I’m dedicated to bringing you back to the joy of living by helping you to experience your inner light…your divine essence. Through the use of different healing arts and the assistance of Source Energy, the healing of all energetic bodies can be facilitated.
We start by calling in the four directions, creating sacred space and calling in higher divine energy. A meditation technique is used to help quiet the mind an bring you in contact with your Higher Self. Shamanic journeying is used as a tool to connect you with your power animals and spirit guides. Journeying can also be used to help overcome barriers, heal the body, find your mission, soul retrieval, or connect with Spirit and your guides. Visualizations are also incorporated. The direction of the meditation depends on the group dynamic and what is needed at the time. Healing energy is shared among the participants and then sent out to family, friends, our community, the world and then grounded into Mother Earth.
Wednesday 9:30 - 10:30 am (Call for location) Thursday 6:30 - 7:30 pm
You must rsvp if you plan to attend. Please send a quick email to or call 516-647-7672. Thank you!
Learn specific techniques to defend yourself against different kinds of possible attacks. Grips, chokes, kicks, punches, chops, elbow blows, and restraining holds will be covered. During class, students will work with one another to refine their movements and further their understanding of self-defense techniques. Our practice will combine the training ofmind, body and spirit in a unified discipline. Each session will include a quick warm up and stretching.
Thursday 6:15 - 7:15 pm (Starts April 7th) Location: Great Neck Adult Center @Cumberland To Register, Call 516-441-4949
Learn easy self-defense techniques to empower you to make effective choices about your personal safety. Tips to help you stay safe, avoid danger, increase self-esteem and confidence, and stay calm in a stressful situation will be offered. Possible scenarios and ways to defend yourself against attack will be reviewed. Each session will include a brief warm-up, gentle stretching, and breath work to relax your mind and body. Feel younger, stronger, and more confident. All levels of mobility are welcome; we will work with you at your level.
Wednesday 3:30 - 4:30 pm (Starts April 6th) Location: Great Neck Adult Center @ Cumberland To Register, Call 516-441-4949
As I walked through my garden, I noticed a single pink rose. Instantly I re-membered myself… knowing that this single rose was a symbol of my soul.
In a state between wakefulness and sleep, I was shown this rose. Unusual since it was the only one that blossomed from a large climbing rose bush. You can see the other buds seemingly ready to bloom but they never did. Just a single pink rose.
Something remarkable happened as a result of that day …when higher guidance showed me the rose. I stopped searching. A new understanding emerged … one that seemingly took a whole lifetime and yet happened instantly. I am Melisa. Not a sacred pipe carrier…not an elder … not a healer … not a teacher of this or that. Just simply…I am. It was a splendid moment … an arrival.
There was no longer the need to define who I was… what I did….what was my purpose…where I was going… how I was getting there. I was able to just Be…in the moment…
As I looked back at my journey … there is much humor in all of this. My magnetic center had me searching under and over every nook and cranny only to find out that what I was looking for was already in me… it was me. To finally realize that all I needed to do was to honor myself…my essence, my light and shadow sides…
Spirit has a great sense of humor. It’s so wondrous to be home…to feel like you have arrived. I am Melisa. Nothing more and nothing less… the totality of everything that makes me beautiful and spectacular, mixed in with all my mishigas (craziness)…
Jean Joy Smiths words come back to me many times to remind me that what is necessary is to get down to the root of who we are … to shed all that is superfluous and to get down to the core… to our real selves. This is our work.
The Everything and The Nothing by Meher Baba
A Journey Without Journeying
The succession of experiences that one goes through in the process of involution is called the Spiritual Path, and the going through them is likened to a journey. ….
The experiences are so innumerable and varied, that the journey appears to be interminable and the Destination is ever out of sight. But the wonder of it is, when at last you reach your Destination you find that you had never travelled at all! It was a journey from her to Here. As one Sufi expressed it, When I plucked the date (Fruit of Realization) I found the fruit was within me.
Mushin: The State of No Mind
He stood before me muscles tense. Nothing exits but him. My attention fully on every detail... of his face, the expression in his eyes. We merge Becoming one breath one movement of sinew and muscle. In the battle between life and death nothing is wasted. We wait in agonizing stillness for the other to lead in this warriors dance.
For every step he responds, as a note to the touch of a key. He enters swiftly. A string of notes plays in infinity. My response, direct. The dance begins creating a melodic harmony. Turning chaos into stillness.
Why Meditate?
We finally arrived at a point where scientist and spiritual leaders can stand on common ground. Let’s take the cell. At first, we were able to determine that human beings are made up of lots of space & many particles called cells. With advances in technology, we were able to look further into the cell and determine that cells were made up of more space and more particles which we called atoms. With further advances in science, we were able to determine that the atom was composed of space and other particles called proton, neutrons and electrons. So forth and so on….***
Scientist now agree that we are made up of space and particles that “agglutinate” or gather to create form by an unknown energy that has awareness. How else can we explain the “miracle” of life, where a fertilized egg can lead to a full and perfectly formed human being. Encoded in this cell is everything from the color of our hair, eyes and skin to our height and personalities, etc….
In essence, we are all made up of an energic creative force that has awareness and consciousness.
Now, let’s call this ever expanding creative force in the universe of which we are come from Spirit. You can call it anything you want. G_d, the universal consciousness, Christ, Buddha, the Great Mystery, the Great Spirit…..
