Problems are part of life. We don’t like them. We avoid them. We run from them.
We want a life without them.
But still, they are there. And as soon as we solve one, a new one is on the horizon.

Music is such a magnificent playground to learn about life for every hindrance you can think of sooner or later will march into your practicing room. You will be tired, frustrated, exhausted, impatient, angry on the composer / conductor / yourself / god (pick one or all of them!), disctracted, lost and hopeless. Old friends on your path as a musician. Stop giggling!?

 

If you want to improve anything – no matter what – a systematic approach will help you greatly. So why not train ourselves and see a pattern to later transfer it to our life in general? I think we can agree on this: Life is about solving problems, right?

I. The first step would be: Define the problem.
What’s the situation? And what’s the struggle here?
What are you dealing with?

I love to take this apart with my students. Did you like how you performed? What could be done better? What would you like to be different and – better?
American philosopher John Dewey said: “A problem defined is a problem half solved.”

 

II. The second step is: Find a solution.
What would help in this case? What would bring you from A to B?
How could this be solved?
This step is my favorite for basically there are no wrong answers here. Finding solutions is creative work, so all is possible. In theory. Well ok, there solutions that factually don’t work. But at least they do give further information!?

In my teaching I ask my student about the solution: You did not like ABC. How would you fix it? I am curious.
When suggestions are pouring out of them, hooray, I know I did something right here.
A blank stare on the other hand tells me my teaching needs to be improved…

 

III. And thirdly: Check the outcome.
Did it work? Did this actually bring you from A to B? Are you happy with the result?
Yes? – You are brilliant!
No? – Well then let’s go back to step 1 and step 2 and rinse and repeat. I stay here with you, I go nowhere, we do this together, no problem!

Make problems your friends.
They will always keep knocking on your door. I know, it IS annoying. But you can not stop them from coming. So change the strategy, welcome them and invite them for coffee.
Think to yourself: “What a beautiful problem just arrived, how interesting.” And all will be well. Relax. We are all together in this my friend.

Have some gorgeous short autumn days and long cozy evenings,
much love,
Anselma

Living means being with people.
A beautiful social setting equals life quality.

We tend to forget that.
We think, it’s about things. Or goods. Or to-do lists.
No. It’s about people.

Pondering this I understand that we do have to found our life in some very simple, but universal basics.

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Today I have a little story for you. A true story.
Once there was a woman named Anselma, who was a very regular person, wife and friend.
She loved music.
And she loved people.

She did not like that in our society there was strife, disagreement and a destructive competition. She experienced that all of these were non-existent when people came together to make beautiful art, to play music together.
All the differences in personal attitudes seemed to be of no interest when humans gave their best to create audible harmony on the highest level.

So she dedicated her life to exactly this wondrous thing: music. On the highest level that was possible for her.

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We are always practicing something. All the time for we are beings of habits.
Habits are the most crucial forming element for our character.
We can speak all day long about this, that and the other.
But nothing speaks louder than what we do – especially what we do when no one is watching.

Stats Inc. did a study about reliability of baseball players. It turned out, when the game comes into the critical phase and the pressure is rising, the players drop 13% in their overall batting average.

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What about being born on Monday, the 1st of Shakespeare?
Or having your wedding day on Saturday, 20th of Aristotle?

Beautiful dates, a bit exotic to our ears. But not for the ones of the french Auguste Comte who in 1849 invented the so called “positivist calendar”.

 

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Once upon a time a little reed was growing at a riverside.
It looked into the world around and thought to itself: How do I want to live?

It saw some beautiful blue butterflies and it thought, I want to nourish these beautiful butterflies! I will go and make very lush blossoms in the spring!

It saw the stunning oaks and high poplar trees and admired their vitality and longevity and it thought, I want to strengthen myself inside, to be like them! When something good happens to me, I appreciate myself and all the helpers who made it happen.

And it did just that.
It tried to be strong and make lush blooms to nourish others.
It praised itself and all the wonderous helpers when something beautiful occured. When a butterfly came along it tried to look gorgeous in order to be seen and to be able to provide good food for it.

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The idea of a soccer game for all beings with legs came up in the jungle. So orchids were not allowed! But animals of all sizes and insects were invited to form two large teams and bring their best players. They would be sorted by size.
The first team was the big animals team: tigers, gorillas and elephants.
The second team was formed by the small brigade: chinchillas, frogs and insects.

The game began and everybody gave their best. After the first half the score was 10:0 for the big animals. When suddenly a strange phenomenon occurred.
The lion started laughing and jumped down on the grass. Followed by a chuckling gorilla and then a snickering elephant.
They all laughed so hard that they could not get a hold on the ball any more.

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Robert J. Burdette stated, that in every week there are two days we should not worry about. Two days off our plate, two days less burden.
It’s not weekend.

The first day is Yesterday.
This is a day where stuff happened, where we used wrong words, where we did something less than perfect. Yesterday is the day, where we can think over and over what we should have done so much better! But still, it stays the same.
Yesterday is over.
Gone for ever, never to return. No amount of money will ever bring it back.

 

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Happiness seems to be like a wild animal. We look for it in the jungle of life, the journey is quite an adventure, we come to see strange and unexpected places.
But as soon as we try to catch it, it likely escapes.

Happiness is a common denominator in our lives. We all like it’s presence, it gives us meaning and strength. Still, happiness looks different to everyone, it is subjective.

 

 

 

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Thomas Alva Edison was working on the invention of the light bulb for quite some time. One day, after creating a new prototype he called his young assistant to carry the light bulb to the lab for further testing.

The assistant was very nervous about this task. He took the bulb – and dropped it. It smashed into pieces. Prototype lost.
Edison started working on another one of these prototypes and when it was ready for testing, he called the same young boy to bring it into the testing lab.

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