My husband bought us tickets to see The Monkees in Chattanooga a couple weeks ago. He was a child when their show came out. I was born that year and five when it went off the air. So, Dave enjoyed the concert more than I did. He remembered more of the songs, and they transported him back to his childhood.

I must have seen some of the show while my older siblings watched it because the melody to the Monkee’s Theme song is burned in my brain. It’s one of those songs I randomly whistle or hum. It’s come to my mind throughout my life. Ironically, the two remaining living Monkees did not perform it at the concert – must be a copyright issue.

The other day I was pondering on the songs that have traveled with me throughout my life… that randomly come to mind and besides the Monkees, there’s “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” and “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.” (I’ll talk about them another time.)

The thought occurred to me that there might be messages for me in these songs that could give me a clue to my own Soul’s Song. I couldn’t remember much of the lyrics to the Monkees Theme past, “Hey, Hey, We’re the Monkees,” so I looked them up. This verse stood out to me:

Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees
And people say we monkey around
But we’re too busy singing
To put anybody down.

When I read it, I thought… “Whoa… that really is a big piece of my message!” When we’re busy singing our own song –exploring our own creativity and being ourselves — we don’t need to bring anyone down. We have no desire to. We’re too busy singing our song! Most of my adult life I’ve been doing my thing, pursuing my interests and encouraging others to do the same. In the process, I’ve come to see greatness in nearly everyone I have spoken with.

Your Soul’s Song Heals You!

Singing your Soul’s Song has a transformative, healing effect. I noticed this recently with a friend. My friend is super creative, but he has been struggling with other people and their opinions pf him. Feelings have been hurt, and old insecurities have surfaced for my friend. He started using his creativity against himself — looking for problems in his otherwise happy life and this was starting to negatively impact his otherwise healthy relationships. As I was talking with him, I asked, “Are you still pursuing your creative writing and other creative interests?” He admitted he was not.

I recommended my friend dive back into creative pursuits. He took my advice and there was an immediate positive shift. The difference was night and day within only a day or two. When you’re busy singing your song… you’re too busy to put anybody down – including YOURSELF!

Memories Can Be Clues to Your Soul’s Song

This morning an encounter from my childhood came to mind. Two girls in my sixth grade class were arguing over something to do with a hairbrush. I asked one of the girls who was gathered around the hubbub what was going on. She said, “Keep making straight A’s and don’t worry about it.”

I shrugged and went about my own business. I was quite naïve in those days. It wasn’t until years later that it dawned on me… “Hey, I think she meant that as an insult.” By that time, this girl and I had actually become best friends. It was water long under a bridge and not worth concerning myself over.

Today, as the memory came back to me, I thought about The Monkees Theme song. I was too busy singing my song… being me … even if that was the quiet conscientious student… that was still me! I wasn’t too concerned about the other girls’ drama and was secure enough in myself that what this girl intended as a non-inclusive sarcastic jab had absolutely no negative impact on me. Although, it did stick with me over the years as a significant moment.

I realize now why it felt significant… it was a clue to my identity and my purpose in this world. I’m here to help people value themselves and their uniqueness and to freely express it in positive ways in their everyday lives. I’m here to help you sing your Soul’s Song! And the number one thing that gets in people’s way of doing that is worrying about what other people think and our own limiting beliefs about ourselves!

Explore Your Childhood for Clues to Your Soul’s Song

Think back over your childhood. What were your favorite songs? Your hobbies? Interests? What moments stand out to you? There could be clues in there that could help you discover and unleash your Soul’s Song!

To connect with your Soul’s Song, Click here to get your FREE Soul’s Song Attunement Affirmation / Music Audio.

The post Unleash Your Soul’s Song: Childhood Could Be The Key appeared first on Start Over Here.

Tonight I watched session three on Frequencies. At first I thought… “this one is so not me.” It wasn’t really clicking, but I thanked my mind for it’s input and asked it to be a witness just to see what could happen… you never know.

