Author: Beth Page 11 of 12

Day 5: The Voice of Love in a World of Fear

An ongoing personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love reflecting on the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network .

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance helps you work with your strengths and apply them in meaningful ways.
Ego plays upon your weaknesses & darkest fears, discounts your strengths & accomplishments.

Ego can be an incredibly devious and efficient force. When it plays upon my weaknesses and darkest fears, it often has no need to discount my strengths and accomplishments because I can’t even see or relate to them anymore. It is a master of killing two birds with one stone. It goes even further, though. Ego hides the strengths that are inherent in my weaknesses. Nothing is all good or all bad. Yet, the ego would argue otherwise. I’ll give you an example:

I will now confess to being something of a drama queen. As my mentor puts it, “I’ve never known you not to be floating on a raft downstream while you flail and scream.” Ha! With this stinging and accurate commentary, I began to realize that I indeed learned and integrated a “sky is falling” approach to much of life. Hey, I inherited it.

The thing is, I can’t stand this aspect of myself. She’s draining. She’s ineffectual. She’s embarrassing! But that kind of judgmental black and white thinking totally discounts that this same archetype has an amazing ability to rally the troops, to focus, to defend herself. My inner drama queen, tempered by patience, can be put to good use. Oh my GAWD!!!!!!  ; )

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Day 4: The Voice of Love in a World of Fear

I am in a personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love. My inspiration came from the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network. In it, the author shares 36 descriptors to help us realize the differences between the voices of love and fear. I am taking one pairing each day, meditating and working with it, and then sharing my discoveries here.

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance helps you manifest your heart’s truest
desires and abundance in every realm.
Ego blocks you or tells you that you’ll never get what you want.
It works from a reference point of lack.

My thoughts around this pairing went immediately to two questions: what are my heart’s truest desires and what does my ego have to say about them?

But to start, I want to take a moment to consider the word “abundance” and what it means to me. Typically, people think of abundance in terms of money or material goods. I certainly did for most of my life. That…and food! And if you’re lucky enough to have monetary abundance, maybe that is all that matters; I don’t know. But coming from a different background, what I’ve come to know abundance as is in terms of grace, opportunity, creativity, and possibility.

We often hear, “We live in an abundant universe,” which is evident everywhere you look. Some would argue though that we also live in a world where distribution of that abundance has gotten extremely off balance!

Regardless, I am all too familiar with what the ego has to say. “You don’t have enough money to do that (and you never will)”, “You will never get what you want!”, “You might as well forget it!”, and “That’s not gonna happen in a million years.” It’s all very interesting, especially when I consider that the desire might arise out of ego in the first place. Perhaps it generates a desire for something that wouldn’t serve me anyway and then tells me I can’t have it, reinforcing its position. Maybe.

The voice of my divine guidance says, “Relax. Take it easy. If it comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Move toward without expectation. Move toward with a light attachment.”

But on to my first questions. What is it that my heart desires? To answer this question, there are many directions I can look. What it desires in terms of health, wealth, creativity, relationship, travel, etc? And are these things the desires of my heart or the desires of my soul or the desires of my ego? The ego masquerades as divine guidance a lot, I’m finding. It likes to pretend we have (or should have) control over everything.

But does the voice of my divine guidance say I can have anything I want? Absolutely not. And maybe this is where a lot of people make a mistake and end up beating themselves up when they find that “thing” hasn’t manifested.

I think our truest desires are very light and ethereal. They naturally guide us toward what we want, effortlessly and without control. They aren’t something we have to think about. If we simply live our lives in trust, divine guidance can’t help but lead the way.

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Day 3: The Voice of Love in a World of Fear

I am in a personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love. My inspiration came from the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network. In it, the author shares 36 descriptors to help us realize the differences between the voices of love and fear. I am taking one pairing each day, meditating and working with it, and then sharing my discoveries here.

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance lets you know YOU ARE A POWERFUL SPIRITUAL BEING.
Ego tries to convince you you’re a helpless victim or that you’re not good enough.

I must admit I haven’t felt very powerful as of late with the major transition I’ve been in. This rite of passage into a new life, dismantling the old, has left me feeling very much at the mercy of something far, far bigger than myself. I have felt more a very small and insignificant wave in a very big sea. I can’t say that’s the voice of ego, quite honestly; or maybe it’s the voice of an ego humbled. I think accepting that actually becomes a source of power. The voice of the ego, though, is content to make this mean something it doesn’t…that I am Life’s victim or that every challenge I face is some kind of punishment reflecting some personal fault.

How well I’ve known the victim role and the sense of helplessness that comes with thoughts about there being nothing I can do, about not being deserving or good enough, about not being able to change a circumstance or overcome an obstacle. Sometimes, there is nothing I can do to “get my way” and my ego attempts to justify why. It gets angry with the thing called Life. The thing is, there is always something I can do…even if it’s simply to breathe and surrender and trust.

I know my power doesn’t lie in money or materials goods. My power doesn’t lie in control of situations or people.

