No, you do NOT have to take your clothes off (sorry, I just couldn’t resist that hilarious photo)!
But, you do need to share just a bit of what is deeply meaningful to yourself if you want to take advantage of the very best way to get motivated. There’s nothing like making yourself vulnerable in front of others to get YOU to pay attention to what you’re doing!
Here’s how I’m putting this idea into practice to make myself accountable for my violin practicing this month, and how you can join me and piggyback on my self-exposure! 🙂
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
TO RECEIVE THE FREE 30-DAY PRACTICE CHALLENGE VIA EMAIL
Last Spring, after taking a look at the score, I accepted to perform Rossini’s “Un Mot a Paganini” on October 2nd because I knew that saying “yes” would cause me to keep practicing over the summer, and maybe even improve my violin technique. The piece is NOT easy. In fact, it’s a little daunting…
The LAST thing I thought I’d do was to expose my practice sessions to the public while learning the piece! But, that’s exactly what I decided to do yesterday, by recording every single session and posting it online. (Yes, I’m crazy!!!)
I figured… what better way to motivate myself to practice what I preach to all my students, than to show them that I really practice what I preach, and show them how I’m going through the same stuff every other performer goes through, and how I deal with it. The technical, mental, emotional, and all other aspects of performance. Every day.
I’ve often told my students that “practice is performance, and performance is practice”. Well, my practice sessions sure will feel more like performance over the next 30 days, FOR SURE. So, wish me luck!!!
Actually, can I ask you to please do more than that for me? Just take 2 minutes to sign up and watch the welcome video, and share it with the musicians you know. Then, come on over to the new Facebook group I’ve created specifically for this challenge so you can follow my process and share in the conversation. Keep me company!
or…BETTER YET…I’ll support you while you do your OWN 30 Day Practice Challenge!
WATCH & JOIN HERE:
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
TO RECEIVE THE FREE 30-DAY PRACTICE CHALLENGE VIA EMAIL
I’m starting TODAY!!! Won’t you join me and improve your music-making? It will be sure to be LOTS OF FUN and EXCITEMENT, and you’ll be sure to feel GREAT about yourself for doing it!!!
Hello Jennifer,
What an inspiring, wonderful, and unique website you have; a website centered around an accomplished violinist (yourself) who is on a journey of Self-Realization! What an extremely rare combination!
I came across your website because I have a sister who wants to learn how to play violin and another sister who wants to learn how to play cello. Both are very interested in expanding their self-awareness and self-understanding. So I searched for a combination of musicality and spirituality using the internet. When I came to your website and began reading your posts I knew I had found what I was looking for. I forwarded your website and several posts to my sisters.
Isn’t spirituality funny, simple, and amazing? It’s as simple as a blade of grass. I love these words from one of your posts: “The awareness that lives in the center of our heart contains the entire universe – there is no separation….The key is to realize that awareness is the key…and to choose again and again to come back to That. And to practice coming back, again and again and again… under all circumstances.”
So if the awareness in our heart contains the entire universe that means we, ourselves, are pure awareness. How simple is that! We already are, and have always been, something that we are trying to be. How funny is that? We think we are not what we truly are.
Good luck on your recent endeavor of self-exposure (sharing what is deeply meaningful to you).
May Grace be your constant companion,
Steve
Thank you, Steve, so very very much for your comment here. It means more to me than you can know. In fact, it responded directly to a small doubt that surfaced for me today, about whether my open-ness in doing this challenge is really too MUCH self-exposure or not. My heart has been telling me that it is not, and that I need to continue in the same way I’ve begun. Thank you for serving as an agent of confirmation for me today! It’s such a blessing for me to know that there are people such as yourself who understand so well my intentions. Thank you again – you made my day! Blessings of peace to you and your family, always! 🙂