Planetary Relief and Focused Intention

Posted on March 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

We are pummeled, on a daily basis now, with powerful images of the force of nature as She rains and shakes and shifts and overflows. We are also pummeled, on a daily basis, with powerful images of the force of people, as we unite in protest against tyranny and dictatorship, as we kill each other in the name of God and just cause, and as we cause major disasters in the name of capitalism and industrial progress.

The art of appreciation, focus and communication

How can we set the tone for a more harmonious co-creation? How can we empower each other to collaborate in the spirit of love? How can we allow ourselves to receive the good that abounds and let the energy of good vibrations reverberate into the world at large?

These are some of the main tools that help me stay focused and inspired:

Appreciation – Express what you appreciate as often as you can, in words and action, and bask in the feeling of that which you appreciate as you go about your day. Write it, sing it, speak it, show it in all kinds of ways you  can think of and watch how your perspective and the world around you transforms as a result.

Focus – Keep you eye on what it is you wish to accomplish, create, receive and avoid fear based distractions. Give your attention, time and energy to that which you love and want to see blossom and thrive. Do this with any scenario that has your attention and see what happens.

Communication – Share your strengths, vision and gifts in ways that gives you joy and feels good in your heart and soul. Ask for help when you need it and receive the love that abounds with open arms, also when it comes in unexpected ways.

These simple tools have helped me in more ways than I can describe. By keeping my eye on the ball, giving and receiving in the spirit of joy and heartfelt communication and practicing the art of appreciation as much as I can, I am able to stay positive and creative in the face of adversity and turmoil. By focusing on the positive aspects, I can see the beauty and creative potential in people and situations that otherwise would have scared me and inhibited my expression.

Here’s my song Did You Know as I performed it with cellist Erlend Habbestad at an amazing venue called Smöga in Sweden last summer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4swoKym5y5Q

Love and Blessings, Caroline

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Posted in Caroline's Concerts, Climate Solutons, Healing, Liberation, Planetary Relief, Self Confidence, Self Empowerment, Songwriting, World Peace

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Heartfelt Success

Posted on February 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

THE MEANING OF SUCCESS
How do we define success in a world where incessant focus on the material and external is so starkly contrasted by inequality and struggle for survival? How dare we be so obsessed with our own hoarding and self glorification when the larger part of us, our extended family in the world and mother earth herself calls out for our focused heart connection?

Here’s my definition: Success happens when my heart and soul is enriched by my being, when I follow the song in my heart to it’s most joyous potential and let that joy reverberate in words, music and action into the world at large. My success is not defined by sales or ratings. It is measured only by my passionate involvement and how well I care for the life and talent that is available to me at any given time.

Thank YOU for being part of the passionate musical journey that sent my heart soaring in 2010! Your joyous participation helped my music expand into Sweden, New York, Washington DC, Tennessee, Arizona and more of California, and brought about a glorious gig opportunity in San Francisco for 2011.

THE NORWAY DAY FESTIVAL 2011
On April 30th and May 1st, I will be representing Norway as entertainer at the Norway Day Festival in San Francisco. I have been asked to open the festival, sing the Norwegian and American national anthems, give two feature performances at the main stage (one each day) as well as several pub performances during the day. This is a great honor and I am very excited to create a most delicious music menu for this.

The menu will include songs from my most recent albums, Exposed, Being Totally Alive and Venus Envy, as well as songs from my upcoming musical, Come Hell or High Waters (which is aaaalmost ready!). I also plan to include some of my dad’s material as an honorary part of the performance, since he was one of Scandinavia’s most renowned entertainers of the last century.
Love and Blessings, Caroline
(Photo shoot in Central Park  w/ Ingvild Waerhaug’s designer dresses)
Photo shoot with Caroline Waters

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Posted in Caroline's Concerts, Liberation, Life and Career, Self Confidence, Self Empowerment, Vocal freedom

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Passion Versus Workaholism

Posted on December 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

Blurring the lines between work and play

I learned early on to blur the lines between work and play. My dad was a master at making work fun and I assimilated his attitude in many ways. As many of you know I worked as a performing artist from a very young age. And I loved it. The only problem was that performing often took the place of hanging out and playing with other kids. And in order to sustain such a young career, other things, like homework had to be done at warp speed. By the time I was ten years old, I was able to juggle school, sports and my career as an entertainer with relative ease. I enjoyed working hard. I enjoyed the discipline of practicing my violin every morning before school. I enjoyed the race against time to finish my homework between classes. I enjoyed competing in sports, as long as I won the game. And I loved the theater more than anything.