So what is my power? My ability to intend? That I can choose love, forgiveness, and healing no matter what is going on around or within me? I am not convinced entirely. Sounds too simple, and maybe it’s impossible to really talk about. I don’t think I really understand power, and I’m not too proud to admit it. It’s bigger than I am.

There have been times in my life where I was in complete communion with this power…every part of me vibrating with love and intent. In those moments, I manifested. In those moments, I had no fear. In those moments, I had no doubt. Rather, I aligned and received. Intellectually, I can say, “Yes, that was me, not this small idea of me with attachments and aversions.” But who is the “me” that thinks it’s a powerful spiritual being?

I’m afraid I’m left with far more questions with this pairing than answers. And in this case, I think it entirely appropriate.

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Day 2: The Voice of Love in a World of Fear

Yesterday, I started a personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love. My inspiration came from the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network. In it, the author shares 36 descriptors to help us realize the differences between the voices of love and fear. I am taking one pairing each day, meditating and working with it, and then sharing my discoveries here.

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance will always lift you up, and leave you feeling empowered.
Ego/Fear/Imagination
DIS-empowers you.

Lately, I’ve been feeling disempowered by bureaucracy. Bureaucracy reflects so well the voices of fear, ego, and perhaps lack of rather than  imagination itself. I’ve been up against so many walls as of late and told, “That’s just he way it is,” or “Sorry, there’s nothing we can do.” And if I’m not careful, I swallow and internalize those voices until they become my own telling me a situation is impossible and leading me down a road of “my only option” instead of “my best option.” Everything becomes fixed and inflexible.

What does it mean to me to be empowered? It means I am open to discovering new options and that I can make choices toward happiness rather than “this is the best we can do.” It means, in the blink of an eye, I can change my perspective and see the world differently. It means that I can remember I may be in this world and subject to its insanity at the moment, but that I am not ultimately of this world nor subject to react to it in a way that keeps me from being content. Besides, I have, at my disposal, The Great Unknown.

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

36 Days with the Voice of Love in a World of Fear

I am starting a new venture today. I discovered a phenomenal piece of writing on the internet yesterday, and it’s got me so fired up that I’ve decided to work with it for the next 36 days and share my discoveries. It deals directly with our “voices” and helps us to understand the difference between the voice of love and the voice of fear.

Despite having made voices of all kinds my work for the past 13+ years, I’ll admit that when my life started to change recently in unexpected ways…unbelievably positive ways…I lost touch with myself and what I know to be true. With the influx of love and dreams coming true came the surfacing of a great deal of work left undone…self doubts, delusions, bad habits. It all became so painful to me that I began to worry for my health and sanity.

The little article I found yesterday, so unassuming and straightforward, helped pull me out of the dark and refreshed my tainted perspective. You can find the original article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, here on a sweet little website called Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network (yes, that’s really the name). In it, the author shares 36 descriptors to help us realize the differences between the voices of love and fear. (I did make three attempts by three separate means to contact the site owners to request permission to use the article. I’m not sure the website is still being maintained. Unfortunately, no author was credited either. I hope I’ve done my due diligence as my intent is not to step on or abuse anyone’s rights.)

The first pairing is:

Divine Guidance will always come from a place of Love.
Ego/Fear/Imagination breeds fear and confusion.

I decided to sit in meditation with this. I wrote down a question that had been concerning me and for which I wanted guidance. I held the question in my mind and asked to see how fear would respond. What came up for me was everything I’d been hearing inside my head the past few months of my chaotic life (I’m in a huge transition) that was aligned with fear. I was surprised to realize that this comprised about 90% of my recent thoughts. I’ve been steeped in fear and totally blind! Ego* had totally taken a hold, and it was indeed breeding fear and confusion. I was in a death spiral of self-sabotage. A change of focus was in order to correct my altitude.

I then held the same question and asked to see how love would respond. The impact wasn’t instantaneous. At first, what I heard and could see quite clearly was just how insidious the ego can be. It was disguising itself as the voice of love. But underneath the syrupy phrases, there was this energy of a lie. Along with the comforting words came a twist in my gut. I felt graced and astounded to be able to see it so clearly.

Eventually, what broke through was a quiet, authentic voice of love. I was feeling reassured and lovingly redirected, not by anything necessarily tangible, but by a feeling alone. I stayed with it and decided to trust it, even though it wasn’t exactly answering my question. Rather, it felt like a sweep of energy, a clearing out perhaps.

What happened later in the day was a confirmation that I was once again flying straight. A friend brought me my answer, unbidden. She just came out and said that she had an intuitive feeling about my situation and shared it with me. My jaw dropped, and I actually fell over in relief!

By the end of the day, I was feeling so amazing. Pockets of negative energy that had been suffocating me for weeks…maybe even months…started to burst. I was finding my center again. I was reorienting myself with Divine guidance.

I plan to continue sharing one “distinguisher pairing” from the original article each day along with my experiences in working with it over the next 35 days.

