Welcome to the Freedom Fridays Project with me your host Pete Clark, The Whispers Guy. This week it's actually for me been all about or predominantly about music. Yeah, music, as I'm sure with most of you who are listening, it has a profound effect on us sometimes it seems to resonate and it vibrates and it connects us with things beyond sometimes our conscious thought. It seems to reverberate with our body and our inner being. And I did a little bit of research and there's, you know, dozens of articles about the connection between music and certainly sports performance. And then so this week, in an effort to try and be more mindful, it's been another busy, hectic, almost invisible week, I've been listening to more music and that one of the big differences is, rather than listening to music kind of on my headphones, in the background, as I'm thinking about work, or designing a workshop or something, I've actually been taking some time to actually listen. And not necessarily music with lyric, just music. And not necessarily classical, just instrumental music, not lift music, or elevating music, necessarily, but just music that resonates. Some of the movie themes, there's a chap a very famous chap called Hans Zimmer, who has written a lot of movie tracks, you might recognise some of the tracks from Inception, or Interstellar, or the Batman movies. And he the way that he conducts, and creates music, I've just found really, very stimulating very, it brings goosebumps. And so I find that to be really quite helpful. When I'm feeling distracted, when I'm feeling unproductive. Throughout the week, when I've got, like many of you, I'm sure quite a lot, quite a lot on my plate, of which I still haven't worked out what's the really important stuff. But what's been helping me is this diving in and immersing myself in music. Songs, music, that seem to generate a feeling. And I don't mean the words, create, or I recollect a memory, which is obviously helpful too. But just music and there's a beat, or a tone, or a journey, there's a story, or a narrative, or a feeling it takes you through. I remember first feeling that years ago when I listened to the soundtrack from Platoon. Most of which I'm sure you're familiar. That that music as it builds up, and if you've seen the movie, there's a significant part of it, but it's, it's the something about it - seems to connect and resonate with our molecules. That's as basic and as simplistic and perhaps stupid as as I couldn't describe it. So I find that it's been very helpful this week in terms of listening to some, and really listening to the music and not just having headphones on.
The second thing, just to share with you, is I'm working with a number of different clients and some of them are teams some of them are individuals. Whether it's with clients, or with friends, or with family, but I wonder how often, and I'm considering this, that the circumstances I find myself one degree removed from. So it's not happening to me it's not happening to my immediate family, but it's perhaps happening to our another family that were close to, orr our a friend, or a client who's going through a difficult conversation, or a difficult relationship. I wonder how often we use those examples and situations on the periphery of our life and find it instructive. I wonder if it's if we can consciously learn from them a bit more. It might not be happening to you directly. So perhaps the, 'What is it there to teach you?' question doesn't quite resonate, because you're not totally feeling it. But even, you know, a little bit detached watching and reflecting on, you know, how is this being handled, how would I handle it? What's it there to teach me about something else? Again, maybe it's a whisper, maybe it's the first whisper. And you need many more whispers before you'll do something or change tact or something. But I wonder how, if we were to pay attention, not just to what's going on with us, but to perhaps what's going on with others, and then use those lessons on the periphery, one degree removed, about how helpful that might be in terms of what's going on.
And the third thing I'll share with you this week is a couple of questions that have really, - what's the right word - they've really provoked me into digging a little bit deeper. It might surprise you the question, because I'm sure consciously, most of us would answer yes. But when I really thought about it, that there's probably a little bit of a block and work to do. The questions are simple in language, but really for me perhaps it's where I've been quite profound, and having me think about. Particularly linked to this freedom Fridays project, the whole concept of it, about using the Fridays to add yours to my life. About the podcast, and whether I'm moving from my house to to I choose to. And the couple of questions that have been reflecting on are, am I willing to increase the amount of time every day that I feel good inside? Which is an obvious, well, of course. Yet, I do wonder how often I might self sabotage because I'm waxing and waning between the good and the average. And you know, too much of a good thing is probably a story I've grown up with. And it might be manifesting in only a little bit of good is enough, and that's all I deserve, or I've got coming my way. And the deeper question from that was, am I willing to increase the amount of time that my whole life goes well? I reflect on that, and I get to a point where I have, you know, a really great day. I had one, two or three Fridays ago, actually, I think I may have mentioned it. It really connected with me about just the number of things internally and externally had gone really well. And I was really quite blown away and taken by 'wow, what a brilliant day that was'. And then part of me, that kind of fear driven part of me, kicks in and goes, 'Cool, that's one day. Oh, it's not going to happen tomorrow is it, you can't have two days. No, you can't have three days in a row". And so it's such a simple question. Am I willing to increase the amount of time that my whole life goes well? And of course, yes. But I wonder if I've really considered that deeply. Am I really willing for that to happen? Whether I, you know, consciously deserve it or not? And again, extending on that, am I willing to feel good and have my life go well all the time? That's like, all the time! And I know, you know, there's a definition, a definitionry aspect of that 'all the time' is that everyday, all day, you're on cloud nine. Well, you'll probably having no mates. But for me, it was more well, to the degree I expect it. And is thatenough? Of course, it's enough. But I wonder if I'm willing to accept even more abundance into my life? And, again, I haven't come to a conclusion. Obviously, part of me, the ego part of me wants to say yes, of course, I want more and to have more and be more. But it's interesting, one of the quotes that I've been provoked by recently, it was not necessarily to find the answer, but actually lean into the answer, whatever the answer might be. And I'm not jumping to conclusions. I'm not trying to make sense of this too quickly. But it's been something that's been floating around in my head over the last few days, as I've gotten used to and more comfortable with the concept of Freedom Friday, gotten used to the tweak, perhaps, that it's about from I have to, to I choose to. Again, probably failing miserably in certain senses, because I'm building lots of stuff into my Friday. Which kind of defeats the purpose in some ways, but I'm comfortable with that. And and then, you know, serendipitously I came across these questions, and they did make me stop in my tracks. And I wonder, have I really allowed myself to live a great life more often? More of the time, all of the time and all of the time. Even just saying out loud, it feels such an uncomfortable thing to say beyond the conscious. Apart from you know, we would all like our life to go well, all the time. It's not been my experience that life happens like that. We are up and down and things happen. Things get out of whack a little bit. Our kids, our family, or friends or colleagues or our communities suffer a little bit. And I wonder if we've just become used to accepting that? I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. And so as I encourage others to, is to ponder the question, and is there another question to consider?
So that's it for this week. First thing was all about music and the power of really listening to music. The second thing was the the events that are happening on the periphery of your life, that you're first or one degree removed from, how instructive they can be. And then finally, I'll leave you with that question. How much abundance Are you willing to allow happen? Or how abundance are you willing to allow flow through your life?
That's it for this week. I'll see you next week.
Cheers.
