Tag Archives: the music within us

How is your soul like a can of tomatoes?

I’ve been hosting SoulBodyMind Salons in my home, and the most recent session was centered on the theme of “Soul-Care”.

I always start each of the sessions with a story or image that grounds the group in the journey we are about to take that evening. I had easily come up with stories and images for the body and the mind – ones that I had heard from my own teachers as I gathered knowledge in these areas.

But the soul – no one had ever talked to me directly about the soul before. This was the first time I would be attempting to ask the question, “What is the soul?” in front of a group.

I am simply fascinated by the phenomenon of soul, because everyone can relate to the word, although in a totally unique way. It’s a bit like the word “music“. Ask anyone from any culture and any time period, “What is music?”, and they know what it is. However, listen to the music from any culture and any time period and you will get wildly different experiences and sounds.

I was walking around my house, dusting the wood floor, pushing chairs in different directions, thinking about this question of “What is the soul?” and how I would explain this in a brief introduction, without either getting lost in philosophy or oversimplifying.

Naturally, I picked up the nearest object and began thinking of ways to incorporate it as a visual aid.

That object was a can of tomatoes. Continue reading →

Empowering Your Self With Vision

1 Reply

Red yellow heart CROPPED

“How you see determines what you see, and what you feel.” – Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with vision boards since the very beginning. My very first one was an assignment for the very first personal development workshop I attended. End of Day One, before we were to break for dinner, we had a few hours to make a board of what makes our heart come alive.

First vision board - Real Speaking

The second one I made was later that year with an ex-boyfriend on a retreat in Santa Cruz. It was my first beach weekend retreat since moving to California five years before. What had taken me so long?

Second vision board - Santa Cruz

Then I made another one that made me feel like crap, but I didn’t quite know why.

I kept up with vision boards for some reason. Maybe it was my determination to see if they would really work for me in my life. I was a total skeptic in the beginning, going through the motions like a good student, but not truly expecting anything to happen.

After several years of practice, now I know that when I approach them from a certain place within me, vision boards can invite in some real magic into my life.

I haven’t yet written about the latest example of how a vision board changed my life, and since I’m leading a vision board workshop next week, this seems like a good time to really tell the story in completeness. Continue reading →

For Too Long

Leave a reply

What have you been doing for too long? Being in nature reminded me of the answers to this question…

Essential Self Extravaganza

Leave a reply

As 2010 came to a close, I realized that over the past year, I have had the opportunity to become part of three brand new communities (without even changing my physical address). As I embarked on life coach training, certification in music and sound healing, and improvisation as a violinist in the local “open mic” scene, I was welcomed into three totally new worlds for me.

As I crisscrossed the Bay Area and the internet interacting with these distinct groups, it occurred to me that no single place brought together people with such wide-ranging interests. What fun it would be if someone could create a space and purpose for gathering that would allow the expression and sharing of all these creative souls! I realized that I could be that person!

I was inspired to create the Essential Self Extravaganza. The name refers to a central concept of Martha Beck’s life coaching approach, which guides us to find and follow the voice of our essential self, versus the social self we so readily construct as an identity to show the world and “fit in” with the rules of our families, religions, cultures, professional group, or demographic.

I had had enough of the typical “holiday party”, where the focus is on the display of our social selves. The typical conversations starting with the question, “So, what do you do?” or “Where are you from?” were familiar to me, yet no longer of interest. Instead of complaining or lamenting about these kinds of parties, I decided (in the empowerment I am growing into) to host my own gathering – the kind of party I would want to attend myself. Continue reading →

Creating New Rituals: Honor Your Whole Self

Leave a reply

I had an Energy Release Ritual this morning. Spur of the moment, totally unplanned, but absolutely inspired.

I’ve been reading a few mind-body healing books ever since attending Dr. Mitchell Gaynor‘s workshop at CIIS this weekend. Dr. Gaynor is an integrative oncologist based at Cornell Medical Center in New York City and is the embodiment of physician-healer, embracing all of his life experiences and learning from diverse traditions in order to create healing partnerships with his patients.

I don’t see myself working with disease, but still find myself fascinated by healing stories. Disease is merely one form of communication, through the vehicle of our bodies, to help us become more aware of ourselves. Some people experience healing through a financial crisis, or a job loss, or the death of a loved one. Any time our expectations about life are challenged or even shattered, we are being handed the gift of an opportunity to heal and grow.

Somehow this morning I was inspired to let go of some of the energies that I am still carrying and am no longer in need of. I knew that I wanted to have a total body experience of this letting go – not just writing it, or saying it, but experiencing it with all of my senses.

I created an altar, which incorporated items representing the five elements – earth, fire, air, water, and ether.

I also included a symbol of inner peace, which to me is beautifully exemplified in the image of the Buddha. Continue reading →

How does it FEEL to celebrate?

Leave a reply

I’ve never really been good at celebrating my birthday.

There are a few birthdays in my life that I remember – one was my 6th birthday when I had a party at my house with my favorite girls from second grade, complete with musical chairs, Bozo buckets, a violin serenade by my brother, and hand-selected party favors for each guest. Another was my sophomore year in college, when my roommate totally surprised me by inviting over half a dozen or so of my best friends, who arrived with cake, balloons, and songs to sing. Yet another was in my twenties, when my brother procured tickets to see Itzhak Perlman and the Minnesota Orchestra, and my parents came into town to join us.

But when it has come to my really knowing how to celebrate myself, and knowing what I really have wanted to do on my birthday, I’ve mostly come up blank.

Now I know that it’s because I have been more focused on what it LOOKS like to celebrate than how it FEELS to celebrate.

What Celebrating Looks Like

In our image-obsessed culture, we can easily be led to believe that what we SHOW about our lives – how we make things appear – is actually more important than how we FEEL about our selves as we live our lives.

Even the lyrics to popular songs teach young girls what it means to “party in the USA” – “Welcome to the land of fame, excess, whoa am I gonna fit in?”.

Because feelings are often difficult to express in words, or not accurately captured by images, or perhaps don’t match up with the social pressure to perform and please, I have (perhaps like you) defaulted to suppressing the feelings, not bothering to connect with them, and making choices based on what will make me LOOK like I’m doing fine.

I did this without being conscious of it. It happened slowly, in small steps, over time, like any changes do. Continue reading →

Or Else What? Finding Your Own Answer To Holiday Overwhelm

2 Replies

It seems to me that there’s this game we play around the holidays. We somehow feel obligated to replay the old tapes of the past, gathering together in the same ways, repeating the same “traditions”, whether or not they still work for us.

The result? A clenching of the jaw, a tensing of our shoulders, a knotted up feeling in our stomach, as we enter this “joyous” holiday season. Some of us might even roll our eyes without knowing it when we say the word “family”.

Since all the messages around us are shouting, “Peace! Joy! Love! Thankfulness! Giving!” we feel downright guilty about our deepest truth: we just don’t want to do the holidays the same way anymore.

That guilt gnaws at our energy for a good two months. We conduct our surface actions under the weight of the thought, “This is what I have to do.” So we suck it up. We buy our plane tickets, or get in our cars, battling the crowds of people who all seem to be happily going to visit family, but very well could be gnawing away inside too.

Or we buy the new sparkly red dress, the high heels, the purse, the whole deal. We show up at the party with all the people we don’t even like. We do it anyway. Why? Not exactly by choice, but because we think “we have to”.

Or else what?

When was the last time you questioned your own holiday patterns of action and so-called “traditions”?

When was the last time you gave yourself permission to even ask the question, “What do I want to do for the holidays?” Continue reading →

The Difference Between Creativity and Productivity

Leave a reply

Do you find yourself waiting?

Waiting to act, waiting for the right time, waiting for the perfect conditions, waiting for a reason, waiting for more money, waiting for someone else to finish, before you begin?

The difference between creativity and productivity is the energy behind our actions. Our society has conditioned us to be driven by measures of productivity. This means we have been conditioned to run our lives based on what to do next. We wrack our brains making “to do” lists, we pack our schedules full of “things to do”, we commute, we rush, we move constantly in our effort to achieve more productivity.

What we have not been taught – and what is not valued as publicly – is how to act from the energy of creativity. I have learned from my own deep practice that the energy of creativity is openness, space, and peace. The act of creativity is allowing.

All of that may sound way too passive to you, if you, like me, are a product of this culture we live in. Continue reading →

Recognize and Rest

Leave a reply

I’ve been teaching and deepening my learning each time I teach. This time it’s the lessons of Tibetan Sound Healing, as transmitted by the lama Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. So simple are the sounds of the warrior seed syllables (just 5 single syllable sounds, chanted repeatedly), and yet so deep the lessons, when practiced.

The concept that really stuck with me from Tuesday was resting in the recognition that “I am complete, as I am, in this moment.” Without reason. Without condition. Without any explanation.

I breathed it in and felt the power of resting in that energy of peace, joy, and freedom. What power could I manifest if I just rested in that recognition?

Today I practiced again, right after a particularly poignant moment of recognition for me.

Take the time to say this to yourself: “I am complete, as I am, in this moment.” Say the sound “Ah” and breathe into the feeling of space opened by the vibration in your body. Repeat and rest.