Learning about the dangers of workaholism

As an adult, I have struggled to find balance between work and play, simply because work equals play for me in so many ways. It has been almost impossible for me to enjoy so called non-productive activities or to appreciate playing a game just for fun. But as I am learning more about the dangers of workaholism (yes, there is really such a thing!) and suffering the consequences of burning the candle in both ends one time too many, I am also learning to balance my life in a new and hopefully improved way. When I work myself too hard, I am often critical of those around me and less able to receive the gifts they have to offer. When I make sure to rejuvenate and let my creative well be filled anew, I love everybody and see with such clarity the beauty and magic that abounds.

Making time for people, nature and mindless activities

This Holiday season, I have taken some real time off to ski and watch movies and dine with friends and family and read mindless literature such as Donald Duck. As a result, I am sleeping better at night, my appetite is up, new inspiration is pouring into my creative horn of plenty, my body feels stronger and my brain somehow feels more able to deal with the challenges an artist career has to offer. My commitment to myself for the new year is to incorporate more playtime with friends and family, plenty of excursions in art and nature, and to arrange my work schedule in such a way that my body is completely taken care of in the process.

Making sure it’s passion, not compulsion

I love my life as an artist! I am passionately in love with my creativity and the privilege of sharing my hearts desire in words and music and singing my life into higher vibration. I just have to remember to check in every now and then, to make sure I am in the passion and not in the compulsion of it all.

Here’s a song for you, just for fun, and the lyrics too so you can sing along!

DANCING IN THE NUDE Click here to see the video!
Words and Music by Caroline Waters
Copyright 2005-2010 by Caroline Waters

Dancing in the nude, getting in the mood
Laughing as I groove into my being
Fully alive, feeling the drive to be completely wild
And seeing all my worries fade away
As I begin to seize the day
I reach for my spirit in the sky
Flying high, not questioning why

Dancing in the nude, getting in the mood
Laughing as I groove into my being
Fully alive, feeling the drive to be completely wild
And seeing all my worries fade away
As I begin to seize the day
I reach for my spirit in the sky
Flying high, not questioning why

//:Dancing in the nude, getting in the mood
Dancing in the nude, getting in the mood://

 

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Posted in Self Confidence

When Things Fall Apart

Posted on November 27, 2010 | 1 Comment

One of the basic principles I have learned from Craniosacral Therapy is that “things fall apart in order to come back together in a higher level of order”. This concept is true for most organic systems and can effectively be applied to other systems as well, such as how we organize our thoughts and manage our lives and relationships.

I remember how profoundly it struck me when Sally Field’s character, Sybil, was at the point in her therapy when she felt that the world was coming to an end. And the therapist pointed out that it wasn’t the world that was coming to an end, it was just Sybil’s world as she knew it that was changing in a big way. She was actually beginning to remember parts of her life and thus coming together as a personality system in a better way.

Sometimes allowing things to fall apart is the best thing we can do. Often resistance only serves to prolong the agony and fear of change. When we allow ourselves to go with the flow and surrender to the process of what is happening instead of denying it or fighting it, we create space for a greater part of ourselves to emerge.

And don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean that we shouldn’t stand up for ourselves or fight for what we believe in. I only mean that when there is a breakdown of sorts in our lives, it can be useful to surrender to the natural process of that breakdown in order to achieve the full benefit of what is created as things fall back together again.

For example: When we feel like we are coming down with something, it is not an uncommon practice to fight it or suppress it with pills and caffeine instead of listening to the signals our bodies are giving us and taking the time to nurture ourselves and rejuvenate. We are so conditioned in our society to suppress our feelings and keep it together and tough it out that we are forgetting how amazing we really are. Yet, when we actually listen and nurture ourselves accordingly, we emerge as stronger, happier and more productive beings.

