Heart Soul Wisdom Podcast

Music that Heals and Empowers You

August 17, 2020 Moira Sutton/Steve Pederson Season 1 Episode 12
Heart Soul Wisdom Podcast
Music that Heals and Empowers You
Heart Soul Wisdom Podcast +
Become a supporter of the show!
Starting at $3/month
Support
Show Notes Transcript

Entrepreneurship
Health & Well Being
Spirituality
Love & Relationships
Freedom & Fulfillment
Passion & Purpose

Music that Heals and Empowers You

Steve Pederson helps bring hope and healing to a hurting world through his music and positive message. As a trained classical guitarist and award-winning speaker, Steve helps people who are broken physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually to find a path towards healing, transformation and self-empowerment. He calls this path of reclaiming your personal power The Dream Highway.

As a songwriter, music composer and producer Steve has produced several albums, including one aptly titled The Dream Highway. His music soothes the soul and moves people to live inspired lives. He is also the creator of The Dream Highway Podcast, a show that inspires people to overcome their toughest obstacles and fulfill their destinies.

Steve lives in Chicago with his wife and two beautiful teenage daughters.

Website:
http://TheDreamHighway.com

Gift: Guitar and Meditation
5 Steps to Creating the Life of your Dreams Blueprint
https://www.thedreamhighway.com/moira

Moira's Website:
http://moirasutton.com

Moira's Community:
https://www.facebook.com/CreatetheLifeyouLove1/

Support the show
0:03
Welcome to the Heart Soul Wisdom Podcast, a journey of self discovery and transformation. Moira Sutton and her amazing guests share real life stories, tools and strategies to inspire and empower you to create and live your best life. Come along on the journey and finally blast through any fears, obstacles and challenges that have held you back in the past so you can live your life with the joy, passion and happiness that you desire. Now, here's your Host Create the Life you Love, Empowerment Life Coach Moira Sutton

0:55
Welcome to Episode 12 music that heals and empowers you With our special guest musician and award winning speaker, Steve Pederson. Steve brings hope and healing to a hurting world through his music and positive message. As a trained classical guitarist, and award winning speaker, Steve helps people who are broken physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually to help them find a path towards healing, transformation and self empowerment. He calls this path of reclaiming your personal power the dream highway. As a songwriter, music composer and producer, Steve has produced several albums, including one aptly titled The Dream Highway. His music soothes the soul and moves people to live inspired lives. He is also the creator of the dream highway podcast, a show that inspires people to overcome their toughest obstacles and fulfill their destinies. Steve works out of Chicago where he lives with his beautiful wife and two teenage daughters whom he describes as his most important accomplishment. So without further adue, it is my pleasure to introduce you to our special guest, Steve Pederson. Welcome, Steve.

2:09
Oh, thank you. Thank you, Moira. Thanks so much for having me.

2:13
It's going be fun! As you know, being a podcast host it is fun. Love it, and inspiring people that come and listen. And that's our thing about, you know, that's what we're going to start right now. As part of your bio, Steve, how do you bring hope and healing to people through your music?

2:33
Well, that's a wonderful question. And thank you for asking. There's a couple. First of all, there's a couple of different types of music that I do. So you mentioned, of course, that I'm classically trained. So I do have an album of classical guitar music. Specifically, it's just meditation. It's instrumental music, and that does a different kind of of healing. Then say for example, the other album that you mentioned, which is the dream highway. And the dream highway is more of a it's a kind of a concept album, and it's fully produced with a band on drums, kind of like a rock band type of a scenario drums, bass, guitar, all of that and lyrics and singing and so the, the music, of course, is uplifting, but the message of it is a very positive message, as well. And so both of those types of music heal in different ways. And I can go on a little bit more if you'd like about that.

3:43
That leads me into- I can see we're going - We're going to be on the dream highway.

3:49
We're going be here for a while. Yeah!

3:52
Because when you bring that up, yes, I would love to understand both of those areas because - how you teach others - how this music and meditation and - How they complement each other. You know how this helps with personal growth, self love and healing and then your other music with your message so I definitely want to understand this more.

4:09
Yeah, yeah. Well, so with the instrumental music, there's a couple of aspects with that. One is simply from a listening perspective. Of course, not everybody can play an instrument. A lot of people try and get frustrated and they give up. So, just, you know, some people are in that place where they just want to listen, and that can be immensely helpful. There might even be people that can play music, but for whatever reason, maybe they've sustained an injury, that they're not able to, you know, continue playing so all they can do is listen and I've had a number of just people that have been in extremely pain, versus physical, you know, debilitation. And they just, they can't stop dealing like they listen to this album. The own nature of the album is called, au natural. That's the classical meditation one. And they, you know, they just say, Man, I listened to this over and over and over and it just, it's so soothing and calming. And it brings so much peace to my soul when you know, through my suffering, and it actually helps me to get through these physical challenges. So just having, I mean, that's one aspect of healing with that type of music. Now, another type of aspect with with meditation would be actually engaging with the performing of the music, and that doesn't have to be complicated. That can be something very simple. And even, if it does get complicated, there's still an aspect of it where you can it's almost like if if it gets too complicated, your focus, you might start focusing too much on the music instead of what it can actually do for you, to heal you so. So that's kind of the instrumental aspect of healing with this other album, what I try to focus on is is the message and of course Well, let me take a step back this this, you know, the first album that I think maybe primarily is helpful in like a physical, a certainly, you know, an emotional healing as well. But what I've seen is people have experienced a lot of physical peace and healing because of that whereas With the other album, The Dream Highway with the message one thing that I've learned and one of the reasons for my transformation has been just understanding the power of my beliefs and, and my self talk. And so becoming more aware of that what's really interesting is that as I've, as I've become more aware of the of my own self talk, what I've noticed is like, Where did I get that? And I would, I'd go back to some of the music that I listened to as a kid and I'd be like, wow, that's, that's where that maybe not necessarily where that came from. But that music sure played a part in supporting those sometimes toxic beliefs. And specifically a belief would be maybe a belief around money, right? There's I can't tell you how many songs are out there that, like, probably most people are at least familiar with the song Money by Pink Floyd. And, you know, that's it's not a very positive, you know, take on money. And it was probably the reason the album that it was on the dark side of the moon was one of the longest running, I think, number one albums on the Billboard charts and that song had an awful lot to do with that. So I think it's right. It's just very interesting how lyrics people say, Oh, you know, I don't even listen to the lyrics. Well, you might not consciously listen to the lyrics. Mm hmm. But your subconscious mind is and it's processing that and the reason that you that that music resonates with you to some degree is because the message that it's telling You is resonating with your beliefs ~ alot of people have a lot of very negative beliefs around money- Right. And so with my album the you know, the dream highway it's in the song I'm trying to communicate a very positive message that heals people's beliefs which what I believe are just kind of the source of where everything else comes from your any kind of emotional or mental, spiritual and then that obviously manifests in physical discomfort, or what we would call dis ease, right? You're you're at a dis ease. it all stems from your beliefs.

9:45
So and then then you're no longer in the flow, allowing things to flow in your life and definitely this all natural. I'd like to listen to this because I personally do long distance Reiki and healing on people and I listen to Steven Halpern's music. That this sounds like what you said, Because physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually when you're doing Reiki for that healing, that would be wonderful. Yeah, you've covered a lot of things I was going to ask just in that question is quite interesting. Because I wanted to really know how did music really shape you and you've more or less touched on the part of beliefs and self talk and, you know, where we get our beliefs because one thing and this thing about money not having enough not being enough, not, you know, I'm not tall enough. I'm not skinny enough. All that not enough stuff and a person that I follow and I'm going to ask you, what you use is that her name is Marissa Pier, and she's a psychologist and she talks about whole exercise around just I am enough in literally writing that everywhere realize you're enough and I know one of the things I teach is that, you know, we're not broken, we're a hole in we're so worthy. Were so loved, certainly, and to really get to that place, so What's the exercise you do to teach people that, you know, to raise their worthiness and and know that they are so worthy and so loved.