*I use the word “ego” here with hesitation, as I do not wish to villify it. Still, it is helpful to have a term of reference. The ego serves a Divine purpose just like everything else in this world. In my case, its purpose was to help me see all the ways I hold myself back from Love. In truth, it is my teacher and ally. Had it not expressed itself so forcefully, I would not have seen any of this and would be in no better position to serve my clients facing similar challenges. I believe our goal should not be to kill the ego, but to dance with it more gracefully and redeem it to the extent possible.

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Quieting the Mind

pinwheelThe majority of us spend a lot of time in our minds. Even having spent years silencing the mind through meditation, the function of the mind never really goes away. It may get quieter, and we may have better control over our thoughts, but it is a very rare individual who can live the majority of their lives in that quiet state.

Working with the mental body can train it so that it takes up less and less of our energy and instead becomes a source of it. The Toltec liken it to the mind becoming our ally instead of our enemy. Meditation in general is the best practice for training the mind. But many people find it terribly challenging to tame restless thoughts and often give up on their practice.

Vocal Toning Meditation, through the use of sound, makes it easier for many people to quiet the mind. Give it a go and try this.

First, sit in meditative silence for five minutes.  You can be in any posture that is comfortable for you. Pay attention to how you feel, what thoughts are drifting through, whether or not you find them easy to release or not, etc. Focus on stilling the mind.

Then shift. Sit for an additional five minutes, but as you do so, tone the sound UNG. It is a nasal tone that resonates in the head. As you do this, pay attention to the energy of the sound, the space of silence between as you inhale, and how your mind and body are responding.

Now stop. Breathe. Notice any thoughts. What has shifted? How did sitting in silence compare to sitting with the tone of UNG?

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Fanfare: A Spot of Fun from Audepicault

Selfcare is all about taking moments out of our day for ourselves. Want to have some fun?

Check out the Fanfare at audepicault.com.

fanfareMay I suggest you do some vocal toning with it?

Avatar OM Circle

The Inspiration

I was inspired after watching the movie Avatar for the second time recently to try something new in my toning group today. It was an experiment that went quite well, so I thought I’d share it with you.

In the movie, there is a scene when the tribal people are offering a healing to the dying scientist. In the scene, they are sitting cross legged in circles around this magical tree, each person with his or her arms around the shoulders of the neighbor to the right and left. They are swaying back and forth in unison while singing a sacred healing chant.

The Practice

I adapted this moving idea for Toning for Peace. At the Light Center in Black Mountain, the geodesic dome has a vortex right in its center. So we made a circle around that sitting cross legged on the floor. We discussed out intent…what it was we wanted to create or evoke with our sounding. We sat close enough together so as to put our arms around one another’s shoulders. Some folks weren’t physically comfortable with this, so they had the option to place their hands on the neighbor’s knees instead. Obviously, this wasn’t meant to be an exercise in discomfort!

We then practiced moving in a circle with the energy flowing first left to right and then right to left. We waited to sense the natural shifting of the energy currents.

Once we felt ready, we closed our eyes, focused on our intent to celebrate love and balance, and began to OM. I had spoken earlier about how to OM, that one should give equal time to the O and the M. I also mentioned that it didn’t have to be one long, sustained OM but could be a pulsing series of short OMs.

The exercise was beautifully meditative; the combination of movement, touch or connection, and sound was powerful. It unified the group in a magical way quite quickly.

One person did suggest afterward that it be done standing up. I’m sure this would have been fine too and more comfortable for certain folks. So, as always, be flexible with how toning practices are done. Honor the body, not the idea.

Do you have a toning idea to share?

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Voice Play: Treat for the Inner Child

pinwheelFor a child, being free with the voice is a natural thing. We animate our dolls and trucks. We laugh and make sounds freely. As we get older, it is no longer okay to make strange, silly sounds. We have to be serious. When things do escape our lips, others look at us like we have two heads (unless we have the privilege of playing with children and hiding behind such an excuse). But play is a means to freeing our voice and our creativity. It shouldn’t stop altogether or change just because we reach a certain age.

Here is an fun exercise in voice play I’ve often used in Toning groups and a great party game for children of all ages. It’s also a practice in selfcare to help free us of our inhibitions and fixations.

Think of a phrase and say it with the group. For example, “I love chicken feathers in my soup.” The sillier the better!

  • Repeat the phrase aloud normally.
  • Now say it in different ways. Try whispering it like it is a very big secret you don’t want others to hear…or maybe a secret you really do want others to hear. Notice any difference?
  • Now yell it at the top of your lungs. What does that feel like?
  • Say it in a very deep voice. Come on ladies; you can do it!
  • Say it in a very high voice. Gentlemen, it’s only a game!
  • Say it as fast as you can. Oh, come on! Faster!
  • Say it both high and fast, like you’ve just inhaled helium.
  • Now say it high and very slow, like you’re slowly emptying of helium. What are you feeling?
  • Say it low and fast, like a tribal cartoon character.
  • Now say it low and very slow, like a broken tape-recorder. Having fun?