This is nothing new. I am only choosing to look at it more closely these days, since I have made a commitment to allow myself to feel more and do less. The commitment came about as I realized I was heading full speed into a dead end street (figuratively, not literally) as a performer by working too much, playing too little and burning that famous candle in both ends. My programmed response, from years and years of deadline driven habits and adrenaline junky behaviors, would have been to will the dead end street into a through street and plow ahead as if nothing had happened.

Instead I stopped, got out of the car and began to smell the flowers. And, as I allowed myself to breathe and to surrender to doing absolutely nothing but smelling those flowers, a new idea formed in my mind: “What would happen if I let myself just be for a while? If I actually took that time off that I said I would take off after I finished my last project? Would my world fall apart? And if it did, would it then be possible for it to come back together in a much better way?

Sometimes all we need is to get out of our own way.

Love and Blessings, Caroline

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Posted in Healing, Liberation, Life and Career, Self Empowerment

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Starting Over

Posted on October 6, 2010 | Leave a comment

The gift of a car accident

When I was eighteen years old, I was hit by a car that severed my left leg and sent me flying 28 feet through the air, landing face first in the pavement. Long story short, it took awhile to get my body and brain up and running again. Four years, to be exact.

The first amazing gift of this event was learning that I could be perfectly happy in the moment without all the elements I thought I needed to be happy. I actually received the gift of loving me, just for being. The elements I thought I needed to be happy were things like; being an A-student, winning competitions, looking sharp, slim and fit, performing well and being a people pleaser.

By removing these elements for a period of time, and thus being effectively stripped of superficial distractions, I learned to appreciate the gift of every moment of life that was available to me.

Today, 26 years later, as I am about to leave for my first National Tour of the USA as a solo artist, I feel incredibly blessed by the perspective the gift of starting over has given me. I feel that I am starting over in so many ways, and instead of feeling nervous or pressured, I feel grateful simply for the gift of being alive and for the gift it is to be living my dream as an artist.

The gift of releasing fear and worry

Yesterday, in the midst of composing press releases for the upcoming tour, I found myself in the not so uncommon sea of worry about the future. Will they ignore me? Will enough people show up for my performances? Will I be able to make ends meet at the end of the road? All these thoughts scurried around in my head as I struggled to find the most perfect wording to entice the New York media.

The worrying didn’t help at all. I can tell you that right away. It put me in a space of feeling heavy and incompetent and unfocused. Realizing this, I was able to release the fear and the tension and the worry in a surprisingly short amount of time. And the transformation that occurred was astounding.

The moment I decided to release my fear of not being/ doing enough and embrace the gift of my being, messages began to trickle in from people all over the world, affirming their appreciation and support of my music and performance. This felt wonderful of course. But the most important transformation took place within me.

I woke up this morning feeling truly liberated in my body. And I had this knowing within that who I am and what I do in this world is enough. It doesn’t matter how many people show up for my performances or how many CDs I sell or how many newspaper articles gets written about me. The only thing that matters is that I keep letting my heart move me into action and let that song that makes my heart sing be heard, loud and clear, far or near, wherever it takes me.

I am excited for this Tour, for the people I’ll meet and the places I’ll see. I’m excited to move and be moved, to love and be loved, to listen and explore, and eternally grateful for the chance of starting over every single day.

Here’s the tour schedule and a video: http://www.carolinewaters.com/shows.php

Love and Blessings, Caroline

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Posted in Caroline's Concerts, Healing, Liberation, Life and Career, Self Confidence, Self Empowerment, Vocal freedom

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Writing and Vocal Expression – Why it Works

Posted on August 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

Have you ever felt trapped in your own mind? Imprisoned by your fear or anger or depression? Well, I have, on several occasions. When I was eighteen years old I was in a car accident that reduced me from a vastly successful performer, athlete and A-student to a physically and mentally impaired, fear ridden, morphine addicted head case with post traumatic stress disorder in one fell swoop. It wasn’t fun, I can tell you that, and it took many years to heal.

