Positive Psychology, Mindfulness, and the Science of Well-Being
  • About Me
  • Book Reviews & Recommended Reading
  • Consultation/Fees/Contact Information
  • Blog
  • Positive Psychology & Mindfulness

Singing The Song Inside You

12/14/2016

0 Comments

 
Henry David Thoreau's words are poignant and worthy of much reflection: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to their grave with the song still inside them."   This sobering insight addresses the trappings of modernity with the truth of what it might mean if one does not live life well- with presence, authenticity, and the courage to identify and sing their own unique "song," unencumbered by the weight of expectation or convention. Undoubtedly, the song within us is there; it is accessible!  We must first understand how it may lay dormant, and then intentionally awaken it from its slumber and claim it as our own.

There are several things in modern life that condition, impose, and trap our songs.  These include messages embedded in popular culture, Western ideas of individualism, "success," untamed and uncontextualized material and physical pursuits, ideas about our body, beauty, age, and intelligence.   Consumption, acquisiton, and efficiency have become normative, highly valued qualities, silencing the wisdom within.  Along the pursuit, people begin to identify themselves with their things, their status, their perceived "power." Sometimes, they extend it to their children, identifying their children's "success" as their own.  Yet, there is more than the doing, the achieving, the acquirinq, which results in what I perceive as Thoreau calling a "quiet desperation."  "The masses of men" carry on their days, their routines, their lives not finding the deeper meaning to the gift they were given: Another day at life...Another day to sing their song, which is inimitable, and expressed in their personal life mission.

Our innermost being knows this, she gives glimpses of her truth: It is not what is out there-the external definitions, trappings- that define us and bring meaning.  She tries to tease it out of us, delighting us in moments of meaning, salubrious play, and awe: moments of emotional intimacy, authentic selves in conversation, a belly laugh, natural highs, the gaze, longing, familiarity of a beloved, acts of loving-kindness, music, ideas that expand the mind and foster imaginative and cognitive faculties for creativity and noble pursuits, the raw loveliness of nature: her sounds, hues, life.  She understands these forms of beauty and asks that we pay some attention to her.

Thoreau approached it this way: 
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms...” (Thoreau: Walden first published 1854)

We need not go into the woods, nor retreat from material existence. The following guidelines might be helpful:

*Emotions are embodied, be attuned to them: What/when/with whom do you feel heavy?  What/when and with whom do you feel light, free, generative and playful?  Be in the light.  Apply this to work, to interactions with others, to places you visit, and you will draw closer to your song.  Positive psychology teaches us that when we are content, when we experience positive emotions, we are more expansive, able to make better decisions, and foster additional positive emotions.
*What recurrent thoughts, patterns, happenings do you discern in your life?  Do they hold a truth for you?  Are they your own, or do they belong to culture, unhelpful family-of-origin, or partner experiences?  Is the past asking you to release something; have you found the learning in the challenges?  Will you choose to move forward, invite something new into your life?  What keeps calling you forth?
*What is life presenting to you now?  Are you attending to her, do you notice? Where is presence in conversations?  Is taste, texture, aroma, gratitude, focuses of meals, or is it a phone that captures more interest ?  What beauty was found today?  It is always there- even in our momemts of discomfort, sadness, and ugliness.  We must find it, and let it soothe, heal and bless us.

We are never too young, too old, too poor, too affluent, too battered or too blessed by life to sing our songs.  Your song is there, it is for you, now, go and sing it!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Nadia Brewart, Ph.D., is a student of life with an insatiable curiosity about what it means to be human, amidst encounters with the human condition. 

    Picture

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.