Anticipation: The Beginning of Healing
The journey of transformation begins in absence—when we feel lost, dreamless, or uncertain. Yet, this very emptiness is an invitation. In the Guess-Stational Phase, we step into exploration, where audacity becomes autobiographical, and we allow ourselves to imagine new possibilities.
Rather than focusing on pathology—what is wrong with us—we turn toward meaning, purpose, and the courage to dream. This is a time of seeking, of giving ourselves permission to participate fully in life and embrace transformation. In this phase, things may feel complex and busy, but beneath it all is a hunger—for healing, for understanding, for change.
From here, Anticipation leads us to deeper questions: How do we make ourselves sick? What are our highest aspirations? What resources can help guide us? And how do we shift from fear to engagement, from waiting to becoming?
This is the moment where healing begins—not by fixing, but by stepping forward into possibility.
MedicineSinging™ brings you Guidance and Blessings
Guidance and Blessings represent the essence of our platform’s evolution. This path
is an original video series totaling 10.5 hours of what I hope will be insightful information
for you. If you prefer, we also have the audio versions on Spotify for your convenience!
This is a culmination of my years of experience as a PhD psychologist and includes
extra resources to help with your journey. Each path is accessible through a simple click
of a button, inviting you to delve deeper into the Guidance and Blessings that
MedicineSinging™ offers. Here, the ethos is clear: Nothing to sell, everything to offer.
Guidance and Blessings series: Watch them in order first. Later, you or your loved
ones can go back and watch them to explore what you might have missed or what
blessings are still to be discovered!
See things in a new light: All it takes is a slight turn of the face, an opening of the
heart, that I call Untying the Sacred Bundle.
- This calls for the sacred journey of stepping through our past stories into possible
new directions for your life. At these moments we often need Guidance for our
journey. We offer it here. - After Guidance, we invite you to journey through the gateway of our series of
Three Blessings. This is designed to be an encouraging voice when you find yourself in moments of need or suffering.
We encourage you: To consider Guidance and the Three Blessings as gateways to becoming a Practice in your life: A Practice of discerning how your stories at their close can become open endings.
Eight Videos to Watch! Each offering of Guidance is followed by your Three Blessings.
It works like this:
A. Series #1: “Lost”.
B. Guidance – for When You Feel “Lost”.
C. Your Three Blessings of “Lost”:
√ Blessing #1: From Lost to Exploring. How seeing being Lost differently can become a Blessing to you.
√ Blessing #2: Journaling… a daily Blessing for your journey each day.
√ Blessing #3: How you can be a Blessing when you Help a Friend.
May the exploring of the Series grant you or your loved ones Guidance that is helpful,
and Blessings that bring you an abundance of growth on your journey – no matter
where you find yourself: in the Lost, the Found, or the Exploring, of Life!
Blessings to you as you go through the gate. Stephen W. Emerick, Ph.D.
Series 1: "Lost"
Guidance To Lost
Have you ever wondered when you were lost, how you could find guidance? Find Guidance from Lost? Yes. Here is how. His Holiness the Dalai Lama encourages us, when we have an enemy, to “venerate” them. Why? Because of the opportunities this provides for our growth, health, and happiness. This attitude of choice makes all the difference. The same is true for seeking Guidance when Lost. If we change our orientation from Lost to Exploring, everything changes. Especially ourselves! And then our experiences shift from one of “moving away from something” to “moving toward something”…such as our dreams and hopes. For this is part of the unfolding story of your life.
If you feel lost and are seeking a life of meaning and purpose, this Guidance and its three Blessings can help. First, by changing how we label or think about what is happening and changing our orientation from Lost to Exploring. And by doing so we change our emotions, the way we feel, and the impact we have on our neurobiology. as well as the impact we have upon those whom we love. As we change our orientation we want to track how we are doing. We can do this on our life’s journey by…well, keep watching the sequence presented here and find out for yourself. You just might change feelings of being hopeless, to feelings of hope, and find yourself moving towards the dreams that are important to you. You won’t be alone. I promise.
