distortions Preventing Love, and Power – Easy or Hard? John being the Master Numerologist he is, this Holiday gathering always devotes a portion of class time and engages our collective intellects as to the ramifications of the coming new year.

Regarding 2020, the number 2 is the number of direction, holding divine and difficult possibilities for all of humanity this coming year, including you and me. John being a pretty creative cat and very fond of pointing out the greater spiritual significance of everything we see in life, he referenced the symbolism of the great Detroit Lions’ former star running back Barry Sanders, #20. “He wasn’t the most skilled player, but he slithered through the backfield, as no one could change direction faster”. The zeros harken to the “all or nothing nature – the extremes” of these numbers. And 2 + 0 + 2 +0 = 4, an indicator with a negative pull of potentially keeping something the same forever as well as the positive influence of building a new foundation for a higher level of development. 

 Our love for the Motor City and ever-hopeful regard for the Lions considered, John offers incredible insight into current earthly events along with the simplicity of spiritual solutions. As the vibrational energy of our world continues to rise, the chaos, fear-driven, former fractured approach will give way to a more positive, faith-filled trust in the benevolent, natural and right causes that govern life. And depending on your own relationship with those forces, will always lead you to a more positive place. Regarding radiant health and deep healing, we discussed how medicine’s ability to alleviate outward indicators and simply move energy around always falls short of getting down to the generator and root causes of physical symptoms.

 We discussed the implications of being Woke, the discretionary nature of when to apply force and when to employ patience, and the mark of authentic greatness, taking one beyond their deepest fears in order to be transformed into the most beautiful, wise and loving force. If any of the aforementioned sounds of interest, look for a monthly excerpt of John’s writings and teachings in this space, consider attending our next class in March of 2020, or make plans to meet John for an extended weekend of learning and practice here at The Higher Haven’s next Comprehensive Spiritual Development Retreat weekends of May 29th-31st and June 26th-28th with more information and registration available by year-end. 

On Mindfulness The Path And The Practices

Mindfulness offers practical ways to find focus, calm and joy in everyday living, and, when practiced with regularity, can be utterly life-changing. Like a super power that allows you to deliberately direct the beam of your attention instead of being tossed around by racing thoughts and turbulent emotions, mindfulness enables one to choose their own mindset and shift how to relate to experience so that stress is lessened and happiness increased. Many people think of mindfulness as something to add to an already full schedule. Or a special skill that only a few people can learn. Or something that only works for people with a baseline personality for being calm. Instead, practicing mindfulness is about learning, bit by bit, how to train your attention to stay in the present instead of ruminating over the past or lurching into the future. Mindfulness is the awareness that arises when we direct our attention on purpose toward our inner experience, toward others, and toward the relationship we have with the environment around us. But more than just focusing the mind, it’s about one’s mindset — how you view and hold the world. A mindful mindset is open, receptive, accepting and compassionate. Beginning starts with noticing your natural tendency to judge, assume you already know something, resist what life brings or worry about what is out of your own control — behaviors that everyone grapples with.

There’s ample scientific evidence about the power of mindfulness. Since the first steps in mindfulness research in the early 1990’s, the number of studies have increased exponentially. Research proves that you can change your default mental patterns through repeated practice, a concept called neuroplasticity. The repetition of mental training in effect rewires your brain with new neural pathways that incline you to respond to situations in more skillful ways than automatically reacting out of habit. The amazing piece to all this is that you end up in the driver’s seat of shaping your brain and your life through deliberate practice — conscious creating — instead of unwittingly wiring your brain through the influence of cultural norms, one’s family of origin, or old habits.

Specifically, research on the benefits of meditation — an integral part of the practice of mindfulness— has exploded in recent years. Researchers have found that mindful meditation — maintaining a moment by moment receptive awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and surrounding environment, using a set object of focus — increases attentional control, emotional regulation and self-awareness. Yet for all the research showing the benefits of mindfulness in treating such conditions as anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, researchers still don’t know exactly how consciousness woks. “That’s been the frontier for us, understanding the nuances of the mechanism and then developing targeted treatment,” says Judson Brewer, director of research for the Center of Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. When traversing this territory, I always like to go to my teacher Shinzen’s take. “After nearly half a century of practice, teaching and research in the field,” says Shinzen, “when I hear the word Mindfulness… I don’t think of one thing. I think of eight things. Mindfulness the word, the awareness, the practices, the path, the translation, the fad, the shadow, and the possible revolution.”

