Music - A Prescriptions for Healing of Mind, Body and Soul.
The health of the physical body is inextricably tied to our emotional, mental and spiritual health. Music is a powerful catalyst for healing because it touches the very core of humanity... our souls. With music, we can remember our connection to the Creator and the powerful Healer within. We can take control of our health and our lives as we enjoy the healing sound of music.
Music is the heart of our soul. In music one must think with the heart and feel with the brain.
"Music is manna for the soul, and nectar for the spirit." It can certainly cross all barriers- languages, politics, sexual orientation, race, creed and religion.
Music has a way of stirring our innermost feelings and all of our senses, of tapping into parts of ourselves unlike anything else. Music is a universal language that has the ability to speak to us deeply and uniquely.
If you've paid much attention to how you respond to a variety of music, you may have noticed that some music seems to energize you, some music can move you to tears or spark a special memory of a time, place, food, or perhaps a certain person. Some music seems to make you relax, feel less stressed, and feel happier. And some music fills us with deep spiritual attunement.
Music , Medicine and Miracles
I consider myself blessed because there is music in my life. Music has always been helpful, inspiring, useful and therapeutic in my life. I'm forever thankful to my mother who has nourished my hunger and interest for music from the early age of three years onwards.
In many ways music has enriched my life; it has lifted me above the routine of everyday living. I'm not a trained music therapist but music was since childhood until now a friend and companion in my life. I also know from firsthand experience how music can help during sickness and recovery.
Music and Sound is an extremely powerful tool for healing, personal growth, and spiritual transformation.When I was diagnosed with cancer, it was music (and music therapy) that has helped me through the difficult times and listening to music was healing. I immersed myself in music of all types. I listened and played classical, Celtic, gospel, show tunes, folk, world ethnic, and sacred. Listening, singing, playing and painting music was always an experience of great power, and I used the visions I received as archetype messengers.
The greatest gift I received through many of my healing journeys with music was my ability to visualize music, to see the shapes, forms and vivid colours of the music pieces I was listening to. This in return nourished my art. I also know how listening to music, playing a music instrument, singing and chanting has helped many patients, adults and children alike, throughout my time working as a nurse in the hospital and in my private practice.
Music is a powerful tool to help people to heal.
When patients have music during their treatment they need fewer pain medication and don’t need as much anti-anxiety medication. Many patients told me that music plays (ed) a large role in helping them adjust and adapt and work through their difficult times.
Using music as therapy might sound strange in an age where medicine is relying more and more on science and technology, but the benefits of musical treatments have been known for almost 1,000 years. Modern medicine is just starting to understand how it works.
Music therapy treats the whole person, not just the body. The magic of music lies in its unique capacity to reach out simultaneously on many different levels – physically, emotionally and spiritually, making it a powerful tool for change. Music Therapy can make a difference between isolation and interaction, pain and comfort, dependence and empowerment and between demoralization and dignity.
“Musical preferences are influenced, but not determined, in the womb.
There is also an extended period of acculturation, during which the infant takes in the music of the culture she is born into. … As adults, the music we tend to be nostalgic for, the music that feels like it is our music, corresponds to the music we heard during our teenage years. One of the first signs of Alzheimer’s Disease in older adults is memory loss. As the disease progresses, memory loss becomes more profound. Yet many of these old-timers can still remember how to sing the songs they heard when they were 14. Why 14? Part of the reason we remember songs from our teenage years is because those years were times of self-discovery, and as a consequence they were emotionally charged. We tend to remember things that have an emotional component because our amygdala and neuro-transmitters act in concert to tag the memories as something important.”
Music - A Tool to Balance Mind and Body
Music was and still is an important and enjoyable tool to balance my mind and my body. Depending on my needs and on the desired outcome I choose quiet and classical music. Other times I need my "musical cup of coffee"; this was/ is music with strong rhythm and speed. I am blessed to have a full "musical medical home cabinet" at my disposal, which allows me to listen to a wide variety of music. Music is a cure for when I’m down, and a joy for my happiest days. Music inspires me and it can sometimes describe my feelings better than I could ever do with words. There’s a song, a melody, to every feeling I feel and I’ve yet to find them all.
It’s amazing how the first notes of an old favorite can bring back the feeling and the memory of the time when a song made its mark on my heart. Some are songs that helped me to feel joy and some others helped me to grieve. I remember feeling somehow better knowing that someone somewhere had felt what I was feeling. It helped me to understand that I am truly a part of the human family. There is no pain, loneliness, or grief that hasn’t been a part of the human experience. Each of us, however, feels it in a unique way because we are like our fingerprints. We all have them but they are all different.
