Fundamentals and the Journey to a Brave New You!

Less then a month ago I launched a new project in connection with my upcoming album release, "Brave New World - The Time is NOW!" I titled the project "A Journey to a Brave New You" as the intention is to take people on a self-reflective journey into the depths of their own life in a step by step process that coincides with each song on the album. Yes, I think it is brilliant! Really, something truly unique in the realm of music. Music in association with personal growth! mmmmmmm. Anyways, after a few weeks of sharing and promoting the page, I noticed that it wasn't catching on in the way that I imagined. So I decided to look deeper. And that took me to a decision to actually use what I set out to do for others, for myself. So I began the Journey to a Brave New Me, as I always see room for personal growth and why would I let this work go to waste.

So, here we are on April 19th, 2012, a little bit more then half way through the first month of the Journey and this is what I have done. I started this month with a 3-Day Vipassana Meditation course that has sent me in alignment for what it truly important in my life, peace. So each day this month I have been focused on that alone. Whenever something arises that frustrates or angers me, I ask myself "am I peaceful right now." The obvious answer is NO, so I wait, focus on my breath and allow peace to consume my presence again and then move forward with whatever task I am associated with (Eckhart Tolle has a great influence on this as well). I strongly feel that if peace is at the root of everything we do, our lives will be of great service to the world. It's working.

Another change I have made is consistently, each day, I have managed to jump out of bed at 5am, exercise, Breath, meditate, watch a TED Talk, connect with my partner, practice music and performance and manage to take care of a few mundane tasks associated with every morning and all that is finished before 10 AM!! These are my fundamentals, so by 10am I am ready for the rest of todays bliss with the core tasks that ground, energize and sustain my peace out of the way.

I tell you this not ONLY to pat myself on the back, because I DO believe in celebrating victories, but also to possible put a little fire into those changes you had been contemplating for years. How about making the changes right now. Maybe A 5AM wake up call is not your thing, but maybe quitting smoking is. Take it one day at a time, build on each day and attach bliss to the notion of not smoking and suffering to smoking. So when you go for the next one, there is just too much pain associated. If I get up after 6am I am tired all day. If I get up at 5, I may need a 20 minute on my back meditation mid-day, but I am energized all day!

I have also set off on Tony Robbin's "The Time of Your Life" 10 day program to focus on what is MOST important in my day to day and move away from the every growing to-do list that can boggle my fragile mind!

If anything, I am grateful for this "Journey to a Brave New You!" page as it is transforming my own life! I am sure that my walking the walk will in turn inspire others to do the same, but, really, I am here to heal myself, to live my fullest and give of myself and my love. With or without my projects or music, that alone will cause a shift in the world as each one of us makes a profound impact on the whole. I make these changes because I know that when I do these things I am able to give more freely and I truly wish the same for you.

If you haven't started, anytime is the RIGHT time. Journey with peace and love!

Waking Up With A Smile!

I feel so grateful to have a partner that I can now wake up to with a smile. Ask me 3 years ago or even a year ago and I would have not been able to tell you the same but now I truly believe that "Life is much better SHARED." The game is to go deep inside and realize the right partner for YOU, not for your patterns. The first thing is to see the patterns of the Partners that keep coming in that DO NOT WORK. The partner of your dreams might be someone whom you could never imagine because we tend to see the world through the eyes of a ROM COM, where everything is perfect, passionate and FOREVER. A REAL relationship is in the NOW, and this NOW is forever and the now changes, and there are storms, there are heavy currents, there are blissful flights and passionate nights, but the PARTNER of our dreams is the one, whom you ENJOY THE RIDE, whom you can yell, scream and fight from a place of love and awareness and at the end of the day when all is said and done, you can wipe the slate clean with LOVE and wake up the next day again with a SMILE!


So, short advise, GET CLEAR beyond the FORM, shiz, get clear with the FORM as well, but that can be sculpted with the mind and will fade in time. Find out what you want, what you need and what you want to give. GIve Tony Robbins - Peak Performance Strategist & Author (The Ultimate Relationship) as spin, may sound cheesy but IT WORKS, because HE WORKS YOU and like any great game in life, the work is the foundation, so be ready to take a deep look in the mirror and watch all the shit patterns you have designed yourself around come right to the forefront of your mind. THen, as the fire burns and your true insanity comes to the surface, you will be met with the opportunity to GROW and you will then find that THAT GROWTH is the reason why you are in the relationship in the first place. BE BRAVE, THE TIME IS NOW!


