Celine Dion

by Eduardo del Buey

Hello subscribers, today Bettina Clark and I will discuss the phenomenon that is Celine Dion. If you enjoy the videocast and article please share it with your friends and contacts and ask them to subscribe.

Many thanks!

Celine Dion

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”  

Mahatma Gandhi

A year and a half after disclosing that she suffered from Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS), Celine Dion gave one of the most moving and formidable performances in history at the opening of the Paris Olympics.

SPS is a rare neurological disease that causes muscles to spasm, can be debilitating, and can affect one’s voice.

The first reaction is, as one would expect, fear.

Fear of the unknown.

Until doctors diagnose the symptoms, one lives in constant fear, thinking the worst.

Thinking is not helpful in this situation because it conditions us towards speculation and towards the negative – just the opposite of what one needs!

At times like these, one must find a way to quiet the thoughts and tap into feelings of peace and calm, facing the verdict and setting up goals one wishes to achieve in order to manage the illness and set a course forward.

How does someone in Celine’s situation deal with such a diagnosis?

I can’t speculate on her actual actions but believe that they would somehow fit this model.

To make dreams come true requires five key elements:

         Discipline

         Routine

         Education

         Action

         Mentality

First, she set a goal – difficult but achievable.

To sing on a global stage in one of her favorite cities.

In April, she told the press "I’ve chosen to work with all my body and soul, from head to toe... I want to be the best I can be. My goal is to see the Eiffel Tower again!”

One must set achievable goals but not the impossible. Someone with a stage iv cancer diagnosis may not survive ten or fifteen years. But however, one must also not let “reality” limit one in seeking to accomplish a realistic goal.

Education is essential if one is to understand the challenge and define ways to meet it. Learning about challenges reduces the fear since once one understands the situation one is armed to find ways to address it.

Next, she likely visualized this goal of singing in Paris several times each day in order to program herself to do the necessary to achieve it.

One must follow a routine of visualizing and rehearsing. This creates new patterns in the brain that become real options where none existed previously. Soon, one believes that one can achieve the goal and, in some cases, that one has already done so mentally.

The late Wayne Dyer once observed that if you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

Mentality requires defining the problem is always the first step in dealing with it.

If Celine had concluded that the diagnosis was a death sentence, she would likely have been right.

Instead, she saw it as a challenge to overcome, and united her soul to her body to find way to meet the challenge and eventually meet her goal.

She was right and meet it she did.

Countless hours of practice, visualization, therapy, and medical treatment turned the diagnosis around.

By changing how she looked at it, she changed its power over her and that change freed her to act.

And act she did.

She appeared on stage like a vision, embodying the spirit of Edith Piaf, the great French songstress from the past, still revered by the French as an example of the Gallic soul.

Celine seemed to channel Ms. Piaf yet provided her own power and energy to connecting with over a billion spectators globally.

There are times when a performer’s energy reaches and touches deeply the souls of others. This not only feeds the audience, but also the artist.

I am sure that the energy Celine absorbed fed her soul enormously and has given her the strength to continue dealing with her illness..

So, there we have it.

The soul is the cradle of our energy and creativity.

And Celine has proven that her’s is a brave soul that overcame fear and debilitating illness, set her being to achieve a goal, and used her energy and talent to project strength and positivity in order to achieve it.

She left us all celebrating her courage and hoping that, should we encounter such a situation, we too will be able to move forward and conquer our fear.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2194761887556593

Videocast: