Easy Goes it; Card of the Week, 14th December 2015

Two cards this week  (including  one “jumper”)   and they go so perfectly together and are great clues about how to be our most giving and receptive selves.

Being easy going is something the adult, productive, disciplined get-things-done side of ourselves doesn’t usually embrace, but that skill is  plays a huge role in  things coming to us easily!  You can get more done, see more opportunities, and be more receptive if you let go a little bit.

This week being flexible might be a necessity.  December is an intense energy month and an intense time when a lot of people celebrate holidays and there’s more “hubbub” happening than normal. There are parties to go to, food to make, presents to wrap, family to deal with… and even if you don’t do any of those things, you have to deal with the people who do.    Things might not go the way you originally think or hope that they will.   Being flexible will let you roll with what’s going on and get things done anyway.

No matter what the situation, not expecting things to be a certain way can help you embrace things as they are and that can help you enjoy yourself a lot more.  For example, we don’t always get the wonderful family and friends of TV sit-coms, we get the human, flawed ones we’ve got.   Not every gift or meal can be Martha Stewart-esque and not every get together is going to be like a Hallmark movie where everyone hugs and sings at the end.   But, some of the very  best things come out of imperfection.

Playfulness sees innocence where our reasoning minds are hardened and practical.  Playfulness is not only about having fun but also in seeing the humour in every day things.  One of my favourite winter/holiday memories is of a terrible blizzard that hit one year as we planned to visit an out of state aunt.   What began as a huge disappointment ended up being a snow-fort building, hot-chocolate making, casserole building great time.

The best way to RECEIVE (and give) is to not have a rigid and inflexible idea about how things should be. This week, budge and give a little bit. Be playful, let life surprise you, make messy but delicious cookies and do something unexpected.    Or maybe you can shake things up and introduce a little bit of flexibility and fun to your family and friends.

Have a great week!

About this deck: The Original Angel Cards: Inspirational Messages and Meditations by Kathy Tyler and Joy Drake is a set of 72 playfully illustrated, tiny cards for inspiration, creativity, meditation and more.  It is published by Allegro Corporation.

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Unleashing Intuitive Music

(the great B.B. King –creative commons license)

Music has been in my life as long as I can remember.    First as appreciator of music (diverse music in my household ranged from Credence Clearwater Revival to Vivaldi)  to  performer,  (classical pianist) to composer, and amateur noodler   (-a sometimes talentless noodler at that: violin, drums, recorder, guitar, kazoo –played at least with abandon and fun).

There are parallels in the expression and creation and participation of Music and the rest of life’s experiences;  to get in the right groove, to release the expression of your Soul, to connect to music, to get your joy-juice flowing, and to meet the moment in which great music REALLY happens,  you must LET GO of your desire to control, to be perfect, to be loved and you must live in the perfect moment UNLEASHED and unfettered.   This is true whether you want to play a violin concerto, do a jazz riff, talk to your best friend about a problem or bond with your husband.   And it’s true especially, when you awaken your OWN intuition and use it for help or joy in all these endeavors.

We can learn and study music in great depth, but this still doesn’t give us the heart-wings to soar with Handel unless we ditch the intellectual analysis and touch the MOMENT completely vulnerable, naked and joyously.  Music is a great metaphor for everything we do in life; relationship, work, art, love, money.  At some point we have to give up our fears of failure, our fear of acceptance, our desire to perfect or to live in our heads if we want to love other people, communicate with them, or express who we REALLY are through our art or daily living.    When you’re about to have a serious talk with your partner, you might feel just as heart-poundingly nervous as you would be if you’re about to play a Chopin Etude in front of a snarky audience (been there done that).  Each moment in which we need to express something fundamentally TRUE about ourselves,  our expression is  prone to be clouded by Egoic fear.  Will I be good enough? Will I be loved? How will I seem to others?  What if I fail? What if they don’t accept my song?      A piano teacher told me, “If you make a mistake, DO NOT STOP, keep playing!”  and that’s certainly true even if it’s about screwing up a conversation with your kids, making your boss mad or making a dumb choice.     Getting through that moment of fear and into the heart of the music itself is essential in our lives whether we play a musical instrument or just live in real life.

Playing an instrument can help you practice this “unleashing” and can help you open your intuitive sensibilities even more.   It doesn’t matter if this instrument is a 100 thousand dollar piano, an overturned plastic bucket, or your own beautiful voice.   Just grab the nearest noisemaker and go!   Here are some exercises:

1. PLAY!  Just do it… and do it for yourself.  (Preferably by yourself at first)  – Enjoy the sound of your fingers on the piano keys, enjoy the noise your hands make on your over-turned bucket drum or on t he plucked strings of your guitar, open your mouth and sing.  It doesn’t matter if you’re not Eric Clapton right away, or if you can’t remember everything from your 3 years of  voice lessons and it absolutely doesn’t matter what ANYONE else thinks.   This is not a time for perfect. It’s a time for PLAY. And I mean PLAY…. kid play! It doesn’t matter what you sound like and it doesn’t matter what, if anything, you play. Just make some noise.   If you do this right, no matter who you are, you will entrain with the Universal rhythm of real music… the kind that makes YOU happy (the most important kind).
2. Play along with your favourite song, the radio or a song you know already. Allow yourself to feel the freedom of going with a familiar groove.  Let yourself  feel the support of the band playing behind you – don’t you sound awesome?    Note.. .this is NOT the time for, “oh I can never be a musician, this is stupid, I don’t know all I need to know…”     give your brain a break. Music can be MEDITATION.
3. Use your intuition!  When you play or noodle on your instrument notice the feelings, thoughts, visions or ideas that bubble up in your consciousness.  When you hear a certain piece of music… as yourself:   “What is this telling me?  What do I feel?  What is my real-self trying to tell me here?”  Your mind can be like a tarot deck. The images you see or things you feel might be clues for you in a significant problem in your life, an inspiration for the next step, or even a way to release energy that has been “stuck” in other areas.
4. Be Free. Be UNLEASHED.

(B.B. King photo: public domain)