Our desire for financial freedom can be defined in different ways. One familiar approach is simply to keep looking for ways to make more money. A second is to save some of your income and avoid debt. Another is to learn what it really takes to make you happy, then letting all other choices flow from that decision.
If you really enjoy what you do, that in itself is part of your compensation. That makes every day more of a pleasure.
What makes a comfortable place to live is something we define. If you can only be comfortable in a big house, then you have to work more to pay for it. If you enjoy what you do, then you still have harmony and congruence in your life. If, however, you don't really like your job that much, you will start to feel trapped. Or later on, if you have a desire to quit that job or that career in order to do something else that you feel more passionate about or more consciously connected to, but that might pay less, the only sensible choice will be to learn to enjoy a more modest style of living. If a comfortable house is something more modest, then you don't have to work as much to pay for it.
So is freedom defined by how big a house or how much stuff we own? Maybe, maybe not. If we define freedom as enjoying what we do every day, and if we have to work long hard hours at a job we don't really like, then maybe having to keep that job and work that many hours is a form of self imposed restrictions rather than freedom.
It is not the total number of dollars that defines happiness. It is the actions involved with how we make and spend those dollars that really defines our happiness.
I am well aware that not everyone is in the job of their dreams. That is why some people just go in and do what they have to do without any great joy, and display all of their passion and invest all of their enthusiasm into hobbies and avocations. Some people also choose to find things to like about the job they have so that it is not such an energy drain.
But more and more, we are becoming aware that we have to be creative and find ways to make our money in a way that we enjoy and that we have control over, so that we are not simply at the mercy of the whims of the corporate managers. And that means that the percentage of people who will be creating their own businesses will increase out of their survival instinct plus their desire for positive change.
Our consciousness has evolved to the point where more and more people are coming to grips with this reality every day. Some people arrived at this choice long ago simply because they were following their desires. Now more people are arriving at this choice out of necessity. It does bring about more conscious living to be aware of what really makes us happy and then taking action to make it into our reality.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Music, Our Portal and Passport
Music is a galvanizing force for bringing people together. The energy of music can bring people together quickly, creating good feelings, warmth, humor, lightheartedness, joy and pleasure.
Music can also bring healing. Why do you think that massage therapists and other body workers always have music playing while they are working on you? It helps a person relax, soothes the muscles and relieves tension, making it easier for the therapist to do their work.
It is also an aid to digestion, which is why soothing music is played in restaurants. It can also stimulate the flow of healing cells and energies in our bodies.
All of these things happen because music is a portal. It connects us with other people, it is a universal form of communication, which is why it is included on space probes we have launched. There have been many instances where people of different cultures who could not speak each other's languages have been able to play music together. There have been many ne recordings in recent years where we can hear people of different ethnic groups bridge the gap by finding ways for the musical idioms to come together and play.
What about as a portal for the imagination? how many symphonies, ballets and operas have themes drawn from great myths, fairy tales and folklore? Why is it that sacred chants, whether the Gregorian, Sufi, Hindu, Hebrew or any other can immediately transport the listener into an altered state of consciousness? At Renaissance Faires the period music is just as important in creating the feeling of that time and space as the costumes and decorations.
How many times when you are watching a movie can you tell whether coming actions and scenes are going to be sinister, tragic, hilarious or romantic because they are foreshadowed by the music?
Music can energize to make work lighter as well. Think about chants that people have done at work so that they could get enough of a boost to get things done. This is the common thread between the work chants of the slaves, the chants of the sailors, the cadence of the soldiers, cheerleaders in sports, chants of the warriors, songs people sing at harvests or plantings, and so many other examples. Music unleashes energy we didn't even know we had and makes that available to us when we have tough jobs to do. Sometimes I chant and sing during the work day simply to relieve tension and inspire me to keep going.
Music is a portal that opens the way for us to heal, shift into sacred space, to become engaged romantically with another person, to build excitement and energy, give us courage, give us strength, helps us grieve and to celebrate.
