Monthly Theme

Hi,

How is your week starting?! I just spent a weekend watching online festivals and noticing a few friends offering live shows (with all of the necessary precautions!) It made me realize to what extent music is part of our summer soundscape, along with the birds singing and lawnmowers humming. Whatever "new normal" lies ahead, music will be part of it - and as artists, you need your voices to be heard (both literally and figuratively).

Let's not forget how powerful media (radio, printed press, television, blogs, etc) can be for creating those opportunities. This week, during our webinar, we'll be looking at how to make those interviews count!

You'll find below:

• the invitation for Wednesday's session on Nailing Your Media Interviews!
• some thoughts on this month's theme "Delight" and a daily practice to try out

Hope this message finds you well wherever you are enjoying this summer month!

xo Nat

 

DELIGHT

"Delight" is defined as the ability to give or to experience great pleasure. Most often, it pops up as a word or feeling when that pleasure comes from something unexpected.

I experience "delight" as a sister feeling to "gratitude". When you're delighted by something - struck by the perfumed air as you walk beside a rose garden, spot a rainbow between two clouds, receiving a card in the mail - the jolt of pleasure often settles into a sense of gratitude. And we can see that approaching your day with gratitude invites you to look out for the moments of grace and beauty that trigger delight.

A few years ago, I was fighting depression that expressed itself as ugly negativity bordering on anger... I hated Winnipeg and pretty much everything in my life here. A conversation with my aunt helped me crawl out of the funk.

I had asked her how she could stay so cheerful and positive when her life seemed, objectively, pretty tough. (She was alone, broke, unemployed and unwell). She laughed at my question and answered: "It's not that hard, Nathalie. First off, I try to learn something new every day. I try to do something kind for a stranger. And then every night, before I sleep, I write down three things I'm grateful for."

I had to hold myself back from snickering at her. (the ugly negativity...) "That's it?" I asked. She just smiled back.

I decided to try it (maybe thinking I'd prove her wrong?!)

Learning something was the most natural thing for me. I'd always read voraciously. I'm not sure why I had stopped but suddenly, learning was part of my daily practice. I was reminded at how learning leads to delight with every "Ah! I didn't know that. That's cool!"
Doing something kind for a stranger was a little tougher - not the act of kindness itself (which I found easy) but the actual having to get myself out of the house to interact with humans.
Looking for three blessings a day got easier as my outlook changed. I had to stop fighting with my inner voice telling me everything was shit! So it started with being grateful for a friendly email and then moved on to things like the colour of a dragonfly I had noticed...

This has been the single most useful daily practice in my life for experiencing delight (and gratitude). I still wake up occasionally with that pesky voice of despair asking me why bother get up. But hope whispers a little louder and reminds me that I have easy tools to trigger delight, to make me feel better. And that's what gets me going because I know it won't take more than a little delight to flood me with happy hormones and lighten my step.

This week, I invite you to try the daily practice or a variation of it that feels right for you!
Let me know how it goes!