WSJ Talks About Personal Theme Songs

Recently (April 25), the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article (by Elizabeth Bernstein)

about Personal Theme Songs (PTS).

https://www.wsj.com/articles/be-more-like-rocky-balboa-have-a-theme-song-8fb96c27?reflink=integratedwebview_share

It really caught my attention because being a music hound, I have always processed a lot of life through song lyrics, messages and melodies. If you have looked around my blogsite, (https://www.perilsandpearls.com) you will have seen the Music Page. Sharing music that speaks to me, moves me – and/or my feet – is a vital and intimate part of sharing who I am with you.

When I read this WSJ article, it reinforced some of the power I feel through music that moves me. The author shared some science about the powerful connections we experience when we listen to a beloved song:

Listening to a beloved song can help us manage our emotions and focus on the task at hand. It can also help us access what psychologists call our autobiographical memory, or personal history.

Cognitive Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, who studies how music affects the brain, shared,

It reminds us who we are and helps us stay focused on who we want to be.

Yes, I can feel that when I am immersed in the message of the lyrics to new song by a Christian artist. And when the words of a song are right out of scripture, the power to remind and focus me is even more powerful! Music with spiritual messages help me stay in communion with God throughout my day. And I can't count the number of times He has brought me, or confirmed, a message through song lyrics.

The article went on to share more from neuroscientists about what goes on with our brain when we partake of music we love:

...we experience pleasure in the form of a dopamine release in our brain. And over time, our brain learns to recognize music we enjoy faster and releases the dopamine earlier. (Dr. Susan Rogers)

Even the beat of music has specific effects on the listener: “If its beat is faster than our heartbeat, it can fire us up and make a difficult task feel easier. A more sedate tempo can help slow our heart and respiration rate down.”

So, the Personal Theme Song can change with a different intended affect? Yeah, I can see that. My PTS can change from day to day or week to week; on the other hand, I can stick with the same favorite song for an entire chapter or season of my faith journey. And I’m known to have a Personal Theme Playlist as well- ha!

The final point of the article might be the most significant: Listening to enjoyable music can even give our brain a rest! Sigh, yes, I experience that regularly – even plan for it. Come the end of my ‘workday,’ I am very intentional about what playlist I put on while I transition into the evening, perhaps preparing dinner while I move into a different, slower pace. I assess my mood: Hmm...Is it a Motown or Jazz kind of transition? Do I want familiar music or to listen to some new tracks? I take these choices pretty seriously. Dr. Levitin says,

Listening to music we enjoy is one of the easiest and most reliable ways to activate our “default mode network,” or daydreaming mode—what the brain does when it’s not working or concentrating. This restorative state is essential to our well-being.

Well, all this talk about Personal Theme Songs got me thinking, what is my PTS right now? All I needed to do to answer that was to think of the most-played cut in my Spotify library (of over 5000 songs!). Answer: I Won’t Move. The lyrics are below – and I put the song on my blogsite Music Page so you can listen to a sample.

“I won’t move until You speak” is the theme of where God has me right now in my faith journey. I am so grateful for musical artists’ gifts to help create the soundtracks of our life stories.

I’m wondering...

What’s your current Personal Theme Song? What draws you to it? If I could listen to your PTS, what would I learn about you?

I Won't Move (by Life.Church Worship)

Find me here again In the place we met Where hopelessness meets grace

Quiet all the noise Every whispered lie Put to rest by perfect peace

Even in my doubt I will not forget You are faithful still to me

I won't take a single step 'Til I hear Your voice, I surrender

When my eyes cannot see It's Your voice that's leading me Out of darkness and into light It's Your love, it's breaking through the night I won't move until You speak...

Here I wait for You In the silence now I'm holding on to Your truth

I won't take a single step 'Til I hear Your voice, I surrender

And when my eyes cannot see It's Your voice that's leading me Out of darkness and into light It's Your love, it's breaking through the night I won't move until You speak...

You break the walls apart You heal the wounded heart I won't move until You speak

You calm the raging sea You crush the enemy I won't move until You speak

You break the walls apart You heal the wounded heart You've been there from the start I won't move until You speak

You calm the raging sea You crush the enemy You set the broken free I won't move until You speak

When my eyes cannot see It's Your voice that's leading me Out of darkness and into light It's Your love breaking through the night I won't move until You speak...

If you would like to follow me on this adventure, and receive notice whenever I post something new, please subscribe. (It’s simple – at the bottom of every page on the Perils & Pearls blog site. *No need to be a 'member.')

**A word about POSTING COMMENTS: I LV engaging with your feedback/responses to my writings! Let me cut through the tech hassles re: POSTING COMMENTS: When you click to add a comment, you will get a choice of leaving a comment "AS A MEMBER" OR "AS A GUEST." CLICK THE CHOICE "AS A GUEST" (-even if you are a SUBSCRIBER) & your life will be simpler- ha! And as many have done, feel free to send me a private message using the "Let's Chat" option on the https://www.perilsandpearls.com Home Page.

And if you know people who would benefit from the support, and/or enjoy the short writings, please share the site or a post with them. Heck, just share it on your social media…Let’s grow it together!