11:11
Well, interestingly enough, one of the one of the songs on the dream highway album is called,"I am" and it's just the whole idea of this this statement "I am" is such an incredibly powerful statement. And it was a statement that was used on me when I when I first got into coaching, my coach asked me, I just want you to write down I want you to take a few times out every day and just write complete this sentence. I am (fill in the blanks) and just whatever comes to mind, just do that. And so that began this whole exercise of just thinking, What am I telling myself What is myself talking, telling myself that I am? My mate, I mean, at that time, there was certainly not any kind of positive stuff going through my mind subconsciously or consciously as to what I was at that time. And what I was able to do is replace that with very positive I am affirmation statements and which is kind of where another one of the songs on the album You are the difference kind of where that came from, like, I am the difference if I can help people to understand and and believe that concept of, you know, what's what's really interesting is, I come from a Christian background, and I've spoken to a lot of Christian groups. And unfortunately, what a lot of Christians are taught is that I'm a mess. I'm a wretch. I'm a sinful dog, I'm a prideful dog. And these are right. These are the kinds of beliefs that are sort of programmed into us. And so what I help people do is to, first of all, just become aware of that statement. I am right and we will do exercises like, hey, just tell me what, what comes to mind when you think of this phrase I am. And I have people share. And that oftentimes is the things that people share. Well, I'm, I am a mess, you know, and kind of focus on all of the negatives. And as a matter of fact, what I've even discovered is a lot of people think that it's if you can believe that, that it's noble to focus on the negative like, Oh, I'm just such a loser or I'm such a, you know, they think they're really owning this humility to say that, you know, I'm this terrible person and it's it's so sad. So that's the, one of the you know, the things that I do to help people is to develop much more positive. I am statements about themselves.

14:14
I do the same Steve, I've talked about this for years with people saying that ~ when I'm speaking, I spoke on cruise ships for years and in any workshops when I did all those live, but you know, I am love I am peace, I am abundance. I'm ~laughter ~ I'm Joy. Joy is a big one for my clients. And to go through that, and then I am that Wayne Dyer talks about it brings you right into your presence. So you're present in the moment, which is the gift right?

14:42
Yes, yes. And what I love about those words that you're sharing, Moira is that, you know, I think what's, what's really I think difficult for people is, you know, it might be easier for somebody to say I am loving it. It's more easier to say that than it is to say I am love. You know what I'm saying? There's there's a huge difference there and or I am joyful. Versus I am joy. I think it's really, you know, important those those phrases that you that you mentioned there.

15:19
It's interesting you say that because that brings up a book that I read, I don't know, the title of it was Shirley MacLaine, and we're talking a lot of years ago, I've been an entrepreneur for over 30 years in the healing field for over 30 years. And she came out with a book where she went up into the Andes of that, but she said, I am God and people had such a problem with her saying this.

15:44
Yep. And I remembered this she had a movie called out was it Out on the Ledge? Yes, I owned this.

15:51
Yes I saw that movie. Yeah, like you said about 30 years ago.

15:55
Yes, we're still young. It's just a number.

15:58
But here's the thing, more you know why people have a problem with that is because they can't say it about themselves. They they don't believe it about themselves. Right. And, because there's such that separation like, you know, and I get it, I totally understand that. But I think that's why a lot of people have a problem with it. Like, if that's what you want to believe, fine, but why would you have to be so you know, oppose that like we got to go prove her wrong.

16:31
That's the ego part too, right? Sure. Can I love how again Wayne Dyer says, you know, the ego~ edge God Out ~ this can be the universe, your higher self, whatever it is for the person. But I love that because the ego always wants you to be separate or somebody better or you're wrong. I'm right instead of that, instead of us being this. My whole message is about unity, consciousness and healing and raising our consciousness individually and collectively for the greater Good if humanity and for our planet. So that's my message and the timing. It's been my message forever. But the timing now and that's why this show is happening now. Not when I first started it 11 years ago. It's out now because the timing is always perfect. Actually, you know, the universe orchestrates everything in our life, we just don't. If we surrender, which is not a giving up, or a weakness, surrender to a higher power. And we're asking whatever we want, the universe will line everything up from you. ~ the work we do in the world, the people that we interact with, to everything where we live, what we do all that tell me from you have a story where, first of all, when did you make the decision to become a musician and then tell your story about when you were playing the cello at age 19? And what lessons did you learn from that? And how did that shape you and your own transformation?

