Okay, Okay... Step one...

I suppose I took a "break" from writing (let's just admit it... I forgot all about this thing), and I know no one is reading this any who but I think it'll be a wonderful escape for me, at the very least.

While taking 25 units, teaching 16 private music students, having a church job I sing at every Sunday, being in an intensive (yet incredible) college choir, leading a professional Christmas Caroling quartet, studying opera, and performing/competing on various occasions, I let my head get wrapped up in the stresses and struggles of attempting balance. In an effort to avoid unnecessary breakdowns (which I've already had four of in the past six weeks... clearly, I'm on track here...) I'm reading a few books simultaneously to help me arrive at a new stage of release.

Inspired from "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" by Deepak Chopra - steps to find Pure Potentiality.

To find "self-referral," one must let go of objectives that influence us; this is referred to as "object-referral." We are constantly influenced by this - situations, circumstances, people. We have an constant need to control things (I know I certainly do...) and often allow our behavior to be simply based around fear - fear of not receiving approval from others. Our ego, the self image, controls this. It is "sustained by power, because it lives in fear."

---> So how do we let go of this, you ask? Our soul must be completely free of those things. Power from object-referral is temporary; power from self-referral is permanent. It does no wobble and is always free of the ego. There are three major key ways to find this self-power.

1. Daily meditation. The book suggests 30 minutes twice a day of pure silence. Now, honestly, that seems almost hilarious to me... I don't even think I have a spare 30 minutes ONCE a day, let alone of pure silence. But, apparently, this is the way to bliss. This allows our internal dialogue (which is going, goinggg, goingggggg...) to quiet down. It allows us to experience stillness and to let our mind give up on trying to control everything. Good thought.

2. No judgement. This includes.... well.... everything! Yes, yes, we all judge people. We judge our routine, ourselves. But what about the non-concrete, like our day? The drinks we order, the food we taste, the fact that we forgot to put lotion on and are now regretting that we'll be out of our residence for the next 15 hours of our day... these are all judgements. And, according to Chopra, judgement is another way to create silence in our minds. He also explains clearly how difficult it is to do such a thing as to not judge, but to merely take it a few hours at a time, with constant mental reminders. The extension of this will happen gradually.

3. To experience nature. The collaboration and exchanges among on our earth's resources is, truly, astonishing. It is refreshing to be able to observe this first hand; to acknowledge your coexistence with a world untainted and pure as the soil it was first created with. This, alone, generates a gratitude that our egos are incapable of creating.

So there you go. I'm no expert in this (especially since I read this section about a week ago) but I've been testing the waters myself and have found it to be pretty successful. Comments are welcome.

More to come later.... :)