SRS Session 0 | Welcome To Spiritual Recalibration Series

Hello,

My name is David M.

Kay.

Thank you for your interest in the Spiritual Recalibration Series.

I think it will be helpful for you,

Before embarking on this series,

For me to tell you a bit of the background for the series and also offer a few suggestions for how to use it.

A few years ago,

A fellow named Marty reached out to me about teaching him and a few of his friends at work to meditate.

Marty is someone who I have been friendly with for a few years,

As our daughters are the same age and went to school together.

He has since become my very good friend.

At the time he reached out to me,

It was the first month or two of the pandemic.

It was a challenging time for every human on the planet,

And I and Marty and his friends at work were no exception.

I began to meet with Marty and his friends every Friday morning for guided meditation.

It started off with a sizable group of people,

And as often happens in these kinds of endeavors,

A few began to peel off,

And over the weeks and months it eventually whittled down to just two or three consistent folks every Friday.

But almost always,

Without fail,

Marty was there.

After a few months,

Marty asked that I start recording the sessions,

Which is the reason I have them to offer you now,

For your own personal benefit.

This series is robust,

Offering pointers across a broad range of topics addressing your conscious awareness.

It has been narrowed down to no fewer than 33 sessions,

Each an efficient 20 minutes or thereabouts.

Each session is divided roughly in half,

With the first 10 minutes or so being the recalibration,

Which is essentially me speaking to you conversationally and thus offering new thoughts into your awareness.

In the second half,

We use guided meditation,

Often including affirmations and visualizations to seal the recalibration and allow for time with quiet stillness.

I would invite you to do these sessions in order.

While the series does not include every single recalibration that I did with the group,

They are still in time-sequential order.

Use the series as you wish,

Listening as often as you wish,

Though I would suggest listening to no more than one session in the series on a given day.

You might develop a habit for the series,

Listening at a particular time of day each day.

Do what works for you,

And of course you are welcome to listen to them as the group did,

One per week,

Repeating the meditation portion daily as you like,

Until the next one.

Needless to say,

Tempting as it might be,

Don't listen while you're driving or doing anything else.

Find some quiet time in a quiet place where you can focus on giving to yourself.

For the first year of the weekly meditations with Marty's group,

This offering was 30 minutes in length,

Beginning with a brief centering practice,

Followed by a teaching topic that served as the foundation for the final section,

The meditation practice.

Later,

As folks became more comfortable,

The teaching topics phased out and the offering became a full 30-minute guided meditation set with a specific intention.

But it is the first phase,

With the teaching topics,

That has become this spiritual recalibration series.

For the purpose of this series,

I have removed the initial centering practice and most or all of the breath work that was always included from Marty's group.

This is to keep the timing more palatable and put you directly into the recalibration at the start as you complete the series on your own.

I would suggest,

However,

That you at least sit quietly for a minute or two before beginning each session,

Simply breathing into your belly.

Endeavor to keep the length of your inhalations and exhalations equal.

This simple belly breathing exercise has a wonderful calming effect on the nervous system and will assist you beginning.

You will hear me cue you throughout the series on your sitting posture.

Marty's group was provided individual instruction and proper sitting to take full advantage of the sessions,

So I'll just tell you that generally you want to sit upright,

Either on the floor or in a chair.

Use a cushion under your bum and in your lower back as needed to support you.

Relaxing as it will be to listen to the sessions,

Raising consciousness requires energy.

So if you lay down,

You'll likely simply fall asleep.

You want to allow your energy to be directed upward in your body toward your brain,

And for that,

You need to be comfortable and upright.

I am excited that you are embarking on these sessions.

I expect it to be a potent series for you.

I'll tell you that a few years after the meditations with Marty's group ended,

I found myself offering an introductory meditation course at a local yoga studio,

And sure enough,

My friend Marty turned up with his entire family of five.

During our introductions,

When it came to Marty,

He mentioned that he had meditated with me before,

And as a matter of fact that I,

Quote,

Got his company through the pandemic.

That feeling,

Sir,

Is 100% mutual.

At the time I began the sessions with Marty's group,

I had been practicing meditation personally for several years,

But only teaching meditation for a few.

