One simple way to find peace.
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The spring busy season has begun. Kids are in school plays and taking tests, spring break is giving some space at the same time less structure, and across most of America winter is still here even though Easter us upon us. The news has taken over many of our emotions, seeping into our schools, and causing us fear in places we had never thought before. It can be all overwhelming to say the least.

I was having one of those days a few weeks back. The weather was dark, there was some upset on the news, and some other upsets in my life. I was on the verge of dipping into darkness and fear. That’s when I decided to take control of the day and stop living in the reactions of other people’s dramas. I needed a pick me up and I needed one quick.
 
I shut off the screens, opened up the windows to breathe a breath of cold clean air, and turned on some music.
 
Within 2 songs I was dancing in the kitchen while doing dishes, arms raised, head bobbing. It felt sooo good! I lost all that noise of the day in the beat of the music and suddenly felt better.
 
The water on my hands as I rinsed a dish felt so smooth. The air felt calm. Life felt doable. I felt better. I felt peaceful, happy, balanced.
 
And that’s when I realized music itself can be used as mindfulness!
 
Do you ever remember that feeling? The lost in the world, cannot be distracted, lose yourself in the melody, memories flooding back, hair in the wind, listening to your favorite song feeling? That feeling is mindfulness! That feeling brings you to a place where you are fully in this present moment, not in anyone else’s drama or concerns or fears. You are free in that peaceful zone.
 
When I was little music was all around me. My grandfather was a jazz guitarist, both my parents played in a band, my aunts and uncles all played professionally. and they would gather in our home and play together. My brothers and I all took music lessons, two of them now work professionally as jazz musicians. My nieces and nephews all love and play and are learning music. As my niece once said when asked why everyone was singing in her family, “That’s just what we do in this house.”
 
Music is in my blood. It is the core of me. And yet? I am a writer and an artist. My days are spent thinking and dreaming and writing. I have not played or sang in years. The house is quiet here when I work.
 
After that day I realized I need more music in my life. I need more of that feeling. I need more of the connection, that joy, that emotion, that love of the sweetness of those notes flying through the air into my heart!
 
So my spring resolution is the same advice I gave the kids for The Melodies: “Turn off the TV and play a CD!”
 
Here’s to more music, joy, and peace in our lives!
 
- Jeannine (aka JP Starre)
 
* We will be starting a new Possibility Path and The Possibility Path  for Parents this June!! If you are ready to understand your children and your family at a deep level, feel more confident and prepared than you ever have before, and find direction in your life, then, schedule your free discovery call today with me!
 
@jeannineproulx  -  [email protected]
 
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PS - If you are looking for a great upbeat Mother’s or Father’s Day gift - my awesome brother John Proulx just came out with a new CD with song co-written and featuring Melissa Manchester - from the heart to yours!
 
You can get it here:  
https://www.amazon.com/Say-John-Proulx/dp/B079SMBF3Q
** And for all my LA Peeps!!!
You can see him live April 29th in Studio City!! I’ll be there in spirit. J
VITELLO'S RESTAURANT
4349 TUJUNGA AVE., STUDIO CITY, CA 91604 - T . 818 769 0905
 
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Aloha and much love as you continue on your day! Thanks for all your support of the mothers and children in this amazing world.
 
Supporting the amazing women who do the toughest job of caring for our most precious with balance and serenity.
www.mindfulnessmothers.com

The sun is shining today and the temps have risen above 32 degrees. (The magic number for freezing as any northern climate resident knows!) The months have passed and spring seems to be right around the corner. It is a time of great joy for me. My hibernation period over. The stress of snow driving gone. I can relax into the easing of the thaw and greenery to come before the busy time of summer.
 
When we moved to the tropics I had one answer as to why. “Winter.” I would say emphatically. It was. Winter and I don’t’ always get along. I love being outside. I love sunshine. And I love open water. Those three things are taken away from me during winter. ( No. I have not found a winter sport to get me outside yet. ;)
 
We are not back in West Michigan. (Family and familiar.) It is the home I love. It is the land I love and the land that loves me. But winter still does not. It hides me inside and keeps me down. It holes me up and chills me out. It’s a necessary part of the rhythm of life. I do love the seasonal change. But the 5 months of winter up north here is a bit much for this sunshine girl to take!
 
So today when it hit 40 degrees, I felt free. I felt alive. I felt hope. I felt possibility again. It was a good feeling.
 
A better feeling? Knowing that with the warmer temps will come the thaw. The thaw that unfreezes the waters is just right around the corner.
 
I am a lake lover, always have been. Growing up near the shores of Lake Michigan the water is in my blood, The fresh air oxygen, clear salt free-ness of the big lakes is why I am back in Michigan. The ocean has its charms (and my dolphins!) but the fresh water  is life. And the big lakes are indeed fresh water oceans. (If you have never been, you must go.)
 
There is something about open, flowing, lake water that frees my soul and calms me down like nothing else on this earth. Looking at the real estate prices of waterfront, it would appear I am not alone.
 
The waves come in, they go out. The movement, the constant change of color, of mystery, of aliveness in that motion acts like a rocking bassinet. I feel cradled. I feel supported. I feel safe. I feel loved in the simple act of looking at that water. Nothing else does this for me.
 
I love my sky. I love my woods. I love my open fields and I have even loved a few mountains in my life. But the water? The water is life. The water is everything to me.
 
Currently we live on a little lake, a pond compared to the giant water of our Lake Michigan. But it is water. And when the days stay above 40 degrees, and the sun comes again, that water too shall melt. And the waves will come and my spirit will soar, and I will be unfrozen again.
 
We all have something that feeds us, that calms us, that grounds and supports us. Mine is open, unfrozen, beautiful water. What is yours?
 
*Share your answers in our Mindfulness Mothers’ Facebook Group!
 
- Jeannine (aka JP Starre)