Reduce Your Stress with Tim Ringgold

Hey, last week you heard me announce my next free online summit is coming up called the Reduce Your Stress Summit for Healthcare Professionals August 9-13. My goal is to help as many people in my life heal the trauma they’ve been through, turn burnout around and balance work and life so BOTH can be pursued with passion. In my work as a coach and speaker, I meet other experts in the health and wellness space throughout each year, and I’ve asked over 20 of them come share their knowledge, wisdom, experience, passion, and expertise... with you… for free. They’ll be giving short TED-style talks that include action steps you can take that very day to improve your world. You can find out more about the event at www.reduceyourstresssummit.com so check it out!

As you know I like to interview artists who also write what this month’s guest might call functional music, music that serves a specific therapeutic purpose beyond entertainment or education. This month, I had the honor of interviewing the composer behind the name Liquid Mind otherwise known as Chuck Wild. Chuck is an LA based composer, producer, and Emmy nominated songwriter who was in the band Missing Persons and has worked in the studio with countless artists including Michael Jackson, Frank Zappa, and Paula Abdul. Along the way, Chuck realized he needed to write music for himself as well, and launched the project Liquid Mind more for his own mental health than as a commercial endeavor. Still, 17 albums later, Liquid Mind albums have consistently charted on Billboard sales charts and have reached #1 on itunes USA New Age chart several times. You can find out more about Chuck and Liquid Mind at http://www.liquidmindmusic.com

Last weekend, we celebrated Angelique's birthday "up the mountain" which means in the tiny town of Big Bear Lake, CA. Tucked alongside the lake itself, the town is a charming break from the sprawl and crawl of southern California. I brought my travel guitar and this melody just JUMPED out of my fingers. It's from the song, "Last Light" off of the Lifescapes CD called "Relax & Unwind: Lakeside" and I'd love to give credit to the composer and performer of the original piece, but it's not listed. Anyhow, when I got home, I literally couldn't play anything besides it, so here is a "timmified" version of Last Light called Mountainside. Hopefully you can hear the majesty of nature inside.

Do you work in healthcare? Do you KNOW someone who does? I’m hosting a FREE online summit to help healthcare professionals reduce their stress August 9-13 called The Reduce Your Stress Summit for Healthcare Professionals. Over 5 days, I have over 20 experts share with you actionable ways to heal trauma, banish burnout, and balance work and life… these are things that CAN be done, and ARE being done even in the midst of a healthcare system that is not built to sustain its own. Systemic change is OVERDUE, but there are things YOU can do on the individual level to help yourself in the meantime, and a better you leads to a better family and better outcomes and experiences for your patients, too.

Just go to www.reduceyourstresssummit.com for the details, and Come join us!

When you think of partners, what comes to mind? This new track is a tribute to the amazing partner of mine who just had a special birthday. Angelique is not just my life partner, she's my business partner as well. I know not all couples would dare to work and live together (and we work from home so there's NO ESCAPE LOL) but we really do life quite well together. Ask our kids how many times they've heard us raise our voices at each other, and they'll probably admit they've never heard it happen. 

I know that early on in our relationship, one of the things that attracted me to Angelique was envisioning life along side her. Her steady, laid back focus, coupled with a razor sharp sense of humor was something I wanted beside me. I, too, like to laugh at life, but I'm a bit more, well, "all over the place" when it comes to my emotions and my focus. I bring the spice, she brings the steady. It's a great fit !

Musically, this track is very much created with two specific partnerships. First, the main rhythm track is elevated into a new level of dreaminess when its partner arrives to harmonize with it. Second, even though there technically is a melody, this song is more a duet. When you hear the melody's partner enter, they both sound better together than apart.

That's me... I'm a better man because of Angelique's mere presence. She doesn't have to tell me to do anything. Just being around her makes me want to. So, join me in wishing my amazing partner a very happy birthday!

Loving the Whole... meaning the whole... of me? Whew. That's STILL something I struggle with... not gonna lie here. I'd love to say that I've learned to love the good and the bad, but part of my own challenge is that I still look at past experiences - especially things I either did or failed to do - through the binary prism of 'right and wrong' or 'good and bad.' 

Yoga and Recovery expert Nikki Myers is here to tell both you AND me a story of hope: it IS possible to love the whole. In this interview, Nikki shares just what this did for her in her life, and the method she uses to help countless others do the same in theirs. 

Whether or not you consider yourself in recovery, Nikki's prescription is relevant, because I'm willing to bet there are things in your past that you'd rather not have there. Listen carefully for the tiny, three-letter word she discovered that changes everything.