I create music for my clients to help them shift their limiting beliefs so they can achieve their goals. I took 13 years of piano lessons, but had no natural ear. I only played what was written on the page. Then about 5-6 years ago I started playing extemporaneously and have been teaching myself chords. Now I regularly integrate music composition in the belief-shifting work I do. But, still I’ve been a bit stopped up when it comes to the specificity of conveying melodies. The higher / lower frequencies of notes don’t always click for me. I had trouble instinctively knowing which note was higher or lower than another.

Then, at the end of Session 3, Jennifer McLean started singing various tones to connect us with being able to identify and work with frequencies. I noticed as she did so that I could tell which tones she sang were higher and lower. After the session, I sat down at the piano, and I noticed a big difference in what I composed. I was better able to take a melody and make my hands play what I was hearing in my head in a natural, easy way.

The video below is the melody I composed tonight. It’s a minor variation on a theme from “Nearer, My God, to Thee” set to photos from our property (Spirit Tree Farms).

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Dave and I came away motivated to work on our own home to carry more of the nature setting and orderly spirit into it. I decided to start with the rack in our entryway and my office. Yesterday, I went to Big Lots and got some woven baskets to use on the rack in our entryway where we keep a lot of our gardening items … like gloves, tools, hats, etc. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

I also got some organizing bins for my office. I got the piles of art supplies off the floor, and I took the assorted electronics and paperwork that were piled in cardboard boxes on my desk and put those into a couple bins.

Pray for Direction and Sometimes You’ll Get a Surprising Answer

This morning I was pondering and praying about the direction for my business and felt a clear impression to permanently move my office upstairs to a spare bedroom. My father-in-law is coming to stay with us for a couple months, and my husband already approached me about temporarily moving my office upstairs. That way my current office can be turned into a bedroom for his dad — so he doesn’t have to deal with the steep staircase. I agreed. But this morning, I felt a strong impression to permanently make the switch. This will give me a much larger office – at least twice the size of my current one. I’ll have more space for my musical composition and be able to create a dedicated Zen space inside the house for doing yoga, meditating, etc.

At first I wondered why a question about the direction to take my business gave me an answer to create a Zen-space office. But as I explained the idea to Dave (who loved it, btw), I realized that the answers I got about my business were to focus more on my Spirit-Led Life and Spirit-Led Business books and courses. I will be creating more groups, audios, and courses around tapping into the Spirit in all aspects of life so people feel more love, joy, peace, clarity and hope and bring healing, freedom and illumination into their lives on a day-to-day basis. The dedicated Spirit-space will put me in greater alignment with my messaging and give me a place for having greater access to inspiration.

“Before” Photos

Dave suggested I blog as I work through this process of creating my Spirit-space office and what I’m doing with my business. First, here’s what my current office looks like…

Here’s the upstairs bedroom I’m transforming into my Spirit space office.

One idea I have so far is to get a round or oval area rug. In her book, “Trusting Spirit Now,” Judy Rankin talks about how circles invite the energy to flow and circulate in a room. If I can find a spiral design rug, all the better… now that we’ve created our outdoor Wildflower Spiral. The video below is our Wildflower Spiral project which we use for meditation and enjoying nature.

Please tune back in as I document the process of transforming my office into a Spirit space. Maybe it will give you some ideas for creating one of your own.

Take-Aways

• When you have a problem, quiet your mind, and pray for guidance.

• Be aware that the answer you get may not look the way you expect.

• Be willing to learn from other people’s brilliance. Let them inspire you! Don’t put barriers in the way. Judy has amazing interior design skills that I don’t have. That doesn’t have to be a barrier. My takeaway from our visit to her house was that our home needed changes. It needed more order and more nature integration. Judy modeled how a home can feel, and her home inspired us to create a similar feel in our home.

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The problem I wrote down was: How do I become filled with the pure love of Christ and never let anyone else hurt my feelings… always staying in love and compassion regardless of what anyone says?

Since I’m seeking an answer about the Pure Love of Christ, the obvious person I wanted to ask my question of is Jesus Christ.

So I free flowed anything that came as if Jesus were answering my question. Here is what came:

You are going about it the wrong way. You are trying too hard. Relax and receive the gift. Today, you got quiet, let go of the need for enlightenment and quieted your mind, released everything. Even though you thought you were numb and emotionless, what was left was love. Love is the only thing that is real. Release everything and what remains is love … everywhere, in everything, and everyone … including you.

