Your Authentic Refreshment: Mari McCarthy, Journaling Therapist and Singer

Music can be such an empowering element in our lives, and Mari McCarthy, founder of CreateWriteNow, journaling therapist and author and host of the annual Journaling Expo, shares how true that is as she shares the wonderful, life enhancing benefits of her musical Authentic Refreshment, crediting her journaling practice in helping her discover what truly refreshes her.


Mari starts by sharing what her Authentic Refreshment is, when she discovered it and how often she engages in it:

My authentic refreshment is Singing and Music. I've loved singing and music as far back as I can remember. Right now, thanks to my daily journal writing practice, I can remember back to kindergarten. So my answer today [of when I discovered music] is kindergarten. I fell in love with Van Cliburn around age 7 and begged my mother to buy a piano so I could take piano lessons. She did and I took lessons and entered competitions for about 4-5 years. When it came to singing, my mom and I had a running repartee about that topic. I would walk around our home lamenting, “Oh mom, I wish I could sing,” and her reply was “Oh, honey I wish you could too!” 

I sing, sing, sing and groove to music every day. It’s a part of me and daily practice, practice, practice is for me an adventure of discovery and growth as well as a source of serenity. 

She tells how she loves singing alone or with friends:

[I sing] solo but I love breaking out into song when out at restaurants with friends. It tends to affect the waiters and other customers and becomes a real conversation piece and community builder. 

Mari shares how journaling has been an essential part of her Authentic Refreshment discovery process:

I use my daily Journal Practice for reflection on how I’m feeling psycho-spiritually about my authentic refreshment time. Through my singing and music, I've discovered I do have lots and lots of feelings and they inform my journaling and vice versa.  It was when I started Journaling about 10+ years ago that my love of music and singing showed up on my pages. So, with the help of my Journal, I set my goal to take singing lessons and become the singer I always wanted to be. Less than a month later, I read about a music school in the next town that accepted adult students. About a year later, I made my first public appearance performing Frank Sinatra’s “All the Way” and I knew I was home.

Mari shares a beautiful moment of validation with her music:

After I walked off the stage after making my first public singing appearance (Frank Sinatra's, "All the Way"), I looked up to my mother who art in heaven and said, "Mom, I can sing!" And I heard her say, "Honey, I know you can too!" I felt that my feet were firmly planted on the ground, and I was simultaneously traveling beyond the Milky Way. That night, I lay in bed and quietly yet firmly announced to the universe, "I can sing."

Mari reveals beautifully how her music nourishes her soul:

It quiets me down, helps me reconnect to my soul and pay attention to my soul, my reason for being.

Here is Mari's greatest benefit of Authentic Refreshment:

Singing and music have helped me regain my health. I haven’t taken any prescription drugs in over 10 years and I eliminated over-the counter drugs almost 5 years ago. I've changed my diet and being off dairy has helped improve my vocal range.

These are Mari's Favorite Parts of her music:

[My favorite parts are] working with my music partner Perry at his Peartree Productions studio, creating new arrangements, putting down vocal tracks, learning more about singing and my most marvelous instrument. Also performing in public.

Mari shares how her music has personally empowered her:

My singing and music informs every aspect of my life. I am much more comfortable in social situations and speaking to others: 1 person or an audience of 100. I feel I can do anything. My singing and music motivates and inspires me to reach for the stars and beyond. 

Here is an encouraging word from Mari on finding your Authentic Refreshment: 

Sit down and have some conversations with your Journal. Ask it any and all questions and write, write, write the answers. Our Journal helps us discover our wit, wisdom and our own authentic refreshment.

Here's an example of Mari's Authentic Refreshment in sound! Enjoy. 

Mari's Music: To Make You Feel My Love 

Mari L. McCarthy is The Journal Power Guide, founder of CreateWriteNow.com, home of Journaling for the Self of It™. Mari offers counseling and encouragement to writers through her many online journaling resources as well as private consultations. She lives in a beachfront home south of Boston where she raises her roses and her consciousness. She enjoys photography, walking, reading, organic dark chocolate and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Your Authentic Refreshment: True Turner, Musician

I am excited to share the delightful and insightful Authentic Refreshment Story of True Turner, a good friend of mine whose music CD, Butterfly Emerging, has been a life enhancer for my entire family, especially for my grandboy who sleeps to it every nap and sleep time. True shares the truest of her musical life dimension of composing, recording and performing music. She is a true inspiration, both in music and in life. 

What is your authentic refreshment?  

Music – Composing, Recording, and Performing!  Even playing alone or jamming with friends is an authentic refreshment for me.  Sometimes just listening to music is an authentic refreshment.

How and when did you discover it? Does it hail back to your childhood or is it a more recent activity? 

I started piano lessons between the first and second grade. It was not yet an authentic refreshment at that time. However, when I was 13 years old, I took up the guitar, then bass guitar, and finally moved back to keyboard by the time I was 16. Somewhere between 13 and 16, music dawned into an authentic refreshment and became a life-long passion.

How often do you engage in it? Is it part of your routine or is it more of a spur-of-the-moment, spontaneous kind of activity? 

It’s definitely spur of the moment, but I engage in it constantly…with or without an instrument to play. I’m always hearing things musically and writing melodies or lyrics in my head or going through a tune I’m working on. I do this while I’m at work or out with friends….it’s kind of like a computer program that always runs in the background. Sometimes I even work on music in my dream state.

Do you go solo or do you share it with a friend or group? 