17:55
Sure. Well, yeah, you know, I think For me, music was a very natural escape. I grew up in a very What do they call that a dysfunctional family?

18:13
I think we all have part of that.

18:15
Yeah, I believe so. And how can we not right? I was the youngest of five. And yeah, and separated. You know, like all of my other older brothers and sisters. They were all born like one right after the other and so they were kind of grouped together and then I came along five years later. And so I got to witness a lot of pain. And I don't think I mean, you know, I don't fault my parents or they did they did the best they could. But it was still a pretty toxic situation to grow up in. It was a very fearful and scary place. To grow up and one of the things that I, you know, I used to sort of condemn myself or criticize myself for running and hiding in music, right? Because what, you know, a lot of times, you know, again, I don't mean to bash on Christianity, but a lot of times the message that you hear is like, Well, you know, you need to find God, you know, God is the answer to everything. And so there was a lot of shame that I had around this idea of, you know, clinging on to music, it was like I was, you know, the ship got blown apart and I'm, you know, drowning in the ocean and music was the first thing that I had to grab on to. And what my coach helped me to see was that man, how brilliant were you, you know, to be able to reach out and and find solace and find a coping mechanism, in music and for them, Most part, I think how that started out was just listening to music. And then you know it eventually, there was a little bit of music like, again, having older brothers and sisters. They all played the guitar. And so, you know, I looked up to them and I was like, Wow, that's so cool. You know that they're playing the guitar. And, man, what an incredible day it was when, you know, I got a Christmas present from my brother and I opened it opened it up, it was this box. And inside the box was this guitar pick. And I was like a guitar pick. What do I need this for? And he's like, well, you're gonna need that if to play your new guitar. And so he basically gifted me his guitar.

20:40
Oh, that's wonderful!

20:41
Yes, for Christmas that year. And I think the reason was, was because I you know, I had been taking piano lessons and the one of the reasons I was taking piano lessons was because my grandfather had passed away and we had inherited his piano and I had always kind of taken an interest in it. So I was playing piano, taking piano lessons. But out of the corner of my eye, I always had my eye on that guitar and it just seemed like, man, I got to have freedom to me, you know. And this, of course, I was growing up in the days where you had LPs, you know, you had these albums, you know, and as they were spinning around on the record player, you'd open them up, and you'd look at all these pictures inside of the band, and they're playing these guitars and I was like, Oh my gosh, that I just that I that called to me. And I think what my coach was saying, as far as the the brilliance of that is that, you know, a lot of people will take very dangerous and very toxic ways to, to medicate and to cope.

21:48
Right and definitely and right, you know, you got a gift by going this way. And you know this, right? Huge.

21:55
Yeah. And so, I pursued you know, that gift of planning. playing guitar and I had this dream, of course of being a rock star and I grew my hair out real long. So funny. Um, but what happened was I started getting involved with some other musicians. And one of them was a classical musician. And he, we just started listening to classical music together and I was just, I mean, I was so blown away at what I was hearing that I thought, I want to know more about this, I want to do more of this. And so I went to the local public library and I got a CD of classical guitar music. And this was Andres Segovia. I am not sure if you've heard of him, but he's one of the very famous you know, sort of what I call the godfather of modern day classical guitar. I listened to that. And honestly Moira I was bored out of my mind ~ like, I can't deal with this. And I realized that, you know, the music that I had been listening to with my friends was orchestral music. And I thought, that's what I need to do. I need to play an orchestral instrument and be a part of this huge, huge, you know, sound experience. And for some reason, but sort of the low, mellow, almost dark, somber feel or vibe that I picked up from the cello? I thought, and I think I want to learn how to play cello. And so I I took cello lessons I started playing I think I was 19 years old. And, you know, my teacher said while you're picking this up pretty quick, and I really enjoyed that for a while. But I think what happened was I I immediately started to realize, well actually what happened was I started going to the University of Minnesota School of Music and started realizing what other people were doing. I thought, I can't start playing cello at age 20, you know, 19 or 20 and expect to go anywhere, anytime really soon. Like, there's so many people that are so far, me when it comes to the cello. So that's actually when I thought, well, I want to get a degree. The only thing I really know how to do is play guitar. And the only degree that this college that I could afford to the only degree they offer is classical guitar performance. So I thought, well, let's give it a go. And so I actually it was a learned it was a learned appreciation for it until I got to the point where I just loved it, you know? So that was a little bit of my journey.

