Left-Brain Puzzles and Right-Brain Mysteries

We recently held a marketing class for Songbird practitioners with business coach Roberta Ryan. One of the things she discussed was the difference between a puzzle and a mystery. A puzzle has a fixed set of pieces and a clear solution when you assemble the pieces in the right way. A mystery has many possible paths to the solution and may not be solvable at all. When I searched for more information on the web, I found a fascinating article applying puzzles and mysteries to the left and the right brains.

My search was an example of a puzzle. I knew there was more information available. I found the information and completed the puzzle.

Solving a logic puzzle is left-brained. You take the pieces and put them where they belong in order to get the answer. When I wanted to find out more ways to e-market Songbird, I searched on-line and found a list of the top 10 sites for listing conferences along with a summary of what you could find on them and the demographics of who used them. I also found many other sites. Discovering this kind of information is a solvable puzzle.

The mystery is whether or not posting on them will bring more success to Songbird. There is no way to know that for sure. I can look at data and trends and what has worked for other people, but what works for one person or business will not necessarily work for another. Because of the many variables involved, something could work one day and not the next. All I can do is keep exploring and trying to find new creative ways when one is unsuccessful. My right brain loves playing with mysteries and thinking about new ways to make money. My left brain panics at the thought of not knowing whether they will work. My left brain loves the comfort of being able to apply the tried and true solution that has worked for others. My right brain gets bored by doing things the same way over and over.

It takes a balance of the two to be successful in any area of our life – from relationships to business. By realizing the difference and how to treat each situation in my life, I can let my left brain get excited by solving the puzzles and my right brain get excited by playing with the mysteries. I can lessen the left brain frustration for a solution by reminding it that I am working with a mystery. And when I relax into the mystery, I often find that it opens me up to finding the unique solution that is right for my situation.

Meditation and the “I Can” Voice

I was recently asked to speak about meditation to a group of students at one of the SSU dorms. Immediately my inner judge started telling me, “I can’t do that. I don’t like talking to large groups. Meditation isn’t my specialty. Nobody else from Songbird is available either.” As soon as I realized what I was doing, I started focusing on creating love stories instead. I asked myself, “How I can I make this happen?”

Opening up to the voice of “I can” allows the Universe to start manifesting what you want. I realized that I was focusing on the traditional vipassana-style meditation where you sit cross-legged on a mat and focus on your breath for self-observation. As I let go of the expectation that this is what we needed to share, I realized that I had plenty to offer. Meditation is a key part of my life.

Since long talks are not my specialty, and I love working with others, I invited Melody Myrick to join me. Melody offers Meditation in Motion at Songbird. I thought initially that she would do almost all of it herself, and I would just be there because I am the Songbird director. Instead, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to be a part of the talk and share some of my own meditation practices. My favorite meditations are movement meditations and visual guided meditations. You can turn anything into a meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life is about how we can be present as we go about our daily activities.

Together, Melody and I put on a wonderful presentation on meditation for the students. Melody shared the basics of meditation. I expanded a bit and led the group in a guided chakra manifestation meditation. Melody closed with a movement meditation. I discovered that I don’t mind speaking to a group of about 20 people after all if they are interested in what I have to say, and I don’t have the stress of both organizing the event and teaching. Listening to Melody speak, I realized I could have done it myself, but I am glad we did it together. The two of us together created a more powerful experience for the students.

It’s amazing what we can do when we let go of the voices that say we can’t and focus on what we can do. Just like the children’s story, The Little Engine That Could, all it takes is saying, ”I think I can. I think I can…” to figure out how we can.

Plum Blossom Courage

Plum Blossoms by Sterling Hoffmann

I grew up on a street that was lined with plum trees. Unlike this year, where we have had so much sun, most of the winter would be rainy and overcast. Around this time, we would have a burst of sunshine, and the trees would all bloom. It was a beautiful sight that usually lasted for only a few days until a storm came to blow off all the blossoms.

Several years ago I ran across a description of plum blossom courage that helped me look at what I had witnessed in a new light.

“Zen Masters speak of the development of plum-blossom courage. The plum blossom appears soft and glowing, even when the winter winds still blow. It knows, deep in its essence, that spring is almost here, even without outside agreement. The plum blossom symbolizes the resilience of the human spirit, its ability to open again to love and to go forward into another opportunity for celebration.”- The Conscious Heart, by Kathryn Hendricks and Gay Hendricks, p. 8.

Draw on the courage of the plum blossom to successfully bloom and celebrate, even when the going is difficult. Just as a plum tree thrives on cross-pollination, a community like Songbird can support your growth in this special year of change and transformation.

Imagine yourself as a plum tree. Each one of your blossoms is a dream that that can ripen by the end of the year. How can you nurture them?