Release everything and receive what remains. It’s the Law of the Vacuum. You must let go of everything in order to receive what is.

The author has you read what you’ve written and then ask what should be done about the problem. Even though what I wrote seemed to answer that, I asked anyway. The action I was given was:

“Release at the beginning and end of every day. “Forgive [release] daily and receive your daily bread [light, love and life].”

To review the releasing method I used today that brought me to a state of love, please read my earlier post from today: “The Straw Method Meditation.”

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• Sense of intensity
• Unity
• Clarity
• Surrender
• Permanent large scale change in awareness, behavior, or belief system

I’m realizing that I’ve had a couple of these Enlightenment experiences. The first one was a few weeks after my 2nd husband asked for a divorce as my mother died. This transformation came in an instant out of nowhere as I walked out of a grocery store in March 2017, about a week or two after my mother’s passing. I was not even thinking about anything in particular. A deep knowing came that my life was about to get amazing with this new powerful angel on my side. From that point, I had an abiding awareness that I am not alone… that I am fully supported by angels… my mother’s love intensified and I knew my life was about to get amazing. I started going through my life with a grateful expectancy.

I released any need to control outcomes because I had a deep awareness that everything was being taken care of.

The next Enlightenment experience came June 29, 2017. I was staying with a friend in Utah. I had no home of my own, no functioning car, the divorce was finalized 23 days earlier. Earlier that morning I’d had an incredible dream and woke up realizing that while I appeared to have nothing I had everything … that God had me in that moment, and He’d always had me, and He would have me in every moment going forward. Ever since that morning, I see my life, events, and circumstances in a completely different way than I did prior to that day. I have a trust and peace that follows me. Not to say I don’t have my moments but I always go back to that moment and it clicks me into a “keep calm and see what happens” place. It’s a place of complete trust (surrender) and it gave me clarity and definitely had an intensity I can never deny or forget. It changed the way I do relationships, the way I see everything.

The next day I met Dave.

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At some point during the releasing, I also realized I needed to release the need / intense desire for a transformational awakening (or enlightenment moment). My striving for it was counter productive. I felt the need or desire for it leave through the straw in my solar plexus.

I continued this type of breathing for at least 20 minutes. Then I added a mantra, “I am one with Christ.” This quickly morphed into “I am Zion” (the pure in heart / unity / oneness). At some point the affirmation was no longer there, and I was inside of a whitish-light-gray glowing mist. That’s all I could see in my mind’s eye. My imagination wanted to pull in various things, but I released those things and allowed it to be what it was … just this mist.

At some point my ability to form conscious thoughts went away. My mind fell silent. If there was any thought, it was only the awareness that there was no inner voice in my head. When this continued… the silence remained, at one point I felt a little concern that without this voice, would I be able to speak? Would I be able to form thoughts? Would my life radically change without this voice? I inhaled, held it, released, and let that concern go. The “nothingness” remained. I stayed there for some time until Mother Nature called. But even as I was in the bathroom, there was no chatter in my head.

I saw a pile of laundry on the bathtub and had the awareness that I would carry it to the laundry room. But this didn’t come as words like it normally would. Normally, I would make a mental checklist, “Oh, I need to get that out of here and do some laundry today.” But it wasn’t that. It was just a knowing that I would do laundry today.

When I looked in the mirror, I looked rather plain and ordinary. No glow of any kind. Perhaps even a bit tired. I simply noted that I looked kind of “dull” for lack of a better word. That sounds like I was judging my looks, but I wasn’t. It was simply an observation. Throughout this whole process the only emotion I recall feeling was that flicker of almost-panic that without the words in my head, I was losing something I might need.

While I was dressing, still no words were forming. The awareness that my speech might be affected by this presented itself, then dissipated. I also knew that I would need to write this account to document what was happening, but I felt no urgency to do so. No great desire to write about it. Normally, if I have an epiphany moment, I can’t rest until I write it down. I felt no urgency to do so  …. And doubted I would even be able to form the words to write it. I didn’t want to form the words. I wanted to stay in the silence.