If you tried this alone, good for you! Your inner child is now glowing. If you tried this with friends, even better for you! Nothing like laughing your head off with people you love!

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Bliss of Being: Lessons from a Bad Rehearsal

In 2012, the Pure Heart Ensemble launched a CD, Bliss of Being, at the White Horse in Black Mountain. It was an amazing experience. We played to a “standing room only” crowd and even ended the night with a standing ovation…and not just because people were already standing!  ; )

I felt incredible love and appreciation being both given and received by all present. For me, it was a night to remember.

But I don’t want to write about the performance (er…transformance) so much as I want to write about the rehearsal. There is an old saying that a terrible rehearsal guarantees a great performance. So I guess I should be grateful that rehearsal was such a trial for me. The night of performance, I was so calm and centered, and I know it was because I had totally lost it at the rehearsal.

So what happened? Every self-doubt I have about myself rose to the surface the night before the show. A tornado of thoughts spun in my head. I’m going to make a big fool of myself. I can’t do this. I’ll never be able to do this. I was completely aware of them but not quite able to turn them around. I know this happens to a lot of performers…especially perfectionistic ones.

I was in complete and utter fear. I “knew” I was out of my league, trying to sing with these stellar, well-trained, “real” musicians. I am a joke. They are surely thinking they’ve made a mistake inviting me to be part of this ensemble. I am doomed to be replaced by someone who can really sing and who knows an A# from a G on paper.  I’m going to let everyone down. I am going to utterly humiliate myself, and on and on thoughts flashed through my head.

With each disturbing thought, I then had the thought that I was totally out of control with my thoughts…not to mention my ability to sing through all this. That just compounded the problem. Clearly, there was something going on within me far beyond the situation at hand. What I really wanted to do was run screaming to the bathroom to cry. Instead, I was determined to hold it all together…which probably just made matters worse. Did I mention the whole damn thing was being videotaped? I probably should have just run away crying. I would have surely been fine within five minutes or so. Embarrassed, but fine.

Instead, I sucked it all in to the point of feeling quite the insecure diva and fantasizing that I’d have an accident on the way to the show and not have to sing at all! I wanted to escape my certain humiliation that much. Fortunately, the witnessing side of myself was skeptical of my unfolding inner drama. The mind is nothing if not entertaining.

When I did finally get home that evening, in the safety and privacy of my home, I did cry. I remembered being on TV in the 4th grade and how a group of my peers made fun of me the next day. I felt all those feelings of not being worthy, of not being good enough, and on and on, moving up the spiral of healing to a new place…a place that would allow me to be present for the actual performance, a place that was asking me to hold a higher frequency of self-acceptance and confidence…something I could then transmit to whoever came to the concert.

I came to the point of accepting my fate be it humiliation or whatever else was in store. I would survive. Arriving at acceptance and detachment from outcome, which was possible only from going through the storm (not around it or over it or under it), calmed me completely and delivered me to a whole new level of being…the Bliss of Being. Was the drama necessary for me arrive? Well, it was this time around. Next time, maybe not. So often, we judge ourselves for the way things unfold. We forget, maybe because we don’t like the idea, that we aren’t in control.

I suppose this may surprise some people who think an experienced performer such as myself has already overcome such thoughts and feelings. I am a transformational voice coach for heaven’s sake, a person who helps other people use the voice to purify themselves and lead them into authenticity. But no, I still have these experiences…usually when I’m stepping up in some way. The point is, I go through it. I don’t let the fear, the thoughts, the feelings paralyze me, though they so easily could have. Neither do I buy into the “buck up” attitude many people will prescribe with unwanted advice to make themselves more comfortable. I’m voluntarily and completely in the discomfort of my emotional states until I am out of them. I know too well the gold they hide to turn the other way.

I share this story because I know people do let themselves be paralyzed from stepping out of their safety zones. They believe the thoughts that say they can’t, shouldn’t, and don’t deserve it. They have the emotional fear which seems bigger than they are. Or worse, they think they have to push away their doubts and feign some more appropriate image. What a tragedy of lives unlived and creative expressions never realized. But fear is always a tiny mutant shadow that only looks big and ominous when we refuse to look at it.

When we face our fear and allow the depths of our honest feelings, we discover a reserve of strength within us to accept what is. We step beyond our limitations into new territory. We grow. And then we really have something to share…an openness that heals.

From bad rehearsals, to terrible speeches, to botched performances, to humiliating auditions, what lessons have you learned from continuing to step forward and in deeper?

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Inspire Me Today

500 Words of Wisdom Shared on Inspire Me Today!

I was featured/honored on 4/30/13 to share the 10 Gates of Sound as the featured luminary on Inspire Me Today!

Inspire Me Today

I’m so excited to share some great news with you. On April 30th, 2013 I will be the featured Inspirational Luminary on InspireMeToday.com, sharing my wisdom of sound and voice with the world. This FREE website is one to bookmark!