What is the Difference between Essential Oils and Flower Essences?

This is a question we frequently get asked at Songbird so I asked Hamida Judith Dides, Songbird’s astrology and essences expert to answer it for you. Here is her answer.

Essential oils are substances produced by plants which serve to attract pollinators, repel insects, and fulfill many other functions needed by the plant. They are made of complex molecules. They are extracted from plants through various means, the most common is steam distillation.

Flower essences on the other hand, contain no plant material. They are purely energetic. The healing properties of the plants, gems or whatever else the essences are being made from, are transferred to the water by intention in conjunction with the light of the Sun or Full Moon. Their healing qualities are vibrational. They work on all levels, but are most effective with emotional and spiritual issues.

Hamida holds a weekly class on essences on Monday evenings from 7:00pm-8:30pm.

Elizabeth Pirc holds an essential oils class on Wednesday evenings from 7:30pm-9:00pm.

New Year Offerings to Light the Darkness

The winter solstice has passed, and winter is officially here. While the days are getting longer, we are still in the darkest time of year. In the craziness of the holidays and the long dark nights, it can be easy to get stressed or depressed. I am grateful for all the literal and metaphoric ways to brighten our lives – ways that we wouldn’t have if we were living 100 years ago.

These dark evenings offer the opportunity for reflection, exploration, and gratitude. There are many outer amenities that we enjoy. Some of you might be struggling to pay the bills, but if you were living 100 years ago, you wouldn’t even have had a telephone, indoor plumbing, electricity or car. Your grocery choices would have been limited, and you wouldn’t have had shampoo. You definitely wouldn’t have had a computer and Internet access to read this newsletter and to keep you connected with the world. All the things that were on your Christmas wish list either didn’t exist or didn’t exist in their current form. We have a lot to be grateful for. We have been given the gift of living in modern times with all it has to offer us.

In addition to the outer world changes in the last 100 years, we now have an amazing array of choices to help us stay healthy and discover our passion. We also have the freedom and support to live many lifestyles that couldn’t even have been imagined 100 years ago. More and more of us are moving from a fear-based world into a love-based world.  How can you stay healthy and shift your life to make choices that better serve you? What do you have to offer the world? Stop by Songbird and explore the new offerings we have to light you on your way to a wonderful 2012.

Dynamics of the word Dynamic

When I picked the word dynamic for the subject header of my December newsletter, it was because I liked the sound of it next to the word December. However, as I started pondering the various meanings of dynamic, I start realizing that it’s the perfect metaphor for our lives and for Songbird. Dynamic speakers help motivate people. Dynamic memory in computers can be compared to our brains. There are dynamics in music that help make it exciting; we have our first concert this month. Each one of us can be the moving dynamic force or the force being acted on. Which one are you?

Here are some questions to help you consider the question.

• Do you complain that you don’t have what you want, but don’t try to achieve it?
• Do you generate ideas, but not work to implement them?
• Do you wait for others to tell you what to do instead of taking action?
• Do you let things happen to you instead of making them happen?

If you answered yes to any of these, then it sounds like you could use more dynamic energy in your life.

As you learn to effectively work with dynamics, it’s important to also learn to read the signs you are given and to flow where the force and momentum leads you. Creation doesn’t happen by bulldozing over all of the obstacles or people in your way. It happens by working with them or moving around them, depending on the circumstances. Sometimes we can even turn obstacles into friends.

Often we need a reminder of what we have already learned. Returning to the computer definition at the beginning, if you think of your brain as a computer which needs to be refreshed in order to keep from forgetting, then Songbird is a place to refresh your dynamic memory.

Just as in music, some of our events are loud while others are soft and quiet. Sometimes we are out in the world, and sometimes we need to relax and retreat.

Songbird is a dynamic place in all senses of the word. How do you want to use it to make your life more dynamic?

Change Yourself, Change Wall Street

All around the world right now, people are protesting as the Occupy Wall Street movement expands into more and more cities. The passion and excitement of this collective power has an amazing ability to create change. If just 1% of the 99% starts actively working to create change in the world, the world can start shifting quickly.  When I was at the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) Conference in Damanhur in 2010, I learned about Let’s Do It Estonia where 4% of the population (50,000 people) showed up on May 3, 2008 to pick up 10,000 tons of garbage from the forests in about five hours for less than 500,000 euros. 4% of the U.S. population would be about 15.3 million people. It would have taken the government three years and 22.5 million euros to clean up this trash under normal circumstances. This has now become a 2012 global event entitled Let’s Do It World.

