SpaHealer
40 AsiaSpa November/December 2017
Melchizedek, Anastasia and Lady Ana.
Learning from the latter led to his current
position as custodian of The School of the
Heart, through which he teaches his insights
on living from the heart. It’s not all aboutWriter Mischa MoselleDaniel Mitel
Connecting with the universe is a way of life for the master of meditation“Guided
imagery
is just part of
meditation as a
way of living”
Daniel Mitel exudes calm
and reassurance. The self-described master
of meditation carries himself with an air
of total confidence and relaxation that is
generally only possible through plenty of
hard work. Not so, says the vegan who
teaches people how to reconnect with their
inner selves. “My mum told me that when I
was a baby I used to sit on my pillow in the
lotus position. My grandfather, who was a
very wise man, said, ‘Let him be. A child in
this position is calm, at peace and happy.’”
That isn’t to say that Mitel has not had
to work at happiness. Born in Romania,
he left for Canada with some of his family
when he was young, but his mother and a
brother were forced to remain behind the
Iron Curtain. He threw himself not just into
meditation techniques, but also into martial
arts such as karate and tai chi, a discipline
in which he has won gold medals.
Mitel works hard at meditation too,
sometimes waking as early as 3am. He
says, “It quiets my mind, stops the thoughts
and allows that feeling of connection with
the whole universe.” He believes existence
should not just be waking up and going to
work, returning and going to sleep, adding,
“It’s possible to live a happy, different life.”
Now a teacher living in Britain, Canada
and Cyprus but with classes that take him
and partner Agathi around the world, Mitel
has studied from some renowned voices
in the world of meditation. He learnt from
the Dalai Lama that unconditional love is
the only way to make one happy, a mentor
who he also finds to have a great sense
of humour. He says, “No matter what the
question, he always finds a positive side.
I never heard him say a bad word about
anybody.”
Mitel has also learnt at the feet of
gurus such as Osho, Di Yu Ming, Drunvaloemotion, he believes, based on work by
scientists from organisations as diverse as
NASA and Stanford University, that the heart
contains some 40,000 neurons and acts as
a second brain in some respects.
In the 21st century, there is of course,
an app to be downloaded to a smartphone.
Attach a sensor to your ear and allow it to
download data from your body to check
how mentally balanced you are. Mitel
believes that by using guided imagery, in this
instance, the chart on your smart phone, you
can achieve a greater calm. He goes further
to say that guided imagery can do much
more – improve sports performance and
boost the immune system to help combat
diseases such as cancer and HIV. The
evidence for these claims is work done by
scientists at the University of Pennsylvania,
Oregon State University and the Institute
of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto,
California.
A form of biofeedback, guided imagery
is said to create a new image of the body
and when the body responds to this,
physically, emotionally and mentally, there
can be “dramatic change, a really good
improvement”. Mitel says that football
player Cristiano Ronaldo and tennis star
Venus Williams have used guided imagery
to perfect their performances.
After catching a cold after travelling
from a very hot Sydney, Australia to a
Canadian winter, Mitel used the technique
himself. He says, “I did an imagery exercise
that influenced my body. Instead of snow
and cold I saw heat and sunshine. My
nose stopped running and my headache
was gone. Guided imagery is just part of
meditation as a way of living. Stop the mind
going ‘blah, blah, blah‘ and stay in peace,
calm, love and harmony.”
http://www.danielmitel.com