My growth and expansion was happening right along with them,

And I am not the same now as I was then.

You should know that I was not working from any sort of predetermined program for the group.

Quite the opposite.

Each week,

I would allow the topic to come up based on my experiences and perceptions at the time.

Once I had an inkling of the topic,

I would meditate and walk,

And as the week went along,

Sure enough the recalibration would work its way into a topic to which I found myself putting words once the session began.

The years of the pandemic were a time of great fear and upheaval,

And frankly,

Even here in the post-pandemic world,

It is still much the same.

But the thing about challenging times is that they offer immense opportunity for growth,

And the possibility of raising consciousness.

It is my hope and my expectation that your participation in this series will offer you that same opportunity.

It doesn't matter that it's well after the fact and you are doing these on your own through the recordings.

If you're open to it,

The energy of the sessions will come through.

That's just how this stuff works.

I was recently speaking with Marty at a tea shop,

Where he shared with me how he no longer cares about the same things he cared about years ago.

He meant this in a good way.

In paraphrasing him,

He no longer takes too seriously or gets too upset by the details that occur in daily life.

There is a broader perspective that has come over him,

And when I meet with him,

The word that comes to mind is simply,

Calm.

Don't get me wrong,

Marty is an outgoing personality.

He is warm and giving,

And people are naturally drawn to him,

But he has clearly shifted.

I was touched a year or two ago when a woman from the group said to me that the time we spent together in these meditations had,

Quote,

Changed her life.

It changed mine too,

And this is why this series is here for you.

It is indeed a recalibration.

It's a recalibration to what we've always known,

But forgotten,

A recalibration to a higher awareness of what truly matters both in the world and within each of us,

And so this recalibration is indeed spiritual.

What I have learned is that spirituality is practical.

Spirituality is practical because we are all seeking a path to happiness,

And living a spiritually awakened life is that path.

But all too often in suburban,

Secular society,

Spirituality is spoken about in loose and general terms.

It is sequestered and compartmentalized,

Defined as something irrelevant to our busy daily lives or,

At best,

Something we will get to one day when the time is right,

And it never seems to be.

We are taught to go to church or another house of worship,

To be good people and be respectful and well-behaved,

And for most,

This results in a complete absence of God in our lives,

Because who wants to be judged that way?

Though deep down,

Each of us longs for divine connection.

Indeed,

It's what we all want most,

But we ignore it,

Gloss it over,

Or dismiss it altogether because we have been turned off from it or it has been minimized or marginalized to the point where we don't quite know where to turn other than to our work,

Our kids,

The TV,

Or our phones.

So maybe we go out in nature,

Or travel,

Or exercise,

Or other definitely good things to do.

They are in the right ballpark,

But still we just aren't sure what to do every day to meet that most fundamental,

Necessary,

And unconditionally beautiful part of ourselves.

So whether you consider yourself deeply spiritual or are merely curious or aren't curious at all but are like some in Marty's group who are simply looking for some peace of mind,

I offer you this recalibration series.

Please excuse me during the recalibrations if I speak a little too fast in places or stutter sometimes or speak too loud or too soft or if the audio isn't always perfect.

I was learning too,

And I invite you to let those distractions go and allow yourself to sit quietly and give yourself the gift of opening to your higher awareness and a new way of being in the world.

I am grateful to you for who you are,

For extending yourself to try out this series and put your energy into yourself in a positive and uplifted way.

When you finish the series,

Come back and see what else is available.

Let me know what you think.

And of course,

If you'd like to meditate with me,

Explore the offerings on my website and reach out.

I'd love to hear from you.

Let me end this introduction with the blessing that is said in Ananda Yoga to commence the sun salutations.

During the meditations in this series,

You will be directed to lift your gaze to the point between your eyebrows.

In yogic science,

This is your spiritual eye.

It is the seat of wisdom and joy and the window of awareness to your higher self.

As Swami Kriyananda,

A direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda and creator of Ananda Yoga describes,

It is to this center of our own higher awareness that we salute.

So salutations to the sun,

To the awakening light within,

To the dawning of higher consciousness in all beings.

Blessings to you.

Aum,

Peace,

Amen.