What do you want?

This is a question I've asked myself and I've asked friends. I'm surprised at my own and others relative inability to really answer it.

So I'm asking you now. What do you want? 

Not for lunch. Not for your birthday. Not for your next job or paycheck, but holistically, in your life, as your life...

What do you want?

This answer for me, and probably for most people, has changed throughout my life. One of the things I love actually, about getting older, is that I feel less...uncertain, insecure, and wishy-washy about such things.

You see, I realized something the other night and it feels as though my life has shifted.

It was Monday. Just a seemingly normal Monday night. Though I have had experience with Mondays disguised as normal. A few years back I used to have what I called a songwriters circle Monday nights, though it really was a gathering of friends, and a few of us were musicians and a few were musically inclined. I was one of the musician/songwriters, as was my friend James and a few others who happened by from time to time. Some of the other regulars could carry a tune, so they'd sing back up or improvise lead, and a few others could play a song or two on guitar, or hold a beat on a random bucket we found in the back room. Since this took place at a restaurant, we had some accouterments at our fingertips. Anyway, it was always Monday nights. We'd start around 10pm and sometimes go until 2am. Just hanging, playing music, talking, sharing new songs, sharing whatever. The guys had already dubbed the night "Magic Mondays" and I was lucky enough to be included in the magic. For the 5 months it was without a doubt, my favorite night of the week. We had to stop because of venue issues. One of the first things I'll do when I have a bigger, more conducive place is reinstate (music) Magic Mondays.

Well, two nights ago for me was my own, semi-private, epiphany-charged Magic Monday.

I was in hypnotherapy class with this guy Joe Leeway. Nice guy. Pretty good teacher/speaker. Also, he's an NLP practitioner and hypnotherapist, which are all right up my alley. (NLP= Neuro-Linguistic Programming. More on NLP in Joe's link below and in future blogs. Here's wikipedia on NLP.) Earlier that day I had also finished the Agassi book Open (that I blogged about in Monday's blog Andre Agassi is now Open), and as you all know I was inspired by the book and especially the school he opened. Also, I've been recording music at home and this week working on an original song called Over You, working out regularly, and writing this blog. The perfect storm of taking care of myself, self-expression, music creating, and inspiration from other people's stories. What happens next? In walks Joe Leeway and his line, which seems from out of no where, but is perfect for what I needed to hear in that moment.

Ask your clients what they want. Nine of out ten people walking around out there don't know what they want. Those people, the one out of ten, rule the world because they know what they want. (Joe Leway's hypnotherapy page)

And it hits me. What I want. It was like the proverbial light bulb.

I want wealth and fame so that I may do what I want and create a happier, more beautiful, peaceful, spiritual world.

In other words, I want to help myself and other people to be happier and more fulfilled, and I want the proper leverage to do so in a big way. Simultaneously I had a vision of standing in front of a big room of people while they break into small groups and work this question out with each other.

For years I've been doing this dance around being a professional musician. Thinking I wanted success and notoriety as a musician, or more than I already have, but I didn't have clarity on why even though I had a sense that I wanted to help people. I perceived becoming a famous rock star as a largely self-centered goal. No wonder it hasn't come to fruition yet. I also had moments in the past of, who are you to think you can help people. Yow! Not very friendly thinking to myself. Also, not very helpful or encouraging.

Maybe it's the hypnotherapy training or my spiritual psychology degree; maybe it's the music playing at home or the daily writing to all of you out there (who are you, anyway?!?); maybe it's years of meditating and kundalini yoga, or maybe it's simply growing up a bit; maybe it was just a surprise Magic Monday. Likely it was all of those things combined. Suddenly, all that negative stuff just fell away in that moment. I was filled with clarity, relief and gratitude.

I'm enjoying my home life more than ever. I vacuumed the next day and I usually don't like to vacuum. It was kind of enjoyable. I recorded Monday night and again yesterday (Tuesday). Usually Marcus prompts me to record, but yesterday I was the one urging us to get the vocal tracks down.

