It is vital to be connected with others by being fully present.  My definition of “being present” is to own a mind and heart that is quiet, flexible and open, completely focused on the other person.   I say to myself:  Be HERE right now. 

In doing this, I am able to hear and receive the thoughts and feelings of the other person on a different level, and it is a rare and magical gift to the interpersonal exchange.  If I can suspend my judgments, ego and constant brain chattering, the gifts for emotional connections are unlimited!

Professionally:  When I teach and perform, I have created my plan and structure, BUT if I keep to the agenda rigidly, I will miss my creative unexpected moments as well as spontaneous human reactions and connections.   The unplanned moments can be exhilarating and exciting.

Family and Friends:  I seem to do better at this aspect professionally than with family and friends.    I wonder if I am giving my family and friends my full attention and presence as well?   Am I as flexible and fully present?   Am I as open and willing to shift, hear, transform and understand their views?  Do I listen to those close to me with an open mind and heart, or am I defensive and emotionally charged?  I believe that I have work to do in this area. When I am too caught up in my own agendas, and when I am feeling judgmental, emotionally off balance, and filled with a thousand projects and to-do lists, I wonder how much I miss emotionally in my interpersonal connections in this part of my life?

Intention:  I want to be able to honor those close to me more fully, and encourage myself to be more fully present moment to moment with everyone I meet.    

True Story:  My music class had ended, and the children were lining up at the door to leave.  One 5 year old child asked me if she could sing me a song.  “It’s long, but I’ll try to make it shorter,” she said with intensity and sincerity. 

I was exhausted.  I really just wanted to pack up and go home.  I didn’t want to hear a long song, but her determination swayed me to stand still, shift my mind and heart, and listen.  I also felt wary and nervous—what is she going to sing?   It’s not on my agenda.  Will it be “okay” for the other children to hear?  What if I don’t know it?  Shouldn’t I know everything as a teacher?

In fact, I did not know the song, yet I received quite a gift personally.  As I began to listen to the words and the heartfelt way Tanya delivered the teenage song, Firework, I began to feel transformed.  Slowly I began to get “inside the words,” and found that they uplifted, inspired and transformed ME, and in that moment I felt as if the children taught me much more than I had taught them. 

The song’s message reminded me that each of us has the light within us, and even if times are tough, there is joy around the corner, and possibility and hope around the next bend.   Thank you sweet child.

If I had said “maybe next time,” look what I would have missed by not being present and flexible!

It was a precious moment, never to come again…and another life lesson for me.

Question for the reader:  What are specific examples in your life in the benefits, joys and challenges by being fully present personally and professionally?  Let’s inspire each other.  I would love to hear from you, and publish your thoughts!                                                                                                                             –

–Cheryl Melody   chermelody@aol.com  www.cherylmelody.com

  I believe that every day is a day with opportunities for loving ourselves and each other, but Valentine’s Day puts a microscope on the intention to love just a little more than yesterday.  This year I am approaching my work of joy a little differently than the last 30+ years.  I am putting even more of who I am as a whole person into everything I do, sharing more of myself in order to raise children’s consciousness in knowing how to BE the essence of love.  I am happy to say it’s working! 

 LOVE!  Out of the Mouths of Babes: 

    1. There is a 4 year old boy in one of my classes who used to sit under a table and misbehave during music.  Now he is sitting with the rest of the children with full eye contact on me, a gentle smile, and last Wednesday as we began to sing our welcoming song of love, he asked:   ”Cheryl Melody, are we SPREADING THE LOVE now?” 

 2.  IT WASN’T JUST A STORY:  A group of 5 year olds asked me to tell the multi-cultural story of Carlos from my CD, “Friends Forever.”  In this story, Carlos was resistant to making friends with two new children, but he gradually shifted his mind and heart and overlooked differences.   After the story ended, I asked the children if they themselves had ever experienced a similar situation.  To my absolute surprise, they shared stories of shyness, resistance and embracing a new person in their lives.  Their own experiences with the power of love, inclusion and friendship was an honor to hear!     

3. THE POWER OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION:  I passed a cloth globe around the circle while teaching my “One Planet” song:  “We’re all 1 people, all 1 nation, all 1 planet, together we can live.”   Each time the children heard the number “1″ in the song, they passed the globe to the child next to them, while looking at their peer with kind eyes and a smile, using the power of nonverbal communication.  When a child looked at the globe INSTEAD of the person next to them, I would have them repeat the exercise, honoring the nonverbal communication cues.  The difference was powerful.   The children noticed it, the teachers felt it, and I wound up thinking about how important it is for allof us to emanate LOVE by noticing each other with kind eyes and a gentle smile.   

 Cheryl Melody www.http://cherylmelody.

 Success: A New Definition    

Should success be defined in terms of salary and accumulated wealth only? If so, I have failed miserably. Yet if I ignore society’s definition, I am finding a new sense of peace around the word success.     Here are a few examples of newly defined success in my own professional and personal life:

I am in awe of creativity, and I love to encourage everyone to discover and affirm the  creative being inside. Unleash it, open to it and believe that you have it!

