SOULSPEAK: SOULSPEAK WITH ADRIAN BONIARDI

"There's no better place to be than where we are at the present moment... especially when we're living our purpose. Giving meaning to our lives is the best thing we can do to enjoy a wonderful lifetime."

(Adrian Boniardi, Miami Florida, Founder M.E.D.I.T.A.R. Underwater Meditation)

For 20 years Adrian Boniardi has been an active scuba diver, instructor and commercial diver. One day he realized he had always been looking for something he couldn't find anywhere else in the world, so he decided to bring it forth for all to enjoy. He had always revered the practice of meditation, a practice that has brought him great deal and clarity, kept him centered and focused on his goals and aspirations, especially in trying times when emotions take him off his natural and balanced state. Meditation has always kept him grounded. Today, Adrian shares with us, and all who are consciously going through self discovery, and seeking out purpose.... his life and passions, the birth of his craft, and the gift of underwater meditation that healed him and promises to heal more who experience it.

Who is Adrian Boniardi?

I've asked myself that same question since I can remember and because the only answer I was able to come up with was the same that Adam Sandler uses on 'Anger Management' when inquired by Jack Nicholson's character; which is also the same that most people use when they’re ask that same question which usually is our genre, our name, what activity (or job) we're doing at the moment (I'm a doctor, I'm a teacher, etc but that's not who we are but what we're doing, our profession, etc) or anything else.

So I did the only thing I could do: I put it aside. I finally was able to acknowledge the real answer to that question a few years ago and flip out because of it. But to answer your question properly Juno I can tell you that ‘I decided’ to be born in Argentina because I was going to need the 'contrasting' experience in order to value and appreciate the place I am today (I live in Miami, FL, U.S.A) I've also choose very loving and supporting parents because that was going to be the only way that I could go through the experiences I went through and come out of them transformed in who I am today.

I've always been very passionate about what I was doing at each part of my life and a teacher at heart. I always felt a need to share myself with others. First was music when I was playing guitar in a rock band back on the middle, late 80's, then scuba diving when I became a diving instructor and now is spirituality and personal development.

I have always been very curious as well; always wanting to know more and to learn, and has been this thrist for finding the answers to all the questions I've always had what has guided me to the amazing emotional place I am today.

Tell me about your work and the birth of it. Is this something you dreamed of doing even as a child?

Yes, in part. I began diving about twenty five years ago and I've always loved and dreamed in becoming a 'frog-man' as used to be called since I first learned and watched Jacques Cousteau 'The Underwater World' on TV when I was like 4 or 5 years old. But having always been a great skeptic of anything 'out of the ordinary' I could have never imagined how everything was going to turn out.

The birth of Underwater Meditation came during the peak of my 'dark night of the soul' times when I was feeling the darkest I've ever felt in my whole life and without having a clue of 'what was happening to me', I've had no idea what I was going through on those days or why.

I was working underwater, as a commercial diver, a work that I still sometimes do; and I was feeling very overwhelmed with a lot of very heavy and dark emotions I wasn't able to understand and/or handle. It was an instant where I couldn't hold them anymore so I've had to just 'let go' of everything and I just closed my eyes and mentally released everything... In that instant, an immense feeling of peace, calm, and love invaded me inside as I hadn't felt in a while, and I knew everything was going to be fine...

As I'm feeling all this (remember I was underwater, against the hull of a yacht) I 'heard' a voice in my head asking me:

- 'Are you enjoying this?' - You can imagine my surprise Juno when I became aware of all of this... So, I just 'replied' to that 'voice': - - Yesss... I am.

To which I heard again... 'Do you think other people would enjoy it too'?

Still after this, it took me a while to realize what all that meant, but that was sort of my realization that I've had been meditating underwater for a long time without even knowing what meditation even was!

What’s the best thing about what you are doing now?

To be able to touch people's hearts. And to realize that we can do that in many more ways than we can imagine. I am profoundly conscious that what I'm just beginning to do with Underwater Meditation hasn't even started yet compared with the picture, the vision I have inside me about what it's 'supposed' to be. And even tough when have already been a few years since that experience I described above.

But this is my life purpose, and one of the reasons of why I went through my awakening and many other things... I know it will take time to manifest the entire picture and I'm perfectly fine with that. I am very aware that I am being guided and that I'm just a vehicle, an instrument of something much greater manifesting itself through me so... what can I say?

Don't get me wrong, I am human and I do sometimes get 'upset' or 'frustrated' when things don't come out as I thought they would or I expected they would but doesn't happen very often really; and when I do I'm aware enough to notice it, and I do my best to get back into my own center, alignment as soon as I can.

