At vital times, when I had a performance or when I really needed to use it, I would often lose my voice entirely.

Transcription

1 Remove any obstacles to your SUCCESS wiitth Ganga Karen Ashworth

2 Congratulations on taking the time and making the commitment to yourself to discover how to remove any obstacles to your success. I m Ganga Karen Ashworth of Singing the Self and I m passionate about the way that freeing your voice can actually heal your life. So passionate, that I m going to share with you one of my favourite tools for clearing whatever is in your way to ensure that anything you begin or are wanting to energise will be a success. For those who know me, this will come as no surprise, and for those who don t this is an important part of who I am: Ever since I was a little girl, all I ever wanted to do was sing. Singing gave me the greatest joy, the greatest solace, and still does. What you may not know is that from a young age I had health issues around my throat and voice. I suffered terribly from Tonsillitis, to the point where, when I was in my third year studying voice at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, I had Tonsillitis 7 times in one year and it was finally agreed that I have my tonsils out. This in itself was a pretty scary option, as the surgeon couldn t give me any guarantees that I would still have my voice after the operation. His reasoning was that we all have pretty much the same physiology in the throat, so what s to say that changing that physiology (by removing the tonsils) won t change the voice? At vital times, when I had a performance or when I really needed to use it, I would often lose my voice entirely. I also suffered from debilitating nerves. I remember singing on stage and being so nervous that when I looked down, I could actually see waves travelling up and down my skirt because my legs and body were shaking so much. So you see, the thing that I loved and wanted to do the most is also the area that caused me the most obstacles and the most fear. In order to do what I love, I had to find a way to deal with these obstacles along with the fear. It may not be about singing for you. Singing isn t everyone s goal or passion, but in my experience, these principles apply to any area in which you re experiencing obstacles or where you want to have success.

3 What I m about to share with you has been a major key to my Success. So, let s talk about success. What does SUCCESS mean for you? Is it your dream house, or car, partner or family, or having that amount of money? We all have a picture of what our world thinks success looks like. We re constantly receiving messages from movies, television, magazines and the internet that success drives this car, wears these clothes, looks like this, travels to these places and is a household name. Success implies a level of validation. That you have worth, you are enough, and are seen to be so in the eyes of others. It taps into to our deep-seated human need to belong. In these turbulent times, when the instability of our global financial structures has been revealed, increasing numbers of us are ceasing to define success purely in financial terms. Don t get me wrong. A level of income is required in order to exist comfortably and participate fully in life. And, it seems that more and more people are choosing to view success in a more holistic way. Seeking ideals such as work/life balance, stress management, healthy lifestyle and (dare we say) Happiness. If you re reading/listening to this, you re someone for whom success has a lot to do with being who you really are. As well as the things we ve already mentioned, you have a deeper calling to make your authentic contribution. That there s something that you uniquely bring that can really make a difference in your world or in the lives of others. You may not know what that something is right now, or you may have something you think is your life purpose, but aren t sure yet. You may have a very clear picture of your divine life purpose, yet no matter how hard you try, or how much inner work, meditation, counselling or coaching you do, there s still a gap between where you are right now and where you want to be. Let s take a moment now to consider where you want to be; to create a picture of what success might look like for you. Is it having a project you re working on bring great results? Finding love, having a family, leading a healthy lifestyle, living your passion, expressing your creativity? Is it something specific or would success be more like an allencompassing feeling for you? If you knew you couldn t fail, that your success was assured, what would you do, be and have in your life? You might like to write down your answers to the following questions: You may even like to write each question at the top a new page and write 5 or 10 quick responses for each one, remembering this is from the perspective that you can t fail, no matter what

4 How do you see yourself? What relationships do you have and how are they important to you? How about your health and happiness? What would you do to make money?

5 What is your financial situation? What would you do for fun? What gives your life meaning and purpose? How would you spend your time/money on the things that you enjoy?

6 Now, based on the answers to those questions, See if you can sum that up in a sentence or two that inspires you. For me, SUCCESS means Now, you have a sense of what success means for you and what you really want from life, so what s in the way of you being, doing, having all of that right now? For some it may be that making the decision, choosing what you want is all that you need and nothing s going to stop you now. For most of us (myself included) we can have all the best intentions, but all we need is to hit some kind of road block, whether it be your thoughts, your beliefs about what you re capable of, lack of time or money, or even some technological hitch and we get stopped in our tracks. The key I m going to share with you has been used since ancient times to remove obstacles to your success. So if it has survived this long, there must be something in it. Why not give it a try and see if this ancient knowledge could work for you? Whilst this key is not a panacea to fix everything, it can help to build a bridge between where you are and where you choose to be. So what is it? What is this magic formula? Your key to success? SONG: Om Gam (pronounced Gum ) Om Gam Om Gam Ganapatayei Namaha That s right. The key to your success is a song! An ancient Sanskrit mantra that translates as: Salutations or Greetings to that which removes all obstacles and ensures successful new beginnings, for which Gam is the seed.

