Tag: inspiration

Back on September 1st I wrote about how I used the Law of Attraction and the Law of Right Action to attract legendary singer-songwriter-guitarist Melissa Etheridge.

At that time I hadn’t met her yet or had my songwriting lesson with her.

Well, now I have.

With Melissa Etheridge (!)

As I write this in Los Angeles, I had my session with her yesterday, at her home.

She met me outside her door, hugged me, gave me that Melissa million dollar smile, and said, “I didn’t know you were a fan.”

A “fan” is an understatement.

I’m a fan-atic.

I’ve been in awe of her performing and her music since around 1995.

To be standing with her was surreal.

As it turns out, Melissa is a fan of my work, as well as the work of the rest of the teachers from the movie The Secret. She’s personal friends with Tony Robbins. (Tony introduced ho’oponopono to her and her sweet spouse.)

She reads all the deep-end metaphysical books. She says she began around 2003 by picking up Ken Wilber’s The Theory of Everything, which is like learning how to swim by being dropped in the Atlantic ocean.

Her spirituality and understanding of manifestation has helped her awaken and achieve even greater levels of success in more recent years.

She told me that laying on her back, with cancer, and watching the movie The Secret, forced her to think about what she wanted in her life.

“If I am this powerful being who gave myself cancer and can create whatever I want, then I want healed, I want to make more music, and I want to win an Oscar.”

Of course, she went on and did all of that.

My time with Melissa was about songwriting, but she began it by asking about my life in music, my books, and then showing me her guitar collection.

Her favorite guitars are in the trailer that goes on the road with her. But she has a guitar room with them lining the walls like playable art.

And she has a studio with old and new and prototype guitars. (Ovation is releasing a ME electric in January). She also has more guitars in storage.

In Melissa’s guitar room in her home

Of course, I related, understood, and told her of my own collection, which she says she wants to see one day.

We went in her home studio to focus on my actual lesson.

We each had a guitar. I had my songbook, where I jot ideas and snippets and songs. She said the songbook is sacred. (Later, I had her sign mine, making it even more priceless to me.)

Melissa wrote this in my sacred songwriting notebook

From there she had me pick a song idea. She wanted to know the why for writing a song.

“What’s important to say in the song? Why do you want to write it? What’s the intention for it?”

She told me how she wrote some of her own songs, first thinking about why she wanted to write them.

She explained that for her song, Pulse, she wanted people to know that the person who went into a nightclub and shot dozens of people did so because he was in pain.

She also explained that for the Al Gore slide show about global warning, she wanted people to know that “I have to change,” not anyone else.

I found her to be a deep thinker, cutting to the core with her messages.

I told her about wanting to tell people how they could be happy now, and manifest their lives using the Law of Attraction, and more.

She nodded, accepting my reasons.

From there, for Melissa, it all begins with what I call a brain dump.

“Just write words,” she said. “Let it be okay whatever comes.”

She also advised to “fall in love with words.”

She uses a paperback thesaurus to look up other words, so she isn’t using too common or too cliche of words.

While I had been using Masterwriter, a popular software for songwriters, I found using a printed thesaurus slower but more enlightening.

The time spent looking up a word gave my mind time to think, and the alternate words were often surprising and triggered other thoughts.

We began with me wanting to write a song about Miracles, since my new book is titled The Miracle.

Melissa and some of her guitars

But within minutes the song became about The Great Something, a concept I write about in my book The Secret Prayer.

Instead of saying God, or Divine, or Universe, I refer to the super power behind all of life as “The Great Something.”

Melissa loved “The Great Something”‘ because it made you want to know more.

In a song, it would make you want to listen.

I got excited watching the song unfold with Melissa’s help.

Melissa often writes pages of words and phrases, knowing that later she will edit them.

“Editing is the fun part,” she told me.

She pointed to the back cover of my album, One More Day, to the line, “Self-help messages in 3 minutes or so.”

“That’s the challenge,” she said, smiling bright. “To condense pages of ideas into a three minute song.”

“That’s why I’m here,” I said. 🙂

Her songwriting template, more often than not, is to write a verse, then go right to the chorus, then to a versus, chorus, bridge, and chorus again.

“It’s stating the problem in the verse, and often a solution in the chorus,” she explained. “The next verse might spell out the problem more, and the chorus will again offer the upbeat solution.”

One of the biggest insights for me was the idea of writing in the first person.

Melissa says that first person songs are more personal and hit home with people.

Second person, or ‘you’ oriented songs, are one step removed from the listener and have less impact.

More often than not, she writes in the first person.

Melissa showing me her all-time favorite guitar, a Fender Telecaster. “If there’s a fire and I can only grab one guitar, it’s this one.”