For me, music is about communication that goes beyond our spoken language and rests deeper in our collective human psyche. Music brings us together, it connects people. Strangers become close friends when they sing to our spirit a song that is just what we need to hear at that moment. You can relate and understand the emotions of anyone from next door to across the globe just by listening to some chords or notes. I wonder if that is what makes music fans so devoted. I rather think it is. How can you not feel something for someone who has had the courage to write, sing or play music that exposes the most vulnerable part of his or her soul and has helped you to heal, rejoice or rebel?
Every so often I have a look into my "musical medical home cabinet".
During this time I’ve been surprised by the variety and sheer volume of music I am fortunate to have. I have a rich collection of music and medicine for all kind of moods and emotions.
While processing all this music I’ve been re-experiencing all the songs and concerts that have affected me during my lifetime. I’ve been thinking about how music helps to fashion our characters and influence the paths that we take. How music can help us to work through difficult times and express our happiness and triumphs.
There are songs that become watermarks on our lives and the melodies leaving ripples and arcs that remind us of the high tides and the lows. Listening to music and allowing it to take over my body in a sensory way has helped to provide physical and emotional relief for me, particularly throughout the time of my illness. I have spent many beautiful, relaxing and healing hours in my life listening to music, seeing music and painting the music of my soul.
Music is a gift to us all. It is so rich and varying; each culture with its own sound and groove.
I love it all. The notes and the scales are written in my very bones and I am grateful!
I detected my love for classical music at the age of three and since then Music has always played an important role in my life. Great music from amazing artists have a sacred place in my heart and enrich my life beyond words. I use music while I’m painting and sometimes I paint music. With great care I’m selecting music that will best enhance the chosen theme of the painting and my experience, creating the artwork.
Sometimes through the beat of heavy drums and the screams of a hoarse-voiced singer we can vent our anger and proclaim our defiance of those things we find unbearable. There are others who croon to us of love in all its splendor and agony. We love musicians that can make us want to move, to dance and to feel our lives through the motion of our bodies.
Music is the gateway to the soul. Music is the flame, which lightens the soul. Music is food for the heart and soul. Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence."
Music has the power to integrate the whole person, allowing profound healing on many levels.
Music profoundly influences our lives and improves the quality of life for everyone. I haven’t met a single person yet, who doesn’t enjoy music. We live in an era where the palette of music we can paint onto the canvasses of our lives is a rich spectrum. Any sound we are looking for can be found and heard.
Music surrounds our lives; we hear it on the radio, on television, from our car and home stereos. We come across it in the mellifluous tunes of a classical concert or in the devotional strains of a bhajan, the wedding band, or the reaper in the fields breaking into song to express the joy of life. Even warbling in the bathroom gives us a happy start to the day.
Music is one of the few experiences that can touch a person on all levels of consciousness. It is a powerful sensory stimulus that can work simultaneously on the body, mind, and spirit. Through the use of music, positive affects have been seen in the nervous system, affecting the endocrine system, which in turn enhances the immune system.
Switching off with music
There's nothing quite like the feeling of just switching off and giving yourself over to the power of music - it can stir our emotions, trigger our memories and even give way to some wild dance floor movements. But music's magic doesn't stop there, for some it's a form of therapy. Studies have also shown that almost all music increases your mood, because it causes a release of dopamine, so if you're feeling tired, bored, or depressed, a good piece of music or song might be the cure you need.
It doesn't really matter what type of music will make you feel better and more relaxed. What count is familiarity, musical taste, and the kinds of memories, feelings, and associations a piece of music brings to mind. Some people relax to classical music, western and country music others like Blues or the sound of Jazz. The key is to individualize your musical selections. As long as it evokes a powerful response, any piece of music has fulfilled its intention.
Musicians, Composers and Singers
The universe has given birth to many gifted singers, musicians and composers who have attained mastery in the art of healing music, from the olden days, throughout the centuries, right up to our time.
Just to name a few: Tibetan Buddhist chants, Zen Shakuhachi music, Ancient Native American Flute, Renaissance choral music, English and Irish folk songs, Monteverdi, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Faure, Debussy, Edward Grieg, Rachmaninoff,Joaquin Rodrigo, Benedetto Marcello, Anton Arensky, Vivaldi, Antonin Dvorak, Ravel, Aboriginal, Maori, Hawaiian, Andean, Scriabin, Gurchiev, Hazrat Inayat Khan, ancient and modern Chinese healing music, Balinese, Javanese, and a host of contemporary composers from around the world who have sprung up since the 1970's are but a few from the galaxy of unknown musical artists who have contributed to the creation and playing of - music for health, healing, and spiritual enrichment.