The current protests could be a forum for great ideas to arise and be implemented. Will that happen or will the protesters get bogged down in beliefs about a right/wrong way to do things? Will they be able to work together? Will they actively take action to create change or will they just sit around and complain? How many will go back to their everyday lives and do nothing further because they don’t have the time or energy? Just as easily as ideas arise, they can get lost. It’s too soon to know what will come out of the Occupy Wall Street movement. However, working to shift our internal thinking helps us to shift things externally. When we can heal ourselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually, we have more to give to the world to make the external shifts. When we stop believing there is a right and a wrong way to do things, we can take action harmoniously with others out of a passion to change things instead of being driven by fear-based needs. When we let go of the fears and beliefs that keep us from acting on our own without a catalyst like this, then true change can happen.

Superstitions and Beliefs

October is coming and that means Halloween: a time of spirits, haunted houses and superstitions! There are many fascinating superstitions such as “Never slam a door. You might hurt a ghost, who’ll haunt you for the rest of your life.”  I remember jokingly being told by my older siblings as we peeled apples for apple pie, “If you throw a whole apple peel over your shoulder, the initial it forms upon landing is the initial of your future husband.”

While it is easy to disbelieve these sayings, others are not so clear cut. Are there ghosts or not? Is astrology accurate? Can comet Elenin cause affect the earth? Will the world experience a major shift on December 21, 2012 or perhaps as soon as October 28, 2011? Do you create your own reality? If we remember how recently the world was believed to be flat, it is easier to think that our current longheld beliefs might not be accurate.

Besides these global beliefs that affect your life, there are also more personal ones. What fears and beliefs hold you back? Do you believe you can’t have what you want because you don’t have enough money, aren’t intelligent enough, aren’t pretty enough, don’t deserve it, or don’t have enough time to create it? It’s time to start discovering and questioning everything you believe and creating a new life for yourself based on unconditional love instead of fear-based beliefs and doubt. There are many ways to do this, and, this month at Songbird we have a packed schedule of classes to do just that along with events for the Halloween season, the end of the world, and more. Come check them out!

Learning Math and Being a Stripper

Last week I visited my family in San Diego. While there I started thinking about the different ways we can live our lives. My dad lives in a retirement community and eats dinner there. However, he has chosen to eat his other meals on his own. He values his independence highly and so even though it is difficult for him to walk a block to the public bus, take it, and go shopping, he would rather do that than start eating breakfast at his retirement community or taking the community bus to do his shopping. He is really worn out when he gets back, but prefers to be able to do things on his own schedule and in his own way. My dad has chosen to take the challenging route instead of the easy route to eating.

In contrast to this, I spent a day at the zoo with my aunt. As zoos go, it is quite nice. The animals have a beautiful environment to roam around in. All of their needs are taken care of. Yet, is this what they want or would they be happier living free with the challenge of searching for food in the wild? They don’t have the freedom to make that choice. We do. We are lucky to live in a country which allows us this freedom. How often do you exercise it? How often do you take on the satisfying challenge of creating what you want in life no matter how hard it is? How often do you take the easy route and then complain that you don’t have the life you want? It is a choice that you are making.

Sometimes we need food for our mind, and sometimes we need food for our body or spirit. Sometimes I find myself exercising my mind too much and need to do something else like pole dancing to keep from going crazy. It’s possible to do both. That’s why I loved this picture that was posted recently in a spiritual group I belong to. While we don’t offer math classes or pole dancing at Songbird, we do have lots of other wonderful options for the body, mind, and spirit.

Abundance

A few weeks ago I went to Mount Shasta and hiked three miles on a snow covered road to an incredible valley at the end. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. I was struck by the trees popping up through the ground. These are the ones that are surviving now despite the setbacks of the snow. Who knows what other beautiful plants will be growing once the snow melts.

This is how I feel when I’m asked how Songbird is doing. How can I tell for sure when we are still in the growth season? At the moment, I feel very abundant as I nurture the seeds that we have planted. They are starting to grow, but we are still waiting to see how they will all develop. Right now we are exploring movie nights and new classes for babies and teens.

Some of Songbird’s seeds are thriving. Some of them are not. We are cultivating the successful ones and pruning the ones that aren’t working. As I let them go, I do my best to do it with non-judgment. It’s a necessary step to take so that we can make room for  something new and try again. We are learning the right mix of seeds for all of us to bloom: the teachers and practitioners at Songbird, as well as the students and clients.

You can apply this to your life. What isn’t working for you? What can you leave buried in the snow to make way for new energy to thrive? How can you free up space for the new things that you want to cultivate in your life? By focusing on the energy of what you want to attract in your life, instead of what you are lacking or the difficulties of the journey, you can create abundance. If you try to crowd too many things into your life in the hopes of finding the right one, nothing has room to fully develop.