Inspire Me Today features the inspiration of a new Luminary every day. You can start your day with the wisdom of Sir Richard Branson, Guy Laliberte, Seth Godin, Neale Donald Walsch, Marci Shimoff, or one of hundreds more, now including me. I’m so honored to be with such esteemed company!

To help you stay inspired, you can sign up to receive this 3 minute pick-me-up each day by email, by RSS feed or in an iPhone app. You can even subscribe to it on Google Currents!

Please visit the site on April 30th, 2013 and help me inspire the world. If my traffic and comments break records, InspireMeToday.com will share my content with millions of additional people too! I hope you’ll check it out, leave a comment and share it with your friends.

From the folks at Inspire Me Today and from me, thank you in advance for your kind support. I know you’re going to love InspireMeToday.com! Together we really can inspire the world.

Be inspired,

Beth (Dielle)

The Multidimensions of Sacred Artistry

I was part of a great conversation the other night between musicians and visionaries on the subject of Sacred Artistry.

It came up that for a lot of conscious performers, the word “perform” is one that doesn’t quite fit anymore. We are not as interested in getting up in front of a crowd being watched as we are of being part of a crowd being expressed. If you know what I mean, then chances are, you are not really a performer, but a transformer. Whatever your art, be it singing, music, dancing, acting or something else, you recognize that you are doing what you’re doing to inspire, evolve, and transform yourself and others. You are a vessel for something greater than yourself.

Several years ago, I developed for myself the principles of sacred performance. It was my attempt to bring balance to whatever I happened to be sharing with an audience because I found that “performing” often left me out of whack.

Sacred ArtistryThe 3 Dimensions of Sacred Artistry

External

I began to think of performing as a multidimensional event. There is the external dimension at which everything is about the crowd, the environment, our bandmates, our voice teachers, and external validation. It is neither good nor bad, positive nor negative. But if it is our sole focus, our performance is out of balance and inauthentic. If we are obsessed with reviews, heads swelling from praise and guts twisted with criticisms, we are far too impressionable in this dimension.

Internal

There is also the internal dimension. There are of course many excellent performers who operate more so from this level at which the focus is on the energy of self, our emotions, the physical self, our training, and our actual voice. It is obvious why this tends to be the dimension of which we are most aware as performers. Our sensitivity is what makes us artists. But if we get stuck here, the imbalance can result in self-importance, and we lose our fluidity.

Hidden

The dimension that is often lacking or unacknowledged is the one that that adds greater depth to what we bring to our performances. It is the dimension of the secret realm. I’m using the word “secret” here as the Buddhist do…to mean hidden. It is hidden because it remains out of our tangible reality, and it is often dismissed or ignored.

On this level, the focus becomes the energy of spirit, the meaning beyond the lyrics or lines or composition, our connection to other, our presence and light, and turning to something bigger than self. This level must be grounded by the other two, or we lack substance. If we are too far out in this realm, we cannot ground and share our vision.

Bring It All Together

I am now calling this body of work Principles of Sacred Artistry. It brings to light these dimensions as they pertain to performance, expanding upon the traps that each dimension contains when we tend to favor one and neglect the others. It is only in moving fluidly though and between each dimension that we move away from being performers and towards becoming transformers…balanced, riveting and magical. It is a practice that can be cultivated with our awareness and the conscious consideration we are willing to give to our art.

I’d love to hear what people think about these ideas. And if you’re a transformer, what makes it so?

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Dreamer or Dreamsmith?

It’s All a Dream

One of the most important things we can ever do is remember that we are always dreaming. Until we do, we are merely dreamers, but not yet dreamsmiths. Even what we deem the “awake” state is really not that much different from the sleep state. It’s all a dream.

I’m dreaming I’m a person living a particular life with particular values and beliefs and desires. I’m dreaming I have preferences, that good things and not so good things happen. I’m even dreaming that I can control that dream by thinking certain thoughts and not others. But it’s still all a dream.

Waking Up

The thing about dreams is, when we actually do wake up from them, we may be fascinated or not, but no matter the content of the dream, it no longer matters. It fades quickly enough. Even if we are prone to dream analysis, all we have managed to do in that is slip from one dream into another. It is a mystery. And the person who believes that they can influence their dreams within the dream does. The person who believes he has no control doesn’t. And the person who doesn’t think it matters either way is correct. But no one is wrong because it’s just a dream.

We are all dreamers telling stories in order to experience this mystery. I like, most people, regularly forget that I am dreaming. I begin to believe the story in which I find myself. I begin to believe it matters. So I have to practice “not dreaming.” I have to step out of the constant motion, the endless thinking and strategizing. I have to put down all my beliefs, as best I can, and just breathe. Some call this meditation. Some call it stillness. Whatever one calls it, I have found it is necessary for sobriety.

When the sanity returns, and I remember that I am a dreamer dreaming, I am not as concerned with “getting it right”. What’s to get right in a dream? I am not as concerned with coming up with answers to explain my predicaments and my self-reflective tendencies become curiosities rather than matters of life or death, misery or happiness. I am not sucked into comparisons, the flickering images before me, the tragedies nor the triumphs. The dream will surely shift.

