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FEAR!
The Hardest Thing.

It may not always seem that way, but you are on a Hero's Quest. We all are. Today is my birthday (46!!), and I am committing today to romance my life like a hero. A creative hero. (Even if I don't always feel like one.) It's part of the human story, our archetypal...

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On making meaningful changes.

Habits have been my nemesis since forever. (Building the good ones, that is.) We are inundated with ways in which to self-improve our lives, our health, our diet, our mind, our productivity, our practice, our relationships, our accounting, our time, etc. Just about...

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The theft of wildness.

Last summer while visiting my family's favorite spot in Maine, my little one Adrian and I were joyfully clambering over some of those ancient glacier-scraped rocks on the shoreline by our cottage. Alas, we were quite shocked when came upon a dead harbor seal pup who...

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The process of Wintering.

I've been taking some time over the past few weeks and months for some deep internal processing, allowing a great deal of space for a process of "wintering.” Although I would not have called it that, had it not been for Katherine May’s beautiful book, Wintering: The...

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Relieving the ego’s pain points.

I know I'm not the only person around who wants things.The things that we want come in many different shapes and sizes, but I am talking about the Big Things.The things that our inner being is calling out for. The things that, if we look closely enough, cause us the...

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A solution to transcend worry.

I'm sitting in a room full of unopened packing boxes in my new home.It's been a time of rapid upheaval and change in my family's life. My back aches from lifting and my mind is cluttered (just like my new dining room).Yesterday I opened a box labeled "AM Desk" and put...

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How to believe in your ideas

I know you may not talk about it, but I know you have A Thing that's been on your mind for a while. That quiet vision, that unspoken desire, that shimmering dream, that kernel of an idea, that sticky feeling that you really, truly, wholly want something. Maybe it's a...

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Being courageous

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Wizard of Oz. I even had a mural of Oz painted in my girlhood bedroom!  My parents were crazy about classic films, and we had a non-stop stream of movies playing on our television during my entire childhood. But this film...

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Perfectionism.

It was over dinner the other night that Adrian, my darling six-year old, eagerly reminded my husband and I that we hadn't yet asked him what happened at school that day. Well, it wasn't pretty. In a nutshell, he became so frustrated with himself that he couldn't spell...

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Naked singing

W R I T T E N  B Y  Allison Mondel No, no, no. Not what you think. Not really, anyway. But why does singing sometimes feel so naked? Especially when you are going solo. Just you and your voice. You and your sound. You and your thoughts. (Oh, the thoughts!) You and...

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Your one and only voice

W R I T T E N  B Y  Allison Mondel When I began graduate school I became instant friends with a talented singer who entered at the same time. One afternoon we were leaving class and walking across Harvard Square, headed to our favorite tea café. As we were walking,...

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Take back control of your voice

One of my favorite movies is The Wizard of Oz. I had a mural of Oz painted on my childhood bedroom wall. I even had the theme of the decorations for my bat mitzvah reception decked in Oz technicolor. One of the most creative was a "smoky" sign  made of wire and cotton...

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shifting gears

I will never forget that time when I stalled out and was stuck in a rental car in the middle of a busy road in Limerick, Ireland. I had literally just pulled out of the rental parking lot, on my way to Kildare, driving crossways east across the country by myself. On...

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I don’t know what I’m doing

Can you recall a time when you had no idea what you were doing? (I have these moments, like, all the time.) Say you are learning something new, or practicing something, or in a rehearsal, and those dreaded words bubble up from your mind: I have no idea what I'm doing....

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how does fear show up in singing?

I love the 80s. Especially Alf and pop music. (Ah, the music!) My personal Spotify playlist is packed with gems from the 80s, and when I listen to them, I have a smile plastered on my face and feel that all is right with the world.  One of my favorite bands of all...

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Allison Mondel
Allison Mondel is a musician, teacher, and mystic. Her greatest delight is to understand how things work, and share her wisdom with others. She writes about the higher nature of the voice, transcending personal roadblocks, and realizing your creative vocation.

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