As you get serious about meditation, you’ll go through 6 phases.
Phase 1: DENIAL
You’re not interested in meditation. You’re saying, “why do I have to do this?”, “don’t tell me what to do”, or “this isn’t for me.”
Phase 2: CURIOSITY
You’re thinking meditation will help you with anxiety/stress/focus, so you’re tentatively interested. You’re following meditation-related Instagram accounts, trying guided meditations you found on YouTube.
Phase 3: STRIVING
You’re putting pressure on yourself to practice consistently. You believe good things only come through effort, and it’s your responsibility to make them happen.
Phase 4: EVANGELISM
You’ve had a breakthrough and now you’re a religious convert. You want to tell everyone you know how awesome meditation is. You’re almost certainly obnoxious to be around.
Phase 5: CONFUSION
Meditation stopped being fun for some bizarre reason. You can’t focus anymore, can’t find the time anymore, and you’re wondering why you’re even bothering.
Phase 6: DON’T EVEN NOTICE
You’re meditating again and you don’t see what the big deal was. Meditation isn’t exciting or satisfying anymore, but whatever. You’re more concerned about other things in your life, so you won’t even notice you’re in this stage.
You should expect to go through these phases again and again as you uncover deeper layers, btw.
Buckle up.
Category: Uncategorized
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6 Phases on the Meditator’s Journey
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Weekly update for September 21, 2021
Hm…these updates are being sent kinda randomly. Whatever.
First order of business: Tomorrow I’ll be doing my first Monthly Q&A Session. It will be on Zoom and you can sign up here.
You can ask any question about any topic I’ve talked about, such as:
- Meditation
- Mindful eating
- KormanYoga
- Nonviolent Communication
- Relationships
- Piano
- Drawing
- Calligraphy
- Influencing
- Marketing
- Social media
- Cancel culture and cyberbullying
- Radical acceptance
- Self-Expression
- Psychology
Second order of business: I’m planning something around mindful eating. But, I need to talk to you. Forget whatever you think you know about “mindful eating.” Like all other terms, it’s just a term.
If you have any issues with food, please schedule a time to talk to me about it.
Third order of business: I’m really into Nonviolent Communication these days. In fact, if you’ve ever had any issues with communication or relationships, I want to talk to you.
I’ve made a bunch of Instagram posts on this topic. Here are two:
That’s all for now. Have a good week.
—Michael
P.S. I’m currently taking a business course with George Kao, and I love how he looks at the world. Most marketing teachers tell you to have everything figured out before doing anything, but that doesn’t really work for my brain. George, on the other hand, is more about being authentic and experimenting and figuring things out as you go. Check out this blog post he wrote about how to stop preparing so much: https://www.georgekao.com/
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Weekly update for August 23, 2021
This update covers July 25-August 23.
Market Research
I’m looking to have conversations with people who:
- Are beginners at meditation
- Are advanced meditators
- Play the piano
- Draw
- Have an Instagram account and are trying to spread a message
- Dislike their relationship with food
If you fit any of these categories, I want to talk to you. Please schedule a call.
Nonviolent Communication
I’ve been posting a lot about NVC lately, including 4 IGTV lives:
Discovery Sessions
If you want to work with me about anything I do, sign up for a free Discovery Session.
I only do 3 per week.
Don’t let your “friends” hold you hostage
I’ve lost a ton of friends since the beginning of the pandemic.
It’s no surprise. Before 2020, I didn’t publish much online. And what I did publish was guarded and censored.
But, when I decided to go all-in on learning marketing, I knew I had to make a choice: share my real stories, or be a fraud.
I Hate Listening to Music! (but, I love playing it)
I’m lying to you. I don’t hate listening to music.
But, I kinda do…
(huh?)
Wait…I’m still lying to you.
The truth is, I haven’t played music much over the past few months.
Have a good week
Hope this is useful for you.
Follow me on Instagram at @no.michael.here. That’s where I post things first.
TTYL.
—Michael
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Weekly update for July 24, 2021
Here’s your weekly update on happenings from at Michael Korman Headquarters.
It’s a bit late, if you haven’t noticed.
Hope it makes your week.
News
I’m looking for people who are willing to have a conversation with me and answer some questions. It will take 30 minutes, and it will help me make things that will help more people. Please sign up if you are interested in helping me with this.
