Let The Spirit Play

Pure Joy For Me is…. MUSIC!

Lisa Let The Spirit Play , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
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One of the best compliments that I ever got was when someone that I dated said that he loved that I was such a joyful person; what a nice perception that he had of me. Usually I do not define myself or my life by the perceptions of others but that was one compliment that really stayed with me.

I do consider myself to be a joyful person and the thing that makes me more joyful than anything else is music. You know this if you are a regular follower of this journey.  I love love love music. In fact, I would consider it to be my true love. Music moves me emotionally and spiritually as well as physically. My dog and I have dance parties whenever the opportunities arise. She thinks I’m crazy in the best way possible (I think).

Music takes me to another place. That place is usually a high priced concert which I do have to admit is one of my two addictions, the other being really good chocolate. Put the two together and I am in heaven.  I go to many many  concerts and love everything about them including the energy of a good large crowd.  I listen to music all the time. When I’m working with a personal training client there is no music on. NOT MY CHOICE!! One day one of my male clients noticed that I was whistling and commented on it. He told me that he never hears women whistling. Women don’t whistle. What? I had to think about this. My natural curiosity made me want to know whether this was true or not. After many months of observation and  the questioning of females in my circle, I seem to be the lone whistler. I am ok with that because I am a really good whistler and am in tune. I have also been told that I hum “yum yum yum” when I am eating something that I am enjoying. Pretty funny, I think.  Again it must be the wanting to have music surround me so when it’s not, I make my own.

Right now as I write this I have headphones on, volume up and am listening to some old Foo Fighters. What a blast!!!!Music inspires me and brings out the best of me in any situation. There is a universal law (not scientifically proven though) that I wholeheartedly believe in. You cannot be in a bad mood when you’re dancing. It’s impossible, right? I love watching men who believe they can’t dance when they are dancing; the goofier, the better I say. Pure joy is the name of the game.

There is a great Canadian guitarist named Jesse Cook. I have seen him play live a few times and every time I see him get into what he is doing, I honestly see pure joy. It is amazing to watch. Check him out if you have the opportunity.

What brings you pure joy and are you incorporating it into your life every day?  If not, what are you waiting for?

Can You Imagine?

Lisa Let The Spirit Play , , , , , 3 Comments
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There are certain words that I love. They resonate with me and I believe they are a part of my DNA.

IMAGINE is one of those words. I love it so much that IT actually found me in a store years ago. I was just looking around with a friend, wasting time and saw a pile of polished stones in a basket. I love polished stones. The smooth texture and the colours attract me to them. As I started to pick them up, I noticed that there were different words engraved on each one. After seeing a few of them, one stood out. IMAGINE was embossed in gold print.

Imagine my delight when I saw that. It was a green stone with the word IMAGINE on it. Imagine that; my favorite colour and word. Wow. Of course I bought it and to this day I keep it close by.

If you’ve followed my blog from the very beginning you will know this; I love music. My favorite song in the whole wide world is believe it or not, IMAGINE by John Lennon. I have heard many different people sing it and if they really get it, it is amazing!

So, with it being my favorite song and one of my very favorite words it only makes sense that I write about IMAGINE and imagination, right? Right.

I am drawn to people that have a great imagination, with kids being at the top of the imagination mountain. I love sharing my imagination with kids and love getting insight into theirs. What a cool place to visit.

We are all born with great imaginations. As we age, the imagination starts to dissolve but it doesn’t have to. You can be a grown up and retain that fun, unique part of yourself if you want to. I recently heard that we only use about 5 percent of our brain’s capabilities. It saddens me to wonder how much of the untouched 95 percent is our imagination.

When we were kids, we had imaginary friends but as we aged, the friends reluctantly disappeared to another place. Where did they go? Who knows, maybe to a great land of unending fun fun fun. Maybe they are just waiting for you to show up and re-connect.

I remember my imaginary friend. His or her name was GOOGI. I didn’t know the sex or age of my playmate or where the crazy name came from or how long this Googi was in my life but I do remember once giving Googi a small piece of uncooked ground beef that my mom was forming into burgers. I’m surprised that I lived to tell the tale. I guess that was my one and only adventure with steak tartare. Maybe that’s the day that Googi became unreal to me and went away.

