Can you see the Beauty?

It started out as a 3 minute song that I released on my album: Sage & Wild Roses. It was originally written with a mindful message that you can DANCE to. A few years later, I created this 6 minute music video as an invitation to hear and see this song in a different, more intimate way. For me, it is a moving experience to watch Micha St-Pierre interpret my sentiments through DANCE… on the cold and beautiful Carcross beach. It was captured on FILM through the lens of Marten Berkman one Yukon October day.

Can you see the Beauty? Lyrics by Nicole Edwards. Screen shot of Micha St-Pierre by Marten Berkman. 

Life can be both brutal and beautiful.
Suffering and beauty are constant.
The challenge is becoming calm and grounded enough to be able to
SEE the Beauty despite the suffering.

Focus attention towards BEAUTY using your eyes or mind’s eye.
Look. Remember. Imagine.

When we are stuck at the bottom of the barrel, it can feel almost impossible to see a crack of light, let alone Beauty. Try this practice to grow your capacity to feel something other than suffering. There is so much that we cannot change or control. What we can do, is use our Brain Changing Power to notice our feelings, triggers, and pain, and then to focus our attention on something preferable. This is different than burying, hiding or ignoring our fears or shame. When we notice and choose, we are actively calling on the Super-Hero within… and this cultivates RESILIENCE.
I invite you to practice shifting your focus toward BEAUTY. 

Love, gratitude and grief can all exist at the same time.
Be gentle and compassionate with yourself.

I do my best to notice Beauty and then to intentionally soak it up in order to be able to re-call it when I need a boost. Where is Beauty in your life? Can you nurture it inside… to remember at times when you catch yourself with the blues? When I savour and consciously focus on the sweetness of the moment when it arises, it reminds me that… I CAN GROW that feeling. Even if it doesn’t last long, it’s IN ME. 

As a song-writer, I’ve learned that when inspiration hits: Don’t squander it! Honour it! Document it NOW so I won’t forget. Even if I’m lethargic and not really in the mood, I muster up the gumption to just document a simple draft idea that can be edited later. The more I honour the creative spark in the moment, the more readily I can feel the inspiration flow and I’m better able to access and exercise my creativity muscle. 

Similarly, I’m practicing NOTICING when there is a glimpse of humour, lightness or beauty… no matter how fleeting. When it arrives, I soak it up how I can. I need to… in order to be able to recall what it feels like without that heavy coat of pain and depression weighing me down. I hold on to the feeling or memory of: love, light, laughter and beauty….to GROW the PEACE… within myself, within my home and within my community. The Divine exists deep inside of us. How do you nurture the flame within? When our emotions are flooding, it is hard to “access” our tools. Be gentle and compassionate with yourself. One step at a time. 

“What do you do with your fire? Do you heat your home or do you burn it down?”

Lyrics by Nicole from her song What do you do with your fire?

Mustering up some Gumption = Courage, Determination and Repetition

The highest priority in this moment is to BREATHE IN the Beauty when it presents itself. We can begin to open a brain pathway to invite more peace, love and light into our brain and our life. Using neuroplasticity we can make less room for the intrusive negative thoughts and more room for self-compassion and Beauty. 

Special THANKS to: Dancer, Micha St-Pierre; Filmmaker, Marten Berkman and Production assistant, Christine Klassen-St Pierre

Created with gratitude within the traditional territories of the Kwanlin Dün and Carcross-Tagish First Nations and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council.