I’ve resumed the @katie.sula.exists posting.
Instagram Posts
Find these posts on my Instagram account (@no.michael.here).
- Hi, I’m Michael. Here’s what I do.
- You could write a book in a weekend.
- Meditation masters vs. Meditation beginners
- Why you don’t have enough MONEY
- Hoping to get feedback, but no
- STOP trying to feel GRATEFUL about money
- Why I Never Watch Movies (and how to spend money in alignment with your values)
- Welcome to @no.michael.here
- You can’t force yourself to build HABITS
- Empathizing with people who are yelling at you
- 30-day challenge: bring value to 2 people
- Empathy, whiny bitches
- Don’t let your “friends” hold you hostage
- Practice = Posture
YouTube
You can find a bunch of my videos on YouTube. I try to upload the good ones. You might find that useful if, especially if you don’t have an Instagram account.
Facebook posts
“Please stop posting about everything great in your lives. You’re making the world worse.”
Blog post: Why You Don’t Have Enough Money and why you’re not letting yourself have enough
Those moments when you spend money are the ones that shape your attitude toward money.
Rather than “I have to spend this money”, it should be “I get to spend this money.”
Don’t spend to maintain your lifestyle. That’s feeding an addiction. Spend to make the world better. Give money to charity.
Don’t pay rent to avoid being homeless. Pay it because now you get to come inside and keep your stuff there for another month. (Read more)
Medium
I’m on Medium.
New podcast episode (Loneliness and Social Anxiety)
Is loneliness good or bad? Social anxiety. Could you survive on a desert island? Should white people be singing spirituals? Finding flow in your speaking (like Rush Limbaugh). Amplifying your singing and speaking voices. (Listen)
Work with me for free
I’m offering a limited number of free Discovery Sessions per week. This is your opportunity to work with me without paying anything. Sign up here
Pay to work with me
If there are no Discovery Sessions available this week, you can sign up for an Exploration Session. Sign up here
Getting Unstuck on Writing
An online workshop for writers (novelists, Instagram influencers, piano teachers, etc.) who get stuck. (Learn more)
Here are some of my favorite tweets from the weeks.
- The biggest #NVC mistake people make is thinking that empathy means “getting confirmation from the other person that you understand them”, or even worse, “getting the other person to stop yelling at you.”
- I’m in need of empathy and you whiny bitches are going to suffer until I figure out a way to get it.
- I’m no longer open to talking to piano teachers about piano or singing teachers about singing. You guys are too entrenched in your views and have too much territory to defend.
- Habits don’t happen because of repetition! But, repetition can help you discover what DOES make the habit happen. #habits
General themes in my Instagram stories
- You could write a book in a weekend
- Graveyard tour (from last fall)
- Lies!!!
- Don’t want to be a teacher
- You can help me with market research
- My final apology (from July 2020)
- Why time goes by quickly
- How to make an exercise habit
- Why I’m not bad at feelings
- Why mental illness is funny
- Put your work out there!
- Don’t call yourself a “coach”, Michael
- My Facebook post about money sparked weird debates
- I don’t think you should meditate/play the piano/be authentic/stop being a Victim.
- Why I donated $1 to a meditation center
- I don’t get why people hate Jeff Bezos
- Empathy
- The new season of the Michael and Katie reality show
- How to handle shamers
- Welcome to @no.michael.here
- Katie’s dog Lorelei has been stalking me
- Inspired by Jordan Peterson
- No longer dating extroverts
- Awakening sounds like fun until…
- Love notes from Katie
- I can criticize myself, too
- I’m in a horrible mood because the only people who want to interact with me are those who hate me.
- Why I’m different than most people who started doing yoga
- Why people join mobs
- If you think I’m sad and pathetic, don’t distance yourself
- Nonviolent Communication
- Normal to be upset when you lose someone
- Britney’s front and back
- People calling me “rude” or “polite” as a kid
- @cornflowerwoman posted some good stuff
- Questions about my past
Have a good week.
—Michael
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Why You Don’t Have Enough Money and why you’re not letting yourself have enough
Those moments when you spend money are the ones that shape your attitude toward money.
Rather than “I have to spend this money”, it should be “I get to spend this money.”
Don’t spend to maintain your lifestyle. That’s feeding an addiction. Spend to make the world better. Give money to charity.