 “What was your summer like?  I know what summer is supposed to be like…lazy, easy going, not much to do except for what you want to do–but for me, it was busier than ever with my joyful concert work, the stress of aging parents and its unique demands, a joy-filled wedding, birthdays, job searching and interviews for both my husband and myself, travel for family gatherings, money concerns, not enough time for friends–the list is endless.  

Summer felt like it was just flying by unnoticed, until I decided to DO something about it.  One small change of heightened consciousness made everything better!

 What I’m about to say isn’t earth shattering, but it helped me save my summer and cope with the highs and lows of everyday life.  I simply made a promise to myself to stop for moments within a day and just sit outside and watch, listen, hear, see, breathe.  

I relished birds flying to the feeders, and delighted at my easy-care chipmunk “pets” running around and chasing each other.   I made more time to change the food for the hummingbird feeder, and just sat, watched, stared and delighted in them fluttering around while they sipped my delicious concoction of sugar and water.  Most of all, I made moments of time to listen to life’s symphony and its fantastic sounds of nature.  

These few moments shifted me to a state of delicate gratefulness and joy.  I still was busy and challenged in various directions of scattered pieces of myself, but I vowed to create special moments for no one but me, nature, my breath, and noticing myself within each breath.

This shift has made me think again about our ability to change our negative patterns in a flash, and how much life can be better immediately!   It’s a tidbit I have known, preached and taught to others, but I myself forget these gems when I lose my center.

The other wonderful side effect of taking small moments is that I have more positive energy, patience, love and compassion for myself and others.  It’s magic, easy to forget, but also easy to remember. 

So in case you are reading this at a frenetic time, we are here to remind one another how to have the best quality of life we can possibly have, and still embrace the challenges.

TIME OUT is a good thing.   You can shift to Paradise in the next breath, and a sense of wellness and timelessness will be the wonderful result. 

YOU TUBE VIDEO:

http://youtu.be/-boSZK6x6R8

 Cheryl Melody www.cherylmelody.com

I am in awe of creativity, and I love to encourage everyone to discover and affirm the creative being inside.  Unleash it, open to it and believe that you have it!

I also want to place this “warning label” near your heart:  Do not allow yourself to be a harsh critic and judge of your work or allow anyone else to judge, re-form, change, prematurely advice or recreate your inspired idea.  Nothing will destroy your creative spirit more quickly.   Trust your instincts, your intuition, your creative whispers and seeds.  Trust.  

Your work does not need to be crafted in a cookie cutter manner.  There isn’t one right way.  Enjoy the organic blossoming of your inspired wonderment (Is wonderment a word? If not, I just created it!)

Surround yourself with supportive people who are naturally encouraging and have the ability to listen or see with their hearts, not their minds.  In fact, my feeling is that it is best not to share your initial creation at all. 

The beginning is the sacred seed.  Enjoy the sacredness of the initial ideas and don’t be eager to offer it for reaction too quickly, and when you are ready to give it to the world, make sure it is with people who won’t put insensitive negativity all over what you have just created.

Discern with whom you will allow your work to be seen or heard, and enjoy the fact that you just invented something that added just a little more spice and dimension to our beautiful world.

Remember, there is no set formula for creating anything.  Often the scribble, the simple, the raw and vulnerable is more interesting and reaches the hearts of people more than the perfectly crafted. 

Just create…without the critical judge…arms open wide.  It is your birthright to express yourself and to feel safe enough to follow through on your inspired ideas. Don’t worry about right, wrong and perfect.  Just let it flow and respect everyone’s process, especially your own.

The earth’s beauty is calling to us right now, this moment, this season.  Let’s stop our to-do list long enough to hear the birds, river, ocean, gentle breeze; let’s enter into more of a still state to observe the colors, sounds and sights surrounding us.  Every moment we are too much in our minds of whirling endless lists is a missed moment of noticing the symphony of life itself.  Bring yourself on a sound-sight walk, and open your ears to what is naturally all around us.  This is the healing gift you can give yourself and to someone you love.   Accompany your nature focus with a feeling of inner gratefulness for the abundance all around us.  Breathe it all in. The earth and all of its living things is sacred, and the more we take the time to really see, hear and appreciate her with our hearts, the more we can realize on the deepest of levels how important it is to revere Mother Earth, Father Sky.    

Remember the words of Chief Seattle in the 1700′s:

This we know.  Teach your children what we have taught our children.  That the earth is our Mother. 

Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. 

If people spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. 

The earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth. 

All things are connected, like the blood which unites one family.  All things are connected. 

We did not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. 

Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. This we know.  —Chief Seattle

                                                                                                                                                                              Cheryl Melody
chermelody@aol.com

I recently taught a “Peace Begins with You and Me” workshop for adults in the Chicago area, and it was a deeply gratifying experience.  The participants were open, honest and had a fervent desire to raise their own consciousness, and we fed each other’s souls.   I was curious about why the directors and teachers chose this particular type of workshop.  Many adults mentioned that as they help the children with their difficult lives…they themselves need to refuel, recharge and reflect on how to bring more peace into their own being, into their families and beyond. They were searching for more inner growth tools for themselves and for their curriculum. 