For the not-so-quick-and-dirty, go here. For our purposes now, we’ll close with Shinny’s take on the practice as well as the path, the mindful take referring to the systematic exercises that elevate a person’s base level of awareness. In Shinzen’s careful, calculated usage, we refer to these as mindful practices, or more fully, mindful awareness practices (MAPS). Two of the most common MAPS are Noting and Body Scanning, both techniques developed in Burma in the early 20th century and forming the base of Shinzen’s Body-Image-Talk and See-Hear-Feel techniques. These being the practices themselves, the Path refers to the ability to dramatically elevate one’s base level of mindful awareness through a well-organized regimen of mindful awareness practices, similar to the way one’s physical strength can be elevated through exercise. This ever-sharpening arrow in one’s quiver is a tool of immense power and general application that can be utilized to improve just about every aspect of human happiness. Consider joining our Winter Meditation Retreat Weekend February 21st -23rd or monthly meditation class in the upcoming new year to boost your power and practice.

!Novateus Solar's Think Tank

“Well me and my Uncle went ridin’ down South Colorado West Texas bound we stopped over in Sante Fe, That Day…”

South Bend, Indiana - the home of mayor Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg aka Pete as well the mighty Tyler Kanczuzewski aka TKO - beckoned from 60 miles southeast of South Haven last week. And hearing the call, we answered. Mayor Pete as you may know is in a tight, four-way contest in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. Tyler, as you may not know, is a friend, student, and growing force of nature leading the marketing and sustainability practices at !novateus Solar, a progressive South Bend solar developer delivering services the world over. Having worked with Tyler over the past year one-on-one conveying Vipassana meditation techniques, we were both eager to share the practice at a Friday Think Tank at his company’s South Bend Headquarters. “A Think Tank has the ability to bring a group together to collaborate and collectively transform ideas and solutions to become something bigger, brighter and hopefully more brilliant,” illuminates Tyler. “Mixing imaginations creates something magical and often unexpected.”

As to the unexpected, this particular Think Tank took an entirely new approach to Thought itself, studying how the act actually occurs. We gathered in the !novateus conference area, an open-space shared with neighboring Logistick, innovators of freight securement systems and co-company formed by founder and visionary Tom Kanczuzewski, Tyler’s Dad. I pointed out to our small group that the spirit of the founding Father’s hope - to create an organization in which his own workers thrive while at the same time making the world a better place - is what meditation and spiritual purification is all about. We covered meditation’s foundational ideas along with the four skills developed by its practice — concentration, relaxation, insights into life and death and unconditional love. Then we practiced, taking part in a 20-minute guided Vippasana meditation, utilizing our breath and body sensations, our mind’s visual component together with it’s verbal or auditory output in order to See, Hear and Feel our inner world. In doing so, we experienced the taste of purification, an untangling of sensory experience that offers a tangible tranquility and sense of relaxation, the blessed states that have inspired a modern Mindfulness movement.

As to feedback, for a first-pass, the reports were off the charts. “That was awesome,” expressed more than one participant. A personal highlight was a post-tank exchange with an attendee and fellow snowboarder. We agreed that first being strapped to a plank felt awkward and the learning curve steep, but in a flash you were over the hump and once you got it, its all you wanted to do. “Same thing here”, I offered. If you were in attendance, you too may have felt the energized connectivity, the unspoken but ever-present vibe amongst people practicing together in community . “I encourage everyone to consider meditation practice to connect with life in a deeper, more meaningful way”, expresses Tyler, with a watchful eye on a healthy, sustainable future and awake to the responsibility to the earth’s future generations. “Paul and his work with Higher Haven has truly changed my life. I am now in touch with a deeper part of myself, which allows me to better connect with others in my life, as well as Mother Earth.” We’ll be offering regular meditation classes and monthly retreats in the new year as well as reaching out to other companies and corporations. If you’d like to discuss how to make your business more personal and employees more empowered, Let’s Connect.