So if all that separates us is space and particles, we are in essence connected to each other. What disconnects us is our perception of separateness – the image of ourselves as individuals. In other words, our egos.
I am Melisa the mother, the wife, the martial arts instructor, the meditation teacher, the spiritual mentor, etc….. In reality, I am much more than that. I am part of Spirit – that ever expanding creative force in the universe. I am part of you and you of me. That is our heritage and the heritage of human kind.
When we are born and before we engage in self-awareness, we have a very clear connection to “Spirit”. It’s only over time that this connection starts to pick up static and becomes less clear.
Carlos Castaneda’s teacher was Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian from Mexico. He was a sorcerer (which by definition is “one who seeks to connect to the source”) from a long lineage going back to antiquity. He is quoted as saying, “Whenever the internal dialogue stops, the world collapses, and extraordinary facets of ourselves surface, as though they had been kept heavily guarded by our words”.
In other words, our thoughts and words hold firm this world. Upon quieting the mind, our true nature and all our possibilities become evident.
When we enter into the NOW, or into the GAP, we are essentially disconnecting from the physical world of thoughts and things and entering into pure “Spirit”. Imagine that….being able to connect and recharge and heal by plugging into our power “source”.
That is what meditation is all about.
If this is not enough to motivate you to meditate, then let’s talk briefly about the Power of Attraction that has been fueling so much debate since the launching of the popular DVD and book called “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. In the dvd, they explain that we are again beings of energy and like all things that are made of energy we either attract to us or repel from us everything that is in our lives. In other words, we are magnets.
The law of attraction states that if you are a positive person that is giving and joyful towards others, life in general will be positive and we will attract positive and joyful circumstances into our lives. It goes further to state that what you are thinking is what you manifest into your life. Since we have over 60,000 thoughts per day, it’s hard to monitor your thoughts. So, they tell you to monitor your emotions. Good emotions lead to positive results…..Bad emotions lead to negative results.
Now, if we take into account the nature of the mind. This can be very difficult. Our minds flits from one thought to the next like a galloping horse or the ever ready bunny. If we can stop our thoughts and connect to our source or Spirit, we can recharge, calm the mind and relax the body. In addition to this, the Edgar Cayce method of meditation helps you to change how you think. If you tend to be negative and ponder on the negative possible results of situations and people in your life, then this is a great tool for you. It is also a great tool to bring a spiritual or physical ideal from the mental realms into the physical realm.
In other words, we can learn to change our lives , “we can become the Micheangelos’ of our own Davids”.
Know Thyself Voice: Melisa Desperak Music: Desert Flower, By Jo Anna Burns-Miller, Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved, www.joannaburns-miller.com
“Know Thyself’”. This famous proverb still echoes today as loudly as it has in our ancient past. Many esoteric teachings have their roots in this one phrase.
Getting to know yourself and digging deeply into the very root of who you are, can be the most important task we can take on. When we are born, we are in Essence but as personality develops, we sometimes take on parts that are not us…are not real. They are referred to as false personality, most of which is learned from our environment.
We can recognize false personality any time we encounter negative emotions. There is a misconception that negative emotions arise from the acts of others but the truth is that they come from within ourselves. Understanding why something that exists outside of ourselves has the power to elicit negative emotions with in us, can shed light on the workings of our mind and emotions.
For instance, why should someone else’s disparaging remark elicit a negative emotion? Is it because we demand to be respected? Is it because we feel misunderstood? Or do we want to be liked and accepted? Is it because we know better and need to provide proof? Don’t all of these reasons fall under “self-importance”? Couldn’t we call this vanity? Isn’t it vanity to feel we know more? Isn’t it vanity to feel we are not good enough? Aren’t they opposite sides of the same coin, both reflecting preoccupation with self?
When you know yourself, you can be among kings and peasants alike. You can be real, not worry about being anything other than yourself. No pretenses, honoring both your light and shadow sides. In knowing yourself, you can know others as well.
In order to know yourself, your task would be to peel away the layers of false personality so we can uncover what is real in ourselves. Through awareness and self-observation, we can start to create what is called permanent certainty.
Permanent certainty are pearls of understanding that we have verified for ourselves through life and they become part of our wisdom – unshakable by others. These can be understanding about ourselves, others, society, love, relationships, government and everything having to do with life.
When we reach our core, we are able to fully “see” our inner beauty, our Soul. When our inner selves can shine through with confidence, we can gift to the world who we are.
In this meditation, we will ask higher guidance to show us a time in our lives when we were in essence. We will ask to see what part of us is false and ask assistance in peeling away the unnecessary layers of false personality. Once these layers are peeled away, we will ask to see our gift. What did we bring from many life times that can help others? How are we meant to share this with the world?
Voice: Melisa Desperak Music: Song of Gratitue, By Marina Raye,
Liquid Silk, Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved, www.marinaraye.com
In this meditation,
we will call in higher
guidance and use their assistance to connect to the energy of Gratitude. Gratitude, when you allow it to
envelope your body, is a very powerful energy that can help you heal and
sustains you in the higher realms where you can remain in a positive frame of
mind.
For background music,
I am using Marina Raye’s Song of Gratitude from her Liquid Silk CD. Wishing everyone a beautiful and loving
Thanksgiving.
