Shifting

I hope everybody on the east coast is warm and toasty after the storm.

I continue to muse on Sundays…or at least try to!

So, what are you shifting? In yourself, your world, your life?

Shifts can be so subtle to make the most dramatic change. Perhaps that’s what I love about it, and also, what is unnerving if you aren’t expecting it!

A literal shift of body weight can change your support or balance.

A shift of breath energy can change resonance approach.

A shift of thought and dramatic intention can change subtext.

The possibilities are endless!

There are also the shifts in our being. Shifts that need consciousness - be it technical, or behavioral.

Some of you have created huge shifts by changing life direction - and yet it might not feel huge to you because it’s the right shift. It simply feels RIGHT.

Some of you are becoming clearer and more conscious about your boundaries and shifting into actually DOING the boundary. That can feel huge, and it is, but it is so necessary and right for you.

Shifts never stop. If they do, we stop growing, discovering, seeking, exploring.

It’s not all or nothing. It’s not throw it out and start over. How is that even possible? And yet, I see it constantly.

Often I hear from singers who are scared to get back into regular study, or any study at all, for fear the shift will be too far, too much. There is still too much “let’s start you from scratch now that you are with a new teacher” crap out there to suit me. When you begin study with someone new, you begin where you are. The shift is collaborative between singer and teacher. We lean into the space between and create together, based on where you are, what you bring, what you need.

So often, YOUR needed shift in a technical way is more subtle than you think. MY shift, as teacher, is to lean in and look at things in perhaps a slightly different angle; explain something in slightly different language; suggest something in a slightly altered way.

Slight shifting often leads to huge ‘ah-ha’ moments and exciting and open possibilities!

You can look straight ahead, and shift your gaze to your periphery. Now telescope out for overview. Now telescope in for detail.

Then you can do it all over again but instead of looking straight ahead, you can tilt your head one way or the other, and the shift of that changes what you see and what you do with that knowledge.

Trust your shifts. Become conscious of them. Stay in the present of that consciousness. Trust the decision of that shift. There is not pure right or wrong: it’s about acknowledging a choice, letting it become conscious, and if it’s not serving you or the situation, then simply adjusting the shift and making another choice.

Technique reflects life. Life reflects technique. Right or wrong? We need to release that.

Is it serving you or not? Is it allowing you to do what you say you want to do or not? Is it giving you joy? fulfillment? contentment? purpose?

Then, shift!

with fondness & fierceness,