Two things helped speed up my recovery more than anything else: Writing and Vocal Expression. By writing my thoughts and feelings on paper, I found a way to process the overwhelming amount of fear and trauma that otherwise created panic attacks. And by singing the songs that emerged from the deep of my soul, I was able to transform feelings of rage and despair to empowered joyous expression.

This transformation didn’t happen overnight, by any stretch of the imagination. It happened slowly and gradually, over many years. But I can tell you this. The more I allowed myself to express myself, verbally and vocally, the faster I healed. Today, after eight albums, eight movies, somewhere in the vicinity of fifteen hundred performances and two decades of Vocal Freedom, I am grateful beyond compare.

Why writing helps: Writing gives us a sanctuary, a place to explore and expand and appreciate and clarify and organize and summon and release. We have so many treasures hidden within, simply within our ability to perceive. When we allow ourselves to tune into our inner wisdom, our consciousness expands, we reach a higher level of vibration and more of our dreams and aspirations are available to us.

Why singing helps: Singing inspires every single cell of our being to its fullest potential. It soothes our nervous systems, distracts our otherwise busy minds and aligns us with our dreams and aspirations. When we allow ourselves to sing the song that is in our hearts, we allow ourselves to tune into our inner wisdom on a purely vibrational level, which expands our consciousness even more and connects us to all that is in the most joyous fashion. From this point of connection anything is possible.

Enjoy your expression!

Love Always, Caroline

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Posted in Healing, Liberation, Life and Career, Self Confidence, Self Empowerment, Vocal freedom

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Peace in the Middle East

Posted on May 31, 2010 | Leave a comment

I am processing this morning’s newspaper articles about the Israeli violence in international waters… and thinking back to the huge gathering of people protesting in the streets of Oslo (Norway) yesterday, as my partner and I rode our bikes to the ocean, blissfully unaware of what was going on.

I was puzzled by the massive show of police around the Israeli embassy and by the intensity of the slogans. “The Israelis want to kill us all,” sounded loud and clear as we made our way through the castle park, starkly contrasting the colorful and harmonious array of people sun bathing and picnicking all around us. I didn’t think much of it, because we are used to people expressing their opinions in passionate measures in this city. Passionate, yet non-violent.

I am left feeling grateful to know from experience that peaceful coexistence with people of different cultures and preferences is more than possible. It creates amazing opportunities to grow and thrive as a society. How can we ease the fear of those who are ignorant of this fact? How can we encourage love, compassion, understanding, communication and forgiveness on a larger scale?

My good friend and brilliant writer/ actor/ teacher Brenda Adelman is doing her one-woman-show, My Brooklyn Hamlet, in London this summer and I am writing some of the music for it. Her show is about forgiveness and this lady knows what she is talking about. Her father murdered her mother and married her aunt. She spent many years teaching herself how to forgive and is now being a formidable coach for others who struggle with letting go of their anger toward themselves and others. She has a fabulous free newsletter also. Here’s her site: http://www.forgivenessandfreedom.com

Here’s a song I wrote for my own upcoming musical, Come Hell or High Waters. It’s not recorded yet, but I can give you the words for now. Enjoy!

Love and Blessings, Caroline

DID YOU KNOW?
Words and Music by Caroline Waters

Did you know we’re the same you and I
Did you know, we can see eye to eye
Did you know, we can fly, you and I

Did you know, we are always free
To choose however we want it to be
And create all the magic we want to see

We’re perfect parts of each others creation
Brilliant extensions of our elation
We’re more than a mere manifestation
More like a convention of manifest intention

It’s all a dream of our construction
It’s all good, like tax deduction
Or like a really good film production

Did you know, there’s a pie in the sky
Did you know, there’s no real goodbye
Did you know, we can fly, you and I

We’re gonna make everything okay
There’s no limit to the power of our say
If we listen to our heart and stay
With the groove that it gives us day by day

Did you know, there’s a pie
Did you know, we can fly

©2010 by Caroline Waters. All Rights Reserved.

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Posted in Healing, Liberation, Songwriting, Vocal freedom, World Peace

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