Ideally, a built-in sensor would let you know instantly if an approach works for your system or not. Is your instrumental setup ergonomically appropriate? Is a particular technique suggested by someone else actually causing harm to your system and blocking your natural sound, or is it improving it?

Guess what? You DO have that internal GPS!

But you probably aren’t aware of it; if you are, you probably override your intuitions in favor of a trusted authority, assuming that your GPS is wrong and the expert must be right. We have been taught, after all, to listen to our elders and our teachers, and to please those who would like us to comply.

We have NOT been taught that we have a wise, internal Self-Coordinator that we need to pay attention to, one that is constantly doing whatever it takes to keep us safe.

And because we’re not used to listening to this inner GPS, its voice is too often drowned out; then we are less and less sensitive to the little warning signs it gives us all the time when we’re going off-course.

What we need is a way to restore—and increase—our sensitivity, so that we can begin to trust it again. In order to do this, we need to be willing to take a good look at ourselves as we are, free of judgment, and find out how we typically do things already. What habits do we have, and what results are we getting?

We need to become our own science experiment, willing to find out what’s working and what isn’t.

Basically, you have two choices for how to meet the Unknown:

1. react from a place of fear, need, constriction, rejection, judgment, or doubt. This choice causes you to retreat back into the familiar Land of Habits, where you were before you peeked through the doorway into the Unknown;

2. respond from a place of love, openness, curiosity, willingness to learn, acceptance and confidence. Making this choice allows you to embrace new possibilities and have new experiences, from which you can learn and grow.

Daring to question your habitual beliefs, assumptions, and ways of thinking and moving can feel truly terrifying; it means becoming vulnerable, risking making mistakes—possibly even being seen making those mistakes.

It means accepting that you are a “perfectly imperfect” human being with your own personal limitations to transcend. It means, stop pretending you know everything or anything about how things work; let go of the need to understand and to know it all.

After all, do you have to know how your breathing apparatus works in order to breathe? Do you need to know which muscles and cells in your body are moving in order to lift an arm? Do you need to know which parts of your brain are activated in order to think?

When you walk down the street, exactly which muscles and cells and systems are involved to make that happen?

Of course, you don’t know! Nobody does!

In the same way, you do not need to know which muscles are involved in singing, conducting, or playing a trill on your instrument. The “how” of any activity is, in fact, a great mystery, involving far more than meets the eye or the intellect.

The good news is, it’s not our job to know how; that’s the job of our Inner Wisdom, or Inner Coordinator. That mysterious and subtle energetic “life-stuff” within us, which organizes everything within us, enabling us to form an idea and watch ourselves take it into action with only the most minimal understanding of how we’re doing it.

Of course, you need to have a basic understanding of how your musical instrument works and how to relate it to your body. But if you have an open attitude of healthy curiosity and you’re willing to experiment as you learn, you will be able to discover what works well for you in any given context, even if you barely understand how or why.

How can this be possible, you ask?

Because it simply isn’t the job of your thinking mind (your prefrontal cortex) to control your body or to know how your body carries out your intentions.

The job of your thinking mind is to create clear intentions (general and/or specific), and then get out of the way. Trust that the rest of your brain-body-self will coordinate everything in the best possible way in any given moment, to bring you closer to your goal.

With Love & Light,
Jennifer

P.S. If you’re curious about how to strengthen your belief in freedom and practice choosing thoughts that truly support you, I’d love to help you explore this shift through MindFlow Practice. Sanctuary for Musicians: The Whole Artist’s Mastery Experience is designed for those who are ready to experience the freedom of their whole self. If you’d like details, just send me a private message.