Thoughts of bendy people. Deep breaths in and out. Uncomfortable positions and postures.

This is what many people–myself included before I took it up–think of when yoga is mentioned.

As I have grown as a therapist and yoga practitioner, I’ve found one concept that keeps recurring to me:

Bloom Where You Are Planted.

Bloom Where You’re Planted is a phrase that, while I am not sure of it’s origin, refers to the concept of living life to the fullest. What I tend to take from my yoga classes is this: my life is the way it is. I have control over my actions, my perceptions, and my responses, but my life is my life. I can’t pick up and move into someone else’s life, much as a flower can’t bloom anywhere other than where it is planted.

The key is to find how to bloom within the current situation.

It can be as simple as taking a big breath and relaxing yourself when needed, or as complex as relinquishing the need to control the inevitable (the house will need a new roof at some point, what am I gaining by fighting it?).

So, what it is connection to music therapy?

I am by nature, a results driven person. If left to my own devices, I become very frustrated waiting for results, and even more frustrated if those results aren’t positive.

What I love about music therapy is that I have to bloom where I am planted.

What I love about music therapy is that I get to help others bloom where they are planted.

Enter the flower in a pot metaphor. Each of us are born with certain traits and characteristics (our pot, if you will). For me, this is my impatience and other positive and negative traits. For many of the clients I work with, their pot is mixed with a variety of needs: social, communication, academic, behavioral, etc. Each person’s pot is different.

My job, as a therapist, is to allow them to bloom to their fullest. To take those things that their pot came with and to help the flower become as beautiful a bloom as it can.

As a music therapist, I get to do this with music.

Have I mentioned lately that I love my job?