From the heartbeat we first know in the womb, the sounds we make when we go to war or go to work, and the songs we sing at weddings, funerals, the music we hear when we make love and the sounds that surround us in the world, we find our way to the places we want to go with music.
Music can also bring healing. Why do you think that massage therapists and other body workers always have music playing while they are working on you? It helps a person relax, soothes the muscles and relieves tension, making it easier for the therapist to do their work.
It is also an aid to digestion, which is why soothing music is played in restaurants. It can also stimulate the flow of healing cells and energies in our bodies.
All of these things happen because music is a portal. It connects us with other people, it is a universal form of communication, which is why it is included on space probes we have launched. There have been many instances where people of different cultures who could not speak each other's languages have been able to play music together. There have been many ne recordings in recent years where we can hear people of different ethnic groups bridge the gap by finding ways for the musical idioms to come together and play.
What about as a portal for the imagination? how many symphonies, ballets and operas have themes drawn from great myths, fairy tales and folklore? Why is it that sacred chants, whether the Gregorian, Sufi, Hindu, Hebrew or any other can immediately transport the listener into an altered state of consciousness? At Renaissance Faires the period music is just as important in creating the feeling of that time and space as the costumes and decorations.
How many times when you are watching a movie can you tell whether coming actions and scenes are going to be sinister, tragic, hilarious or romantic because they are foreshadowed by the music?
Music can energize to make work lighter as well. Think about chants that people have done at work so that they could get enough of a boost to get things done. This is the common thread between the work chants of the slaves, the chants of the sailors, the cadence of the soldiers, cheerleaders in sports, chants of the warriors, songs people sing at harvests or plantings, and so many other examples. Music unleashes energy we didn't even know we had and makes that available to us when we have tough jobs to do. Sometimes I chant and sing during the work day simply to relieve tension and inspire me to keep going.
Music is a portal that opens the way for us to heal, shift into sacred space, to become engaged romantically with another person, to build excitement and energy, give us courage, give us strength, helps us grieve and to celebrate.
From the heartbeat we first know in the womb, the sounds we make when we go to war or go to work, and the songs we sing at weddings, funerals, the music we hear when we make love and the sounds that surround us in the world, we find our way to the places we want to go with music.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Music: Primal, Potent Magic
Today, I am prompted to think of how guitars changed my life. Les Paul, who invented the electric guitar as well as multitrack recording, died today, and that led me to remembering when I got my first guitar and taught myself how to play and what happened next.
Music has always been a part of my life. An important part. Before I learned guitar, I wanted to be a classical violinist. After a year and a half of lessons I was eager to play melodies, but the traditional way of teaching at that time was to focus on finger exercises long before attempting melodies. I understand that methods have changed since then, but I quit because I was entranced by melodies, not exercises.
So after quitting violin lessons, I didn't take up anything else immediately. But eventually, I got hooked on rock, and decided that I wanted to try that. So I bought a guitar and within a very short time, I was able to play songs. For a little while I was in bands, but then spent many years playing solo. For a number of years, inviting people over to play guitar and sing was a great way to socialize and have fun. People would come over and we made music, hung out and talked and taught each other songs.
Growing up in Chicago, and hearing lots of the great blues musicians, I also was inspired to teach myself blues harp (harmonica) which can also play lots of lovely melodies beyond blues. When you can play blues harp, your instrument fits in your pocket and you can jump in with other musicians on a moment's notice. And it has the power to transform any space. Back when I was a cab driver, for example, and we were in waiting lines, like at the airport, some drivers would be shooting craps, but I would pull out my harp, and then another driver pulled out a guitar and a long boring wait in a parking lot would turn into a jam.
Later on, my life changed and drumming became my favorite instrument and I spent many evenings in drumming circles and drumming parties, and for a while was the drummer for a band of women vocalists. There were nights around the fire when we would drum until our hands got sore and swollen and people would be falling out having danced and drummed into a frenzy and spent their energy. But all it would take to get them started again was for one person to start a chant or a beat, and people would come back to life.
