Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees, takes off his shoes; The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries. Elizabeth Barrett Browning I recently came across this quote and had an immediate, visceral response. Brilliant! So insightful. Leave it to Elizabeth to knock it out of […]
Leadership
The Conductor as Yogi: Do One Thing
The beginning of the calendar year—ahhh! . . . Resolutions. Big plans. Massive change! And how long do those resolutions last? We know the statistics, that resolutions set on January 1st are often abandoned within the first month, depending on whose reporting you read. There are countless guides for determining and keeping resolutions to create […]
The Conductor as Yogi: May You Know
We’ve made it through another calendar year. Some combination of joyous, fatigued, inspired, bruised, cautious, or hopeful, on any given day. Stories to tell and plans still in the making. Intersections of work life and “real life” (can they be the same thing?). And though I have no idea how many read this blog, I […]
The Conductor as Yogi: The Spirit, the Brain, and the Choir
Sounds like the title of a new novel, but today’s post wraps up our fall exploration of brain health and how it intersects with our life as conductors and teachers. We started by looking at how our brain reacts to stress, then unpacked how we can mitigate stress in rehearsals with our breathing and movement […]
The Conductor as Yogi: Letting Go
“Letting go” is hardly a surprising topic for a yoga blog. But for the conductor? Now there’s an interesting exploration. Letting go is central to yoga and other wisdom practices. We sit on the mat and focus on our breathing, letting go with each exhale. We consider the words of poets and sages, of scripture […]
The Conductor as Yogi: The Illusion of “Done”
We are list makers, task accomplishers, and detail managers. We juggle between our professional and personal lives, never really stopping for long because there is always one more item on the list, one more email to send, one more errand to run. When we finish that, we think, then we will be “done.” The only […]