Sing For Your Heart

An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all. - Dorothy Day

Dear Friend

The Singing Antidote
As the shops stack up with Valentine’s kitsch, I am so grateful that I can sing as it offers me a truly genuine, authentic and grounded daily experience of love.  Singing allows me to connect with others in a deep empathic, inclusive, creative way whilst acknowledging that we are each unique, diverse and different.  It’s also a gentle form of cardio-vascular exercise - a massage for the heart.  So when life seems full of heartbreak, singing can be a powerful antidote.  Here’s some thoughts on creating more love in our world this February...

Transforming Fear and Anger
Fear and Anger motivate many of the monstrosities we see paraded across the media - from personal to international conflicts.  Cheap kicks and artificial pleasures - sex, drugs and rock and roll - are offered as a quick hedonistic fix or escape from these powerful feelings, which we all experience and recognise.  The greatest inspirational leaders knew that the force of our emotions could be honoured and transformed into powerful non-violent, loving action.  An recent article about Martin Luther King details how he channeled his feelings of anger about the injustices into leadership.  He took his inspiration from Ghandi who wrote -
“I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power that can move the world."

The Loving Embrace of Empathy
My experience of Love is that it is a transformational force, an empathic embrace. It does not reject difficult emotions, instead, it listens to their messages and says how can I serve you, what do you need, what can be done?  Love sees fear and anger as wounded children in need of care and extends towards them with empathy.  Scila Elworthy gives powerful examples of empathy in action in her TED Talk about non-violence, including the leader of a protest who was able to see the fear of men trembling behind guns and disarm them.  Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh could no longer stay in his monastery as bombs fell on Vietnam - his sense of empathy inspired him to set up reconciliation programmes which have had a global impact.

Acts of Love
Across the world this very minute people are making each others day, saving each others lives and performing random acts of loving kindness - from simple personal acts like making a cup or tea to global charity campaigns.  One kindness initiative is Global Love Letters - writing an anonymous love letter to drop somewhere for someone to find - pioneered by Simon Paul Sutton who I had a chat with on the virtual sofa with recently - click here to tune in.  Singing is now being used as medicine in hospitals across the country and increasing numbers flock to choirs of all shapes and sizes as we realize that singing together is an empowering act of love.

Sing for Your Heart This Valentines Day.
I’m offering a special Sing for Your Heart Workshop - full of heartwarming harmonies and vocal TLC - we will also be celebrating World Sound Healing Day and writing Global Love Letters - it really will be a special date for the heart - so do feel free to join me and bring a special mate :)

Wishing you a truly love-soaked February

Make Your Dreams Come True in 2015

Make Your Dreams Come True in 2015!

Dear Friend
Happy New Year!!
Thank you all for being part of my 2014 - may we build on the triumphs, rise to the challenges and celebrate the gifts this year has given us.
For a sumptuous banquet of delight this New Year, here’s
5 Simple Ways To Bring Your Dreams into Reality

Know your Why before your What
Many people focus on the details of what they want to change or solve but lose motivation because they have lost connection to their driving purpose.  Staying tuned to WHY keeps us centred in our INTENTIONS and deeper MOTIVATiONS.
Questions to ask to help tune into the big WHY include:
* WHY is this important to me?
* What will become possible in my life by doing it?
* What would I lose out on if I don’t do it?
* How will I feel when I have done it?
* How does doing this enrich my life and those of others?

Write Them Down
The very act of writing starts the process of getting the dream manifesting through your body and out into the world - whether it's pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.  Writing kickstarts a process of self-awareness, helping us tune into the feelings, thoughts and desires that are motivating our dreams.  It also prompts us to be specific - a dream like “I want to look and feel great” gets us thinking about what that would look like in reality - for some people that might mean a wardrobe makeover or it might motivate others to go the gym or make dietary changes.

Tell Someone (Make Yourself Accountable)
The act of declaring something brings it into reality in the listening of those who hear it.  In 2011 I set out on a mission to organise a large-scale charity concert for World Water Day 2012. Early on in the process I pitched it to a networking group - I only had 2 minutes to talk about it so I had to get my Whys and Whats crystal clear.  After that, I knew there was no going back - my ass was firmly on the line and I’d just blown up any fences I could sit on. Regular progress meetings with the charity helped keep me on track. Some months later hundreds of people participated in the event, raising about £3,300 for WaterAid.  The process showed me how much people love making a contribution - so many generous folks gave and got something out of being involved.  These days we can declare something publicly very easily on social media so go crazy and share your dreams with friends and involve them in the story of making it happen.

Set outrageous timelines
Any dream has got to become real in time, otherwise it's just drifting around in the ether, waiting to land.  I met a musician recently whose newly formed band have set themselves an outrageous goal to perform 3 new tracks at a gig in a few months time - they are now completely freaked out and rehearsing like crazy.   It’s really helpful to make a visual timeline and work backwards from the manifestation of your dream, plotting out the action steps that will be needed along the way.

Build momentum with snowballing actions
Dreams require consistent, committed actions to come into reality.  The good news is that every action builds momentum - if you buy pencils on Monday, a sketchbook on Tuesday, go for an inspiring walk around an exhibition on Wednesday, you will be propelled towards starting your drawing dream on Thursday.

To round off, if you’re an research fiend like me, you will be happy to know that a study at the Dominican University of California of 5 different types groups setting goals demonstrated that the most successful group wrote down their goals down, reflected on their importance, wrote down some action steps, sent these action commitments and made weekly progress reports to a supportive friend.

So... let’s go do those dreams and make a better world for all of us in 2015!

Wishing you a truly magical, inspirational, daring start to the New Year! 

PS: If you would like some support bringing your Creative Dreams into Reality please do get in touch - I offer special Sounding Out Sessions with a free initial consultation.