Pitch-Perfect!

Oh, those glorious days of perfect, balanced energy!

You know them – they’re the days when it seems like you hit all the lights green as you drive along, the groceries you want to buy are miraculously on sale, your work is meaningful and satisfying, your relationships feel connected by good will and kindness.

How do you feel on those days? Peaceful? Calm? Able to cope, confident, focused?  Glorious!

What pitch-perfect days these are – and we’ve all had them – well, at least here and there, umm…upon occasion.

And that’s the problem, right? Those pitch-perfect days come along less frequently than we’d like them to.

More often, we’re thrown into a bad mood by a traffic jam, the rising prices in the grocery store, having one too many boring meetings at work, being “off” in a relationship we care about because of some misspoken words.

The thing is, life is more typically full of the challenges than the metaphorical green lights.  Since the challenges are there – we are in human form after all – how do we meet them with as much equanimity and balance as possible? And, how do we re-calibrate when life throws us off balance, out of tune?

There’s a lesson we can learn from musicians about being in tune that might help us with this.

Every time a violinist takes her instrument out of its case, she tunes it before playing. You don’t want to hear the Bach Air performed on an unturned instrument, believe me! Additionally, there is some variability about how easy and quick a job this tuning is, depending on how frequently the violin is tuned and played.

If it’s been a few hours since the last practice session or rehearsal, the violin will come into tune fairly quickly. If it’s been weeks or months since the instrument was used, it will be a longer project to get the instrument back in tune and able to “hold” its tune.

Similarly, we are a vibrating body-mind-spirit that goes in and out of tune. Given the stimulating, fast-paced environment of our culture, we can get off-key pretty easily. However, when we are in tune, we are going to be in our best form to meet the challenges that come our way.

And, like the violin that’s used on a regular basis, how often we come into vibrational harmony with our Best Self, will impact how quickly we can get back into tune from being “off.”

There are a myriad of ways to get “in tune,” and you might have a whole arsenal of spiritual practices and life techniques that you use. Some of my favorites include:

• Sitting quietly in a meditative state
• Journaling about what I’m grateful for
• Walking outdoors – particularly by rivers or the ocean
• Humming

Yes – you read that correctly – humming is one way I bring myself into calmness, focus, and alignment. If I have some tuning forks handy or a Tibetan singing bowl, I use those, too. Just as the musician tunes her violin A string to 440 Hz, I remind my vibrating energy field of the frequencies of these healing instruments. They help me – and the clients in my workshops and sound healing treatments – tune to the calibrations that center and focus, connect us to our Best Self.

When we’re in tune, we will delight in the green lights and traffic that flows easily, but we’re less likely to seethe with frustration if they don’t. Doing our practices on a regular basis will help keep our vibrational field strong, our mood and energy balanced. From our aligned center, what comes along in life will come along, and our response will be more Grace-full.

Maybe even – pitch-perfect!

Janet Kessenich, M.M. www.spiralenergies.com is leading a Day Apart Retreat Tune Up Your Spirit: Using Lessons from Music to Harmonize Your Life on Monday, September 23rd from 9:30 to 3:30.