I play and write for myself and for groups. It doesn't matter. Music flows through me and has to be expressed either individually or with others. As far as performance goes, I prefer to work with a group. Composing, on the other hand, is mostly a solo activity although I enjoy composing with others….that just doesn't seem to happen as often as the solo composition thing.

Do you use a journal to record your authentic refreshment time? If so, do you just record what you did or do you also reflect on its benefit to you each time? 

I haven’t journaled about it, but I usually record my new compositions as that is much easier with the advent of computers than it was in my younger years. As far as reflection on it goes, that is [the] part of that always-on program that runs in the background for me all the time. I’m constantly reviewing, analyzing, changing, comparing, upgrading, playing with something that I have written either recently or years ago.

When you first engaged in your authentic refreshment, were you surprised by how much you enjoyed it or did it feel as natural as breathing, like you've come home?  

It felt as natural as breathing, like I've come home…and it still does.

Did you find it from another source and then change it up to suit your preferences?  

That depends. It was my interest in music that caused me to become a musician because I first wanted to be able to play the songs on the radio that I was listening to. That soon evolved into composing my own music. So, in a way, yes, it came from another source and I changed it up to suit my preferences. J

How does it enable you to validate your emotions and feelings?  

Wow! I could write a book about this. Suffice it to say that music has been my unfaltering emotional support system. Many times it has taken me from absolute despair all the way to joy in a matter of 30 minutes to an hour...just playing can do that for me. I have used it in all of my peak moments to stabilize me and in all of my valleys to pull me out of the well of darkness. Music always brings me to the light!

How does it help you appreciate yourself for who you really are at your core?

I feel that music is my core. It is how my soul expresses itself. When I am totally absorbed in playing or writing music, there is no separation…there is only oneness.

How does it nourish your soul?  

Completely! As to the “how” it does that, I don’t know. It feels like music IS my soul and that it is connected directly to the source of all that is (call it God, the Force, Universal Mind…whatever you want). I know that I can be totally depleted energetically, and music has the power to refresh my energy and bring me to an ecstatic energized state.

What would you say has been its greatest benefit? 

Music keeps me sane in an insane world. Music never leaves me in my darkest hours. I can depend on music to always be there to get me through life’s greatest trials.

Do you anticipate it? How does it benefit you in the moment? How do you feel afterwards? 

Usually I anticipate it. Usually I consciously create it. However, there have been spontaneous eruptions of song in my life…pure joy expressed musically because that is its highest expression.  How does it benefit me in the moment? Music is always healing. It always raises my vibration to a higher more in tune level…an at-one-ment. Music leaves me feeling high and joyful. Usually I am highly energized after playing.

What is your favorite part of it? 

Creating in that space of at-one-ment!

Was there an a-ha moment that changed your perspective in a way you didn't expect as a result of it? 

Although I've had several a-ha moments with music, the only one that changed my perspective unexpectedly was the moment I realized I was a musician, that I would always be a musician, and that music was all I really wanted to do. I had denied that possibility to myself for a long time. It finally hit me when I was about 19 that this is a music lifetime and that I needed to follow my bliss.

Has it ever surprised you with the new discoveries you have uncovered?  

Music is a lifetime of learning that always has little twists and turns and new surprises along the way. That’s because music is alive and evolving just like I am….it’s an expression of my soul that has a life of its own.

How does it clarify your purpose in life? 

Music is the universal language. It speaks to everyone. It makes people happy. It empowers people and motivates them to go beyond themselves. I am both a communicator and a catalyst this lifetime…music is the platform for both of those.

How has it personally empowered you? 

Music took me from being a shy introvert into being a strong, self-assured extrovert that really doesn't care what other people think of me.

As someone who has benefited from authentic refreshment, what would you say to someone who is looking for theirs but they haven't found it yet? 

Don’t give up. Follow your bliss! Pay attention to what makes you forget about time and space…that is the dimension of authentic refreshment.  Do more of that!

Short Bio:

I was born in a small town in central Texas, the daughter of a Theology professor and an English professor.  My dad was a preacher, historian, and Greek and Hebrew scholar, while my mother was the English professor, church choir director, and pianist/vocalist.  I grew up in a deeply spiritual and profoundly musical environment.  My parents always encouraged their children to be and do whatever they were passionate about.  They never set limits on us.

I began playing music professionally as a guitarist at the age of 13. By the time I was 16, I had returned to my home base of keyboards.  When I was 17, I began creating a stage persona that would allow me to be more extroverted…I lived into a character that I created and acted the part.  I’ve toured all over the US and Canada with rock bands and played solo in Mexico and Europe.  I have two CD’s out, “Dreams of the Neophyte” (a New Age Instrumental Sampler) and “Butterfly Emerging” (a massage/meditation CD timed to exactly one hour with time signals).  I also have numerous rock recordings that have not made it onto a CD yet  (some can be found on Soundcloud http://www.soundcloud.com/true-tidwell)…still in the works!  I have also written a rock opera titled, “Alien Blue” and am currently working on the book of the same name.  I also have a book titled, “The Lucifer Conspiracy,”  which is almost ready for digital publication.

I am a graphic artist, a photographer, a tarot reader, a player of Native American Flutes, and a lover of animals.  I love to travel the world and love being in nature, both hiking and camping.  I am also fascinated with languages; this probably stemming from having learned the Greek alphabet before the English and having heard my dad speak phrases in many different languages as a child.  I am currently working on learning German.

 Wherever your mind goes, reality follows.