I used to be a jazz singer. Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, they were wonderful and I strived to sing like they did. But no one impressed me as much as Billie Holiday. The tragedy and the talent meshed together into a musical offering unlike any I'd heard. I was inexplicably drawn to the drama and the heartache.

Louise Montello points out, in her book, Essential Musical Intelligence, that I was drawn to those songs for a reason. They corresponded with how I was feeling about myself and my life, and the real or imagined conflicts or unresolved issues that were going on for me.

Later, I found myself still listening to music that was at a different 'frequency' than me, simply out of habit. I either didn't notice that all the songs I was choosing were focused on 'negative' topics or content I didn't agree with anymore, or sometimes I was drawn to the music or musicality of the performers. Or it was simply habit.

There was sometimes a 'coolness' factor - maybe the performer emulated a quality I wanted to possess. Maybe it was their version of success I was after.

A common concept in the personal growth field is that whatever we put our attention on, we unconsciously manifest into our lives. This is the purpose behind the gratitude list - taking time each day to focus on what we're grateful for. It helps to balance out the time that most of us spend lamenting what we DON'T have.

Last night I saw the new movie, 'What the Bleep do We Know?'. My mind is still reeling from all of the scientific evidence that supports the notion that the possibilities, for all of us, are infinite - AND definitely within our control if we choose to think a certain way.

One of the most fascinating and concrete examples came from a Japanese researcher who documented how water crystals changed depending on which thoughts were directed towards them. For more information about the movie, see http://www.whatthebleep.com.

This is not to say that we shouldn't ever sing sad songs, that we should only paint with pink and yellow, or that we should use our computer to filter out negative words in our writing. It's not to say that we should in ANY way censor our authentic expression.

My point here, as it with many of the topics I speak about, is that we should consciously choose and be aware of what we're expressing. AND, as an experiment, we can choose to try and manifest what we want by describing THAT in our art, instead of focusing on expressing our feelings about what we don't.

Today I experiment with choosing songs, both to listen to and to sing, which evoke images of things I want to create in my life, or things I'm grateful for.

I have a very special collection of songs that I listen to every morning. Every song in there is very deliberate. Some of the songs remind me to be grateful, some songs remind me to celebrate and all of the songs connect me in some way to my spirituality.

(c) Copyright 2005, Genuine Coaching Services.

Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues. To receive her free monthly newsletter, "Everyday Artist", subscribe at http://www.genuinecoaching.com/artist-newsletter.html