Through this group sharing, everyone inspired everyone, we all felt less alone and isolated…and each of us grew more deeply motivated to fill our own “peace begins with me” cup.  Over the three hours, the workshop was filled with smiles, laughter, hugs, tears, sharing, singing, rapping, storytelling, learning, deep connection, and lots of respect, hope and love…and strangers became friends and one heartbeat.   

We brainstormed specific words, actions and thoughts that could elevate or wound a human being.  Our own consciousness was heightened.  Children don’t understand when we say “just use your words.”  We need to role model and teach children to hear the sounds of specific words that uplift, embrace respect, patient listening, caring, cooperation and love.   Bullying, false rumors, gossiping, teasing and back stabbing will be less prevalent the more we can role model and teach the power of positive non-verbal and verbal communication.

On a parallel reflective note, I see a world of people that are looking down at their i-phones when they are with someone, taking part in fleeting conversation and eye contact.  I also observe children playing games on their computer as they sit there with their families…no one talking, no one interacting.   

 People are forgetting HOW to connect.  There is so much looking down at our i-phones and i-pads, and not enough looking up and into the beautiful beings that walk our planet.  I love technology, but it feels as if we are losing our way.   

 I want to encourage all of us to remember the need each of us has for heart-centered connection, warm eye contact, personalization, kind words and actions, tolerance, non-judgment, smiles and hugs with friends and strangers.  Together we can continue to create a world filled with love, respect and kindness.   

After the last newsletter on effective communication, I myself received a beautiful note of connection, reflection, kind action and honesty…and Barbara’s outreach to me helped me want to continue to grow, learn and share my heart and perceptions.  Let’s keep “paying it forward.”   

Barbara wrote:  “When I receive your messages a colorful image runs through my mind of someone sending a carefully crafted, colorfully organized, and beautifully relevant message out into the universe and waiting until its pieces drift back through the atmosphere to earth where pieces fall upon the shoulders, hearts and minds of those of us who must need the message at a given point in time.  I just caught one!  Thank you for your reminder on communication…this has been a year of change and trial for so many folks, that after months of coping skills, their reserves are dry and good communication between folks enters the worn areas of impatience and fatigue.  Your message brings the lesson of listening beyond the words spoken to an understanding of the speaker.  When we rush to listen, we often lose both the words and the speaker. Thank you again.”–Barbara     
                                                                                                                                                                                    Cheryl Melody
chermelody@aol.com

Here is a short activity for ALL ages that stimulates the brain-body towards a shift of positive mood, energy, emotional release and an increase in learning.  It is simple, time effective, and can be done indoors or outdoors.   It is compatible for those of you who were vocally traumatized, and for those of you who like to sing.   This activity is an ancient exercise called Toning.  Elongate a vowel sound-ah, oh, hip hip hooray, la, ta-da,  hee haw, ya-hoo.  Let your voice vibrate.     I call this technique Voweling for Health^TM.   This technique does not depend on singing in tune or out of tune.  It can be done in your speaking or singing voice, and all sounds create positive changes.  

Adults and children alike will learn more effectively and feel differently.  Part of the reason is that when we are stressed, we often forget to breathe.  When toning, we are forced to take a breath and let it out, and this small action will allow fresh renewed air to come into and out of the body.   In fact, making these free sounds can massage the hypothalamus, and it is the ONLY way to massage this important area in the brain!     If you have heard of Brain Gym^R, I’ve added this extension to Brain GymR .   

 By adding open vowel sounds to your brain health, you will stimulate neuron flow.   In fact, voweling for health^TM increases intellectual and emotional IQ, AND can create an aerobic heartbeat without typical aerobic exercise!    

Even e-i-e-i-oh from Old McDonald releases the human voice.  In fact, any VOWEL sound and humming can vibrate the voice and is “sound healing.”  Open sounds massage from inside-out and shift energy to a more vibrant level!   The next time you choose to sing Old McDonald, pay even more attention to the E-I-E-I-O part, and when in the car, do some yahoo’s to shift the mood.  One of my songs on the CD, “Celebrate,” begins with a big ya-hoo, so check out track 1 on i-tunes or on my CD.

By the way, we recently had a global World Sound Healing Day at noon,  in which people all over the world sang the vowel sound of AH while visualizing peace within, in our families, neighborhoods and on our earth.    This AH sound is meant to vibrate the heart energy center within ourselves and within others.  It is the “love” vibration.  

 Try voweling for health^TM at home, in the classroom, in your office, in the car and anytime you need to re-group.   Another side-effect?  I challenge you to worry and fret while you are voweling for health!   Sound release keeps you in the moment, in the NOW, and helps all ages and stages in life.  As Winnie the Pooh says: “Hum a little hum.”

                      
                                                                                                                                                                              Cheryl Melody
chermelody@aol.com  www.cherylmelody.com