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Singing the song of life I came from a musical family and had been performing since I was a teenager, and I sang every single day and night. I can’t relate to it now, but I can remember being happy only when I was singing. Outside of singing there were only tiny, tiny moments of happiness. So I had to sing all the time. When I learned the Transcendental Meditation technique in 1974, I could feel immediately that this was something that would make me happy for the rest of my life. The realization was instantaneous but the fulfillment of it was gradual—I gradually became more and more happy even when I wasn’t singing. As soon as I took the TM-Sidhi program, in 1978, it lifted my life to a higher plane. The results weren’t gradual—they were immediate. My songwriting became much more creative, polished, and mature. There was a sudden stepping up in quality in everything I did—the quality of my thought, my perception, and my ability to understand the world and how it works. My perception of being one with others has been remarkable in the truest sense of the word. For example, when standing in line and seeing that the checkout person is grumpy, because I often intuit the pain behind their mood, it brings a true compassion that spills over into a loving interchange that lifts him or her up. This loving interchange doesn’t come from a feeling of duty, but just an empathy that flows naturally. I grew up Catholic, and as a child I never could understand the phrase “my cup runneth over,” because in my experience I didn’t have that much in my cup. At that time in my life there wasn’t anything that I could spare for other people. After learning the TM-Sidhi program, I started to understand that your cup runs over when your joy is more in the direction of being infinite. When love is not blocked by stress, when your perception is clear, you can’t help but love because there is no block from seeing the hand of God in everything, from seeing that every moment is truly perfect. And you can just tap into it. It’s not an ability, but rather a natural state. Music was my first profession, and that was my conscious desire. Yet my unconscious desire was to become a successful human being, and I wanted that more than anything else. When I learned the TM technique, I could sense that this was something that could fulfill my primordial desires, and I dove into it. I became a teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique in 1985 and for the past 25 years have found much fulfillment and happiness in teaching full-time. I also continued writing music, even though I no longer performed. Then suddenly in 2008, I went into the studio to do one little demo, just for my own pleasure. Afterwards the engineer said, “We should do an album. Do you have enough songs?” I actually had enough songs to do four albums. So that’s how my original profession suddenly sprouted up again in full force. By practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi program all these years, I feel like I have been watering the root and the seed sprouted without any effort on my part. I now have the fulfillment of a desire that I did not actively seek. It just landed in my lap. I didn’t have to struggle to make this happen. With no effort, the top musicians in the San Francisco Bay area—GRAMMY winners such as David Balakrishnan, Mark Summer, and Barbara Higbie and musicians who work closely with Santana, Tory Amos, and other unbelievable performers—galvanized around my two albums. When you have a desire and a path in life, even though you have the raw materials—the talent—nature has to support it. There may be many blocks there, but if you have a technique that consciously brings your awareness to the area where all the laws of nature reside, then they become tickled and thrilled to support you. Then even without your attention there, suddenly your desire sprouts. Valerie JanLois is a musician, composer, and performer. The proceeds from her newest album, dos, support globalpeaceinitiative.org and can be purchased at ValerieJanLois.com, iTunes.com, and Amazon.com. © Copyright 2012 Maharishi Foundation USA, a non-profit educational organization.
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