24:57
That's wonderful! I also did piano and I was the only one in the house at the time. That was taking up piano lessons but I took it and then I stopped for a while. But I went back because I was watching The Waltons. And there was one show where the oldest son. He had quit something and then he went back to finish it and I thought, Oh, I'm going to go back and get my grade eight and, you know, all that stuff and, and went back and played it and we just don't have it in the homes that we've moved to. But the guitar came to me because of a show I watched on YouTube, I've been watching this couple for five years Riley and Elanya who live on a catamaran which is a dream for my husband and I. We want to get back on a sailboat and Elanya had a guitar and she could take it everywhere. And I thought, well, I can't take a piano everywhere. But I can take a guitar, right?

25:44
Yeah. And even if you could take like a synthesizer of some type, you still need the amplification and it's cumbersome. But yeah, guitar and acoustic guitar specifically because it can stand on its own. You don't need an amplifier.

25:57
Yes, yes,

26:00
Yeah, funny story about that though I used to take my electric guitar. My dad and I, we were big fishermen we were grew up in I grew up in Minnesota and 10 land of 10,000 Lakes, we would go fishing all the time. And I would bring my electric guitar with us, you know, just kind of sitting there strumming along catching fish ~ great memories.

26:20
Yes, I love fishing. Yeah. So how do you define the creative process, Steven, and where does your inspiration come from? When you go to write your music does it do you sit in certain places like how does that come up for you?

26:33
You know, a lot of times it happens in the middle of the night. Like I think it's kind of like a subconscious thing. Like I'll just wake up in the middle of the night and I will literally hear it you know, I don't hear something like angels singing I will hear an orchestration of something. And I've learned to like, keep my phone ~ right next to me. So I can kind of just, you know, dictate it, you know, in the middle of the night and then go back to sleep. So honestly, that's where a lot of it does come from, is just, it's kind of a subconscious, or I'll just, you know how you hear this a lot where people are like, they're in the shower, or they're doing something and an idea comes to them when they're doing something completely different. And I think it's just that idea of, you're engaged physically, maybe it's washing dishes or something like that, and in your mind is sort of free to run, right? And it's times like that, that I get these inspirations. And I think what's been where I've been fortunate is that I've become much more than just through meditation, I've become much more aware of what's going on in my subconscious And I'll recognize these things much more quickly. And yeah, I mean even like the song, the dream highway that song came about I was driving down the street and I was at ~ I had just purchased a guitar pedal and I was really anxious to get home and try it out. And I had come up to a light light turned red. And I just remember thinking to myself, man, when that when that light turns green, I'm in the gun it you know, and it hit me. I was like, oh, gun it. That is uh, I like that idea. And I just I wrote it down on the bag that this pedal was in and I just started playing with that idea of gun it Yeah, I'm gonna gun it. And so the song The Dream highway was actually originally titled gun it and but that's that's how that inspiration started. Just idea of gunning it down you know towards your dreams towards what makes you excited.

29:05
I love that and once you start raising your own consciousness and the vibration of your physical body and mental emotional spiritually I love the word inspiration and playing with words in spirit so when you're downloading that when it comes to because the other day we had a huge kind of storm come up and you could feel it ~ again cliff and I are sailors and when you feel that coming and I love it~ the feeling of the wind and hearing the trees rustle and I had this thing this phrase that came which is a phrase used many places where the changing of the seasons and the changes that are coming and so then I went and I watched Pocahontas because she has added their changes in the past and yeah, taking turns I thought oh, I want to go write about this and if you start paying attention to those intuitive nudges and you take steps towards Creativity, you don't always know it's so exciting. You don't know the magic that's going to unfold from that.

