musical intuition

Georgia is a self-employed music teacher who branched into therapy because she found that so much of her musical work involved teaching her students to become more intuitive and more aware of their feelings.

"I was filling a niche need in the market and I had the exact talents to fill it," explains Georgia, "but I'm not doing it for the money. I'm doing it because I want my students to survive and thrive."

"We have all been raised or socialized to pay attention to what 'important' people say, but women, especially, have a difficult time actualizing their potential -- becoming everything they can be," says Georgia. "This is because most authority figures in childhood are male and our society's most prevalent role model for girls, despite feminism, remains the submissive, unquestioning female."

"In the conflict between doing what we're told to do and doing what our inner guidance tells us to do," says Georgia, "a lot of women rationalize their feelings and dis-empower themselves. I saw a lot of this in my students and it broke my heart."

There’s definitely a connection between Georgia’s musical talents and her intuitive acuity. She has a finer ear for sounds and nuances than the rest of us. She listens to the world around her, and believes that every woman can develop superior intuitive powers by shutting out noise and allowing the voice of intuition to be heard.

Georgia explains that our survival and success in every facet of life depend upon the choices we make. She believes it's really important to unlearn everything we've learned about how nice girls behave and to start listening to our intuition because that gift was given to us to aid our survival and should never, ever be discounted.

"Bizarre behavior," says Georgia, "is the result of a clash between inner feelings and how we have been socialized to behave."

Having extricated herself from several potentially destructive relationships and situations, Georgia knows from experience that unless we are aware of the games being played we risk a lot more than losing a man or losing a job.

"The greatest thing a girl can lose is her self-esteem," says Georgia. "Once it's damaged, her survival and success prospects drop to zero and so does her ability to make beautiful music."

"My first rule of empowerment for my students is to tap into their intuition and become acutely aware of everything that is going on around them. They must discount nothing."

"At first," says Georgia, "all they hear is a lot of noise, but as their musical intuition sharpens they pick up what they need to hear."

"My second rule of empowerment for my students is to go back to basics and re-educate themselves."

"They have to undo everything they have learned about others knowing better than them, about always giving people the benefit of the doubt, about mistrusting their feelings, about believing in impossible dreams, etc."

Impossible dreams?

"Yes," says Georgia. "An impossible dream isn't called impossible for nothing. Some of my students come from incredibly pushy families that expect me to make a concert pianist out of a young lady who has only modest talent."

"Not all parents are pushy, of course," adds Georgia, "but those with incredibly unrealistic beliefs about their daughter's ability are unreachable. They take their daughter somewhere else and I fear for her future."

"Sometimes positive thinking is not a good thing," says Georgia. "It prevents us from seeing the signs and tuning in to what is really happening. When I explain this to reasonable parents, they are very interested in developing their daughter's musical intuition."

"The try, try and try again advice that was drummed into us from childhood often causes more misery than success. Of course you try, try and try again if you're having fun and nobody is getting hurt, but when you're bashing your head up against a brick wall you really need to stop and tune in to another way to get what it is you want."

One of Georgia's music students was a young athlete who had seven operations on her knee over three years before her parents accepted that she was not cut out to be an Olympian.

"How many walls do we have to bash into, or how many operations do we need, before we see the light?" smiles Georgia.

"My third rule for empowerment via musical intuition is to keep your positive thoughts for the things you have control over and for everything else adopt a skeptical attitude."

"When people are over-confident -- and our culture is forever telling us that there is nothing we cannot do if we put our mind to it -- they always start behaving in a bizarre manner when things do not pan out according to their dream."

"Things rarely pan out according to our dreams," explains Georgia, "because our dreams are too often out of our control, dependent upon others."

"When dreams don't pan out, people pour good money after bad," says Georgia. "They will work 20 hours a day rather than 10. They will hound the object of their desire. They will stake all on their dreams and believe they have a right to whatever it is they want."

"They refuse to accept that some things are just not meant to be, or they just don't get the co-operation of others that they depended upon," explains Georgia. "Their behavior becomes bizarre because they are unable to tune into their inner guidance."

"On one level these people know that the signs are bad, yet they carry on as if all is well. But all is not well, and they know it deep down, and that is why their behavior becomes bizarre. They are out of tune."

"My fourth rule of empowerment is to monitor your behavior and realize that if you are behaving in a bizarre manner you are experiencing a clash between inner feelings and how you have been socialized to behave."

"If you are mixing with people exhibiting bizarre behavior," says Georgia, "it is your responsibility to understand what is causing it and to act swiftly and appropriately before you start behaving in a bizarre manner, too, and risk losing your self-esteem, health or life because you can't see the wood for the trees."

"My fifth rule of empowerment -- using musical intuition successfully for survival and success -- is fast action."

"When we are in physical danger our natural fight or flight response is automatic," says Georgia. "When we touch a burning stove, our hand automatically withdraws. We don't keep our hand there while we figure out what to do."

"You may question why nature did not endow us with a similar automatic fight or flight response to emotional danger -- but it did!"

Georgia explains that when we are in a bad emotional situation our legs may not automatically start moving, propelling us out of danger, but our intuition is giving us all the information we need in order to get our legs into action.

"That's why we need to be in tune with our intuition."

"Unless you are tied to a chair or otherwise physically restrained," says Georgia, "there is no situation that you cannot walk away from if it is emotionally damaging to you. Try it. Just get up and leave, with or without an 'excuse me'."

"For situations that are not exactly emotionally damaging -- but are unproductive or not conducive to happiness and success -- we still need to get our legs into action," says Georgia.

"Who we hang around with, or who we work for says a great deal about us," explains Georgia. "If we want to be a survivor and a winner in life, then we don’t hang around people with whom we are not making beautiful music -- no matter how rich or important these people may be."

Georgia still teaches straight music but her musical therapy classes are becoming so popular that she may need to reassess her situation in future.

"I've given everyone a pamphlet on the rules they need to learn to become independent and intuitive people," says Georgia, "but a lot of my students need face-to-face and group reinforcement. I don't want them to become dependent upon me. I realize that traditional therapists earn a lucrative living from dependent clients, but that's not what I'm aiming for."

"I gauge my therapeutic success by the number of students who don't come back, or just come back wanting to concentrate on music!"