After getting dressed, I went in the kitchen where Dave and my dad were. Dave greeted me and I said good morning. Then he remarked how good I looked… “svelte” was one of the words he used. I smiled and gave him a big hug and then I felt the urge to give my dad a big hug. I haven’t done that much lately. The irritation had gotten in the way. I felt a complete openness between us. Whatever had been in the middle wasn’t there anymore. I felt compassion and caring and love for him.

He hurt his shoulder on Saturday and I checked both of his shoulders to see if the injured one was swollen. It seemed it may be slightly puffier. I held my hands on his shoulder for a while and felt like something was flowing through me into his shoulder. I couldn’t say if it really was.

Even though I didn’t have word-thoughts in my mind, I still had no problem speaking. After I worked on our wildflower spiral landscaping project this morning. I was able to write this blog. So evidently the words still come, even if the mind has been quieted.

There is one other thing that I recalled after telling this experience to my husband. When I first landed in the misty space I had the impression that from that space, I could step into any time, space, person, entity or item. It was as if this quiet space was a corridor that would allow me (or anyone) to connect to anything or anyone else. I did not explore this concept while I was there. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination kicking in, but it was one of the impressions I released so that I could stay in the stillness longer.

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The post The Straw Method of Meditation appeared first on Start Over Here.

I did my one hour meditation on the front porch this afternoon. In the heat of the day at 88 degrees Fahrenheit. It began to get really hot by the last half of the meditation, but I was super mindful of any slight breeze. I used a combination of noting my breathing and short mantras. By the end I could keep my mind clear without the mantra or even noticing my breathing. Except for the occasional thought about the heat.

The fascinating thing was that toward the end, hummingbirds kept coming right up to me and hovering in front of me. I had my eyes closed when the first one approached. I was alerted to his presence by the buzz and sensation of a slight breeze on my left arm from the beating of his wings. I opened my eyes and watched him for several seconds. That happened about two more times. Even though I opened my eyes slightly to watch them as they hovered, I stayed in a calm relaxed state.

I like to look up the meaning and symbolism of animals, insects and birds when they appear in my life. So I looked up the Hummingbird Spirit Totem on Spirit-Animals.com. Here’s a bit of their description:

Hummingbird Symbolism:

“Hummingbird symbolism is reminding you that it is time for you to pursue your dreams more aggressively. By doing this, you will make them a reality. In other words, this spirit animal portends that joy is just around the corner. you have to believe that it is possible to manifest your dreams now. Stop waiting and go for it!

Alternatively, Hummingbird meaning is letting you know that you can go anywhere you need to go. The only obstacle in your way is yourself. Furthermore, opportunities are manifesting quickly for you right now. Thus like the Heron, Hummingbird symbolism prompts you to seize them as fast as possible before they are gone.”

Hummingbird, Spirit-Animals.com

Take-away from today’s meditation: nature is a great place to meditate, just avoid doing it in the heat of the day!

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So I decided to meditate in my office chair. My office probably is not the most ideal location since that’s my work space, but I figured I was going to close my eyes anyway, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

I started out with breathing in/out and noticing the sensation of the air in my nose as I breathed. Then, I settled into a mantra of “Rejoice Evermore.” I’ve had some neck tension so as I meditated I rotated my neck in circular motions and let it stretch — like I do when I’m doing yoga.

My intention was to let the meditation and the mantra sink into my neck and relax it. If I felt discomfort, I’d hold my neck in that spot that was tense and let it stay there until the muscles relaxed. Then, I’d continue the neck rotation. All the while I repeated the “Rejoice Evermore” mantra in my mind… kind of pouring the mantra into my neck.

Toward the end, I stopped the neck rotating/stretching and just relaxed. I started dropping the mantra into my mind and letting it go and see where it went. Eventually, the mantra melted into the background and my mind went still.

Results of My First 1-Hour Meditation

After the hour was up, I felt the urge to go to the piano and play. Below you’ll find the musical piece. The beginning isn’t that great but it quickly goes into something pretty, I think. Most of all I was able to relax, play and let go of some of the techniques I’ve been learning. I’ve been sort of stopped-up musically lately and this seemed to loosen things up significantly.