How has this changed your life?

Uff! I can't even begin to describe how much Underwater Meditation and my awakening for the most part has changed everything!

I'd only wish I'd have known, or been aware even if just half of what I do and I'm aware now before... But I can't ignore the fact that if I didn't go through all I did I wouldn't certainly be where I am today... and I realize that's a blessing... But I can't help wondering and marveling how our individual fate, destiny works...

Some people don't want or like to accept that we do have a ‘destiny’ of some sort because if that's true they think by default they won't have control over their lives... But that’s a very limited mindset. Why would somebody believe that one thing limits the other? Because it may be ‘too much’ for them to accept otherwise… The constant illusion of 'separation' that most people still have...

But that's not how it works... Destiny and free will go hand by hand. There's no separation, but mutual cooperation for the purpose you have in this present lifetime...

Is this for everybody? What top challenges would there be for beginners and how did you overcome them?

You mean if Underwater Meditation it’s for everybody? Yes, absolutely! I created this for everybody to enjoy and use, not just a few! There are really no challenges Juno... perhaps getting used to breathe through your mouth instead of the nose or having a diving mask on your face... but other than those silly ones there are really no challenges for underwater meditation other than somebody’s resistance to just do it.

You do not need any type of certification to be able to meditate underwater! There are a few healthy restrictions as to just make the practice safe for everybody but they are just a couple and nothing strange like if you suffer a high degree of claustrophobia as if you were going to freak out in an elevator you may do it underwater as well, and that could present an issue or also like with very specific heart conditions...but other than that, anybody can come join us in the pool anytime!

If you've never breathed underwater using a scuba tank you'll need to learn how to do it and you'll learn that before the actual meditation and it's something very easy to learn.

Some people are concerned that because they can't swim it would be a problem, but you won't be moving almost at all during the practice or anything else so, swimming will never be a problem either... ‘Excuses begone’ (wink).

What other passions enrich your spirit?

As I've mention before I've felt very passionate about a few different things along my way having been music and diving the most important ones but nowadays my first point of attraction is focused into what I'm presently working on. When I'm not working I just rather to relax and just enjoy the 'being' part... After all we are really 'human - beings' not 'human - doings' even when we're always 'doing' something.

Any regrets?

Regrets? None really... I don't think so... Perhaps it could be not having 'enjoyed' things a little more intensely before... because of unconsciously giving things for granted... like they were always going to be there... Especially when involves loved ones. We use to be so unconsciously busy that sometimes we just don't pay attention to the present moment we are indeed experiencing in the moment.

Things will change, you won't have that person next to you forever... or walking on that park forever... Tomorrow will be gone, to never come back again. You may go to that park with that person again, but it won't be like that walk...it will be different. So, enjoy that one you're experiencing now... It's a call to awareness, to realize we really only have NOW!

If you could be somewhere today - anywhere... where would you be?

Perhaps lying on a chair on the beach on Fiji, or the Maldives... if I had a choice (laughs)

No, seriously; there's no better place to be than where we are on the present moment... Especially when we're living our purpose... Giving meaning to our lives is the best thing we can do to enjoy a wonderful lifetime...

Your views on 2012.

Well... I wrote an article for Huliq a couple years ago about the subject (you can find it here: (http://www.huliq.com/comment/ ). When I wrote that article, 2012 was still a few years away... it was still the 'future'... Now we're finally living it and we can experience it firsthand.

We are in our first month into 2012 and I can already perceive that it's coming with a lot of 'changes' for many people. The Mayan prophecies talk mainly about a sort of renewal, a born again type of thing... I'm already able to see that people will be challenged to change, to open up to new ways of doing business, of relating with one another.

I can daily witness some of the troubles that some people are finding in adapting to all these changes we're all experiencing. The illusion that there's only 'one way' of doing things seems to be coming to an end. New avenues that were 'invisible' for the majority are opening up. Those that resist them or refuse them all together will suffer, will feel pain but merely because they'd be resisting 'what is'. And those that adapt to the changes and are able to reconsider their posture and ways of being will rejoice. I believe this 2012 it's a time for 'rebirth', start over; to bury the old to welcome the new. That's actually what all the prophecies foretell, and not the end of the planet like many want to make people believe.

What have you learned from yourself from this experience?

You are really taking me where no one has taken me before Juno with your questions… (laughs)!

I've learned that as many still, I didn't know myself. I didn't know why I was here (on Earth). I learned to not take myself so seriously and that I am a big deal more than I thought I was...

