July 2008

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You Should Take up a Musical Instrument!

July 29, 2008 in Living, Music | 1 comment

Do you sometimes want to get away for a while? Why not enjoy the engaging, beautiful landscape of the world of playing music? 

You’ve probably read some of the numerous articles about the benefits of mental stimulation as we age.  Just like exercise benefits the body, mental challenges benefit the mind. An often overlooked way to stimulate the mind is by playing music. Unlike a lot of other “mental exercises,” playing music not only stimulates the mind, it feeds the soul and the spirit.

I imagine after reading the title of this month’s column, you’ve already come up with some reasons why you shouldn’t take up a musical instrument. One might be: “I have no musical talent.” I disagree. You have musical talent. Everyone does. We were all born with a voice. We were all born hearing sounds – the sound of our own voice, of other’s voices, the sounds of nature, the sounds of the city. We were all born with rhythm. You’re experiencing it right now with the rhythm of your heartbeat. Music is within the fabric of our being and our human nature. It’s just a matter of taking the time to nurture that inner musical voice.

That’s another common argument against learning a musical instrument: “I don’t have the time.” Is that really the case? Of the 168 hours in each week, the average American spends close to 30 of them watching television.* Can you spend five or six of them doing something else? Spend them on a musical instrument. That’s about the amount of time you’ll need to steadily improve while learning to play an instrument. That’s an hour or so a day with a day or two off.  We all lead busy lives. But five or six hours a week on something worthwhile still leaves plenty of time to watch TV and to do anything else you wish. If you dedicate even just a few hours a week to a musical instrument, you will improve. Those increments of improvement may seem small at first. But over the course of weeks, months and even a year, your improvement will continue and you’ll feel an even greater sense of achievement the further along you travel on your musical journey. Read the rest of this entry »

Dealing with “What is” instead of the “What If’s.”

July 29, 2008 in Living | 2 comments

What do you spend most of your time thinking about? Is it “what if” or what is?  

What I’m getting at is a certain mental habit we’re all susceptible to at one time or another in our lives: dealing with the future and not the present. It’s “what if” vs. what is. 

This may surprise you – but many of the problems we d in our lives are not created by someone else. Not your boss, not your spouse, not your friends. Many of them were created by you by concentrating too much on the “what if’s.”

How do I know this?  I’ve been there. For many years in my life, I was in the habit of dealing with the “what if’s.”  

I thought I was being intelligent. I thought I was being careful. I thought I was covering all the bases for any given decision or situation.

I thought that by considering all the “what if’s,” I could make a better decision. Do you know what I found out? The “what if’s” never came true.

Not once.  

What I was doing was playing God, in a sense. I believed if I had mapped out all the possibilities before making a decision, I could make a better one. I could avoid the outcome I was most afraid of: failure. What I eventually found out was that I could never, ever cover all of the possibilities in any given situation. No one can, no matter how many “what if’s” you devise.     

What I eventually learned was to come from a place of staying true to myself. A place of believing in myself. Of trusting myself. Of being honest with myself. 

Dealing with the “what if’s” is really fearing what we think might come true, instead of what really is true. Making a decision based on the “what if’s” is one that is ignoring our real, authentic selves. We’re fearing failure. We’re fearing falling down. We’re fearing looking bad. In the end, if you’re coming from a place of being honest and real, you cannot fail.   Read the rest of this entry »