You can find out more about Nikki and her work at www.y12sr.com

For the "Relaxation Vacation", visit: https://www.sonicrecovery.com

For the Music in Recovery Self-Care Guide for Healthcare Professionals, visit: https://hcp.sonicrecovery.com/

Learn about our sponsor:

Dr. Neecie Moore

Ride the wave. Such a useful metaphor. Yes, I am actually going to tell you a story about surfing actual waves, but my experience surfing really helped me see how riding the metaphorical waves of life can go well, or poorly.

There was a time in my life when I decided I was gonna learn to surf. I had just moved from AZ to SoCal, and my neighbors were surfers, and one day, one of them invited me to learn to surf… in Mexico. Why not? I thought to myself. We drove to his surf shack in Mexico, and down to the beach we went… but this wasn’t like any beach I’d been to… you see… there was no sand anywhere… just rocks.

Rocks are Better Than sand

My friend explained that rock beaches make for the best surfing because they rocks don’t shift like sand does, so the waves break in exactly the same spot… every time. “Sounds logical” I told myself… until it was my turn to drop into a wave, because all I saw through the crystal clear waters were ROCKS should I fall… and I was a beginner so guess who expected to be doing a lot of falling that day! I’m not gonna lie. I was a bit terrified, but as I paddled over to the side where the waves weren’t breaking, I watched my buddy drop in to the same spot over and over again with a smile like a little kid. He wasn’t looking at the rocks. He was looking at the wave.

The Art of Focus

Recently, life has afforded me the opportunity to ride the wave metaphorically speaking. I’ve got a BIG wave at work, and I’m not gonna lie, I’m frightened by its size. The game is for me to make sure I manage my focus, because if I look at the wave, it’s potentially a thrilling ride, but if I look at the rocks, it’s terrifying. In uncertainty, we can look at the wave or we can look at the rocks. I know from experience what both feel like when surfing, and I know from experience what both feel like in life. That’s what makes life a wave worth riding.

In this new track, you're going to hear the churn of the waves, and you're going to hear my friend's joy riding on top of those waves. Hopefully this track allows you to reflect on 'the surf' that is in your life. What are YOU focusing on?

For the "Relaxation Vacation", visit: https://www.sonicrecovery.com

For the Music in Recovery Self-Care Guide for Healthcare Professionals, visit: https://hcp.sonicrecovery.com/

Learn about our sponsor:

Dr. Neecie Moore

Music That Listens.

Wait... what?

I know. How does THAT work? Well in this interview with composer and technologist Aaron Labbé, co-founder of LUCID Technologies, Aaron describes his company's amazing technology that actually listens to "where you're at" emotionally, and curates custom musical experiences based on where you want to go emotionally. 

Interactive technology using our phones is something I wrote about in THIS BLOG POST. I've also reviewed the music lesson platform Yousician that listens to your playing and scores how well you're learning the material, and that blew my mind when I first encountered it. Aaron's app, called Vibe, blew me away in a similar way. 

What makes this technology more powerful than just a playlist, is that you give the app realtime feedback on how you are feeling, and the music changes (or doesn't) based on how you are feeling in the moment, so as you start to feel 'better' the music moves in the direction of your mood to further support the change in emotion. It's what a music therapist does in real time, but through an app. I've honestly never seen anything like it.

I’m also excited to announce that this is the first episode we are posting on my youtube channel as well, because Aaron’s technology needs to be seen as well as heard, it’s that cool. My apologies along the way if while you’re simply listening to the audio version of this interview you feel a little left out of the conversation… I was geeking out in screen share mode showing off some cool videos and visuals and I forgot in that moment how to describe what I was seeing to YOU my dear podcast listener.  So, head over to my YouTube Channel to see what all the fuss is about in the video. And I’ll tell you what, I’ll hook you up for doing so. If you head over to the channel, like and subscribe, and tell me the name of the band poster behind Aaron in the interview, I’ll send you a copy of my ebook, Sonic Recovery: Harness the Power of Music to Stay Sober for free, and I’ll pick three of you and send you a signed paperback version of the book as well! You can just email your answer to the easter egg to [email protected].

To learn more about Aaron, Vibe, and Lucid, check them out at www.thelucidproject.ca

Sponsors:

www.McConnellMTS.com

www.DrNeecie.com

Calm Down. LOL. If you want me to ramp up, tell me to calm down. However, how do I calm down? What does that really mean? For me calming down is synonymous with turning off my stress response and resetting my nervous system from "React and Protect" to "Create and Connect."  