That was followed by a number of years where contra dancing kept me smiling for many an evening. High energy, work up a sweat, keep your eye on your partner and your ear on the caller, and keep in time with everyone else kind of dancing. If you have never experienced it, a hot fiddler and a good caller leading a band can turn a room full of strangers into synchronized waves of energy within minutes.
I have also participated in the Dances of Universal Peace and sung in kirtan and participated in song circles on a number of occasions. Voices can join and stir up waves of energy that are ethereal and send people floating around in circles.
Any kind of participation in music or dance will lift the spirits of the participants and stimulate good feelings.
In retrospect, I would have to say that music really came into my life in a big way because people like Les Paul helped to make the guitar an even more popular and accessible instrument. I mean rock n roll would have never been without the electric guitar. When Muddy Waters started playing electric guitar, he just blew the blues right out of the folk music arena and into legend. Eelctric guitar opened portals to other dimensions.
And, in turn, music opened portals to other dimensions. Music is one of the first, and still most potent forms of magic that we have.
Music has always been a part of my life. An important part. Before I learned guitar, I wanted to be a classical violinist. After a year and a half of lessons I was eager to play melodies, but the traditional way of teaching at that time was to focus on finger exercises long before attempting melodies. I understand that methods have changed since then, but I quit because I was entranced by melodies, not exercises.
So after quitting violin lessons, I didn't take up anything else immediately. But eventually, I got hooked on rock, and decided that I wanted to try that. So I bought a guitar and within a very short time, I was able to play songs. For a little while I was in bands, but then spent many years playing solo. For a number of years, inviting people over to play guitar and sing was a great way to socialize and have fun. People would come over and we made music, hung out and talked and taught each other songs.
Growing up in Chicago, and hearing lots of the great blues musicians, I also was inspired to teach myself blues harp (harmonica) which can also play lots of lovely melodies beyond blues. When you can play blues harp, your instrument fits in your pocket and you can jump in with other musicians on a moment's notice. And it has the power to transform any space. Back when I was a cab driver, for example, and we were in waiting lines, like at the airport, some drivers would be shooting craps, but I would pull out my harp, and then another driver pulled out a guitar and a long boring wait in a parking lot would turn into a jam.
Later on, my life changed and drumming became my favorite instrument and I spent many evenings in drumming circles and drumming parties, and for a while was the drummer for a band of women vocalists. There were nights around the fire when we would drum until our hands got sore and swollen and people would be falling out having danced and drummed into a frenzy and spent their energy. But all it would take to get them started again was for one person to start a chant or a beat, and people would come back to life.
That was followed by a number of years where contra dancing kept me smiling for many an evening. High energy, work up a sweat, keep your eye on your partner and your ear on the caller, and keep in time with everyone else kind of dancing. If you have never experienced it, a hot fiddler and a good caller leading a band can turn a room full of strangers into synchronized waves of energy within minutes.
I have also participated in the Dances of Universal Peace and sung in kirtan and participated in song circles on a number of occasions. Voices can join and stir up waves of energy that are ethereal and send people floating around in circles.
Any kind of participation in music or dance will lift the spirits of the participants and stimulate good feelings.
In retrospect, I would have to say that music really came into my life in a big way because people like Les Paul helped to make the guitar an even more popular and accessible instrument. I mean rock n roll would have never been without the electric guitar. When Muddy Waters started playing electric guitar, he just blew the blues right out of the folk music arena and into legend. Eelctric guitar opened portals to other dimensions.
And, in turn, music opened portals to other dimensions. Music is one of the first, and still most potent forms of magic that we have.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Disorientation & Reorientation
Tests we face in life are meant to cause us disorientation. Each time we have to recalculate our course, we have to see with fresh eyes and hear with fresh ears in order to find our way again. In this process of renewal, we discover things about ourselves. Little realizations open the door to big revelations.
Look at some of these definitions of orientation:
an integrated set of attitudes and beliefs
position or alignment relative to points of the compass or other specific directions
a person's awareness of self with regard to position and time and place and personal relationships
predilection: a predisposition in favor of something
orientation course: a course introducing a new situation or environment
When sailing a sailboat, you are constantly shifting your position relative to the wind in order to make optimum use of the energies present in the wind and water so that you can stay on course and get where you want to go. They call this maneuver tacking. Little ribbons on the top of the sail give the first indication of the shifts in the wind. These are called telltales.
