Like attracts like. That’s what the Abraham-Hicks’ Law of Attraction is all about. Their teachings can feel very pertinent and applicable to singing and songwriting. Here’s a list with some basic principles…

• Our inner being is the part of us connected to source/ spirit/ infinite intelligence. It always knows what’s best for us. When we feel bad we’re simply having thoughts that are in discord (or out of alignment) with our inner being’s perspective on the same situation.
• Get rid of doubt before it exists by exclusively focusing on what you want.
• Ascertain your limiting beliefs, and invert them into affirmations.
• Focus on solutions, not the problem.
• Our thoughts and beliefs create our reality – positively and negatively.
• Be single-mindedly clear about what you want and use what you don’t want to clarify preferences.
• Be nice to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up or compare yourself with others, presuming they’re doing better than you. It’s not true to say you can’t do something, or feel unworthy.
• Use the power of deliberate intention to manifest the experience/ performance/ practice you desire.
• Listen for the positive effects of technique without questioning or analysing.
• Creativity (writing a song/poem) is the perfect demonstration of how the Universe works, our greatest joy comes from manifesting something that’s never existed before. Only we could write it because of our specific circumstances.
• Our voice is uniquely ours. It represents everything that’s made us; our mind, heart, upbringing, relationships, experiences, desires, challenges. No-one else can do what we do.
• Become aware of how much you dwell on the past or unwanted aspects, which then perpetuates them into our ‘now reality’.
• Feel how if you’re pointing in the right direction, you’ll build up enthusiasm (momentum). Heading in the wrong direction exponentially grows too, but if we stop those thoughts in their tracks gently, and early on, we can turn them around an reset/ recalibrate.
• Be patient when shifting focus. It’s difficult to imagine anything different to what is if ‘what is’ is all you’ve ever known. We create great momentum with our repeated thoughts/ beliefs. It’s jarring to suddenly change direction.
• Feel, don’t think. Use an emotional scale and pull yourself up the ladder of better and better feeling thoughts incrementally.
• What resistance are we offering? What unforgiving/ negative/ uncharitable thoughts and beliefs do we hold about our voice and musically? This prevents us from having the voice we want.
• Register emotions and feelings/ vibration over and above everything else.
• Make thoughts general. Think of how amazing you feel listening to music, loving music in a broader sense, rather than the specifics of your immediate experience.
• It’s the ‘creating’ rather than what’s created that’s enjoyable.
• Struggle and hardship aren’t necessary to prove worthiness. We’ll never prove our worthiness to those people who don’t believe in us, nor is it our job to do so.
• Be ready and open to receive – resonance, inspiration, steerage, joy, success.
• A conflicted belief system / mind keeps our career, musical, vocal, and writing goals and dreams from manifesting. If we don’t believe we can achieve something it’s almost impossible to achieve it.
• Feel good for other people’s success.
• You don’t need to control the uncontrollable (outcome), just take care of your vibration/ how you feel.
• Words don’t matter, it’s our vibration that counts.
• Our habitual or most-practised thoughts are the easiest ones for us to think.
• “You don’t have to raise your voice to get attention. You need to raise your consciousness.” – Alan Cohen
• Effort, strain, force, and tension that make singing difficult. Singing itself isn’t difficult, it’s the most natural and enjoyable thing in the world, we just need to align our minds, bodies and hearts with our ‘inner being’ and be open/receptive
• It’s our false beliefs about singing/songwriting that make it difficult. If we think it’s difficult, it will be.
• ‘Contrast’ (difficulties/ obstacles/ heartache) require us to seek resolution, solutions, strategies to make sense of the hurt. That’s why we need these supposed ‘difficulties’, they call to discover answers to our problems through the creative process.
• Having knowledge about how it works, helps a lot. We always benefit from a more positive outlook, more vocal technique, more love.
• Perspective, alignment, focus are everything. Focus on what is good and desirable. Get your attention off ‘unwanted’ states, thoughts, and conditions.
• Appreciate the things you like in your and other people’s voices, rather than criticising.
• Stop calibrating to people who don’t know what they’re doing. Armchair critics and blocked creatives don’t like it when other people are happy, successful, and/or enjoying themselves. Misery loves company and people who struggle love the story of other people struggling.
• It’s just as good to feel curious about something as it is to feel euphoric about it.
• Trust your intuition. What’s good for you is invariably good for the listener. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it.
• Letting down our negative/doubting guard allows great ideas and vocalisation to manifest. If we don’t nurture, we kill it with reality and arguing for our limitations. Often, ‘what is’ is not the friend of ‘what we want’.
• How bad you feel around other artists’ success indicates how much resistance/ lack of belief you have around realising your own. If you’re happy for and inspired by others, then there’s less resistance. Believe that all good things are coming to you.
• We are creators, created to create. It’s often more satisfying writing song than for the person listening to it.
• Focusing on problems doesn’t solve them – the problem and the solution are different frequencies.
• It feels impossible to get what qualities you want if you’ve never experienced them. Instead, think of other things that feel effortless and joyous to you.
• Expectation is the strong-practised vibration, or momentum, of the thoughts that we’ve been thinking. Momentum builds positively and negatively, choose which you want.
• If we’ve got a really good question, a really good answer is formulating – that’s what songwriting is.
• Turn thoughts to things… songs, great performances.
• Diversity is our greatest strength – difference births innovation.
• It’s not agreement with others that is required for your happiness. Rather, an agreement with yourself.
• What I lived before doesn’t matter (i.e. how I sounded or how difficult I found something to sing/write).
• Fantasise/daydream about the best case scenarios, not the worst.
• Technique allows us to let go of ‘effort’, preventing the body from interfering with the soul’s free expression. Let go and trust – relinquish control and the Universe will guide you. It never lets you down!

Caitlin Smith – www.caitlinsmith.com