Everyone is Dreaming

And when I remember that I am always dreaming, I remember that everyone else is to. So when they act totally crazy or in an unpredictable manner, I am not so surprised. When the story is so real for them that everything in their dream complies with it, including the role they are having me play, I am not so astounded. I let it unwind. I let their dream dream out and back carefully away. Well, I do my best anyway. But there are certainly a lot of other dreamers with which to contend. If I do not dream my own dream, I dream the dreams of others by default. They are not always pleasant.

There are many of us with a yearning to wake up from the dream without slipping into another. What I have seen of seekers and journeyers is that we have a tendency to make our practices real forgetting they too are elements of a dream. We put far too much emphasis on “the way”. We forget we’re dreaming that too. We’re dreaming our gurus, our texts, our practices. We’re dreaming our limitations, even. It’s mind boggling. It’s the greatest mystery of all…this Life we live until we die.

What’s the Point?

I remember a profound dream I once had within a dream in which a plant medicine spoke to me and said, “What’s the point? Choose your point.” It was a great teaching. There is no point…unless one chooses a point. And having made that choice, one can change it in another instant and choose another point. Am I saying life is pointless? Pointless, poignant…but all the same. We, as dreamers, have no say in the matter, unless we remember we’re dreaming. Only then, can we choose. But if we’re awake, what’s the point of choosing. Life lives us. We no longer care.

Lately, I’ve been dreaming that I’ve forgotten how to let Life live me. I walk like a crab…sideways…leaning into my dreams questioning everything I see and believe to be real. It’s the best I can do for now.  And for now, I use the tools I’ve been given to dream a more beautiful dream. I use color, words, light, sound, music, and silence to create a dream I want to be dreaming, to inspire myself within my dreams. I am a dreamsmith.

What are you dreaming?

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Sacred Performance & Lessons in Musical Improvisation

As an improvisational vocalist, I don’t consider myself a musician in the way most musicians do. I am not the one who plays the music. Rather, I let the music play me…at least on a good night. So really, Life is the musician. I’m simply the instrument. That’s Sacred Performance.

I’ve many years of my life immersed in the Toltec tradition of shamanism. The Toltecs distinguish between what is called the Nagual and Tonal. The Tonal is like everything that happens upon the stage of life. It is matter, what we know and can understand. The Nagual is everything that goes on behind the scenes. It is the mysterious, the energetic. It is yin and yang. It is dark and light. It is manifest and unmanifest, seen and unseen. The Tonal is the paradigm we’ve known. The Nagual is beyond paradigm.

As artists, when we become aware of both the Tonal and the Nagual, we begin to better understand the consciousness or life that exists within our performances. In musical improvisation, I am constantly learning what it means to dance between these worlds. The Nagual is what informs a sacred performance. The tonal is the manifestation of that. The challenge of course is representing the Nagual as clearly as possible. Not always an easy task.

Challenges in Impov

In a recent performance with a group of musicians I had never played with (though I’d played with two of the four separately), some of the things that can get in the way of a pure reflection were revealed.

For example, I had to step into the role of time-keeper making sure each section of our presentation went long enough but not too long. I resisted this task, but rather than listening to that resistance, I ignored it, doing what I told myself had to be done. So every few minutes, my attention was drawn to “are we on time…is this piece going too long”…etc.  At our break, a women expressed to me her feeling that the energy was just building when we took the break; she wished we had kept going. While I didn’t agree, I did take on her opinion in the back of my mind, and it later reappeared and influenced my actions toward the end of our second set: I meant to build the energy again.

In my effort, my “push”, I invited one of the musicians to start some “trouble”. I assumed he would keep that trouble within the energetic framework we had already built. He was taken aback, in part by my poor choice of words (what was I thinking?), and dove headlong into a blues riff slamming the oven door on the ethereal souffle we had baking, caving in it’s light, airy middle. The disconnect with the audience was immediately apparent and, for me at least, incredibly painful.

I tried to ride with it. After all, I know what it is like to go out on an improvisational ledge completely alone just waiting for one of my cohorts to feel it. But my heart just wasn’t in it. And that was perhaps my second mistake. I should have just let it play out, not added to it…hope he would quickly realize he was out there…all by himself. Instead, I forced myself to comply and the result was half-hearted and awkward.

My third mistake came after the vibrational contrast came to an end. I knew recovery was impossible, but I tried to do it just the same, and I found myself out there…alone…overly loud…and taking people where they simply didn’t want to go. They’d had enough. So had I. Ouch. I know not everyone had the exact same experience as a result of the slip. Some people may have enjoyed it for all I know. The point is, I knew something had been ignored; I knew the potential that hadn’t been reached even if no one else did. Although, on the subconscious level, aware of it or not, everyone knew.

