Transform the Music of Your Mind

Music.

What an incredible gift to our souls!

Raise your hand if you smile thinking about music.

I saw a recent Facebook post thanking Music for all it’s given us.  Did you see it, too?

I love that.

Close your eyes for a few minutes, reflecting on songs you’ve loved, and music that’s brought meaning into your very being.

 

My thoughts run to all the songs that were the backdrop of my youth:  years playing Heart and Soul and the Spinning Song on piano; teen years spinning Dan Fogleberg and The Beatles; and college life with Boz Scaggs crooning through windows.

Next, the early years of marriage blasting Karla Bonoff and Supertramp; car-time with my sons brought Rosenshantz on cassettes; and Saturday mornings meant blasting Billy Joel’s Allentown to wake anyone left in the sack.

Rock and Roll. Folk.  Hymns . Concerts.  Meditation music.

Lately, though I still LOVE music, I find myself living into more periods of silence.

Silence brings me to three places: the sounds of nature, the music of our minds, and quiet minds.

In this new home closer to nature of all sorts, I find myself leaning into increasing moments of simply being outside, tuned in.

Nature rewards me every time with a unique symphony:  hawk screeching its singular sound as it flies away, tree frogs trilling, squirrel chomping on a walnut, cardinal singing, wind in the trees…

Creeks, waterfalls, rain on the roof, barking dogs, a cat’s meow.

When’s the last time you stood outside to listen?

And then there are our minds.

Is your mind playing tunes of yesteryear, regrets, and angst?

Is your mind spinning an amazing future when you’ve lost weight, or traveled to Italy?

Life is in the moment…today….now…you reading these words on the screen.

Are you aware of a running dialogue that accompanies you?

Does that voice annoy you, or make you want to shove it into a corner?

I understand.

The music of my mind wasn’t always a lovely place to be, either.

Now it’s cleaned up, we’re good friends, and the voice I hear is most often supportive, loving, and kind, if there’s even a voice speaking.

My inner critics and I have smoked a peace pipe.

This truce begins with hearing the different voices speaking within, making an inventory to engage them, and befriending these aspects as golden parts of ourselves.

Give them names, and/or draw them.

Have a conversation with them in your journal.

Ask one, and then another, why they’re so noisy, or what role they’re playing in your life.

What questions do you have for them?

For years, I was pretty rude to my inner voices; I definitely wanted them to sit in the back row, to stop talking so much.  I’m sure I occasionally swore at them, or threw them into the cellar.

There was perfectionism, self-doubt, my inner sloth who didn’t accomplish goals, and more.

When I learned to engage them in dialogue in my journal, I received a sweet surprise.

Here’s a paraphrase:

Why are you so noisy? I ask.

We took over since you weren’t manning the steering wheel of your ship, they say.

How interesting!  I write back.  Thank you for steering when I was hiding below deck licking wounds.  I’m sorry I was so angry with you at times.

That’s okay.  We’re tough, they respond.

That you are!  Thank you for all you’ve done, I write.  I’m sure we would have run aground without you.

I continue.

Now, though, my Higher Self and I are steering, and we know where I’m going.  So though you don’t need to be in charge any longer, hang on to enjoy the ride.

And welcome to the crew, I add.

You mean you’re keeping us around, kind of like partners?  they ask.

Yes, kind of like partners.

Since that day of getting to know my inner critics more deeply, I’ve been able to integrate their traits into my life, using them as partners to my wholeness.

The bonus: this new music of my mind has the rhythm of peace, and quiet.

A quiet mind….sweet.

May you integrate your inner sweeties to expand your joy!