I'm curious to see how it will all unfold. Marcus likes to tell his students, and I suppose I'm one of them if only during our martial arts classes, "maintain your practices." What he means by this is that as people become more successful, healthy and happy; logically their life shifts, and they sometimes eliminate the very things, usually personal things, that supported them becoming more healthy, successful, and happy. Like eating healthy, meditating, hypnosis, affirmations, doing a good deed every day, spending time with loved ones, creating time for writing or exercise or creative expression. Those kinds of things - whatever they are for you. They are the foundation of your life. Take them away, and the whole structure collapses - the structure you built. Whether or not we're aware of it, we're always practicing something. Might as well practice the good stuff. So that's what I'm up to, I'm maintaining my practices.

You'll hear how it goes. Trust me.

So...

What do you want?

More Interesting Katie Strand World Posts

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• Oh boy, that's a good question! or How to Deal with the Census
• These boots were made for walking
• If I were a Ninja, I'd wear these shoes
• How my friend Sally became the new First Lady
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• The Cove - Louie Psihoyos' Oscar speech & a guide on how to create change...
• My Favorite Things...Arrabiata Recipe - Fresh, Organic, Vegan or Primal
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• The Hawaiian Islands and Washington D.C.’s sand-paper circle-jerk about Health Care
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• The One-Date-Wonders!
• I had to learn SIGN LANGUAGE when I moved to Los Angeles
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• Hello? The power of CONNECTING and how technology has changed things
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• Bravo, Stephen Colbert & Co! and your Olympic Vancouverage
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• Ricky Gervais should be the new Simon on American Idol
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Hypnotherapy, Mother Nature, and the End of the World

I’m learning hypnotherapy. No kidding. I’m not sure if I ever would’ve guessed that my life’s path would’ve led me here, but here I am.

I’m still in the early stages of becoming a certified hypnotherapist, so I can’t make you act like a chicken... yet.

And actually, that’s just a show by a Hypnotist, which is very different from a Hypnotherapist.

The best I can sum it up is this: A Hypnotist is pretty much a carnival act or show, where they pick the most suggestible people to do entertaining and odd things. A Hypnotherapist actually helps people reprogram their subconscious minds through relaxation and hypnosis and the client is always aware and consenting.

I think that’s about right.

But this blog is actually about something else, well... mostly something else.

You see, in my hypnotherapy class last night we covered imagery and visualization, a powerful tool used for everything from stage freight to fear of public speaking, and to athletes aiming to boost their game. Guided imagery allows people to overcome great fears, and also accomplish great success where conventional training was falling short. In this group, professor-guided imagery last night, she led us all through a very calming, grounding imaginary world and asked that we all go to our “favorite place."

Afterward, virtually everyone who shared something about their particular “favorite place” had a locale that was near to, about or had something to do with water.

Oceans, rivers, streams, lakes or in my case, a fresh-water waterfall feeding into a very gentle brook, were some of the places people described.

So why are we all so drawn to water?

The easy answer is that it’s because we’re made up of 60-70% water. Another easy answer is that water is necessary for our survival. Although we in the industrialized, bottled-water, clean-my-sidewalk-with-fresh-water West, don’t really feel the very real fresh-water shortage on this earth, so we shouldn’t feel as though our water-based survival is threatened, right?

Maybe it’s what water symbolizes even more than it’s necessity for sustaining life.

Some say that our favorite body of water is indicative of our sexual proclivities. That may be true. Some dream interpreters say that dreaming of water is symbolic of spirituality, knowledge, healing and refreshment. http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/w2.htm

Who knows, really? Because all of these things are just speculative. That’s the challenge with spiritual explanations and soft-science pursuits. There really never is hard evidence, though some of the so-called hard-sciences are also found to have unreliable evidence in that most scientific studies are found to be affected by the mere observation of the scientist...

But back to water. What is it that so draws us to water?

Well, think of this. Water supposedly comprises 60-70% of the human body. But if you were to reduce the non-water matter of the human body down to it’s most basic form (basically taking out air and empty space), the remaining matter reduces down to what can fit in your two hands. That’s it. Cup your hands together and take a look. Doesn’t seem like much. So water really is a major part of who we are.

But what does this mean about what water is?

We use it as something to drink, to swim in, to cook with, wash with, or bathe in, and even to gestate in (since amniotic fluid is primarily water). But is there more?

According to Masaru Emoto, there is much more than the naked eye can see. Just as we respond to sound, touch, smell, taste, and sight, water responds to virtually all vibrations.

