If there is truly nothing that you can do to change your here and now, and
you can’t remove yourself from the situation, then accept your here and now
totally by dropping all inner resistance. The false, unhappy self that loves
feeling miserable, resentful, or sorry for itself can then no longer
survive. This is called surrender. Surrender is not weakness. There is great
strength in it. Only a surrendered person has spiritual power. Through
surrender you will be free internally of the situation. You may then find
that the situation changes without any effort on your part. In any case, you
are free.”
–Eckhart Tolle
First, a word to my faithful (and hopefully growing number) of readers: I realize that my initial posts have been very steeped in spirituality. I promise, as we move into the months ahead, there will definitely be a lot more ‘singer talk’, to which we can all relate! Just hang in there… here we go!
As the final days of summer break click by, I realize that there are many things for which I must prepare. My position as Artist in Residence at the University of Central Missouri (I have been adjunct here for three years, so the only real preparation will be moving my office and getting my sleep schedule back on adult time and not vampire), auditions involving a lot of new repertoire (I made a promise to a friend that I would only tackle one new piece at a time), relocating my small but mighty KC voice studio, and the list goes on with a lot of minutiae.
You may well wonder what the Tolle quote has to do with any of this, and rightly so…
An acquaintance/friend of mine, Michael Fabiano, was interviewed recently for Classical Singer magazine. In this article, he discussed his approach to role preparation, and I found it very similar to mine (given that we are both AVA alumni, this probably is not an incredible coincidence on some level). The article got me thinking: Singers do spend myriad hours preparing. We have to develop and maintain a solid technique. We have to translate and memorize texts. We have to learn and memorize the notes on the page. During this process, we also must pour our own soul into the mixture, which makes our particular interpretation of the above unique. This is very simplified, but I believe you get the idea.
I find that, in order to make this all happen, I must first be in spiritual alignment. I have to give myself over to the process, and simply allow my creative nature to be in charge. If I am unwilling to do this, all of my efforts are undermined. Sometimes… more than I care to mention.. I find myself trying to do the things listed above without keeping my spiritual nature well-fed, and it is from this point that I will expand into the thoughts contained in the quote.
How do I keep myself aligned? How do I find time to replenish when there is so much to do? So often, I get stuck in the mill and begin to neglect personal care. Whether manifested as excess weight (been there), excess stress that requires a mountain of pharmaceuticals to manage (umm… yes, been there too), or a non-existent social/personal life (again, been there), personal neglect is a fast-track to defeat for me.
I find that the easiest thing for me to do is… you guessed it, surrender! When my day planner begins to appear crushingly full, I have to place myself in a space of gratitude. If I can convince myself to be grateful for every engagement, I then have a clear channel through which I can allow my abilities to flow. If I have fully surrendered myself in this way, the giant list of things to prepare is transformed into a list of things I cannot wait to do! As the quote above states, great strength lies in surrender. Allowing myself to trust that strength…well, that’s a whole ‘nother blog.
Here is my recipe to a well-balanced me:
Daily meditation: This may be silent time, guided meditation (many great resources for this I have found on Unity Online Radio), or simple reflection on the things around me.
Daily Journaling: For me, I think writing is like bathing the mind. It allows me to ‘rinse away’ all of the monkey-mind thoughts and start each day clean and fresh.
Daily Mirror Talk: I know, sounds crazy! I stand in front of the mirror and simply look myself in the eye and say ‘I love you’. Think it sounds easy? Try it for 5 minutes and see what happens…
These three simple tools take less than an hour to complete over the course of the day. Time well spent. If you’ve been around me when I let these things slip, you certainly know (and I am sorry)!
Other things I do to keep the juices flowing include intense exercise, plenty of rest, social interaction, and an occasional ‘David Day’ (doing something very satisfying and seemingly decadent, just for me).
What is your recipe? Please share… I have always been a fan of recipe swapping!