A Daily Meditation To Free Yourself

I used to hold on to a lot of stuff...

• Ideas about what I am supposed to look like and how I am supposed to behave 
• Expectations from others if I didn't do what they thought I should do
• Anxiety and worry about being criticized or judged
• Past grudges, hurts, and resentments
• Mistakes that I made
• The list goes on and on...

I have spent many years working on myself, searching for my inner calling, my life purpose, and true joy.  I have never been clearer in my journey than now, when I tell you that none of those things are worth holding on to.  It has been a gradual realization, but then suddenly, it became so clear recently. This baggage does not serve me in my pursuit of joyful living.  It is unproductive and it weighs me down (literally, my neck and shoulders ache from the weight of it all.)  It gets me nowhere further on my path.  In fact, it sets up roadblocks and detours that have slowed me down to getting me to right where I am now - happy and on my way.

So, I have started to let go, and in the process, let it go.  This is such a profound realization for me - let go and you will let it go.  I have reflected on this thought repeatedly during my daily meditations.  I have let go of anger and resentment, worry and anxiety, frustration and fear.  I may only release these feelings for 5 to 15 minutes during the day, as I meditate towards inner calm, but something more meaningful has started to change.  When I come out of my meditation, I am changed.

I have started loving, becoming nicer to myself, as well as those who had "wronged me" in my head somehow.  I find it easier to release judgment of myself for mistakes or choices I thought were wrong, and instead have begun to embrace what is.

Because...I want to feel good.  And this holding onto stuff business doesn't feel good.  No part of it does.  

Try the following as a mantra or affirmation daily:

Close your eyes.  Inhale deeply and exhale.  As you exhale, say "Let go."

Visualize whatever you are holding onto, and watch it release from your body, your hands, your existence.  Watch it dissolve and disappear until it is no more. 

Continue this several times.  Inhale and "let go."

Let go of the past hurts and the self-imposed limitations.   Release them and make room for love, joy, and laughter.

What are you holding on to that is limiting you from living the most joyful, fulfilling life you could have?  Whatever it is, let go of it now.  Free yourself and make room for much joy to replace it.  

Meet Myke Zykoff, LifeCare Specialist

Myke Zykoff is one of those people that makes you feel good.  You know the ones….  Their energy lifts you up.  They always say exactly what you needed to hear, (often when you didn't even realize you needed to hear it).  They always have something interesting to share, and you leave every encounter with them feeling better than you did before you were with them.  That's Myke.  

I first met him a little over a year ago when I started seeing him for some hypnotherapy sessions, (Wow!  These are awesome if you've never experienced one before.)  Since then, Myke has expanded his services to include a range of life care, including meditation, (he hosts a very affordable weekly meditation class in West Hollywood that I wish I could get to more), personal coaching, workshops, and audio classes, (love these).  He is great at what he does, and it shows.  As someone living his joy, he clearly stands out for me as someone living the good life.  I was oh so happy that he agreed to let me interview him for the blog and share some of the great stuff he does.


VM: What is Zykoff LifeCare and how is it different from traditional therapy.
MZ: The most important thing I like people to know about Zykoff LifeCare is that it's all about you. What do you want?  What do you need? What is the best possible version of you, you can imagine?  This is what we set out to accomplish. The work here is not about poking around in your past nor lingering in the "problem." We work to build a
bridge from where you are to where you want to be.  I consider this "action therapy." Over the years I've learned the only true problem that anyone ever has is misinterpreting the messages one's body is sending. Your mind and body are always working in your favor. Discomforts are your being's way of letting you know something's not right for you.
That's all. LifeCare is a practice for learning to understand the messages being sent and then how to take appropriate action.

VM: How or why were you drawn into this field? How did you get on your spiritual path?
MZ: Honestly, what really set me on my path was a moment, a few days before my mother's passing, sitting beside her on her bed. She barely had any energy left and I was feeling quite helpless in it all.  But she saw me differently. She placed her hand upon my leg, looked at me and said, "You're a good caregiver."  At that moment I did not understand, nor see how that could be possible. It took about a year and a half of me burying myself in my work that I finally realized she was right. I began feeling more and more the need to be of service. This is what I do now, thanks to my mother's insight.

VM: Can you talk a little about the services you offer- hypnotherapy, life coaching and meditation - and share how they can be used to help us to live more fulfilled lives?
MZ: My practice is really all about helping people get back on their path, get back to their joy.  Eventually I will only be offering one type of session, "LifeCare," that will incorporate everything I do dependent upon a client's desired outcome. But for now I do list three different personal services on my website: Hypnotherapy, Coaching and Meditation. My hypnotherapy sessions are best for people that feel a little bewildered by their life experience and seek to understand their behaviors and create dynamic life changes. My coaching programs are more for people who are quite clear on what they want but can't seem to be able to get themselves there or who may just want a little push to accelerate their results.  Meditation, well, that's for everyone. What I mean is, the approach I take to
meditation is not so much about clearing the mind as it is about understanding who you are in your world. In this work we focus on allowing one's inner voice to become louder than sound of the world around us. We already have all the tools within us necessary to live the lives we want. LifeCare Meditation helps us to know this is true.

