This Needs To Be Said…

Of course I have know idea what It is that I’m about to say, but I kind of feel it working it’s way UP to the surface of my conscious awareness… LOL

…and hopefully there will be some significant value for you in what I’m about to write…

Last night was a SERIOUS “mind blowing” trip in the best sense of the word.

About 6 months ago I was invited by my old friend Mitch Katz to be a part of his growing “New Morning Songwriters Series” in Woodbury CT.  I KNEW it was gonna be AWESOME because another old friend, Sloan Wainwright was on the bill.

So I was excited to make music with her again. The last time we played together was at the 2014 Posi Awards.

So I was looking forward to that, and I KNEW that the other two songwriters on the bill, Anne Marie Menta and Eric Paradine would be a blast to get to know as well…

What I hadn’t envisioned was how many other old friends from my days living in CT and Westchester County NY would show up as well.

That literally blew my circuits…
Fried my transformation transducers…
Flipped my switches…
Sparked my transponders…
Triggered my neuro transmitters to hum, sparkle and shine like a jar full of fireflies…

Suzanne was there with a friend of hers, Sarah who was the neighbor of another friend of mine… who has since passed away (I found out sadly last night). Suzanne and Sarah are literally friends today some 20 years later because of the links and connections that I had something to do with… (Hopefully that makes sense).

Rosemary, one of my NLP students from my days in New Haven CT was there because she is friends of Anne Marie Menta, one of the other songwriters on the bill who I’d never met before…

Brian was there from my days in the Hudson Valley Musicians Alliance…

What needs to be said apparently is that we are all connected. We are all connected in ways that literally boggle the imagination.

It was indescribably DELICIOUS!

And I am also sparked up to welcome a bunch of new folks to the Transformation Nation email list. 
And BTW if you are one of them thar folks, WELCOME!!! This is the thing I do almost every day. I stare at a blank page until something starts moving through… sometimes I make a fresh video, sometimes I write but it’s always about sharing some brief, transformational thoughts and a transformation tune.
(And BTW if you ever don’t want to be on the list, I seriously will not take it personally if you use the “unsubscribe” link at the very bottom of EVERY email. OK?  You can also just read these whenever you need a little lift. My goal is to be here for you whenever. But there is no midterm exam or test ok? Whatever you can take in. Go ahead and take it in. Whatever you can’t, just filter out.)

Speaking of “sharing” I just plastered a bunch of pics up on my MarkShepardSongs Facebook page ( would you be willing to take a moment and help spread this love by clicking this link and “liking” it? I think I have only 247 of those cute little likes and it’s high time I started asking for them LOL.  ;o)
https://www.facebook.com/MarkShepardSongs/

Thanks for doing that whenever you get a chance!

Now, where was I?

Oh yes. The connections of real people connecting with other real people is a wonderful web that we constantly weave throughout our lives. And you never really know how YOU have influenced other people. And most of the time other people are totally clueless about how THEY have influenced you.

For example, Suzanne who I mentioned above was the first one to figure out that the reason I was so sick and lethargic and exhausted all the time back in the 1990’s with significant digestive issues was that I was eating wheat and other “white, starchy, high glycemic foods”.

She got me off of the high carb, “healthy whole grain diet” that we’ve been hypnotized into thinking is “healthy”. Without her influence in my life I might not be alive today. Because I was not only sick but being sick made me feel too hopeless and helpless to get my music out into the world… and pursuing your dream takes energy and vitality…

My other old friend, Rosemary turned me on to a business coach Fabienne Fredrickson who specialized in helping Holistic Practitioners like me to actually earn a living helping other people…

In so many ways, small and large, we touch each other’s lives and influence each other.

The challenge is to pay attention to the people who influence us in a positive way and increase our “exposure” to those people and decrease our environmental exposure to the toxic, negative influences. And I include the mainstream media in that group. Years ago I stopped watching TV and in particular the NEWS.

It’s hypnosis people. And we are all “suggestible”. Personal mastery is a lot about “Mental Hygiene”.

Your Mind Mastery Mission Today (should you choose to accept it) is to set your “filters” a little bit more precisely around what you allow into your field of awareness and what you filter OUT.

There are no hard and fast rules other than this:
If what you are exposing yourself to socially and environmentally helps you to feel good in a sustainable way. Keep that.

If it doesn’t feel good, begin to weed your garden. You can do it gradually or all at once. However you do it is fine. Maybe your first step is to just be aware of what the media is attempting to get you to do….

For example, the first thing I did YEARS ago was stop watching the news. The news is designed to increase anxiety. Fear is the great motivator… A report on crime increases sales of certain commodities, drugs, services, products etc. A report on love, health and well being increases sales of what? Not much.

Got it? Cool!

And today to support this message and mission that flowed out of my fingers is…

a medley of 3 songs we recorded live last week at the Last Concert of Mark Shepard and The Rogue Mystics, click this link to hear it… :o)

I sang the middle song of the medley last night at the New Morning Songwriter’s Series, it’s Song #127, “Waiting For A Sign”. The other two are new songs and more along the lines of “chant”.

Enjoy!

Peace, Love, And GROOVYNESS! for the rest of your Sunday!

– Mark

p.s. for all you newbies here to the “almost daily Mind Mastery Message” The link to the song leads to a vast reservoir of songs you can download for fah-ree (or pay what you want). When you click the “download link” just put in 0.00 for the price or whatever you choose to pay to support this OCD  songwriting thing I do… :o)

p.p.s. If you aren’t yet on the Transformation Nation email list, just use the handy form that we’ve plastered all over this website and you will get the very next issue that I issue… :o)

If you are ready and would like to go deeper with me… here’s how

Click a link below to:

• Review my hypnosis video programs
• Check out individual hypnosis sessions
• Or contact me today

Or just leave a comment below 🙂