Music entrusts itself to me. An audience puts its faith in me to lead it with care. In a moment, I had failed music and the crowd and my fellow musicians. But that’s just one hand of a two-handed story. On the other hand, Life moves in mysterious ways. While it may seem paradoxical, ultimately, our performance that night was perfect; it made me a better sacred performer. I’m grateful it played out just as it did, even if I wouldn’t care to repeat it.

The point of all painful lessons is to learn from them. So, what were my lessons that night?

1) Clocks do not belong in what I do as a sacred performer. A piece lasts as long as it lasts. An offering (show) goes as long as it goes. Breaks come  when they come, not when they are scheduled. This is a challenge in a world run by time and expectations of time.

2) I of all people know how important a word is! But just because I wrote a book about it doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes. If I’m clumsy enough to use the word “trouble” instead of the words “take us someplace beautiful”, then I’d better expect trouble! As our manifestations become more and more spontaneous, it is more and more critical to choose our words with care.

3) Never go where the heart of the Nagual isn’t leading. Silence is better than a cover-up,  an attempt to fix, and co-dependent thinking.

4) Don’t try to please anyone but the Nagual. Release opinions and feedback and stay in the moment.

What lessons have you learned in improvisation?

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Revitalizing and Activating the Pineal Gland

pinwheelFriend of Toning for Peace & Healing, Shawn O Hurley, found this gem for revitalizing and activating the pineal gland, our body’s evolutionary headquarters.

Shawn suggests using the sound “OOO” or “EW” instead of the proposed “LOVE”.  Try both and do what works best for you! I’d love to hear your results.

Dorothy's Great Awakening

The Great Awakening

One of my favorite quotes of all time that speaks to the Great Awakening of man is from a philosopher named Herbert Whone who wrote:

“Humanity has been enchanted–sung to sleep. In the depths of that condition, we are given the capacity to make our own sound, which is in effect a means of escape, a way of breaking the spell.”

Dorothy's Great Awakening

This quote reminds me what the true purpose of vocal toning is. It is a means of awakening from the influence of the dream. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, just as we are about to approach the Emerald City of Enlightenment, we fall under the spell of sleep in a field of poppies…two steps from the door.

The practice of toning is our alarm clock. It reminds us the shake off the effect of our complacency and do the inner work. It reminds us that the path is strewn with temptations and obstacles and fears, so by all means, hum a tune. It reminds us that we have within us the capacity to take those two extra steps despite our need for comfort and familiarity. Toning gives us the smarts, the heart, and the courage to keep going.

So the next time you feel yourself getting pulled under, take just a few moments to literally “tune” in. Consider the illusion you are being asked to buy into and choose to remain awake. Use your voice like a shield and create a vibratory field of protection around yourself using an OM, AH, OO, EE, or whatever feels right to you. “You’re out of the woods, you’re out of the dark, you’re out of the night….”

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

 

Purifying the 5 Elements

Balancing & Purifying the 5 Elements: A Tibetan Bon Technique

The following toning practice works to balance and purify the 5 elements of earth, water, fire, air, ether.

After connecting with some simple warm-ups such as through chi gong, practice balancing and purifying the five elements with this Bon series of mudra and mantra:

Wrap up the meditation with the mantra of all the elements, A YAM RAM MAM KHAM DROM DU. And feel free to enter into a deep freestyle toning session afterwards.

Give it a try! It’s easy, feels great, and works wonders to balance and purify YOU!

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Edgar Cayce’s Sounds for Ascension

Yesterday, I facilitated Toning for Peace at the beautiful geodesic dome of the Light Center in Black Mountain, NC. It’s my absolutely favorite place to tone. It’s such a beautiful space supported by so many benevolent energies. And the acoustics! Yowza! And using Edgar Cayce’s Sounds for Ascension created a powerful experience!

There were four of us. Not a big turn out, but as usual, the perfect turn-out to perform the service we were meant to…whether that be service to ourselves, to each other, the Center, or the Earth. Because of the intimate size of the group, two men and two women, I pretty much threw my only somewhat organized original plans out the window…something that seems to be happening more and more in my life. Over and over, life tells me to let go and let God/Spirit/Life. I had my doubts about how it would all come together, but magically, (and of course!) it did.

I still decided to share some of the things I had learned about Edgar Cayce since my last post, when I first learned that he actually recommended a form of toning that he called “chanting”:

Incant [chant] that which carries self deeper, deeper — to the seeing, feeling, experiencing of that image in the creative forces of love. Then, enter into the Holy of Holies [the third eye]. As self feels or experiences the raising of this, see it disseminated through the inner eye (not the carnal eye) to that which will bring the greater understanding in meeting every condition in the experience of the body. Then listen to the music that is made as each center of thine own body responds to that new creative force. Little by little this entering in will enable self to renew all that is necessary, in Him. 281-13

It was really powerful to apply his method of sounding i e o u e i o uhm, first in unison and Edgar Cayce's Sounds for Ascensionthen flying off at our own pace weaving our voices together. We did this in the center of the dome, standing in cross formation with an amethyst I’d recently been gifted on the floor in the center of the cross. It felt so incredible, so powerful, an opening in time and space.