I may have said good-bye to my imaginary friend but I have never said good-bye to my imagination and would never want to. It is what helps me create everything I have, personally and professionally. I’m convinced that my dog thinks I’m crazy but in a very good, fun way with the dances and silly songs that I have made up just for her.

Imagination is the gift that allows you to bring whatever you want into reality. It can be used in a positive way to create magnificent, beautiful things that can inspire others to use their imaginations. It can also be misused in a negative way to create worry, doubt and horrific outcomes into your life or the lives of others. Arguments and wars have been started due to someone’s imagination being filled with fear about another person, group of people or country. What a terrible waste of the gift of imagination. Is your imagination friend or foe?

At one time, someone had to imagine and then prove that the world was actually round and not flat as had been blindly accepted. Someone also had to imagine that the huge white circle in the sky known as the moon was more than an optical illusion or a mysterious unknown object. Those imagined thoughts brought about a curiosity of possibilities that led to the creation of a rocket ship that was needed to travel there.

More recently instead of having a footman or in more modern times, a postal worker, deliver messages created by an ink dipped quill which evolved through imagination into a pen, a message can now be sent via invisible whatevers (excuse my lack of technological insight) to anywhere in the world within a few seconds of pressing a send button. However it’s done, it’s really cool or perhaps regrettable depending on the message. HA HA! Could you imagine trying to explain that concept to a 19th century farmer?

Imagine what we on planet earth would do if we found out that there was life on another planet that wanted to take over or completely destroy our planet. Would we 7 billion inhabitants finally come together as one to fight them off?  I wonder if we would we put our assumed differences away and bring our similarities to the forefront to battle the ”Planet Foreigners” trying to destroy our home, planet earth and thereby, us? Ah, ya, I think we would!!

 Are you getting the best of your imagination or is your imagination getting the best of you?

 

Just For Fun

Lisa Let The Spirit Play , , , , , , , , 4 Comments
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joy cartoonWhat did you like to do for fun when you were 5 or 6? Did you create artistic masterpieces that were then put on the fridge? Did you make up silly songs or create stories or plays that were then performed for anyone who would attend? Did you make up games or have adventures to keep you and your friends entertained outside until the street lights came on and you reluctantly went in for the night?

I did all of those things. When I think back to some of the crazy things that my friends and I would do, I just have to laugh.

We were creative, we were imaginative and we were brave. Complete silliness. Don’t you miss that? Now it seems that the only time we as adults do that kind of stuff is either when we are around kids and bouncing off of their infectious energy, when we’re on vacation and letting loose or when we’re drunk and have no idea what we’re doing.

When and why did we lose our sense of fun? I think it’s because someone said that we had to or we should for one reason or another but who are” they”?

I’m one of the lucky ones. I have chosen a career where I get to move and play and be silly from time to time. I am also like that in my personal life as well. I sing my dog silly songs, we have dance parties and we go on adventures whenever time permits. I try to incorporate fun in my life whenever and wherever I can. Let the Spirit Play!!!

Think about three things that you loved doing when you were a kid and go and do them. There will be the adult mind making up all kinds of excuses why you can’t or shouldn’t do them, but ignore it. We never made excuses for these things that we loved when we were kids. We just did them and had fun. Why? Because they brought us pure joy and there is no better feeling than that.

Many things bring me joy but my favorite thing hands down is listening to music or better yet being at a great concert, with a great crowd, listening to  great music. I really think I could do that every day of my life.

Speaking of good music, don’t you love when you buy a CD for one particular song from an artist that was virtually unknown to you and after listening to it over and over again, you fall in love with the whole album? It grows on you. Well right now while writing I am listening to a very mellow CD by a Canadian artist named Remy Shand. It’s over 10 years old and it is one of those CD’s. I don’t grab it often but when I do, I get right into it.

When you are really in that moment of pure joy, nothing else matters. We need more of that.

What was the last thing you did that brought you complete and utterly pure joy?