Series One part 1 Blessing: From Lost to Exploring
Series One Part One: From Lost to Exploring
Thinking we are lost. Thinking we are exploring. How would you change if you came to know that as you are thinking you are lost, life is asking you to explore? Since we know life is asking this of us, it will affect what we Think-Feel-Do. Why does this matter?:
Because: What we Believe we Perceive we Receive.
This presentation provides an exercise to use when seeking to discern whether you are lost or if you are exploring, and the difference between the two in any situation.
If where I am is not lost, and who I am is not lost, and where I am is sacred, then I am to be exploring.
We cover what to do when feeling fear, anxiety, or dread. And when anxiety can become anticipation, then anticipation can become excitement, and everything becomes possible.
The four things about exploring: Observing; Extending ourselves to others and the world; We find Joy; now Expectation grows for the days ahead. I learn to “Induce” anticipation (just as somehow I learned to induce anxiety).
We now move from Blocked to Blessed, no longer Dreading but Dreaming!
Series Two Guidance: Meaning and Purpose
People with meaning and purpose in their lives tell stories, and they often are about the Heroes, Helpers, and Healers in their lives. Wondrous stories of who their Hero or Heroes have been. And how they at first followed that Hero, but eventually transformed and became a hero to others. They can give you names and dates and times and places of people who have been their Helpers. Someone who lifted them up in a time of need, or of meeting another who transformed their life. If you ask them who the Healers are in their life, they will often appear to pause and seem distant for a moment. This question asks them to reflect and pause, recalling the time of healing. The greatest strength comes when all three are woven into a life of meaning and purpose. Three sticks are stronger than just one. Pursuing and living a life of meaning and purpose means that eventually we become a Hero, Helper, or Healer in others and their life. We pass on the gifts that have been given to us. And we make the world a more wondrous place when we do!
Series Two Blessing One: Heroes
Whenever we talk about Meaning and Purpose, the talk always includes stories about Heroes in our life. We chart our journey of the stories of our lives. We often chart by heroes. They challenge, encourage, and support us, and let us find our way. They influence the inner compass of our lives. Often a person, yet our heroes may be sacred places where are lives are changed. Sometimes by the Nature of Life itself, Sacred Sites included. Sometimes they have inspired and saved us from ourselves, our compulsions, or addictions. Without them we would have died. The Poet Mary Tall Mountain. She writes of her grandmother, and she inspired her as her hero: “Your Spirit remains, nourishing me.” They remind us there is no immunity from hardship, tiredness, transcendent experiences, or the wonders of life. There is no immunity. There is only Partnership. They remind us we must give up all hope of ever “being liked by everyone.” They remind us we must bear the questions that others ask us. And that we must relinquish any investment in “looking good!” Our heroes remind us that if we have family, we will suffer. Through our heroes we become humble and becoming humble leads us to the door of Wisdom. If we desire to be equipped to be a hero we must, as the poet says, “Be prepared to walk around as a leaf, ready to tumble at any moment. Then and only then, decide what you do with your time.” You will be given all that you need. The journey itself will equip you.
Series 3: How We Make Ourselves Sick
Series Three Guidance: How We Make Ourselves Sick
Can we participate in our sickness? Yes. By: Not asking for help. Trying to control everything. And not forgiving, ourselves or others or creation.
And we make ourselves sick when we make our life focus on what we DO NOT want: We do not want pain; we do not want to lack; we do not want inconvenience; we do not want insufficiency.
Remember the Dalai Lama said: “A state of happiness is an attitude of moving toward rather than away, an attitude of embracing life rather than rejecting it. This underlying sense of moving toward happiness can have a very profound effect; it makes us more receptive, more open to the joy of living.” (From: The Art of Happiness).
If needed, begin to release ideas of moving away from things in life, and imagine how you can begin to move toward what you love. Begin this today, by doing what you love.
Series Three Part One Blessing: Not Asking for Help
Series Four Guidance: Our Highest Aspirations - Stairsteps to Our Dreams
We often hear about “follow your dreams.” What if we do not know what our dreams are? How does one aspire to a dream if they are unclear on what it may be? There are answers for this!