In this episode, I share 3 of my instrumental music tracks that are designed specifically to help your nervous system calm down, down-regulate, and/or reset... whichever language speaks to you, it's all the same to me. Humans need tools to calm down. Breath is one tool, and music is another. 

However, the music needs to be a slow tempo, and there needs to be a perceptible beat if your want your nervous system to really, in fact, calm down. The Autonomic nervous system responds automatically to the tempo, or speed, of the music you listen to. So pick music slower than your heart beat when you're wound up, and your body will slow itself down to sync up with that external beat. 

Enjoy these three tracks from 'the vault;' putting them together like this gives you 3X the listening experience of a typical episode. My goal by the end of the year is to create 2 albums of an hour each... one upbeat and one downbeat. Stay tuned for that and more! 

Sponsors:

www.McConnellMTS.com

www.DrNeecie.com

Now before anyone starts throwing things at me... thought mastery does NOT imply thought perfection or control. It means understanding the nature of why and how you think so that you are not at the effect of your thoughts, but actually the master who decides what thoughts to heed, and what thoughts to ignore... and... what thoughts to consciously think yourself.

In my experience, it seems like a great many of my thoughts arise in and of their own making... like I am a spectator to them, not the author. I am the audience. If that is the case, 

1) who am "I" and 

2) where do "they" come from?

The way I might answer this may differ from how you might, but here's what I would say: 

1) I am a spiritual being inhabiting a physical body 

2) Thoughts come from a construct of that physical body known as 'the mind.'

So, given this understanding, I am not my mind, I have a mind. I am not my thoughts, I have thoughts. Those thoughts originate in the mind, and I observe them. However, I'll be honest, I don't live my life from that understanding. I forget this on a daily basis. Mastering my mindset is a life long journey, and there are several other podcasts that have helped me along the way (I shared a post about 5 of them HERE)

The game really changes when you can realize that you are not your thoughts, and this presentation by The Sober School founder Kate Bee will help you understand this at a deep level, and she'll show you ways to wrangle that mind of yours and not be wrangled by it!  

Kate is an amazing, gentle soul to be with, and super smart and eloquent in her ability to articulate some potentially 'heady material.' She has a online coaching program that helps women to quit drinking or take a break from alcohol. It's a 6 week long class that runs a few times each year and the next one is coming up soon, in July. Head over to  https://thesoberschool.com/course and you can find all the details there.

The challenge with releasing one track at a time on this podcast is that you, the listener, only get to hear one track at a time without having to sift through intros and outros on multiple episodes. Well, it's time for a "Greatest Hits" episode where I pick THREE tracks from the past year and put 'em together so you can finally listen for more than 8 minutes or so. 

About 2/3 of my music is downtempo, chill, relaxing stuff, but 1/3 is a little uptempo, or at least starts slow and progresses into an upbeat groove. So this episode, I've selected three "Up" songs from the archives: The T Groove Surprise, Awakening, and Eternal Light. 

My goal is to re-record and release a full record this year of an HOUR of these gems, so you can eventually build your own playlists of up songs and down songs. This podcast owes its existence to another music podcast called "The Melodic Sessions" by DJ Prototype 202, and on there, I float away to roughly an hour's worth of dance music at a time. That's my hope for you. 

So, this is like a Baskin Robbins taster spoon of things to come. I hope you enjoy!

For the "Relaxation Vacation", visit: https://www.sonicrecovery.com

For the Music in Recovery Self-Care Guide for Healthcare Professionals, visit: https://hcp.sonicrecovery.com/

Learn about our sponsors:

McConnell Music Therapy Services 

http://www.mcconnellmts.com

Dr. Neecie Moore

http://www.drneecie.com

Changing direction is one of the quintessential human strengths, yet it takes more than strength to change. A while back over on the blog, I reviewed a seminal book called "Change Anything," and in that book, the authors trace the change equation to three main influences: Our thoughts, our relationships, and our surroundings. 

In this interview with Andre Norman, you're going to hear an amazing story of changing the direction of one's life. In his inspiring story, you'll also hear concrete examples of the three influences listed above.

If Andre can go from prison yard to Harvard yard, what kind of change can you make? Be inspired by Andre's story of transformation. Find out more about Andre HERE.

For the "Relaxation Vacation", visit: https://www.sonicrecovery.com

For the Music in Recovery Self-Care Guide for Healthcare Professionals, visit: https://hcp.sonicrecovery.com/

Learn about our sponsors:

McConnell Music Therapy Services 

http://www.mcconnellmts.com

Dr. Neecie Moore

http://www.drneecie.com