When two people are dancing, someone leads and someone follows. Good dance partners only need to use a movement of the eyes, a light touch of the hand, or a shift in the hips to signal a change of direction, a turn, a spin.
When drummers are drumming together, a signal can be as simple as an extra beat to pick up or slow down the tempo.
A choice of words will indicate a range of differences in a writer's intention. Subtle, but significant signals. A tone can signify the difference between pleasure and pain.
Disorientation and reorientation are ways of responding to life by constantly revising our directions, renewing our connections and clearly reaffirming our choices in order to signal and then make our change in direction. Adjusting to flowing and shifting energy patterns is necessary to life. Consciously engaging in the procecss strengthens us and enlarges our life.
Look at some of these definitions of orientation:
an integrated set of attitudes and beliefs
position or alignment relative to points of the compass or other specific directions
a person's awareness of self with regard to position and time and place and personal relationships
predilection: a predisposition in favor of something
orientation course: a course introducing a new situation or environment
When sailing a sailboat, you are constantly shifting your position relative to the wind in order to make optimum use of the energies present in the wind and water so that you can stay on course and get where you want to go. They call this maneuver tacking. Little ribbons on the top of the sail give the first indication of the shifts in the wind. These are called telltales.
When two people are dancing, someone leads and someone follows. Good dance partners only need to use a movement of the eyes, a light touch of the hand, or a shift in the hips to signal a change of direction, a turn, a spin.
When drummers are drumming together, a signal can be as simple as an extra beat to pick up or slow down the tempo.
A choice of words will indicate a range of differences in a writer's intention. Subtle, but significant signals. A tone can signify the difference between pleasure and pain.
Disorientation and reorientation are ways of responding to life by constantly revising our directions, renewing our connections and clearly reaffirming our choices in order to signal and then make our change in direction. Adjusting to flowing and shifting energy patterns is necessary to life. Consciously engaging in the procecss strengthens us and enlarges our life.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Our Birthday Presence
Our energies shift every year on our birthdays, not just because we are getting older, but because we can bring the applied wisdom and experience to bear that we have gained since our last birthday.
That does not mean that we do not make mistakes any more, only that we now have additional resources so that we do not keep making the same ones over and over. Our birthday is really our new year, our opportunity to get a fresh start.
This year, my number shifts into a three, which represents the power of manifestation.
Our birthdays are a powerful time for reflection as we look back over what we have accomplished and look forward to what is ahead.
It is only natural that these unique days in our lives always feel special. As we live longer, we find ourselves celebrating birthdays way beyond what our parents and other relatives experienced, and it offers a new perspective when we think of those things that they considered new and marvelous compared to what we now have. I also think of how earlier generations looked old and tired, yet people today at the same chronological age appear to be much more vigorous and vivacious.
Our birthdays are a time for inspiration. If we look at what we have done already, look how many more possibilities we have in front of us. Being here now is a great gift. I am opening it.
That does not mean that we do not make mistakes any more, only that we now have additional resources so that we do not keep making the same ones over and over. Our birthday is really our new year, our opportunity to get a fresh start.
This year, my number shifts into a three, which represents the power of manifestation.
Our birthdays are a powerful time for reflection as we look back over what we have accomplished and look forward to what is ahead.
It is only natural that these unique days in our lives always feel special. As we live longer, we find ourselves celebrating birthdays way beyond what our parents and other relatives experienced, and it offers a new perspective when we think of those things that they considered new and marvelous compared to what we now have. I also think of how earlier generations looked old and tired, yet people today at the same chronological age appear to be much more vigorous and vivacious.
Our birthdays are a time for inspiration. If we look at what we have done already, look how many more possibilities we have in front of us. Being here now is a great gift. I am opening it.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Being Lost in Dreams
How do we ever get to be lost in dreams? Have you felt yourself dancing to a wonderful romantic melody until you forgot where you were? Did you ever wake up in the morning and wonder where you were going, or why you had to get up? Do you ever find yourself daydreaming and feeling it be so real that we feel more like we are in that place than where we are?