I started to play with the idea of writing The Great Something song in the first person. I instantly felt more connected to the song, and felt more power in the message.

I also saw myself get more excited and inspired.

“Always write from inspiration,” she had told me earlier.

“Get to that place where you have tingles of excitement for whatever you are about to write,”she added. “Never write without the tingles.”

She doesn’t meditate but often walks in nature, looks at trees and flowers, reads some poetry, reviews songs from people she admires, from Bruce Springsteen to Neil Diamond, all to ignite her inspiration.

I told her I smoke cigars.

She didn’t seem to relate to that.

Of course, she lives in a state where cannabis is legal.

Later she asked me to sing for her.

Now try to imagine that.

I’m a star-struck beginner at singing, sitting in the home studio of a rock and roll legend who has the most soaring voice of all time, and she says, “Sing for me.”

That’s like having Elvis ask you to sing.

Well, I did.

Melissa showing me her rare Rickenbacker “Cadillac”, an electric 12-string that can be turned into a 6-string with an awkward device

I played a snippet of my song One More Day, off my One More Day album, and a snippet of my song Today’s the Day, off my Strut album.

I also played a little instrumental, to give her a sense of what Guitar Monk Mathew Dixon and I create.

I was off key, out of step, and out of tune, but I did it anyway.

Melissa smiled big and said she bets the recorded versions with the band are stellar.

I then asked about singing advice.

Melissa took a breath and gave me a long, wise, hypnotic answer about watching the Ed Sullivan Show on TV and being influenced by Tom Jones, Janis Joplin, Robert Plant and others.

She noticed their joy in singing was what was so captivating.

Melissa showing a “Mustang” guitar given to her by the Ford Institute

She went on to say she wanted her music to be ballsy, not girlie.

She didn’t want to sing head voice, though she could.

She wanted something deeper and harder.

I related and told her I often felt more comfortable singing with a baritone guitar, which lowered my voice into my chest.

“That’s a good place for your voice,” she said. “It’s at home there.”

She also gave advice on performing.

“Never perform sitting down,” she said. “It cuts off your breathing.”

“And always eat, be hydrated, and get plenty of rest, so you can deliver your performance with full power.”

I’ll be processing my time with Melissa Etheridge for the rest of my life.

I found her open, loving, generous, spiritual, fearless, talented, present, friendly and wise.

Thanks to Melissa, my new album has a new title

She even invited me to speak on her next cruise ship concert. (!)

I was a fan (fanatic) before meeting her in person.

Today I’m in love.

Hey Melissa, I want to come over – again!

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – Please note that whenever you have an expert coach you, your experience and expertise leap in incalculable measures. Melissa Etheridge heard a limiting belief come out of my mouth that I didn’t hear and I was the one who said it. We all need a coach. Consider Miracles Coaching.

Sometimes I feel like “Inspiration’s Puppet.”

I feel as if I am just a stenographer for – as I called it in my book, The Secret Prayer – “The Great Something.”

I receive an idea from this “vast unknown something” and before you know it I am watching my hands move over the keyboard as the bursting concept in my head evolves into an article, post, song, or book.

But *I* had little to do with it.

All *I* said was YES.

I think we are all like that.

We get ideas and – because we have free will – we can refuse to follow them, or we can say YES and act on them.

Struggle happens when we reject the inspiration.

Success happens when we say YES to the inspiration.

Some of my greatest works were penned by me as Inspiration’s Puppet.

And they were done in record time.

I wrote my global bestselling book Zero Limits in only two weeks.

I wrote the recent manifesto The Awakened Millionaire in about three weeks.

Inspired manifesto

But this doesn’t happen with just books.

When Guitar Monk Mathew Dixon and I enter the studio, we often don’t have any idea what we will record.

But we go in open, willing, and ready.

And out of the space we make, inspiration guides us to create such musical gems as At Zero and The Enlightenment Audio and so much more.

And it all happens pretty fast.

You can do this, too.

So, how do you make inspiration your friend?

First: Go to work.

Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy. ~ Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Second: Set a time.

I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning. ~Peter De Vries

Third: Persist.

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. – Jack London

Simple, right?

Another example:

A few years ago, in late 2012, I decided that I was done with music.

But then I set an intention to write ten original songs and record them within eight weeks.

It was an “impossible” goal.

After all, I had no songs, no motivation, and no belief.

How would I pull this off?

BUT I stated a clear intention, which got my inner motors revved up, and to my own delight and surprise, songs came “out of nowhere.”

And yes, I recorded that album – all original, all by me, and all in record time.