Sometimes I learn new techniques and get boxed into them. After meditating I was able to go back to more free flow. While some of the techniques I’ve learned integrated seamlessly into the piece, they weren’t controlling or dominating the song…. if that makes any sense.

The meditation seems to have helped in a way I hadn’t expected. My neck still sounds a bit like Rice Crispies in milk when I rotate it, but the pain left and is still gone today.

• Note: being in my office close to my computer monitor made it easy to check the time on the computer clock. I could peer with half-closed eyes to note the time. Next time, I’m going to get away from any clocks.

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Dr. Martin’s comment at the end about shooting for 40 minutes or longer stood out to me. I wasn’t aware of this 40-minute fact when I set the goal to meditate for 40 minutes a day. I found that some types of meditation almost put me to sleep — I was so relaxed.

I was shooting for focus. Some felt more focusing than relaxing. All of them seemed to quiet my mind. I was shocked by the initial emotion on the one where he has you feel. It was so startling I started to tear up. But then the emotion clamped down, and I couldn’t get it back. I want to do that one more because I’ve been aware that I have trouble fully feeling joy and that problem showed up in that meditation style. I think it will be a great one to play with.

The post Finding a Meditation that Works for Me appeared first on Start Over Here.

The reason I’ve begun studying this concept is because I’ve wanted to be in a greater state of love and acceptance of people. I want to let go of the ineffective “mind reading” that “we all suck at” (as my husband Dave often says).

This quest was spurred on by some relationship conflicts I’ve encountered in the last couple years. It’s been an interesting shift because all my life I just assumed people liked me and they seemed to. But recently, that has changed and it’s been a disconcerting dynamic. If other people are critical of me or don’t like me for whatever reason, I’ve let that hurt me and make me frustrated. I’ve felt misunderstood, maligned, and rejected. I keep thinking that I should stop worrying about what other people think. But that often feels selfish. Shouldn’t we care about what other people think? After all, do we want to go around upsetting people? Is that loving?

Obviously, it isn’t good to intentionally harm people, but most of the time people get offended or upset with us because of miscommunication, misunderstandings, or simply because we can’t think of every possible thing that could offend others. Sometimes I get in a hurry and say something without looking at it from every angle. I believe most of us are just trying to do the best we can, but our best isn’t going to please everyone.

Yesterday morning, while pondering and praying, an epiphany came:

The key to love is not caring about what other people think. What they think is not them. The chatter… the narrative voices in our heads have nothing to do with who we are. We are eternal beings, and who we are is much deeper than all the stories we weave in our minds or the worrying, negativity, or critical thoughts, programs and conditioning we’ve developed over the years.

None of that stuff is real.

So the key to loving others is to see them as who they truly are as children of God beyond the mind chatter, conditioning and stories. That begins by seeing ourselves as something beyond the noise in our own heads (the narrative voice).

That’s why Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Silencing the narrative voice is the first step. This allows us to let go of our own stories, conditioning and negativity … or that “beam that is in our own eye”… so we can see clearly to realize the “mote” (or splinter) in our neighbor’s eye isn’t them either. We can see them as eternal beings, apart from the noise they have going on in their heads.
So this is why the key to love is not to care what anyone thinks… including ourselves.

The Bird Egg and the Narrative Voice

This morning a symbol in nature came to mind of a bird egg. The shell is something the bird has to break through on its own. If you come in and pick the shell off, you stunt the bird’s development. It can even die. The shell in this analogy is like the narrative voice. It is frustrating because it is a barrier between us and the world. It blocks the love inside us from circulating freely to ourselves and to others. It isolates us, and obstructs our connection with nature and others.

And yet, the shell serves a purpose. It gives us a reason to struggle, reach and stretch for something higher. It makes us grow. As we encounter relationship challenges and other setbacks in life caused by this self-sabotaging voice, we are incentivized to seek higher understanding. In this process of struggling and seeking, we are given the opportunity to grow.

Thus, the people we encounter who misunderstand, criticize, hurt, or judge us are actually a gift. They too are like the shell on the chicken egg – an invitation to work, stretch and grow. But ultimately, it isn’t them that is the problem. Our own narrative voice is what is letting us be hurt by what others think, say or do.

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