What have you un-learned from yourself?

I'm still working on this one as it is a constant work in progress... I've had to un-learn all the lies I've believed along the way and taken as truths... I didn't know how important those lies were and how much they were responsible for the kind of life I was experiencing back then...I learned to dispose of many limiting beliefs that I've heard from my parents that never served anybody. It certainly didn't serve them and surely never served me! An unconscious paradigm created by others I'm sure also unconsciously or by ignorance (otherwise I don't think they would it have done that way).

The unlearning part of old ways of thinking it's another thing we all will have to consciously do sooner or later if we want to enjoy an extraordinary life experience on Earth.

Your life motivation

That would be to fulfill my purpose for this present lifetime, to be able to leave a testimony that I was here. That my life meant something for somebody. I believe that's ultimately what we all yearn for, whether we are aware of it or not. Because the truth is that after we are gone, and everybody we've met it's also gone it would be as we've never existed, UNLESS we leave something behind, a legacy; something that reads your name. By then we may be already back into another body but this present one we carry with us today will be gone.

Future plans... your next steps

Right now I'm getting serious in finishing my book 'The Click' that I'm been writing on and off due to lack of time, among other things...

That's on my priority list at this moment. I think all the conditions that I've been waiting for in the back of my mind are already present and by the time I'm through with it will be even a better time for the publishing part.

Besides this I have a couple different visions in mind to expand Underwater Meditation but I'm still not totally clear as to which route I will take. In this particular case all goes as mere intuition, so I will know when the time comes. Both are extremely exciting to me so either one I will have a blast doing it. I'm taking my business mostly as 'divine inspiration' so I'm going moment by moment... And I have some other stuff 'in the oven' but that'll be for the next year.

What is LOVE?

Us. WE are love. We are made of it, come from it, ARE IT in spiritual form and we experience it as a ‘feeling’, an emotion while in physical form and we’ll go back to it when we discard our body, before coming back to physicality.

'Love' is everything, and is nothing at all; the 'thing no- thing'. The alpha and the omega that many before have referred to. The highest frequency of the cosmos. Another name for love we’ve given to it is GOD.

Love it’s just another word for God, because in truth there is ‘no-other-thing’.

The most rapid speed of vibration, so extremely fast that there is no way we can perceive it as we'd normally do. But we can certainly 'FEEL' it. And we do it simply because we are IT. We are atomically made of the 'same stuff'. And this is as such, simply because as frequencies slow down they begin to solidify and create physical matter. Our bodies quite literally come directly from LOVE!

But what happened here?

As our frequencies are reduced creating physical visible matter, we are entering the lower frequencies range and within them there are also other even slower vibrations (hence the term 'bad vibes'). These are the main energies still on this planet. All the things we all say we don’t like, but unconsciously help to create.

This 'stuff' (energy) we're all made of is our 'essence' and it makes us FEEL as we do and will do in spiritual form, once we dispose of our physical and temporary bodies. Somewhere, some time ago somebody named this 'energy in motion' (emotion, feeling) 'Love'.

We're also able to experience it purely when we don't allow physical fears, its opposite energy, to distract us from our true nature. But we are presently experiencing life in physical form and this is a playground with no real limitations, except the ones we create by ourselves. And one of these illusions is to experience ourselves as who 'we are not' in order to remember (re- member => to become a member again) how to become again, who we really are. And who “we really are” is ultimately 'pure positive energy', what we've called 'Love'.

Still, contradictory enough we seek our entire life for the very same thing we are made of…

Your major influences growing up.

Growing up, my mayor influences were rock stars, specially Kiss. That's how I got into music in the first place. Other than that I've never had anybody that really influenced me in any major way. I am really self made, (laughs)

Day in the life of Adrian

My day really depends on the activities that I may have for that particular day, since they tend to vary a bit. I'm really not a morning person, so I try to make any appointments for after 11 am. Sometimes I enjoy taking water work so I do, and later take care of personal business activities or phone calls with personal clients. My day usually tends to go by very fast between my outside activities and my writings, talking with clients, etc.

But I like to stay up late. So you can find me writing comfortably at 1 Am... This is one of the things I enjoy most with my present lifestyle... the freedom I have with my personal schedule.

Your one message to the world.

Don't take 'Life' so seriously... And don't take yourself so seriously either! You'll have as many opportunities for 'practice' at this thing called life as you like. Open up. Fully, totally, completely. And you will understand.

As I always say... 'Enjoy the journey'!