30:05
You don't. And it could come from anywhere. Like you said, I mean, one of the other songs on the album is Let there be light. And I just that came from it was a Saturday morning. And my wife was opening up the curtains and she's like, well let there be light. You know, when she said that, I was like, that's a song. And that song actually took me and here's the other thing that's really interesting, too. There's there was one that song took me years to write like, I got the chorus part of it done and but man, it was it, you know, maybe not the right time. You know, we're talking about timing, timing, right. But then there was another time where I woke up in the in the middle of the night. And just this phrase we call was just screaming out to me and I went, I wrote it down. I got up the next morning, I wrote the entire song. In like a half hour. Wow. Yeah. And so it's really interesting that sometimes it takes years sometimes it takes a half hour.

31:09
You know, it's amazing, I listened to also ~ I don't know if you know, Diva Premal and Miten ~ they sing spiritual music that's meditative. And it's Sanskrit mantras for healing and connecting to your soul. So, like what you're saying with your Au Natural. When I listen to music that's touching my soul and speaking to my soul, I have like tears that come to my eyes, because I know that I'm connecting to that part of the bigger part of me, which is my spiritual part. Sure. What's one key I know there's many wisdom gems that you would say to somebody to help them create the life of their dreams? Oh, yeah, there will be so many.

31:54
Well, if somebody came to say, Hey, Steve, you've done all this and, you know, I don't know even know what my dream is or, you know, I feel so stuck and alone and I'm so fed up. I'm not getting to do what I want to do. A lot of my clients come to me with those things. So I wondered how you help them either through music or through the work you do!

32:13
Yeah. Well, I think one of the things, and I'll refer to one again, one of my songs on the album, The song is called energy is everything. Hmm. And I think, you know, when you think about going on a journey, because it is it is a journey. It's not just, Hey, boy, my life really stinks right now. I'm stuck. And, and I want to get out of this rut, which I totally understand. But you don't want to get out of the rut just to get out of the rut and then just park the car. Mm hmm. Right, right. No the whole point is you want to get out of the rut so that you can continue on your journey. And what do you need? What does your vehicle literally need, it needs gas, right and so on. Same with us. I mean, we are spiritually, physically, mentally, all of this, we are a system and you get out what you put in. Right? You put garbage in your body, you're gonna get garbage out. We have a saying, in the music, production business garbage in, garbage out, you know that you can't because a lot of people think that Oh, well I'll just record it and I'll fix it in post production, you know. And it just, it doesn't happen it's you can only pretty up you know, something that's not so good so much. So you really have to be aware, first of all of your energy and how everything is energy and, and energy is everything. And so taking a look at and that could, you know cover things like your self talk, what kind of energy does yourself talk have art Do you have draining? Are you draining your reserves your fuel your tank with negative self talk? What kind of media Do you consume? What kind of music do you listen to? Again, that goes back to the, you know, the words aren't really that Yeah, subconsciously. They are energy, you know. So that would be one thing I would say is part of the journey is taking a look at your your energy consumption.

34:32
Mm hmm. What do you do then to recharge your energy? Do you just do what you said you listen to your own self talk? Do you go into nature to take time for yourself?

34:41
Yeah, for sure. I'm man, I absolutely love, love, love, love nature. I'm fortunate enough that even though I do live in Chicago, I live right on the on the edge of the city and I'm close to a really nice Forest Preserve. And so I go, you know, during when when the season is right of course I go biking as much as I possibly can. And, or if I'm not feeling, you know, feeling that then I'll go for a walk. But it's something everyday to either go for a walk, go for a bike ride to get out in nature. One thing that just lit me up with excitement was I just recently downloaded this app called picture this, and you could just go around and you take pictures of plants, and it tells you exactly what kind of plant it is. Wow, yeah. And I oh my gosh, I love it. It's like, we'll say so long to your walk because you're not gonna go anywhere. Now you're just gonna stop every. That's like, that's all, you know, but I love that kind of stuff. And you know, meditation, of course, is like my own personal meditation in the morning is Well, have you ever have you ever seen the Harry Potter movies or read the books. Okay, so, you know, in I think it's was one of the last ones where they break into gringotts Bank right? And they're and they're going through the the tunnels down below and they've they've sort of cast a spell on one of the goblins and he's leading them through the, you know, through the tunnels or whatever, right? And all of a sudden they they go through this thing it's like a waterfall right and the waterfall is the purpose of it is that it washes away any enchantments that you've been under. Hmm. And and then all of a sudden we go through that and this Goblin that's been under this spell realizes right he comes to and he's like, hey, what what in the world is going on here and he sounds the alarm right? And I think of meditation like that is like kind of going through that waterfall that just washes away any enchantments.

