One of my previous posts was called “I practise magic“, in which I speak of how some things we do may appear magical to other people because of the ease of which we do them.
How often though, do we realise our own magic? How often do we realise and give ourselves credit for that which we do well, that we are ‘good’ at, that we may even enjoy too?
My sister has gone on holiday for a week, and in this time she lent me her Flute – at my request! Over the past few weeks I’ve just had an urge to pick up a flute and play – like it can be that hard right? (I’m joking of course!) But anyway, there are two reasons behind this.
Reason the first:- Appreciating your “oxygen”, that which gives you meaning and purpose, that without which life seems just a little more humdrum. I now realise after spending the majority of my days helping out a friend in an ‘office type’ job, that music in all it’s guises is so intrinsically important to me. In some ways, it is appeased when I listen to music – but it doesn’t stay appeased for long! Sometimes, it’s only by doing something which takes us away from what has become our ‘normality’, that we truly begin to appreciate and value that which we may have forgotten is so important to us.
Reason the second:- To challenge, expand and grow! This is similar to the reason beforehand. Whilst I have been spending a few minutes attempting to get a half decent tone out of the Flute, it actually made me realise that whilst I do like the Flute, I really love the ability I have already on the Clarinet. It could be classed as frustrating to know that I can do certain things on the Clarinet that I have no idea about on the Flute. What did happen, was that I realised again the “magic” I have already. So when my 1o minutes on the Flute were over, I picked up the Clarinet and proceeded to really enjoy a “practise for enjoyment” session, fully experiencing the skills and techniques I took for granted and even being bold enough to do new things whilst boosted by my confidence!
In conclusion, if there is one to be drawn from this post – doing something new or different can actually enable you to realise just how good you are at your other “routine” things. I realise that not everyone will be as lucky as me perhaps in my freedom to change lifestyle at a moments notice, but there will be times or moments where you can.
You may already be fully aware of that which means the most to you. However, sometimes we could all use a refresher of just how much something really does mean to us. In my case, whilst I have been ‘working’, my weekends are so precious to me that I did nothing that feels like work. Up to now, ‘work’ also felt like music practise. This Saturday morning just gone however, I spent a fair few hours doing just that – and enjoying it!
So, if you’d like to realise just how much your oxygen means to you, here’s a challenge:- Do something different for either a weeks worth of evenings, or over the course of two weekends, and see what, if anything you feel you need to do in order to redress your inner balance!