Blessed to play a part ~

g

My Pace Was Interfering w/ My Peace

Our bodies are talking to us all the time. Are we listening? I wasn’t for a long, long time.

Decades ago, He told me clearly, as I once again found myself dealing with a health issue that was affecting my daily life and continuing for years, that my pace was interfering with my peace. Being in ‘press mode’ was my norm; but the price for that speed of life repeatedly manifested as years-long, chronic health issues.

My body was trying to tell me something, but I kept rationalizing the choices I was making as what was needed or expected. Meanwhile, I kept praying for God to heal me. Hmm...My problem looks so obvious typing it in the light of perfect hindsight, doesn’t it? God was healing me, but not in the way I expected. He wanted to heal me from the inside out.

I had to peel back the layers of misperceptions about what God expected from me versus what I or others expected of me. It has been a decades-long discovery-before-recovery process for me.

One of my Life Verses became Matthew 11:28-30:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

I can never be far from these Words of Life! This passage addresses all the mixed emotions and thoughts I can have when I am overwhelmed, worn out, burned out. Every time I turn to Jesus’ words here, I feel like He is talking just to me – that He gets where I’m at, and is not judging or scolding me. His words demonstrate understanding, empathy, compassion, encouragement and hope.

And one of the statements inside this passage has become my mantra:

Learn (and live in) the unforced rhythms of (His) grace.

It’s my happy place. My center. To flow in the unforced rhythms of His grace. Mmm... And when I meditate on Jesus’ message to me in Matthew 11, I can literally, somatically, feel my uptight shoulders start to drop away from my ears, my heart rate decrease, my breathing slow...my nervous system start to move out of the fight or flight state, and towards the state of rest.

Many times, it is my frustration with myself, of again falling out of His rhythms, that God addresses first. I have to realize I am in a hurry with myself, to do better, to learn to stay in His unforced rhythms of grace. Geez, isn’t that word ‘grace’ a clue? I say to myself. I can’t get there by trying harder. I need His grace. And the power of His Spirit in me.

For years now, one of His most repeated messages to me has been: “I’m not in a hurry, My Beloved. You needn’t be.”

Rick Warren talks about this:

“God isn’t in a hurry with your spiritual growth. You may think he’s in a hurry, but he’s not. He’s using your current circumstances to develop your character and make you stronger. He’s patient.”

The Apostle Paul wrote about this - encouragement for us:

“...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Phil 1:6

This encouragement is repeated in the message of this prayer poem [A Prayer of Teilhard de Chardin] that has become one of my tools for slowing my pace and my breathing:

Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability— and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually—let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

My prayer for you (and me): Lord, help us to give You the benefit of believing that Your hand is leading us, and to accept the anxiety of feeling ourselves in suspense and incomplete. Thank You for Your gentle reminders that You are not in a hurry.

Might you consider?...

Do you find your pace interfering with your peace? If so, how do you respond to that awareness? What feelings arise? What actions do you take?

What is your awareness of God – where is He? – in the midst of your busy life? Do you experience His understanding, compassion, and His desire to give you real rest? (See Matt 11:28-30)

Do you have practices to turn to that help you get recentered, to slow your pace and recover your peace?

If you would like to follow me on this adventure, and receive notice whenever I post something new, please subscribe. (It’s simple – at the bottom of every page on the Perils & Pearls blog site. *No need to be a 'member.')

**A word about POSTING COMMENTS: I LV engaging with your feedback/responses to my writings! Let me cut through the tech hassles re: POSTING COMMENTS: When you click to add a comment, you will get a choice of leaving a comment "AS A MEMBER" OR "AS A GUEST." CLICK THE CHOICE "AS A GUEST" (-even if you are a SUBSCRIBER) & your life will be simpler- ha! And as many have done, feel free to send me a private message using the "Let's Chat" option on the https://www.perilsandpearls.com Home Page.

And if you know people who would benefit from the support, and/or enjoy the short writings, please share the site or a post with them. Heck, just share it on your social media…Let’s grow it together!

Blessed to play a part ~

g

Another NBA Gem: Music to My Ears

Rui Hachimura is a Japanese professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers. He was drafted into the NBA in 2019 and plays the position of power forward. He came into the Lakers’ organization just this past January, when there were a lot of trades happening.

Rui was a bit starstruck as he met his superstar teammates, Lebron James and Anthony Davis (AD). But he had the desire and drive to be a valuable asset, to find his sweet spot on the team and contribute to the Lakers’ post-season success.

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“You could see when he first arrived, he was trying to sort of tiptoe around LeBron and AD,” Laker Head Coach Darvin Ham said. "I told him, just go out there and be free, be aggressive. The only mistake you could make on this team is to just not compete...”

The feedback Rui got from his two star teammates was an echo of what the coach was telling him. Hachimura said the way Lebron James and Anthony Davis talk to him has changed how he views himself.

“They tell me, ‘Take more shots'...When James tells you to shoot more,” Hachimura said with a hearty laugh, “You have to shoot!”

And when he started showing up aggressively, shooting freely, coach Ham reassured Rui that that is what they are looking for from him. Then coach Ham had the best line:

“The only thing I want you to turn down is your collar.”