When we are unsure of what our dream may be, we are in the seeds development called the “Guess-Stational Phase.” We must be fiercely honest about our past. We look at our families of origin, our mistakes, and failures, and we seek the golden thread that weaves itself into what is becoming one thing, our dreams.
Our highest aspirations bring a surprise for us. They require that as we search for, find, and follow our highest aspirations we must lift up our lowest expectations!
We do this by an honest inventory of our assets, competencies, and capabilities! This guides us as to the baby steps we can start with, and other steps that require us to get equipped with additional skills or communities as we are developing our vision for the future dreams we will come to hold close to our hearts.
If all goes well, anxieties turn into excitement for exploring and for the adventure, and we say “yes” to the dream. Our dreams must be bigger than the fears we have carried in the past, carry now in the present, or hold about the future.
Remember this my friend, passion wins out over dread! Go for it!
"We make one mistake. And that is that we call excitement anxiety"
Series Four Part One Blessing: Seeking The Dream. The Guess-stational Phase.
The mystical thing about dreams is that they always begin by their absence! We know when we are dreamless, rudderless, or lost. But as you begin the Gestational Phase, you are exploring! This is when audacity becomes autobiographical!
Rachael Carson said: “Beginnings are apt to be shadowy, and so it is with the great mother of life, the sea.” Within the womb of exploring and the Guess-stational Phase, great things are often found to emerge from the depths of who we are!
Do not be afraid. It has been this way since the beginning of time! It will come to us!
Series 5: "Dealing With Change"
There is a moment when everything in our lives can change. This is good news because the majority of things in our lives we have very little say in or control of. It will be the slightest moment, like an oar in the water changes the direction of the entire boat.
This is the moment between stimulus and response, the moment between Inhale and Exhale. In the moment when something happens and then how and when we respond or react. What we do in these moments helps us determine our destiny, our direction, our movement. It either moves us toward or away from what matters most in our lives.
Remember: How we either react (habit) or respond (choice) will either move us toward or away from what matters most in our lives.
What or who matters most in your life? We hope this information on Dealing With Change helps you to make wise choices that move you towards who or what you love most in your life.
Series Five, Part One Blessing: What to Remember When Dealing with Change
In this presentation are some of the things to remember when dealing with change:
- Count Your Blessings.
- When things are harrowing, host your Heroes, Helpers, and Healers.
- When charting the path to your dreams: Be sure to confirm the latitude of your gratitude, and the longitude of your longings! There is the example of an orange and how it helps us to visualize this.
You can develop the strategy of redirecting your fear or anxieties. Mindfulness and refocus can help shift anxiety to anticipation of what lies ahead, and remembrance…of what has mattered most to us so far in our lives.
Now you have become mindful, which keeps you in the here and now; and you have reflected on what has come to matter most to you thus far in your life…and nurtured the anticipation of what may lie ahead for you. This balances out the past with the future, then brings you into the present moment…where you can take intentional steps for following your dreams or healing your wounds.
This is LIFE: Living Intentionally From Empowerment!
Series 6: "Death and Dying"
Guidance To Death and Dying
Series 6 Guidance: When Death Visits
We face death many times a day: a tornado obliterates a section of town; companies close; we see a deceased animal upon the
road; a dream dies. With loved ones and those we admire it can be more challenging, be they peoples, two leggeds, four leggeds, and even Sacred Sites. Regardless, when death visits it is a time for letting go and letting down.
In the following three vignettes, we look at how we can deal with
Death and Dying. Our experience can be:
• Hospitable
• Hostile
• Honorable
Welcome to MedicineSinging’s series When Death Visits.
Series Six Part One Blessing: Being Hospitable to Death
Series Six Part One: Being Hospitable to Death
We must find a way wherein death is lived as a part of the fabric of our robe of many colors. A way that sees death as fierce, yet honorable. A way that grants hospitality to death and dying between our first day and our last.
We ask how we can be hospitable to death. Some of us find this question offensive, or unkind. Some of us with terrible memories of suffering link it to death itself and fear both suffering and death.