VM: You said something to me during one of our sessions: "You always know." How can we become better at hearing our inner voice and following it?
MZ: First let me explain what I mean by that.  When it comes to what is best for you, your ease of being and your joy, you always know.  Everything you do you do because, in some way, it serves you. It feels good for you.  Otherwise you would not do it.  So something within you already knows.  Learning to follow that knowing, well, that's something
else, altogether.  To get better at this I say "come to class!"  My weekly LifeCare Meditation classes are all about this.  In these sittings we practice listening to our own voices, our own truths.  Here's a basic guideline for practicing this at home: begin noticing your feelings at all different times of the day.  Select a few random times and set an alarm to
remind you.  Then, when the alarm goes off, notice what you're feeling; happy, sad, confusion, anger, etc. This is the first step.  Then, once you take note of how you're feeling, tune your awareness to what you're thinking about. You'll soon begin to learn the correlation of your moods to your thoughts.  Now, here's the key to knowing if your thoughts are truly a product of your inner voice: If you're feeling good, your thoughts belong to you. If you're feeling anything else, your thoughts are not a match to you. They are not yours.  As you learn to distinguish your voice from the world around you you'll be better able to follow it and stay on your personal life path.

VM: What three things do you suggest people do every day to experience "optimal living?"
MZ: What a beautiful question.  To me, optimal living is about living into your own version of the world, not what they sell in the magazines and movies.  To get clear on what that means for oneself and to live into it, I recommend these three things: Meditate, Breathe and say "Thank you."

- Meditation, as we've already discusses, is key in being able to hear what YOU have to say. Sitting still reduces outside influence on the mind and allows what's inside to become more known. 

-Breathing is a simple way to call your self home. When you sit still before a meal, a meeting or at bedtime, and pay attention to how you're body is breathing, your mind lets go of all outside involvement (stress, anxiety and worry) and returns to your body. And
that's exactly where you want it if you desire to remain healthy and vibrant. 

-And then, there's "thank you." We typically only say thank you in immediate response to something being done in our favor. But what about the air we breathe, our hearts that beat and the water we drink?  There's so much to be thankful for, but we forget.  A practice of
saying thank you for everything you do have will keep one's ego in check and your feet on the earth.

VM: You offer some fantastic audio programs. Can you tell us about them and suggest one to start with for those who are new to your type of health care?
MZ: Thank you for saying so.  I quite like them, too.  The driving force for my audio programs, and the additional digital content I am developing, is to make personal, mind care affordable and easily accessible. Some people simply can't afford private sessions or may not have a schedule that allows for much time away from the home or office.  My
programs are designed to feel much like a personalized, private session. The content is universal in its appeal allowing it to apply to your most immediate life vantage point at the time of listening.  Every listen will activate new results.  As to which is the best to begin with, well, I suggest a quick read of their brief descriptions and see which one
seems like a match at that moment.  There is no particular order to follow.  But, if your readers would like a free program, send them to my website where they can download one of my favorites, Guide to Relaxation, and then they'll have a better idea of what these programs can do for them.

VM: As you mention on your website, many of us have become distracted by outside forces as to what we truly need to be fulfilled.  Is there a daily practice or ritual you could recommend to help us stay attuned to our true joy in life?
MZ: Yes.  And as you might guess, I am going to say MEDITATION.  It's, bar none, the best thing one can do to maintain well being, personal identity and their connection to joy.  Five minutes a day is all it takes.  Truly. However; I understand that for many it really seems impossible to sit still at all.  So for them I would recommend what I call
"bullet point journalling."  Instead of writing down all of your thoughts from the day, make bullet points of the highlights.  When we hold ourselves accountable for our daily actions we can discover the links we have to our frustrations and our joys.  After a week or so, you'll begin to notice a pattern emerging.  Once you see it, you can do
something about it.  Here, once again, "you always know."  Sometimes it just takes slowing things down a bit to catch it.

VM: I am on a quest to live the "good" life in all aspects of the word. What does the "good" life represent/mean to you?
MZ: The "good life" to me is a life without baggage.  To be more specific, the good life, is a life without self compromise.  Not the compromise of sharing a home or a life with another, but the compromise of living in someone else's shadow.  Many people walk around holding back on who they really are here to be because of what someone
else might think of them.  That's just existing, not living.  The good life is giving your self permission and freedom to walk your own path.  Indeed!

