I was reading the Guardian the other day. It’s not for political reasons but pragmatic ones. It’s free to use. It’s also not a paper that I get cross about (unlike some tabloids that raise my blood pressure).

I have been following a series of articles written by amateur journos called A Moment That Changed Me. These individual pieces are always interesting and occasionally thought provoking.

This one is headlined ‘I threw away the sheet music …’

In essence, a dyslexic harpist was hating the harp, hating that she had to learn to read music, hating that there were two disciplines that couldn’t quite exist in her head and hating that she had come to hate playing the harp.

Her father, no mean musician himself, summed the situation up for her. ‘It’s not about reading music. It’s called playing music for a reason. Have you thought about just … playing?’

Simple words but suddenly the harpist discovered a whole new effortless passion. She rediscovered her passion for ancient Irish harp tunes – and they were never written down either. She stopped worrying about reading music and started playing for the sake of playing.

She says ‘I no longer felt like a failure or a fraud. This was proof there was more than one way forward.’

So, to bring things to us, how can we use this?

Here are a couple of thoughts that probably lead to cliché:

Keep focus on what keeps you healthy, despite well-meaning input. You are the only expert on you.

Don’t be afraid to stop doing something. You never know where it will lead.

The Guardian has some really rather thought provoking articles.

Someone, sometime will say something that will have a profound impact on you. Don’t forget to say Thank You.

Alex

A Moodscope member