Afterwards, I shared some of Cayce’s views on meditation. Cayce believed that meditation is listening to God, while prayer is talking. Of meditation, he has said, “MEDITATION is EMPTYING self of all that hinders the creative forces from rising along the natural channels of the physical man to be disseminated through those centers and sources that create the activities of the physical, the mental, the spiritual man; properly done must make one STRONGER mentally, physically, for has it not been given?…” 281-13

Emptying. Emptying of plans, even of intentions. Allowing creative forces to flow through us and out. Yes! Yes! Yes!

We had a gifted musician present, and since the Light Center is equipped with a grand piano (did I mention I LOVE this place?), he channeled some music while we toned. I swear, the combination of piano and voices along with the poetic reminder from Cayce to allow was creating some kind of lifting element. It was as if the room itself was spinning upward toward the sky.

If meditation is listening to God, while prayer is talking, I believe that Toning is a two-way conversation. Realizing this, and following my experience this past Sunday at the Light Center, it is clear to me that Toning for Peace has been evolving for some time. In some ways, I guess I’ve been waiting for the masses to catch up…to know what toning is, to participate in it, to experience its joys and gifts. But there can be no more waiting. The roll for some of us is to just keep walking forward…even if fewer and fewer people follow.

While there will still be a place, and in fact, a need for Toning for Peace circles as they have been…what we can now call T4P 1st Generation, I leave the 1st Generation to those called to it, those still exploring their voices, those who enjoy techniques and more structured gatherings, those more focused on inner healing, holding space for it as I always have. It is a wonderful thing.

But I am now being called to direct more of my energy toward the next generation…a new generation about creating Sounds for Ascension. It’s about showing up without a plan, immersing ourselves in frequency to raise our own and that of the planet, using sound as a vehicle (literally!) from which to reach greater and greater creative and spiritual heights. And I look forward to collaborating with T4P’s team of circle hosts and guest facilitators who may be inspired to co-create this.

At any level, it is, as it always has been for me anyway, about flying.

In closing, I will once more quote Cayce who divined the following prayer:

Let thy prayer, thy meditation, be as this:

Here am I; use me, O God, as Thou seest I have need of that I may know what Thou would have me do! Let my attitude to my fellow man, mine loved ones, mine friends, mine enemies, be such that my life, my expressions of hope and joy and kindness, may reflect His life to others. Keep my tongue, keep my feet, in those ways, in those paths, that lead to the understandings Thou wouldst have me have – now. (770-1)

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

Edgar Cayce Sound Healer ?

Edgar Cayce Sound Healer ?“Know All Healing Forces Are Within, Not Without”

~Edgar Cayce

Known as the sleeping prophet, Edgar Cayce, was a highly psychic individual in the late 18 and early 1900’s. I have known about Cayce for sometime, though my knowledge is limited. For example, I owe my caster oil pack practice and rose water and glycerine spray to him and his healing visions.

But I just recently learned that Cayce was also aware of the power of sound as a healing tool. He taught that one could harmonize with the creative energy within through chanting i-e-o-u-e-i-o-umh. He taught us that chant was a means of experiencing an inner reality of color, harmony and emotion. He understood that music had the power to renew us from deep within. I was so excited to discover his teachings on sound and hope to find out more.

Cayce said that our bodies are “the temple of the Living God”. Yes! We are indeed resonance chambers that resound with the sounds of our life. Do we pollute our temple and neglect it, or do we honor it as Holy and respect it?

Toning, whether by yourself or in a group, is a superb way to not only acknowledge and connect with your temple, but to commune with the creative energy there, enhancing and raising your own personal vibration.

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

AH OM HUM for Sleep

pinwheelReady to settle down for the night and want a toning exercise that will quiet the mind and help prepare you for sleep that’s restful? Give AH-OM-HUM a try.

It is very similar to AUM or OM, but there is a subtle yet powerful difference.  These three syllables are a purification practice, perfect for sleep, releasing the day and all its constructs and entering the dreamtime.

Rather than toning AH-U-MM or OH-M, you are toning the three sounds, AH, OM and HUM (pronounced HOOM) in sequence all on one breathe to the end of a single exhalation. On the inhalation, rest and reverberate the sound in your mind. Then begin again with sounding on the exhalation.

Some of you may be familiar with the Buddhist mantra OM AH HUM.  The sounds serve the same function. They just do so in a different order. I learned AH-OM-HUM in my trainings in Yungdrung Bon. You can experiment for yourself and find the sequence that works for you. Each way you do it will stimulate different aspects first.

Sweet dreams!

 

About the Author:

Beth Ciesco is your Selfcare Specialist, a certified yoga teacher and meditation facilitator. Check out the rest of the website to learn more about Restorative Healing YogaMirror MeditationE-Motion Alchemy, and Voicework as capital S Selfcare tools. You can also follow her on these sites:

❤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemetime/
❤ Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/tranquilliving
❤ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMeTime

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