37:00
This is a nice way to add to your meditation because I also meditate every day. That's a non negotiable. Sure. And I read inspiration material every day. Like you get out in nature or shift my state if I'm feeling stuck myself, I get up and I move because your, your little your energy is in that state.

37:20
Sure, and I'll say one of the things, what's interesting is, as a musician, a lot of times, you know, you feel like, Well, whatever I do musically, has got to be productive, right? And what I've discovered is that, sure, there's times where you want to be productive, but there's times when you just want to use that instrument as a and I'm just, I'm doing this because I enjoy it simply because I enjoy it. Yeah, and I think that's especially been the case, since the whole time, I've gotten much more into just playing A lot more of that classical stuff that I hadn't been playing in a while. I don't have any gigs lined up for that, you know, I'd have no specific reason to be doing that other than I just love doing it.

38:11
Mm hmm. Yes, Right, instead of doing this all the time, because I have a passion for cooking. So I have a lot of cookbooks and I'm always looking at something every day and I just said to my husband before we have dinner today, you know, what would you like tonight? Would you like this or this or this? And then I get all excited. And you know, I start at six I listen to music when I'm cooking. And I'm just very much in the moment and dancing to the music and, you know, moving to the music and but that being asked, you're talking about not for sure. And that's that's been one of the gifts through this COVID-19 that to stop. And, you know, like we say smell the roses, but just be and a lot of people have a real difficulty just being or they get into what you're saying the self talk and they don't really have the tools to change that. Stop or delete or observe it without putting any judgment on it and no judgment on yourself. Learning from that moment, because, you know, that's one of my books in the future is "What is the Gift in This?" because I truly believe there's a gift in every moment if we step aside and look at it with new eyes without any attachment of what we're in.

39:22
I love that idea. Yeah.

39:26
I want you to share what was one of those big questions again, that's one of the biggest aha moments and learnings that you've had on your own self discovering transformation, if you ever kind of really put that in a big parcel. Hmm, yeah. With that big aha moment.

39:48
Well, I think, you know, I'm alluded to it earlier. I think it's that idea of "I am the difference".

39:57
I love that!

39:57
Yeah. And I you know, and what's interesting Is that is something that it well it you know, obviously it started out as a song. But I really struggled with that for like a long time, even after writing and recording the song like am I really the difference? Is it okay to say that? Right. And I think that was something that I really had to work through but there was an you know, honestly people wanted me to change that message that like I am the difference or you are that doesn't make any sense. You know, you need to tell people this message or that message and as much as I struggled with it and had a hard time articulating it at first, the the I still I knew there was something in there that I I can't let this go. I can't compromise on this message of Yes, I am the difference because it does have to be like you mentioned today Just being present. Right. And I think, you know, everybody's, of course heard the phrase, you can make a difference. And and I think that's a great phrase. But I think where it kind of falls a little short is that it's first of all you can in other words, it's something that might possibly happen in the future, but it's not happening right now. Right, you can make a difference and it's, it's something that you do outside of you maybe to somebody else, as opposed to just being in the present moment and saying, I am in this present moment, the difference just as I am, you know, I don't need a degree. I don't need validation. I mean, I think we all we all need validation to, to some degree to feel loved and to feel and community that kind of thing, but in the sense of I can My own validation I don't need to impress other people in order to feel validated. Mm hmm. So that was really a huge, huge turning. turning point for me.

42:15
That's a beautiful aha moment because even when you say it if people say that to themselves listening to this, you know, you can make a difference or, but when you take it to now even I can to I am the difference that is powerful. And it also would be very scary for a lot of people because they might think, Oh, my, what am I? What do I have to do now? And what's the responsibility? What if I fail what and then that that whole dialogue starts right? This is taking the step forward. As you know, both of us have created our new shows here and you do one show at a time. That's how you start. Yes, you don't see the whole year you don't know ~ you just want to be very present with each guest and with the message that you resonate with and how, you know, we want to be unfold naturally.

42:58
Yes, totally.

43:00
What a beautiful aha moment!

