A New View

if it’s easier, listen to these thoughts in a slightly different way on Not Your Average Music Therapist podcast, episode 12!

We just moved.

Wow, what an adjustment this is!

Just down the street, but probably one of our most challenging moves.

The stress. The time. The exhaustion. The emotion.

Moving is hard!

And the more you do it, the more you realize that it’s just as hard if not harder each time.

This is a huge transition whether I want to believe it or not. Not only are we in a new space, but we’re living with a new person, my brother. I love my brother to bits, but it’s also another body in the middle of my space. Or should I say… our space.

This is not all mine and my husband’s anymore. We are sharing.

It’s also so difficult, because the normal everyday things you would reach out your hand to grab are just out of reach… or more than just, they are wayyy out of reach. As in, they have not yet found their place, and I’m left in the middle of two men asking me where to put things. Yes, I happen to be keen on organizing. I have a love-hate relationship with it because it just takes so much time! I’m in the middle of “I don’t know where it goes.. it doesn’t have a place yet” and “It goes right here because that’s where style meets function for that item”

Besides living with a new person and finding the “just right” spot for each and every one of our (but let’s be real.. my) items, this is hard because my environment is changing. The layout is not the same. It’s not as easy to get to the bathroom, or the kitchen, or the living room. Some things are easier like having our cars parked right outside our door, but other things are a challenge, like having less storage space.

On a different note, I’m seeing how things all around me are different.

I love the sweet and simple ritual in the morning of taking my spot on the couch, snuggling under either our Star Wars blanket or my turquoise blanket, sipping a steamy beverage like one of my favorite teas, and just staring out the window. I love sitting still and taking my eyes just one layer outside of our home and into the outdoors. I love seeing the trees bend and move with the breeze, the sunlight shine and hide, the windows of my neighbors who may also be peering out at the very same time.

What I’m noticing is that, very obviously speaking, my views are different now. I have new windows that have the cutest square frames on them. The light is not as bright, but there’s more of a mystery in the story of the layer outside of our walls. Our back door and windows looks into a Narnia like walkway of snow-topped trees just aching for us to explore. And there’s something so poetic about the teal lamppost stationed outside of our home. It’s a guide, it’s a guard, it’s a marker of where we are.

Although there are definite quirks to where we live, I am already seeing the shimmer of appreciation of our new surroundings. I am seeing that this view is so totally different, but it’s different in a good, unique, new, and true to its own time - way.

This is where we are at this moment in time, and I’m starting to fall in love.

I can’t help but think about this in terms of my career as a music therapist. Maybe you’re a music therapist too, or maybe you do something drastically different with your life. This may still apply.

I’ve had struggles and difficulties, challenges, and embarrassments. And a new view was all it took to shake me out of the funk of the season I was in.

Going from a steady, supervised internship to a job where I was on my own gave me the strength to do it on my own and opportunity for creativity when I got stuck.

Moving cities, lent me the hand I needed to become part of a more supportive community of music therapists and find a job that suited my desires.

Starting a new job in hospice care gave me the passion for end of life I needed at that time of my life. I worked with people and families at such a vulnerable state, and this perspective prepared me for my grandmother’s death a few years later.

Views matter.

Walking away from music therapy after a hurtful experience gave me the space to feel, grieve, and grow. I used other skills that were buried within me, and met some amazing people I may have not met otherwise. I explored my city in a new way, joined groups that were outside the circle of music therapy, and I developed a specific part of my voice that I would not trade for the world.

And this new view, the longer I was in it, showed me that I wanted to be back working as a music therapist. With the limited view I had at the time, my soul was longing for connection in the way I had in music therapy. Relationships were calling to me through music, and I had to respond.

I came back into the music therapy field with new strength and an added sense of self. I had more drive to meet my client’s families, facilitate opportunities for friendships between the care staff, and advocate for music therapy as a clinical service.

My new view game me energy to start my own business, work with my own clients, and go through all the little steps it took to get to where I am now.

Where I am now is not static. I will continue to move and grow and change and see things differently, but I appreciate where I have been. It informs who I am and how I move through the world.

Many of these little pieces of my story have to do with changed jobs, or a move across state lines, but there are so many other ways to get a fresh perspective on your work or your life.

One big way is through supervision. I can’t even tell you how much my eyes were opened when I first started working with my supervisor. She showed me a view that was out of my glance, not even in the periphery. She took my hand and showed me a new world - a new way of thinking and of working. It was a fresh perspective. I suddenly had much more interest in what I was doing and how I was doing it.

You may be feeling stuck where you are. Maybe you’re in a job that you really don’t like but you’re in it because it supports you financially. I wonder if something can help you gain a new view. Can you talk with a friend about your situation? Can you work with a supervisor? Can you apply for another job or another department within the company you work for?

Maybe you’re trying to start a business or you are advocating for your profession. It can get so overwhelming and feel like you’re being crushed under a pile of never ending tasks, never ending steps. I wonder if getting some guidance on those steps would help let the light in. I wonder if finding a business class to take or an ebook to buy could give you the fresh perspective you need to help motivate you once again.

I know the feeling, and I hear you when you share that you are stuck, you are frustrated, and you are tired. And it is no easy task to magically see a new way. But I do still think there is hope. I do believe that there is space for a new perspective.

And whether it is through supervision or coaching, talking with a friend, or landing a new job, may you enjoy the process and find that new view.