These disorientations can come about as a result of the dream state overlapping with out conscious state. It is not, of course, that we do not know that we are dancing or that we do not know that we have to get up and go to work in the morning. It is just that we are enjoying our dream state and would prefer to stay there for a while.
When we return, our senses and our feelings, do not quite fit what is happening because we are still in one realm but needing to move into another.
Our dream state is so appealing that we enjoy being in it and find ourselves immersed in it. In this inbetween state, many creative people find fertile ground for creativity and new ideas.
In this fluid state, we gain entry into places without limitations, without boundaries, and this is why we experience free association, and enlarged perceptions.
These disorientations can come about as a result of the dream state overlapping with out conscious state. It is not, of course, that we do not know that we are dancing or that we do not know that we have to get up and go to work in the morning. It is just that we are enjoying our dream state and would prefer to stay there for a while.
When we return, our senses and our feelings, do not quite fit what is happening because we are still in one realm but needing to move into another.
Our dream state is so appealing that we enjoy being in it and find ourselves immersed in it. In this inbetween state, many creative people find fertile ground for creativity and new ideas.
In this fluid state, we gain entry into places without limitations, without boundaries, and this is why we experience free association, and enlarged perceptions.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Our Identities
Wearing a mask or a costume is one way of showing an identity to the world, but the persona that we wear every day is another.
Our identity that we have connected to who we are in relationship with, what we do for a living, and other interests, is another way that we present an identity to the world.
Notice how quickly or thoroughly these can change. If you are a manager with a corporation, you wear a suit and tie and you hand out a business card that identifies you as such, people regard you a certain way.
The same person simply out hiking in a pair of shorts and a T shirt is not seen as anything but another hiker.
If that same person were to show up regularly at dances, everyone would think of them first as a dancer.
There are some couples who are always seen doing something together and their identities become Jane & John, Sue & Dave, etc, with their identities as part of a combination, rather than something separate.
Authors who use a pen name, actors who use a screen name, people who have taken a spiritual name and are always addressed by those names, have only that identity known to others.
When a person changes careers, changes relationships, changes hobbies, or sports, or other activities where they spent a lot of energy, their identity changes with them.
Soon after you are no longer in the same field of work, or living in the same house with the same person, or showing up at the playing field or group meeting, living in the same neighborhood, that identity ceases to exist.
When you start showing up in new places, doing new things, with new people, a new identity takes shape. Our identities are a very fluid thing. If you have had more than one career, more than one long term relationship, moved to different neighborhoods or different parts of the country, enjoyed avid participation in more than one activity, you know just how completely this can change.
How much of our identities are our true self then? Perhaps none of them.
Our identity that we have connected to who we are in relationship with, what we do for a living, and other interests, is another way that we present an identity to the world.
Notice how quickly or thoroughly these can change. If you are a manager with a corporation, you wear a suit and tie and you hand out a business card that identifies you as such, people regard you a certain way.
The same person simply out hiking in a pair of shorts and a T shirt is not seen as anything but another hiker.
If that same person were to show up regularly at dances, everyone would think of them first as a dancer.
There are some couples who are always seen doing something together and their identities become Jane & John, Sue & Dave, etc, with their identities as part of a combination, rather than something separate.
Authors who use a pen name, actors who use a screen name, people who have taken a spiritual name and are always addressed by those names, have only that identity known to others.
When a person changes careers, changes relationships, changes hobbies, or sports, or other activities where they spent a lot of energy, their identity changes with them.
Soon after you are no longer in the same field of work, or living in the same house with the same person, or showing up at the playing field or group meeting, living in the same neighborhood, that identity ceases to exist.
When you start showing up in new places, doing new things, with new people, a new identity takes shape. Our identities are a very fluid thing. If you have had more than one career, more than one long term relationship, moved to different neighborhoods or different parts of the country, enjoyed avid participation in more than one activity, you know just how completely this can change.
How much of our identities are our true self then? Perhaps none of them.
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