43:03
Yeah, thanks, because I think you know, when like you said, if people if you ask people to say that, first of all, if you can get them to say that they're gonna laugh, because they just don't I'm not the difference. What are you nuts? You know, because they've been just so programmed to, well, what does it mean to be the difference? Well, it means you've done all you know, what's really interesting is I'll talk to a group of people now say, Okay, tell me some people that have really made a difference. And of course, who did they mention? Oh, Mother Teresa, you know, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. All these household names have just, you know, epic world shakers, you know. Oprah, Oprah Yeah, exactly. And I think okay, well, what about your mom? You know, you know, what about, did you have a coach or a teacher in school that really made a difference in your life and, but people are so programmed to think that you got to go over overseas, or you have to have a number one, you know, bestselling book or whatever, to really make a difference. Or you, you know, you need to have hundreds of thousands of followers on your social media, this kind of a thing before you can be considered a difference maker. And just to own that and say, No, I am the difference if even just to myself, you know, I am the difference every moment of the day. Mm hmm. Yeah.

44:29
And like I've said, Responsibility is how we respond to things. And once you start being responsible for your whole life and owning it, it's just for you because you realize, Oh, I'm the creator and co creator of my life. And I get to choose the story I want to write, you know, is it a bio? Is it a drama? Is it a comedy, and all the stories that we write that we get to also choose who we want to have in that story and how powerful we are and how we can become so inspired and empowered to really Live our best life and my tagline is on your terms, because, like you're saying a lot of people might think, Oh, I have to be like Suzy Joe or the person over there doing a webinar or doing something like mine. No competition first is realizing, isn't that great that somebody else is out there doing kind of what I'm doing, there's more of us to reach other people.

45:18
Right. And there's validation that it's legitimate, you know.

45:21
Yes probably for some, but also, that whole thing from collaboration to contribution, encouraging. You know, I have a whole bunch of see words that I love playing with words. So Oh, yeah. There's Well, you know, that being a songwriter, yeah. By the way, all the all the links to Steve, to his CDs to his programs will be below the episode in the show notes.

45:45
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, I've created a program called guitar for meditation.

45:54
And that's just beautiful ~ the title.

45:56
Right "Guitar for Meditation" and now It might sound a little intimidating what it is, it's just a super simple introduction to the guitar, it's not a program to teach you how to play the guitar. It's really a lesson on how to hold the guitar. And, and create some sounds in rhythm, because the that's really the essential element of everything is rhythm. And it's, it's a way to help your body. For example, like when I what I've done is I've taken my pulse before going through this meditation process before and then afterwards and just seen my pulse slow down considerably just by going through this exercise. So it's, it's a guitar and kind of instruction program, but again, it's not hey we are learning how to play the guitar. It's just how how we can use how anybody really can use the guitar to meditate and bring about some, some calm. There's even a component in there that I call tuning the chakras. And so it's kind of fun. But it's something I think anybody can literally get their hands on. And do. And I'll even have some links where, you know, if you don't have a guitar where you can get one really, you don't need an expensive guitar, you know, you're not going to go out on tour anytime soon. But it's, you know what I'm saying? It's like, it's something that you don't you don't if you've if you've ever thought Oh, there's no way I could play guitar. That's not for me. That's not the way to look at it. It's just if you can sit still, you know, and and even just hold a guitar and Let your hand fall on it even you know, this, this will be something that will help you. Because I think sound is so powerful and it's like, like you said before early, it's something you can take with you anywhere. And so that's that's what we got.

48:20
Oh, thank you for creating that. I can't wait to look at that as I pick up my guitar and, and do exactly just hold it holding a guitar just like you said. Yeah, I love that. Steve, thank you so much. This has been total joy. Thank you! (Absolutely) for you, sharing from your heart and soul, your wisdom and how music can heal each one of us and empower you to live your best life. Namaste Steve, Oh, thank you, Namaste.

48:49
Thank you for listening to the heart soul wisdom podcast with Moira Sutton. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please join our community at moirasutton.com and continue the discussion on our Facebook page "Create the life you love." You will be part of a global movement connecting with other heart centered people who are consciously creating the life they love on their own terms. Together we can raise our consciousness for the greater good of humanity and for our planet.