My band for all my singer-songwriter albums

That album was called Sun Will Rise.*  It and all of my singer-songwriter albums are at http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/JoeVitale1

In a way, I “pulled” inspiration from thin air with a clear intention.

But sometimes inspiration just appears without an intention.

An example:

Back around 2010, I walked around a Rolls-Royce Phantom, the doors swung open so I could peer inside, and mumbled out loud, “That masterpiece is big enough to have meetings in it.”

Even as I said it, I sensed it was a defining moment in my life.

I bought that divine car, and as I filled out the papers for it, I was writing the sales letter in my head for what was to become the now famous Rolls-Royce Phantom Mastermind.

For the next three years I had people flying in from all over the world – Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Japan and more  – all coming to me for one reason: to sit in the car and brainstorm with me.

Celebrity fitness model Jennifer Nicole Lee was also a Phantom Rider (and ABC News filmed it)

And those masterminds helped pay for the car.

(I later sold the Rolls, bought the Fisker Karma electric car that was a nightmare of problems, and then dumped it to buy a Bentley. And yes, I currently host Bentley Masterminds.)

I love inspiration.

Anyone can do this.

It takes intent, faith, action, and persistence.

But the end result is something pretty glorious.

You get to be “Inspiration’s Puppet.”

How cool is that?

Ao Akua,

joe

PS – * You can read about the making of Sun Will Rise at http://blog.mrfire.com/the-fifth-miracle/

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Later this year I’ll be releasing a new book titled, The Secret Prayer.

It will reveal a three-step formula for attracting miracles through right prayer.

Prayer is a way to activate the Law of Attraction by requesting an intention and inviting inspiration.

In researching, I’m reading really old books, such as Prayer: The Forgotten Secret, from 1906, and really new books, such as Healing Words by Larry Dossey and Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson.

From what I can see, prayer has been around since the beginning of time.

But as we all know, they don’t always seem to work.

So what’s the secret to having a prayer deliver?

Let’s look at incorrect prayer first:

First, I don’t think most people actually believe their prayers. They pray without any real belief that anyone is listening or anything will happen. They simply “toss” one to the sky, like a stranded person on an island throwing a note in a bottle into the ocean. They hope someone picks it up. Then they hope someone acts on their plea.

Second, desperation is the other problem. Most prayers are just begging. People pray for help, solutions, miracles, healing, money and more. But when they pray, it’s often because they don’t see a way out and are pleading for intervention.

Third, most people don’t take action. This is a common thing in the world of metaphysics. People think their praying is action, when it’s really an action, but not the entire blueprint to results.

Again, prayer is a way to activate the Law of Attraction by requesting an intention and inviting inspiration.

So what’s the right way to pray?

“When you put yourself into the state of the wish fulfilled and think from it, you are praying, and in a way your reasoning mind does not know, your wish will become a fact in your world. You can be the man or woman you want to be, when you know how to pray.”  – Neville, The Right Way to Pray, 1967 lecture, http://realneville.com/txt/the_secret_of_prayer.htm

Subliminal and Audible Prayers

First, begin with a spirit of gratitude.

To me, this is the core issue. If we all felt more gratitude for what we have, even the things we complain about, we’d shift our focus, our mind, our thoughts, our energies, our spirit, our direction, our action, and more. Gratitude for the now is the number one way to begin any prayer. When you sincerely do it and feel it, you can stop with this step, too. It’s that powerful.

Second, requesting rather than begging is wiser.

After all, we don’t know the big picture or the whole story. Begging for a certain outcome is an ego trip; it’s pretending we know it all. We don’t. We barely know a tiny percentage of what is happening in our personal world at any one time. A wiser approach is to make a request but acknowledge that something better may be more appropriate. End requests with the phrase, “This or something better.” This step requires faith.

Third, acting on the insights, inspiration, intuition.

We co-create results. The Higher Power (God, Divine, Universe, etc) works through you, not for you. When you see an opportunity, seize it. When you receive an inspiration, act on it. You are the missing ingredient in most results from prayer. The famous joke about the man who prayed to win the lottery but was reminded to buy a ticket, is good to remember.

“Prayer is the effort to bring the human soul into tune with the Infinite.” – W. J. Dawson, Prayer: The Forgotten Secret

My book will explore all this and more when it comes out later in the year. For now, I wanted to give you a crash course in prayer.

If you really want your prayers answered, then follow a proven formula:

1. Be grateful.

2. Detached request.

3. Inspired Action.

Try it today and note the difference.

Expect Miracles.

Ao Akua,

joe

Expect Miracles!

PS – If you have other pointers or stories about prayers that work, please let me know with a comment below. Thank you.

PPS – If you want to explore prayers and music, be sure to check out my latest album http://www.InvokingDivinity.com

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