VM: Can you share your favorite quote?
MZ: My favorite quote has more to do with having it stuck in my head than anything else, but in truth, it does fall in line with all that I stand for.  It's by Oscar Wilde.  "The only way to be rid of a temptation is to yield to it."  We're here, in our human forms, to learn, to grow, to explore.  When we find ourselves intrigued by one thing or another it's in the
best interest of our soul's journey to explore it.  As many a deathbed quote we've heard… "I regret only what I never allowed myself to do."  We're here to live!

Thank you, Myke!  To learn more about Zykoff Lifecare, click here.  You can read more about Myke below.  

Myke Zykoff: A filmmaker turned healer.

Myke Zykoff HHP, C.Ht. is a healer, guide, life coach and teacher in and around the Los Angeles area with clients on several continents.  Although he is quickly becoming a leader in his field, it was not what he originally set out to do.  

His original plan was focused on filmmaking which he stepped into with fervor. Even before Myke completed his
undergrad studies at Emerson College in Boston, MA, he was already employed and working in the Hollywood film industry. Not long after graduating, his career was off and running, experiencing success as a producer and director of music videos and on a fast track for creating feature films.  That was, until he lost his mother to breast cancer.

"Nothing seemed normal anymore and making films didn't seem to make sense either." 
He found himself called to the healing world. "I wanted to become part of the solution for pain and suffering."  

He devoted his post graduate studies to healing work and at first became certified as a massage therapist and shortly after, a Holistic Health Practitioner. He was on a mission to understanding the language of the human body. Myke opened his first healing office, Zykoff Bodywork, and soon after, found his practice voted Best of LA, five years in a row. 

But the more time he spent helping people the more he discovered that being healthy and living a great life has more to do with what goes on in people's minds than anything else. "The mind controls every aspect of what goes on in the body. In order for an un-wellness to exist, the mind must allow it to exist."

With the gift of this insight he dove into studying, and becoming certified in, hypnotherapy and NLP. "These are two of the most rapid modalities for changing the rules for how we think."  

"My healing practice is devoted to helping individuals learn to retell their life stories in a more meaningful way."   He's learned that the majority of people on this planet have learned to hold false beliefs about themselves and the result is people living lives that are not satisfying or even, in some cases, the slightest bit enjoyable. "People tell awful stories to themselves and then live out their lives making them real." "When you change your story, you change your life."

Zykoff LifeCare is a unique healing modality incorporating hypnosis, NLP, handwriting analysis, body language and energy work to assist individuals in commanding the power of their minds, break through personal limitations and be able to amplify their personally desired qualities.

The basic tenet of Myke's practice is "Everything is Possible." All of his sessions are geared towards getting clear on what needs to change and then removing the perceived obstacles so that the change can happen.

Over the past 14 years Myke has helped more than one thousand individuals to live more joy-full and meaning-full lives. "This is not a job for me. This is my life."

If you would like to pursue a private session with Mr. Zykoff, please call his office at (310)275.7673. All inquiries are welcome and his consultations are free.

Join the Meditation Challenge!

Meditation has been on my "to-do" list for many years.  As an evolving, spiritual being with a yearning for a deeper connection with the Universe (whatever that may be), I understand that meditation is critical.  As a busy mom of three with lots of demands on me, I have experienced the calm and serenity that a daily practice provides.  I have started a meditation routine too many times to count, only to get busy with life and let it fall to the bottom of my list, and then eventually off of it.  Each time I start again, I am overwhelmed with the positive energy and overall calm that it adds to my life.  Then, I am cursing myself when I can't keep it together to maintain the practice.  Well, folks, this time is different!  I started Deepak Chopra's 21-Day Meditation Challenge last week and I am in my meditation stride.  For those of you who don't know Mr. Chopra, he is a spiritual guru, and highly acclaimed author, named by Time magazine as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century, a.k.a. awesome and incredible human being.  I consider him to be one of the change agents of our time.  

We are so lucky he has  put this challenge together for us - for free!  The 21-Day journey is focused on creating abundance - here, here to that.  The meditations are delivered to your inbox every night and are about 15 minutes in length.  His calming, soothing voice is just what I need to guide me into a state of calm and serenity.  He voices a sanskrit mantra for the day and provides a thought to continue to reflect upon.  There is also an online journal for each meditation, where you can answer three questions that allow you to put your insights and thoughts down after the meditation.  

I am determined to allow myself to be taken over into the meditation vortex this 21 days (they say that it takes 21 days before it becomes a habit) and turn this daily routine into a practice.  I have being doing the meditations right after my morning workout while the house is still quiet.  This has worked well for me, but choose a time period that works best for you (and make sure your family or roommates understand and respect your meditation time so you are not disturbed).  

I am feeling so happy and abundant, I cannot see not doing this every day.  I encourage you to register and join the journey.  It promises to attract more goodness into your life - however you may define that.  In the meantime, feel the peace, joy, love and comfort that only meditation brings - a key ingredient to any good life.