When i go for a walk in the morning, it's like i am walking "the dog", but my mind is the dog and it sniffs a lot, marks it's territory and barks. Being mindful of what i think, and how i feel about the world is like taking my temperature, Sometimes i get in a raw mood and my rant gets control of me and I get a bit of a fever. Then, i regain control of my self and turn my thoughts toward a more positive attitude. I have been studying "Mindfulness" for a few years now and writing in my journal the thoughts i have been thinking, I have been reading, "Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic world", by J. Mark G Williams, he teaches "Mindfulness -Based Cognitive Therapy" and is a Professor at Oxford University. What i love about being a musician is that music, gives you a focus and that when you get deep into the feeling of the piece you can loose your self. While performing, you want to be completely in the moment and focused on the act of playing. By spending time meditating and calming the mind, it helps you when those obtrusive thoughts try to get your attention and like a spiteful child trying to sabotage your performance. By letting your mind go on it's rants, it clears your mind for the time when it needs to be calm and focused. So taking your mind out for a walk and letting go on a tangent is heathy, we are living in crazy frantic times and face a lot of stress. By taking time to meditate, we can let go of the things that we can't do anything about. A calm mind can focus and create beautiful music. But like all of our emotions, sometimes we need to listen to frantic "Hard rock' to vent a bit of stress as well. Like "Ozzie Osborne" sometimes we need to "bark at the moon"!