7 Ganapati is one of the names of Ganesha, the elephant-headed figure, personified as a way of helping us to comprehend and relate to the many facets of the Divine, with the job of protecting gateways, the Divine Feminine and anything new. What has singing got to do with SUCCESS? This song resonates in the throat, which is literally a gateway in your body, between the heart and the mind, between the physical and the spiritual. Nearly everything passes through the throat: thoughts, ideas, breath, food, your voice. Certainly your voice is the means for your self-expression and the expression of your creativity. It s also the change centre of the body, your gateway for bringing about change and for living your life purposewhat you re here in this life to do and be. I believe ALL of our voices are needed at this pivotal and potent time of great change and upheaval in our world. You have something unique that is your particular gift and only YOUR voice can convey that uniqueness and bring about what we identified earlier as your particular meaning of success. Even having identified what success means for you, there s still often what seems like a deep body of shark-infested waters between where you are in your life and that idyllic island paradise where you re actually living what you know is possible for you. If you re anything like me, some of those sharks are my thoughts. Do you have one of those quite authoritative voices in your head that says things like: You can t do that? What would you know? You re not old/young/experienced/financial/or just plain not good enough to Who would listen to you? The list goes on. Through repetition, these thoughts become a well worn pathway in your brain. Brain science and research into Neuro plasticity shows us that in assessing or responding to situations, the brain automatically reverts to the most well worn pathway. So if you want to have new things happen, if your experiences up until now have not been of success, then you ll need to create new neural pathways. The words to this song are a Mantra. The word mantra itself is made up of 2 parts: man meaning mind and tra meaning liberation. These ancient phrases are formulas that literally liberate your mind. You re able to keep those persistent, habitual thoughts occupied and maybe even re-route them to start creating new pathways in the brain.

8 I love singing in other languages because it takes you out of your head, what you think about the words, their meaning etc, directly into the experience. Your experience. Clients and Participants in my seminars and workshops often comment on how singing this mantra makes them feel: peaceful, happy, centred, relaxed and calm. They also comment that when repeating this mantra, their mind slows and calms. They find themselves unwilling, even unable to think about anything else. Don t know what s in your way? Even if you can t identify what it is that s getting in your way, this mantra works on many levels at once. The words are in Sanskrit which, like other ancient languages such as Hebrew and Latin are a language of energy. So, your body and mind respond to the sounds even if you don t know their meaning or what you need them to do for you. When to use it Traditionally, this mantra is used at the beginning of anything new or significant. My clients and group participants have used this mantra in so many different situations and reported success with challenges such as: wellness in everything from children s fevers to cancer, being stuck for ideas, writers block, when something s not working, times of great change, stress, setting out on a journey and even being stuck in a traffic jam. A very dear friend of mine has had a number of powerful experiences with this mantra. My favourite is when she found the bathroom toilet was blocked. Instead of calling a plumber (often an expensive exercise), she sang the Om Gum mantra whilst tipping a bucket of water down said toilet, and the plumbing was cleared. Om Gum and a bucket of water, she says, works every time. You can read more about removing obstacles in your life in my forthcoming book The Silver Circle. For more information, see

9 How to use it There are as many ways to use this mantra as there are times when you might need to use it. In the yoga tradition, where Sanskrit mantra comes from, it is used as a daily practice, usually associated with meditation. Traditionally a mantra is chanted 108 times and a mantra practice is taken on for 40 days. If this seems a little arduous or impractical for you, there are other ways to work with this mantra. You can: sing it 3 times or whenever you think of it write the words think the words (like an affirmation) listen to a recording If the idea of singing makes you feel uncomfortable or inhibited in any way this is definitely the mantra for you. You may also want to claim your FREE Breakthrough to Success consultation so I can help you specifically identify and release any challenges to having your voice and your life flowing freely and bringing you great results. To help support you in learning and using this mantra, I ve recorded an mp3 track of the song that you can download for free to your ipod, phone, tablet or computer and listen to whenever you need it. It s the first download on the same page as you downloaded this pdf. If you don t already have it, just go to to the form on the right hand side that says Remove any obstacles to your SUCCESS. Enter your details and you ll get instant access to download the mp3. I d love to hear your feedback and stories about how you ve used this information and what your experience has been. Please your story to ganga@singingtheself.com Blessings of wellness, joy and success to you Ganga Ganga Karen Ashworth Transformational Voice Coach Ph