Existence is vibration. When we separate something into its smallest parts, we always enter a strange world where all that exists is particles and waves. The fact that everything is in a state of vibration also means that everything is creating sound. And as sound is created, there is a master listener to receive the sound: water. Why would crystal formation be affected by music, and why completely different results would be reached depending on the spoken and written words water was exposed to. Water, so sensitive to the unique frequencies emitted by the world, essentially and efficiently mirrors the outside world. Music and spoken words are vibration; they are easily understood and interpreted by just about anyone. Sounds like the chant created by a human voice at a Buddhist funeral create a healing frequency. From Hidden Messages in Water

Water has a memory and carries within it our thoughts and prayers. As you yourself are water, no matter where you are, your prayers will be carried to the rest of the world. From The Secret Life of Water

Consider this as well:

Emoto discovered that frozen water crystals respond to words spoken to and even written on paper and "shown" to water.

Water that is shown lovely words like LOVE and GRATITUDE make beautiful crystals.

Words who are told "You are a fool!" make malformed ones!! From The Lovely Words Poster

This is compelling reason enough to not only speak more kindly to myself, as I suspect the water within us does not differentiate between words spoken internally - as they undoubtedly create a mental vibration - and the words spoken aloud. The internal ones, in fact, might be more potent. But this is also a highly compelling argument for feeding and surrounding ourselves with more positive messages and influences. All this concrete, noise and manipulation of our natural environment...well the water within us probably does not respond well to all of this unnaturalness.

But please, weigh-in for me. I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.

One last parting thought.

For thousands of years, humans lived in relative harmony with nature. Not only was nature-worship part of our existence, we didn’t have the technological means to manipulate nature for our dwellings and use. Only in the last 2000 years or so, and more remarkably in the last 100-200 years, have humans enacted any real dominance over nature. (Clearly nature still wins in the case of “natural disasters” we’re increasingly experiencing.) This 100-2000 years is a small fraction of time considering Homo sapiens have been in existence on this earth for an estimated 90,000-120,000 years, and our hominid ancestors an estimated 230,000-350,000 years (depending, of course, on the anthropologist and source). Here are two I used: WikiAnswers & HistoryWorld

So we’re still beta-testing this whole, "we manipulate nature for our use” philosophy of living. And maybe none of us will be around when we fully realize whether or not this philosophy will be the demise of our natural environment or of us.

But as much as I love my life, my loved ones, and humankind (however frustrated I may be at times by my fellow humans), in this wager, I must put all my money on Mother Nature.

More Interesting Katie Strand World Posts

• Foreplay is overrated
• Food should be As God Intended or Why isn't everything we eat organic?
  
• Yelling - One of the Highest Forms of Compassion
  
• The Cove - Louie Psihoyos' Oscar speech & a guide on how to create change...
• My Favorite Things...Arrabiata Recipe - Fresh, Organic, Vegan or Primal
  
• My Favorite Shows on Television...or how David Duchovney & Jesus are likely Good in Bed
  
• The Hawaiian Islands and Washington D.C.’s sand-paper circle-jerk about Health Care
  
• My Buddha has Termites...A Lesson in Infinite Joy
• The One-Date-Wonders!
• I had to learn SIGN LANGUAGE when I moved to Los Angeles
• Guys can make a game out of anything
• Hello? The power of CONNECTING and how technology has changed things
  
• Popping the question is better than porn!
• Bravo, Stephen Colbert & Co! and your Olympic Vancouverage
• Songwriting is like SEX
• Born To Run by Christopher McDougall - Inspiring a inspiring all of us to be more in the FLOW
• A moment of silence for all the plastic surgery ca...
• Ricky Gervais should be the new Simon on American Idol
• Muscle SURPRISE! The key to physical, mental & emotional fitness
• I think my boyfriend's a snake...
• Release... Sweat & Power
• MY FAVORITE THINGS! - Vibram's Five Fingers
• Dick Morris... How do you sleep at night?
• Rusty DePass, Gorillas, and Obama, oh my!
• Michael Jackson - Troubled Genius

New Music
&
Posts
at
Katie Strand Music

• Please Don't Leave Me
• Going To California
  
• Come Back
• Home