To my beloved partner Mai Segev, thank you for inspiring these words...


Daniel Tyler Pohnke

A Spiritual Principle that came during guitar practice today via Guthrie Govan's Creative Guitar Book

While in the middle of my guitar practice today, I dawned upon an spiritual principle that I have shaped my life around. It came in this text…

"Food for thought: wouldn't it be great to hear someone who could emulate George Benson, Jeff Beck, Shawn Lane and Jerry Donahue all at the same time? What I'm suggesting is of course preposterous, but my point is that you should learn from everything that you hear rather then develop tunnel vision by focusing too much on one player, in this way, you'll endue absorbing a range of different influences and combining them in a unique way, and the results are far more likely to sound like you!"
-Guthrie Govan

This goes for everything in life. Nowadays in my life, while walking a spiritual path, I seek knowledge from every living thing, every experience, every Master, thus creating my own unique path. As I run my business, I seek mentorship from various successful beings in all fields of Craft.

So many people in the world get STUCK in one-pointed focus on ONE THING, when our one-pointed focus should be in the brilliance and colors of every moment, this is the place in which we can learn more and more each moment and clearly dawn upon our own Unique existence!!

I LOVE YOU - BE BRAVE - THE TIME IS NOW!

Trying to Manipulate Ones Experience

So many times I am finding that people are living their lives because of the experience that someone else has had in their lives. People constantly pushing other people to live their lives in a certain way because THEY experienced a great deal of success dealing with it this way. "I handled something this way so you should handle it this way as well, that will be best for you...." Who are we to judge what will be best for someone else's experience on this planet.

I had a situation recently in which my dear Partner is going through a situation that is particularly difficult in this time in her life. I had gone through a similar situation a few years back and found that when I stayed in the place of hardship, I was able to heal the wounds that surrounded that place and look at the place and my place in the place with brand new eyes, an open heart and an expanded awareness as to why I felt so much pain in this place. It was because of my association to it. I changed all the associations and rose into loving My native Place of Los Angeles, CA. So as she has meandered her way around past associations and hardships related to the native land, I have been pushing my way of healing onto her, thinking that it is the only way to get through something of this nature. A great realization comes when we realize that every being indeed has their own way of processing a different situation. And, if we push them to see it a certain way, we might be expelling them into a space that is actually stunting their growth in this lifetime. I actually had become an asshole and was doing things that would actually force her to have to go through an experience in the similar way that i did, when all she wanted to do was leave this place and process it from her safe place. Now, I judged the hell out of this desire as I felt it was weak and I also felt it to be running away from the pain. She saw it as a necessary way to deal with this particular situation in her life. And, the fact is, she has been stuck here having to go through it and has realized that this is the way that she must deal with it for now, away, in a safe space.

After weeks of resisting her place and wishing to force her into seeing my truth, I have expanded my heart, honoring her needs. It is not important for me to understand and see it her way, what is important is for me to be a friend, to honor her process and to Share what I have learned, not to force it. Religions have been manipulating people for centuries with this behavior and I felt no better then that for acting the way that I did. I am grateful to see it and have forgiven myself for my actions, taking responsibility for the nature of them. We will see when that great Divine gives me another opportunity, how I will behave in that space again.

4DALOVE

Scorpion Encounter

At around 10PM, my evening changed. A circumstance arose that shot me back to childhood fears and anxieties so deep that I found myself panting for air and watching my every movement in the fear of another encounter with…………..A Scorpion.

A great friend and I used to shatter at the sight of these viscious creatures when we were children. We would spend nights in fearful bliss as we teased and provoked each other pointing out false sightings until it was just not funny anymore. The truth of the matter is it sparked the deepest of all fears in my being. After all the people in the guesthouse turned in for the evening, I sat in bed for hours on end, half screaming and half surrendering to the thought of a scorpion filled sleep. I recognized the power of the mind one more time right before I went to sleep. I briefly work up and saw a giant size Scorpion slowly climbing on the mosquito toward me. I screamed like a small child and grabbed my light to find that the large insect was only a figment of my imagination, but I wasn’t yet convinced of that. Then I felt something touch my back, the scream increased. I reverted back to an infant and felt myself give up on life………GOODBYE, been a nice Ride. Grateful for everything. heheeheheheh!!