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Dear friends,

Below is a message from Burgs for you. It is a little long, but we hope you can take the time to read it. It details the rationale behind the current changing landscape in which we find ourselves and how Burgs and the Art of Meditation is responding to these changes.

Sending you all much metta

The AoM Team

Dear friends,

I hope this email finds you all well.

It's been a while since I wrote to you all so now I have a few days between retreats I want to update you on developments here at AoM.

This past year while we have been setting up our new centre I have given much thought to the changing needs of those exploring the spiritual aspect of their lives within the context of daily life.

Having observed these needs and aspirations changing significantly over the past 20 years I feel strongly that we are at a critical time in our spiritual evolution. The way we are using our minds, our brains and our nervous systems to navigate life has changed so dramatically in recent years to the point that even the way we are able relate to our spiritual wellbeing is different now than it was when I first started teaching.

It is a subject that I wish to discus in depth and I am planning to publish a series of podcasts on this subject over the coming winter. Perhaps the single biggest factor in all of this is the way our brains and nervous systems are becoming rewired in the face of the fragmented and accelerated way we now use our brains to process information. This has had a profound effect upon our capacity to extract genuine pleasure and satisfaction from the things we do.

In an effort to address this I have developed our new Neuro Research Clinic where we are engaged in ongoing exploration into the ways in which we can repair and restore the subtle functioning of our conscious process in a way that allows us to reconnect at deeper levels to the things we know are important to us.

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It first became apparent to me observing people coming on retreat after the three years break I took from hosting live in-person events.

The first steps I took to addressing this subject was the introduction of our “Spiritual Self-care” programme. This is something that I will be extending and developing further next year. The notion behind this is to empower and steer you towards a clearer understanding of how we can better take care of ourselves in the face of our modern day challenges.

But beyond this I have recognised that there are some important fundamentals that have changed in the way most peoples nervous system and brains are now configured and wired that tremendously hinders our best efforts to reestablish optimal or even base line cognitive emotional and neurological functioning. This is something that I feel needs serious attention before we genuinely lose our ability to realign to the fundamentals of spiritual and psychological wellbeing. In effect what for years we were able to address through meditation and other practices we now need to consider in terms of how we are configured at a functional level.

The work I had to do to recover my own brain after my seizures taught me much about how hard we sometimes have to work to recover a harmonious and well functioning system. While my meditation played a huge part in my recovery I was able to see that certain things, though tremendously helpful if we can do them well, we may find we need help to restore our innate capacity to do once it has become compromised.

Central to this is our ability to extract and experience genuine pleasure and happiness from our ordinary activities, something that is so fundamental to our overall wellbeing. In response to this I crystallised everything I had learned into our new “Neuro Reset” retreats and programmes which we started offering last winter. Through these programmes I have been able to help people reset the way their minds and brains engage in life's numerous levels of experience.

Central to this work is -

• helping to repair our resilience while also improving how we are able to focus on what we are doing without stressing tiring or becoming distracted
• how we can find pleasure again in the things that have started to feel empty and lacking
• how we can appreciate more deeply life's wonders and how we relate to ourselves and others.

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There was a time not long ago where taking a week out on retreat to rest and meditate away from life's distractions was enough to give us the reset we needed while allowing us to reorientate around the things that are most important to us. These days more and more people need such time to just allow their nervous systems to calm down from the level of overwhelm that they experience even from leading simple lives that ideally they should not be finding stressful. What could in the past be achieved in the first 24 to 36 hours of a retreat is now taking many people most of the week to reach, leaving little time on retreat for genuine spiritual progress. The rigours of a silent and intensive meditation retreat though potentially profoundly transformative may now be too demanding for the strain that many people are experiencing at a neurological cognitive and existential level.

The work we can do during our reset programmes and retreats now seems to meet the real needs of many people, allowing restoration of these highly stressed and over-taxed neurological systems while supporting rapid progress in deep personal processing and transformation. By mapping and entraining the brain in targeted ways we are able to very swiftly bring about tremendous improvements in both neurological functioning and sense of personal wellbeing. This has proved to be a game changer for almost everyone who has joined these programmes regardless of what brought them.

I know that in general if you are part of our community you are already genuinely interested in cultivating your own wellbeing at many levels. Essentially, though the interventions we utilise at our new retreat centre and clinic can of course help support severely compromised individuals, that work ideally needs to be done with full medical and professional supervision. Where I feel our new programmes will be of most value is in helping those who recognise they want to function better and still have the capacity to engage fully in the effort to achieve their goals. In particular those who are wholeheartedly committed to their wellbeing and able to engage in transformational work in a powerfully supported way, using techniques that can significantly augment what they are able to achieve alone.

I would honestly hand on heart say that these retreats make possible the kind of progress and gains that currently would take a number of traditional retreats and months of committed work in the daily life. On a number of occasions I have seen people breakthrough on the reset programme in areas they have worked for years to overcome alone.

You all know that I am not inherently an advocate for technology, but since our misuse of tech lies behind so many of the problems we now face, I feel that the skilful and appropriate use of technology now allows us to access parts of our brain, mind and consciousness that in the past only ardently committed yogis have been able to access. It is also allowing us to reverse much of the damage that tech has done to the subtlest levels of our consciousness.

I would sincerely recommend any of you interested in these things to seriously consider joining one of our neuro reset programmes. They are all small groups of no more than 6 people at a time which allows for a highly personalised programme to be offered to meet your very individual needs.

Beyond this the Reset / Internal Alchemy retreats we are now offering alongside our Neuro Reset programme are also small intimate events of no more than 15 people. Both of these offerings allow for you to further your own personal and spiritual journey while working to restore and enhance your neurological wellbeing.

I will be sharing more on the enormously important subject of mental and neurological wellbeing in coming weeks. For now you can hear a little more about what we are offering on our website by clicking this link and watch the video. I honestly believe this might help many of you unlock and open, or reopen the doors you are looking to pass though on your own personal journey. If this work calls to you and you feel you might like to join us this winter please feel free to apply for this retreat using the application form on the webpage.

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With love

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Burgs