Adrienne Schroeder

Every day I ride my bike in traffic in one of America’s biggest major cities, Chicago. It’s great fun.

I get to go fast, move my body, feel the wind on my face and bonus - I don’t pay for parking! I love riding my bike anywhere and especially love riding here.

It wasn’t always this way. When I first moved to the city six years ago, I was terrified to ride in the street next to cars. I rode on the sidewalk until I learned it was illegal. Then I took to the streets. Shaking.

When I was first acclimating to traffic and being inches from buses on the move, an important person in my life gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received.

He said, “Just act like a car. It’s only when you act like you’re not supposed to be there that things happen.”

Coming from a lifelong city biker, I immediately implemented his advice, even though my nervous system was not at all on board.

How true it was and is. I went through lights like a car, I changed lanes like a car and I sto...

Six years ago I started meditating out of desperation and because numbers don’t lie.

I had crippling performance anxiety as a musician and I was desperate to gain command of my mind. I was face planting in auditions over and over again. My body would go into fight or flight, my fear based mind would take over and it was game over.

My heart was weary. I had tried beta blockers, a plethora of other variously scheduled substances and nothing was working. I couldn’t numb my way out of the block.

The numbers didn’t lie either. I was annoyed by that.

As someone who had been obsessed with personal development since high school, I couldn’t name one book that didn’t recommend meditation. Multiple performers and teachers were recommending meditation. My first coach brought up meditation. The data and the science were clear.

Just like looking at a bank account that stings - the numbers didn’t lie. I was annoyed and at the same time, I could not look away.

I surrendered to ...

Last week I was sitting at the piano with a young person I’ve known for a very long time. He often hits me with insane wisdom and I immediately feel like the student in the room. This person is eight years old.

We were discussing hand position and of course, doing our many secret handshakes. After 15 months of none, we are determined to fill our quota!

He stopped and stared at the back of his hands. He said, “Why don’t we pay more attention to the back of our hands? Why does the other side of the hand get all the credit?”

I echoed back to him that what he said made a lot of sense. Especially in piano, we are constantly considering the finger pads and the part of the hand that connects with the keys. Not so much, the back of our hands.

He then went on in what can only be described as a channeling moment.

He said, “Our body doesn’t get as much credit as it should. Did you know it supports us all day in every part of our life?”

He said, “The only time people pay at...

Every single person I’ve ever met has dreams.

There are things they want to do. There are things they believe in. There are things they want to create.

Whether it’s a dream as big as the sky or an intimate corner of their heart, there are things that they want to be, do and have in this life.

Most of these people with dreams never even start them. Whether it’s fear, avoidance, lack of belief, scarcity or a cocktail of those and more, a large amount of people never even take one step toward their desires. Big or small.

Somewhere along the way, they stop and block it before they have a chance to begin.

Some of these people do create the courage to start in the direction of their dreams. And then, they do not sustain it or see it through to completion.

These people get in the game and no matter how much they want it, they fall off. It becomes a distant memory and shrugged off as “Well, I tried.” Or “I just can’t”.

They exit the game either consciously or subcon...

As someone who has been a classically trained musician since age four and in general obsessed with her growth and potential as a human, mentorship has been and will always be bread and butter in my life.

Growing up I had a private piano teacher, a batting coach, a pitching coach, a French horn teacher and swim coach. For most of my life, I’ve had at least three mentors, coaches or teachers at a time. Each is valuable and each served or is serving a powerful purpose.

In my early twenties when I was broke as a joke, I mowed my teachers’ lawns, transcribed lectures, babysat, and even once painted a whole porch in August heat in exchange for lessons and coaching. I did whatever I could to receive mentorship.

As I’ve aged and evolved, the type of coaches, teachers and mentors have changed. I now have mentors for specific skills and crafts. Other mentors of mine support me in my life holistically. These days I can invest monetarily rather than by trade.

The seasons of my life...

Svadhaya is the Sanskrit word that literally means “self-study”. It’s part of the Niyamas in the tradition of yoga. The Niyamas are the laws of personal observance in the eight stages of yoga. Svadhaya is one part of a collection of laws and practices that are embodied through the Niyamas. Believe it or not, yoga is more than poses!

As a musician, self-study has been part of my life since I was four years old. However, I don’t know if I would describe it as Svadhaya until much later in my journey. Later like, a good twenty years later.

For most of my existence self-study was a painful scalpel I carved into myself as a musician and person. I had an unyielding ability to stare at my craft, find tiny imperfections and shift them toward excellence. The painful scalpel was largely created and stoked because I connected every blemish or “misstep” as a reflection of who I was as a person.

This painful scalpel was always with me. It began in music and cut into every other part of m...

Once upon a time, I graduated with my Master’s from a top conservatory and moved to a brand new city on my own. My now home, Chicago. I knew one person and knew no musicians. I grew up on a farm in Michigan and knew nothing about city living.

I remember signing a lease, putting down the first and last month’s rent on an apartment with bullet holes in the glass of the entry way and realizing I only had $300 left. $300 total to my name. And bonus, I had no job lined up!

All I had was my horn on my back and a dream. I wanted to make it gigging in Chicago. I wanted to take the L and go listen to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I wanted to win an audition. I had no idea how it would work, but I knew it would.

Once upon a time, I joined a mastermind for women entrepreneurs led by a spiritual money coach I adore. It was at the peak of the re-ignited civil rights movement in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. It was all about building conscious businesses and impact in alignme...

I have been a classical musician and immersed in the culture of music my entire life. And when I say entire life, I’m not exaggerating.

My parents met in music school, my Dad proposed to my mom after a rehearsal and they both pursued lives and careers as musicians and music educators. Since I was in utero I have been drenched in the beautiful world of music.

Growing up music was just a part of who we were. The piano was always being played and a part of the culture of both our family and the classical music world was performing at a high level.

Excellence was expected and part of our family identity. Being able to skill build, perform at a high level under pressure and my ability to reflect and hone a craft have all been amazing assets to me in my life. Each of which can be traced back to my experience as a musician and our family of high performers.

Just like any beautiful world, the world of music has it’s complications.

Competitive classical music fostered perfec...

I’ve been learning about the laws of the universe my whole life.

Newton’s third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is the law of cause and effect.

Einstein’s theory of gravity challenged Newton’s, stating that gravity isn’t a force, but rather a curvature of time and space caused by mass and energy. Either way you slice it, gravity holds.

I remain grounded here on Earth each day and so do you.

There are scientific and spiritual renditions of each of these laws. I experience them each and every day as I consciously create my life and live my unique Divine Design.

At the end of the day, each law is based in one profound truth:

Everything is energy and everything is connected.

There is one law of the universe that gets a lot of hype. It’s the Law of Attraction.

The Law of Attraction states that “like attracts like”. It was largely made popular by the movie “The Secret” and is based mostly on thoughts manifesting ...

About three years ago, I achieved one of my lifelong biggest dreams. I won an audition for a full time job playing my horn.

After hundreds of auditions, failed attempts, tearful plane rides home after ten second shots and never advancing once for years - I not only advanced through to finals, I won.

A culmination of years of practice at my craft and the skill of auditioning paired with a healthy dose of mindfulness and self-love did the trick. I soared.

I remember feeling calm, knowing for a fact that I would play at my peak and feeling ease - even joy - wash over my body in the final round.

I was in my flow and I was in flow by deliberate choice.

Winning this job was a huge deal. I had spent literally decades playing the same 30 second snippets of music over and over perfecting them to ensure my complete preparation for when I got my shot.

The majority of musicians long for a win like this and never achieve it. I did.

Not only was this a full time playing j...