Don’t pay rent to avoid being homeless. Pay it because now you get to come inside and keep your stuff there for another month.
Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how much money you have. You’ll get used to it and then that will become the new normal.
You’re already in the top 1% of richest people who’ve ever lived. But, you’re used to it, so you don’t notice it.
The problem is that there’s a monster you keep feeding who’s never satisfied.
You have to stop feeding it.
(Alternatively, you could just keep increasing the amount of money you have. Up up up up up. Like Jeff Bezos. Until you’re literally in a rocket going up into space.)
Don’t pay rent just because rent’s due today. That’s the problem. Instead, pay because you have a great appreciation for what will happen if you don’t pay, and so you’re paying to change those specific things.
It’s too hard to change your habit all at once just by telling yourself to think differently about why you’re paying.
Read that again carefully, because that’s what all the self-help gurus will tell you to do. But, it’s stupid advice.
Instead, change it going forward.
Spend one dollar today on something that’s purely optional but values-driven.
Then, over the years in the future, you can feed that habit until it overtakes the other one.
Right now, you have an aversion to spending money, which means you also have an aversion to making money.
That’s because the only reason you’re trying to make money is to feed the monster, which you hate doing.
(Disclaimer: this all just occurred to me in the shower today. It seems right, but I haven’t tested it. Any accusations of charlatanism will be dealt with swiftly and without mercy.)
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Weekly update for July 17, 2021
Here’s your weekly update on happenings here at Michael Korman Incorporated.
Hope it makes your week.
News
I’m looking for people who are willing to have a conversation with me and answer some questions. It will take 30 minutes, and it will help me make things that will help more people. Please sign up if you are interested in helping me with this.
I’m offering a limited number of free Discovery Sessions per week. This is your opportunity to work with me without paying anything. Sign up here
Since I started my Instagram account, I’ve been operating basically with 2GB free on my laptop at any given moment. This week, I finally broke down and bought a 2TB external hard drive. BUT…it’s annoying me because I use Linux and blah blah blah lots of technical stuff you probably don’t care about.
Instagram Posts
Find these posts on my Instagram account (@no.michael.here).
- Questions about ravioli
- “I know what I want”…no, you don’t
- Don’t compliment me, apologize to me, or praise me.
- Forcing 2 posts per day
- Michael, why’d’ya delete all your followers?
YouTube
You can find a bunch of my videos on YouTube. I try to upload the good ones. You might find that useful if, especially if you don’t have an Instagram account.
No good Facebook posts
Sorry.
No blog posts
Sorry.
Medium
I’m on Medium.
New podcast episodes
No new podcast episodes this week.
Getting Unstuck on Writing
An online workshop for writers (novelists, Instagram influencers, piano teachers, etc.) who get stuck. (Learn more)
Here are some of my favorite tweets from the weeks.
- What makes me cry: stories about when people are able to see past the cruelty that is an essential consequence of our culture. Also, chopping onions.
- The goal is to integrate trauma, not defeat it.
- I hereby call out call-out culture.
- Hi, I’m Michael and I am an anti-feminist. (Sorry ladies, playtime’s over.)
- Meditation will NOT solve the problem of “I don’t meditate consistently.”
- Suggestion: when you block someone, it should require you both to exchange at least a few more messages back and forth, and not execute the block until this is completed.
General themes in my Instagram stories
- Telling stories
- Columbine
- Problem solving
- Whether it’s possible to hurt people with words
- Took down the stuff about Katie
- Walking outside helps me think
- Trauma is the anti-skill
- Therapists will tell you to be nice to your wife
- How to deal with insults
- Carl Rogers was provocative
- I’m good at logic
- Why disagreement is good
- Jesus died for your cringe
- “Michael, you think you’re 100% right about everything”
- Relationship advice
- I have no respect for boundaries
- How Goenka was rejected as a meditation student
- Why piano teachers suck and why the right to shut up is in the U.S. Constitution
- AMA and How often I cry
- Ways I could die right now
- How I’d be proven a fraud
- Can’t get rid of my instagram store
- Anti-philosophy
- Amy’s Baking Company (Kitchen Nightmares)
- Repeat negative patterns!
- “Why do you ask?”
- Advice for influencers
Have a good week.
—Michael