My immediate thought: Now, that would be music to my ears! The idea of having someone in a position of authority tell me my unique strengths are needed and desired, and then empower me to let it fly, unencumbered by worries about being too much (or not enough) in some way...that feels like total freedom, like flying!

Then I realized: My whole body and soul was responding to that statement not because it would be encouraging and freeing to hear that, but because that is what I did hear from God when I was seeking Him about how to offer my strengths in this season of my life, and the idea of this blog ‘plopped inside my brain’ and went directly into my heart!

That’s who God desires to be for each of us – our Coach, our Star Teammate, telling us to let it fly!

When He created us in His image (Genesis 1:26-27), He imbued a unique part of His character into each one of our hard wirings. It is His desire and purpose that we discover our God-given specialness, and His delight when we then connect with where we can offer or contribute that gift in our spheres of influence in the various seasons of life.

When I was in my first training course for becoming a Life Coach (eighteen years ago now!), the instructor asked each of us why we wanted to be a Life Coach. My answer has stuck with me throughout my coaching career:

It’s the thing I can’t not do!

I pose this question to every potential client, to get a feel for where they are in their journey: What’s the thing you can’t not do?

Each of us has something we would do for free, we do in our leisure time, others come to us for...it comes out of our pores!

And when we are freely offering that specialty to someone or some place, the joy feels like flying, and those around us are the benefactors of our freedom to offer our gifts and strengths.

For me, the thing I can’t not do is encouraging others – specifically, encouraging others to discover their passion - their thing they can’t not do; then to embrace their God-given wiring, and find somewhere to offer it.

Discover. Embrace. Offer. = DEO, which in Latin = (for) God

Each part of that journey – the discovering, embracing, and then the offering – can encompass years or decades. But the process brings purpose, and purpose brings focus, and focus-acted-on brings fulfilling joy!

Where are you inside those three progressive action words: Are you Discovering? Embracing? Offering?

In previous posts, I have shared on the Enneagram as a powerful tool for transformation. It can be useful in all three of these stages. For those of you who are curious about the discovery process for finding your unique gifts and strengths, let me offer you a summary chart to whet your appetite for jumping into the adventure of discovering your God-given wiring using the Enneagram.

If you think you might benefit from a professional partner in this process, contact me; and we can discuss the possibility of me facilitating an Enneagram Typing Interview with you – a much more comprehensive and personal way to learn about the Types and discover which ones resonate most with you.

Type	Strengths	Gifts (at High Level)
One	The principled, idealistic type. Ones are ethical and conscientious, with a strong sense of right and wrong. They are teachers and crusaders, always striving to improve things.	Integrity, Mission-oriented, Discerning
Two	The caring, interpersonal type. Twos are empathetic, sincere, and warm-hearted. They are friendly, generous, and self-sacrificing.	Open-hearted, Generous, Nurturing
Three	The adaptable, success-oriented type. Threes are self-assured, attractive, and charming. They are ambitious, competent, and energetic.	Authentic, Motivating, Confident
Four	The romantic, introspective type. Fours are self-aware, sensitive, reserved, and quiet. They are self-revealing, emotionally honest, and personal.	Sensitive, Empathetic, Creative
Five	The intense, cerebral type. Fives are alert, insightful, and curious. They are able to concentrate and focus on developing complex ideas and skills.	Perceptive, Innovative, Visionary
Six	The committed, security-oriented type. Sixes are reliable, hard-working, and responsible. They are internally stable and cautious.	Trustworthy, Courageous, Self-reliant
Seven	The busy, productive type. Sevens are versatile, optimistic, and spontaneous. They are playful, high-spirited, and practical.	Joyful, Playful, Accomplished
Eight	The powerful, dominating type. Eights are self-confident, strong, and assertive. They are protective, resourceful, and decisive.	Heroic, Magnanimous, Passionate
Nine	The easy-going, self-effacing type. Nines are accepting, trusting, and stable. They are good-natured, kindhearted, easy-going, and supportive.	Peaceful, All-embracing, Healing

In closing, if you and I were having coffee or tea together, and you felt safe and seen, I would want to ask you:

What is the thing you can’t not do (= your sweet spot)?

What do you experience when you are operating out of your sweet spot?

Do you have an outlet for contributing your strengths and gifts?

If you would like to follow me on this adventure, and receive notice whenever I post something new, please subscribe. (It’s simple – at the bottom of every page on the Perils & Pearls blog site. *No need to be a 'member.')

**A word about POSTING COMMENTS: I LV engaging with your feedback/responses to my writings! Let me cut through the tech hassles re: POSTING COMMENTS: When you click to add a comment, you will get a choice of leaving a comment "AS A MEMBER" OR "AS A GUEST." CLICK THE CHOICE "AS A GUEST" (-even if you are a SUBSCRIBER) & your life will be simpler- ha! And as many have done, feel free to send me a private message using the "Let's Chat" option on the https://www.perilsandpearls.com Home Page.

And if you know people who would benefit from the support, and/or enjoy the short writings, please share the site or a post with them. Heck, just share it on your social media…Let’s grow it together!

Blessed to play a part ~

g