Day 2 - Introduction (03)

Here is the link to the Wim Hof brething exercise with Semantron Drums as used during the retreat.

TRANSCRIPT

J: [15:16] So good morning, everyone. It's wonderful to see you here again.

And thank you so much, Mee for having shared that with us. It's beautiful. I can imagine, envision the version of us walking in a field, one after the other, contemplating. And hopefully we'll all have that experience.

There are many labyrinths here in Italy. Maybe you'll stumble upon one in your journeys onwards in a castle or a villa or something along those lines because they are quite a surprise when you do stumble upon them. I remember there was one in an attic somewhere we were on a trip and just found this room. There was no one in it. And the floor was just this beautiful inlay, giant labyrinth. I think it took about, what, 20, 30 minutes to do the whole thing and to come back out.

So if you do find one, I do recommend trying it out.

So today we are, I believe the title of this particular session is talking about individuation versus collective, and unity versus, no, wait, individuation versus unity and the personal versus the collective.

So as I said yesterday, what Vagrein wanted to share about that is there's really no such thing as personal.

We are, yes, individuals. We are, yes, having our own lives that maybe others don't relate to, and in expressing that we believe this is mine. But sharing means understanding that nothing that you're sharing actually belongs to you. The thoughts that come into your mind, the feelings that you have, they're all coming from a greater source. Even your own body comes from the miracle of existence putting all the bits and pieces together so that you can experience life. So we are on a journey of the collective and we get to experience that as personal, which is a really beautiful thing to have as one of our gifts, one of the things that we've been given by existence itself.

This is also the reason why often in Vagrein channelings, especially when it has to do with suffering or catalyst or things not going your way, they will attempt to point you back to the fact that you don't know what ways you're serving someone else.

So that disease that you've been diagnosed with and the way that you show up with your medical team might be what transforms your doctor's life. It might be what makes them a better doctor for all the patients that come after you.

Even the child who tragically has a disease will impact every single person along their journey—their parents most often—. And that personal experience that that child is having that we can see like, poor him, poor her, is actually in many ways going to impact the collective for the service that every other being in that collective is wanting.

So this is something that is a nice thought to bring into your experience when things are not going your way. "Things are not going my way”. No, they aren't. But they're certainly going the way that the universe has set up and planned for the greatest good of existence in that moment.

Maybe not for you. Maybe you don't see it yet. Maybe your misfortune really is. That 200 euros that you lost on the streets, that's somebody else's best day ever.

Maybe not for you. Maybe you don't see it yet. Maybe your misfortune really is, you know, that [Laughs] that, you know, uhm… 200 euros that you lost on the streets, right? that's somebody else's best day ever. So yes, it's not going your way, but something is always serving in some way of the collective.

Now of course, we're individuals. We have to find a way to cement that in and feel that because often we do get very much into the “why me?” type of mentality or "what did I do wrong?", “How is this not working out for me?”, etc. So Vagrein will definitely touch on that today.

In the morning sessions, I'd like to do a breathing exercise that I do every morning myself. I'd like to share that with you. It's Wim Hof breathing. So many of you are familiar with that. It's a lot of in and outs and then periods of apnea on the out breath. So with empty lungs.

I actually just took the recording that I actually use to share with you off the internet because it's a very interesting one. It has these semantron, which I don't really know much about this instrument, drumming, which I believe, and I don't want to say something completely wrong because I haven't researched it much, but I believe it's orthodox priests that have learned this drumming technique.

And what it does is the irregularity, and you'll see it's very irregular, and the speed of this drumming does tap into some part of our brain that can't comprehend it. And so you can, through that modality of hearing these drums, come into a state of not thinking. Now, other people find it provokes a lot of anxiety because it is a lot of drumming and it is going... ta-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat. So it can be a little bit overwhelming.

I invite everyone here to sit with whatever feelings come up during that part, because that is during the breath hold period, and also not to stress yourself. If you can't hold your breath for the amount of time, because the first one I believe is one minute, then it's a minute and a half, and then it's two minutes, nobody starts out being able to do that the first times, and nobody consistently can do that every day. Your breath is different every day, the things that are being processed through you are different every day, so take your breaths as you need.

If you're not wanting to even do the apnea, don't do it. Just enjoy the moment of relax. So in total, it's a ten-minute thing. We have the in and out breaths in a rhythm, the breath holds, there's three cycles of that, and then we'll be very much in a state of clear mind. Because for me, I know it clears my mind completely. So I'll play the recording for you, as opposed to guiding you through it, because that way we have the drums as well.