The practice of affirmations is more prevalent in our vernacular than ever before.
Oprah probably helped with this, but it's also become integral in therapy and life-coaching as a mainstay of making life changes.
I've gone through a variety of daily affirmations. Currently I don't have one that I repeat on a regular basis, though one of my favorites is from Course in Miracles and Marianne Williamson's book, A Return to Love: (Also attributed to Nelson Mandella, he quoted CIM/Marianne Williamson in one of his well-known speeches.)
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
I love that quote.
But it's not just about the words that you say, it's the emotional component behind them; the emotional state you feel and conjure in order to put yourself in that energetic space to become the thing you're intending.
Well, this little girl Jessica embodies the excitement and enthusiasm that should, in theory, pack a powerful punch for an intention or affirmation to come to fruition.
One last note. I've had several, major, trackable things manifest in my life from setting intentions. The ones that have come to fruition that are at the forefront of my mind had a lightness and non-attachment to them that other things I've wanted but ultimately not manifested did not have. More on that another time. For now, I'll leave you with Jessica's enthusiastic bathroom affirmation. Enjoy and let me know what you think.
Note: This blog appeared on KatieStrandMusic.blogspot.com about a week ago, and I decided to post it on KatieStrandWorld as well. Enjoy! (If you've read it already, enjoy again!)
My childhood was filled with many movies, less than the average child now, for certain, but still, certain movies left a lasting impression on my young mind that has stayed with me over the years.
Ever notice in memories, especially childhood memories, how time doesn't necessarily flow in a linear fashion? Anyway, I can't say for certain which movie I saw first, but both movies became my favorites of childhood, and both inspired me to sing their theme-songs, Tomorrow and Somewhere Over the Rainbow, respectively. This started at age three, believe it or not, and I started singing at family gatherings with my mother accompanying me on the piano.
As embarrassing as it is, I used to sing with a turkey baster, because I thought it looked like a microphone. This was a very common sight at family gatherings. This was me at three!
While it's likely I was drenched in music prior to viewing these movies, these movies drove home an innate desire, an unfettered and unconditional draw to sing. I don't recall conscious thought about it, singing just felt right, so I just did it.
Soon thereafter, I started taking piano lessons. A few years after that, I started playing piano and singing simultaneously.
But movies are inextricably combined with my original love of singing and music. In fact, I starred in my first play at age 5. I was the little bird in Are You My Mother? For those unfamiliar, it's a children's book about a little bird who's mother is not in the nest when she hatches, so she goes around looking for her mother - asking a dog, a tractor, and some other humorous, un-bird things if they are her mother. Very cute children's book that I highly recommend.
Even though I was acting at a very early age (I continued to perform in school and community plays), singing was unequivocally my first love, and later at arts school, I found some of the actors in the theatre department to be a bit annoying and self-centered (others became fun and beloved friends), so I disassociated with that aspect of myself, focusing instead on singing. But it's no coincidence that as my other career (besides singing/music), I went into television- and film-making.
Being back in the home where I grew up for the last few months has reacquainted me with some of those early memories. My parent's home is remodeled and we don't have the same television from childhood (thankfully), but I'm here, and I swear, just the energy in this exact location on earth brings back early memories, feelings and experiences.
So, I'm starting to revisit some of those old movies (which I'll explore more in another blog), and it's good to see these movies through adult eyes. I understand subtleties in dialogue, language and cinematography much more than I did when I was a child. I actually get relationship and sexual undertones that I never caught before in movies in Pretty Woman and The Bodyguard - two movies I saw as a pre-teen, and probably way before I could fully appreciate or understand them.
It's worth noting that watching The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner inspired me to write this blog today. Whitney, I know you're out there and I wish you'd read this or listen to someone else besides Bobby Brown and whoever else is coddling you and not telling you how glorious you are and that you need to change your ways. All the drugs and the craziness that have consumed your life (that seem obvious from the change in your voice and persona) for many years now are NOT YOU. Get sober, girl, and please, please, please clean yourself up and start singing again for real. You were so amazing and beautiful and talented. Check out this clip of her doing The National Anthem in her pre-crack days. Never, and I mean NEVER, have I heard someone sing our National Anthem more effortlessly and beautifully. The arrangement was great, and it helped that they (the arranger/music director) changed the song to 4/4, four beats per measure instead of the original three, but her singing was simply sublime. Sublime!
That's all for now, except for this last question:
What during your childhood shaped you? What uncovered for you what you love? What uncovered what is true about you? Share, please.
Really, I'm blessed. I know it. Not because of success or wealth or wonderful family and friends, though some of those are very blessed things in my life. No, I'm more blessed because whenever I start to get my panties in a bunch; whenever I find myself spiraling down a self-constructed black-hole of fear, doubt and worry, I find my way back to things like the quote above from Gandhi, and remember films like I AM by Tom Shadyac, and recall, somehow, that none of the things I'm worrying about are actually even a problem for me right now. Right now I'm just fine. Right now is actually beautiful.
Easier said than done, of course. But I don't think I'd come to this quite so clearly if I didn't hit the bottom of my spiraling black hole.
The cool thing about my black hole, which is vastly different from actual black holes, is that I can actually get out of it. The force of gravity is metaphoric and figurative, not actual. The other cool thing, which is similar to actual black holes (in theory since no one has been able to test), is that it serves as a time-travel worm-hole.
It brings me out of my negative-future-projection funk and snaps me back to the present, with a quick tour of my past to remind me how things always work out for me.
Always.
Besides my black hole, documentary films, conversations with loved ones, reading books, quotes, old journals and blogs, and a good night's sleep all aide me in returning home to the equanimity, trust and calm that allow me to breathe and smile again.
My question for all of you out there is, what aides and helps you return to equanimity when you're in your own funk?
These pictures were floating around email for a while. My good friend with a goofy sense of humor sent them to me, and I all but forgot about it until last night when for some reason it popped into my head. Take a look, have a good hump-day laugh (it's Wednesday and a lot of these pictures are accidental humping photos), and let me know what you think.
By the way, the aforementioned friend is someone I've known since childhood (different from the friend mentioned in my recent blog, The Road Less Traveled). We always bonded over our shared sense of humor; enjoying the stupid and silly things in life. He loves the movie Kingpin, which you should check out if you haven't already seen it and you like crude poop and fart jokes and can handle some gnarly inferred sex scenes (you'll understand when you see it). Funny thing is, we have very different views on life now - he's a politically conservative, semi-judgmental Christian, Western Medical-model following, eat-anything-you-want-as-long-as-you-exercise type and I'm, well, not really those things. But I love him, and he compliments my way of life at the strangest times. Once he told me I'd be a great patient because I'm actually willing to change my lifestyle if my health and well being requires change. He's a doctor and told me that most of the patients he's seen a) want a pill to take care of their problems, and b) once they have said pill don't take it as directed anyway.
It's wonderful how laughter is the great leveler. Contrasting viewpoints, backgrounds, lifestyles and beliefs be damned! If something is mutually funny, the playing field is leveled and for as long as the laughter lasts, all of those differences melt away and there's just good old, roll around, side-splitting laughter.
In case you missed why this picture of the Queen is funny: Look closely, but cautiously, between the guy's legs, picture left of the Queen.
