Workshop #161): Maximize Life by Living for Peace, Harmony, and Joy

This interactive workshop will encourage participants to explore areas and issues of their own choosing in order to plumb their past and improve their future. The presenter, Dr. Robert H. Schram is author of a newly published book "Maximize Life by Living for Peace, Harmony, and Joy" in which he lays out his life and emotions for all to see in the hope that others will be encouraged to be honest and frank enough with themselves so as to effectuate a happier and more joyful existence. Participants may choose to come and listen or actively participate. By utilizing the learned lessons of the book each participant will learn techniques to overcome their own personal demons and negative habits. The workshop will explore some of the topics and benefits that the book offers in addition to areas that participants may choose:

"Thought Control/Modification Through Meditation" presents methods and techniques to deal with the issues of: stress, conflict, worry, anxiety, pain, suffering, and overload. Some people are attached to these issues and incorporate them into their daily thoughts allowing them to become counterproductive and sometimes destructive. In many cases detachment to these thoughts can lead to personal liberation and freedom. The pursuit of simplicity may appear simple but to many people it is very difficult. This difficulty is often caused by habitually ingrained thoughts. Letting go of long term ingrained thoughts can prove to be quite daunting. Those of us with less clutter in our lives tend to have more time for inner practice and ergo inner peace. This is not to say we should disengage ourselves from family, possessions, political activism, friendships, and career pursuits because such a stark disengagement can actually impoverish our inner lives. Engagement with people, places, skills and ideas, money and possessions is what grounds inner practice in reality. Without external relationships and pressures, it is more difficult to put spiritual insights into action.
To detach from counterproductive thoughts does not mean one becomes indifferent, careless, or passive. Detachment from certain thoughts is a developed skill that must be practiced to infuse one's life with integrity and grace. The fuel that drives our meditation engine is discovering for ourselves in a step by step fashion how to manage and control the thoughts that prevent us from living the life we deserve. Thought detachment is a moment by moment, day by day process of accepting reality as it presents itself, doing our best to align our actions with what we think is right, and surrendering the outcome. We all must learn to do the right thing for its own sake without worrying about success or failure. There is no miricle cure for negative unproductive thoughts that have been our friend for many years; there is only dedicated day by day practice over many years.

The speaker defines and describes thoughts, the thought process, and meditation. He reveals his own very personal experiences with the issues and what methods and techniques he utilized to deal with them. He delineates the specific steps he deployed for each issue, how long each step took, what he experienced, and the final outcome. The five steps he utilized to overcome his chronic worrying was modified to deal with other issues. Denial, recognition, understanding, observation, witnessing, and disciplined meditation are all key ingredients in the management and control of thoughts

Robert Schram Ph.D.
4950 York Road PO Box 231
Holicong, Pennsylvania 18928-0231

phone: 215.794.0800