Remember this: If we approach something that may scare us, like a darkened wood, we have several choices; One, turn and run!
Two, press ahead with little or no preparation. Third, if we have learned to know the difference between lost and exploring; and if life and our choices have been equipping us for this moment, then we can change our belief about what lies before us. Or have transformed beliefs.
Perhaps we have found our spiritual or communal or cultural beliefs about death and dying to be helpful and supportive, and perhaps not. But this does not let us off of the hook, for each of us must decide our beliefs about this life experience of dying and death.
The transformation of the beliefs and images we have can be found to change. We separate our fears of pain and suffering from the moment of death itself. And slowly we can change our beliefs from hostile to hospital and then to honorable when contemplating or dealing with death and dying.
Series 7: "Relating Well"
Guidance: Relating Well to the World Universe, Self and Others
Guidance: It seems that a great deal is asked of us, regardless of status, station,
successes or failures. We are asked to relate to the world universe, which seems
overwhelming in itself! We are also asked to relate well with others. And all the
while we must relate to ourselves. Are we up to the task? What can guide us,
support us, and illuminate this path.
Lets keep it simple, so that when we find the world complex, we know where we
stand. We are all related. All are One. There is one house: three doors: the self,
others, and the world universe. Three stones, one casserole. Many campfires, one
flame. And then there are the three chairs! One chair for solitude and relating to
self. Two chairs, one for oneself and one for friendship; and three chairs for the
world universe. The world community. The foundations of kinship with all the world.
Lets look at each of these three and see if we can find the path illuminated. First we
loo at relating with the world universe, then relating well to others. And lastly,
relating well with ourselves.
Series 7 Blessing 1: Relating Well to the World Universe
Blessing One: Relating well to the World Universe.
One house three doors? Yes. And for far too long we have only entered through the
door of the self. What is in it for me or my group. And we denigrated the doors of
others and the world universe. We have become out of balance.
If all three doors to our house are open and welcoming, this brings humility, and
humility brings wisdom and understanding. Which means in the end, our personal
story becomes richer and wiser. Our stories of relating well with others becomes
more vibrant and alive. And third, all the world becomes our home.
Series 8: "Vitality of the Spiritual Life"
Guidance: Vitality of the Spiritual Life
Every spiritual path and every religious expression presses the issue of how to
nurture the spiritual life, so that it brings vitality to who we are. And in doing so,
brings vitality to those around us.
Great leaders have often found spiritual guidance an important part of their
disciplines. Often there are ancestors in families who are particularly known for
their spiritual vitality. You may hear some say “They were such a prayerful person,”
“They loved the Lord”, or that they were “A Holy Man” or “Holy Woman.” They were
humble, generous, thoughtful, served others, gave of themselves to those in need.
We sometimes struggle to find words to describe when we have been in the
presence of such people.
That is because first there is The Chord. Before they were here on this earth, they
were energy, coming from Source, coming from the heart of the Universe, coming
from God. Perhaps even, I would say, before they came, they/we were a song such
by chord. No words suffice. Yet energy, The Chord, was, has been, and always will
be. The Chord enters the Container via the cord of the womb, and the placenta has
the mark of the Tree of Life. The Container holds and shares what has been given.
We seek and find words to describe it. And when all is said and done, silence, as we
remember. Honor. And give thanks. And in great measure, this is the Vitality of the
Spiritual Life.
Series 8 Blessing 1: The Chord of the Spiritual Life
Wooden instruments such as the indigenous flute often come from the wood of a
tree chosen and considered special or sacred. When we make music we play a
chord. We breath deep from the area of the Second Cord (the Birthing Cord).
When we are violent, critical, abusive, we use the word discord. Something is torn,
pulled away, bleeds. We need to remember this for like a flute, the body we inhabit
has memories. Muscle memories, emotional and spiritual memories. If they hold
discord we suffer, sometimes for generations. Yet if we Practice, are disciplined with
love and joy, the tune we play can become beautiful. Beautiful beyond words, and
thus once again home where we came from.