And then there are the natural healing sounds: the lapping of the lake shore, a chorus or birds, the rustling of autumn leaves, an owl's hoot, the silence of snow, the music of rain and even the mighty crack of thunder in the distance, the falling of water, the crashing of waves, the sound of wind through leaves, the trickle of a brook, and water moving around the stones in streams, tall grasses rustling in a breeze, the sound of silence, the felt sound of one's heartbeat.
And what is healing today may be not healing tomorrow. It matters not who or what is in fashion; all that is important is the fact there exists music which is therapeutic, spiritually uplifting, quieting, relaxing, energizing, life-affirming, positive, beautiful, healing, awakening, soul-searching, metaphysical and based upon the affirmation of love as a active principle in within every note and phrase as they pass through the hearing and enter the human experience. When we are touched to the depths of our being and enervated as a result; when we reach a musical catharsis, no matter what our taste or style we prefer, but one which brings to us the rapture of a musical climax, where we are moved to absolute tears, we are experiencing music of a healing nature.
Healing music is limitless in its ability to transform the listener to a heightened state of awareness.
Though we all consider music as a mode of relaxation or entertainment, very few of us view it as a medicine having magical healing and therapeutic properties. Several scientific studies have been conducted to indicate the healing power of music and its role in improving our cognitive ability, reducing stress levels, relieving acute pain and causing several other positive changes in our body and mind. These interesting studies have given rise to a new form of therapy called Music therapy. Music therapy involves using music to promote physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing.
Music as Therapy Music allows us to transcend the everyday states of consciousness and travel to places that either a memory of to a place of creative imagination. Often during music therapy sessions, people will lose track of time for extended periods, which in turn helps them to reduce feelings of stress, anxiety, fear, and pain.
Music – older then history
The history of music as we know it is older than written history. We have what we often call the periods of music, prehistoric, ancient, early, medieval, renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, 20th century and 21st century.
In all of this, the basic ingredients of music remain the same: melody, rhythm, harmony and form. Music call. It beckons, it heals and it soothes. Music of the ages is used as a messenger. What is music in someone’s ears may not to be the same to another person. Of music, it can be said that it is rhythm, motion and sound.
The uses of music for therapeutic purposes probably date back into the prehistoric mists of human culture. Music has always been associated with magic and with religious rites, and men and women with special powers are likely – as do their counterparts in many contemporary cultures – to have used music to invoke the gods, hypnotize patients and, indeed, to assist the sick body to heal. However, a history of music therapy in the west must draw – in the absence of any other evidence – almost exclusively on written sources and has to be careful to distinguish theory from practice.
Music has been known to have a positive effect on both mental and physical health since ancient times, when people used singing, dancing and chanting as a part of their rituals to heal in a person that supposedly caused disease.
Ancient cultures used music as a form of medicinal healing.
The healing power of music has been expressed throughout the centuries, from the strumming of ancient harps and flutes, to the pure voice sung in chants and folk songs. Music has no bounds when it creates the sounds to heal and mellow the soul. Its legacy survives every generation through history and is expressed through the hearts and deeper feelings in the people from almost every culture, ancient and modern.
From the dawn of civilization music was used to heal. Music was used as a key healing method by the ancient Hindus, Chinese, Persians, Egyptians, and Greeks; indeed, Homer’s “Iliad And Odyssey” celebrates the moments when the spread of a plague is halted by sacred hymns and Odysseus’ wounded knee is healed by the “chanting of lays.”
Music as an instrument of healing, in particular the harp, has existed for several thousand years. The Bible includes a famous story about David soothing a tense King Saul with his harp playing.
For thousands of years, people have known that music is more than a mere pleasure, that it also improves our quality of life in a deeply significant way.
The I Ching, Chinese Book of Wisdom states that "music has the power to ease tension within the heart and to lessen and loosen obscure emotions". This is one of the oldest books in Chinese culture.
For centuries shamans have used drums and vocal sounds as an integral part of healing practices in indigenous cultures.
Healing mantras, chants, and incantations have ancient origins and are seen throughout history and in every major world culture - Buddhism, Hinduism, Muslim, Judaism, Native American, Polynesian, Asian, Sufi, etc.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) refers to the qualities of specific instruments and sounds and their beneficial effects on various organs.
Ancient Egyptians helped women through labor and childbirth with healing music.
The ancient Greeks and Romans, including Pythagoras, Democritus, Aristotle, Galen, and Celsus, have recognized both harmful and beneficial effects of music. Hippocrates - widely considered the father of modern medicine - used music as part of the treatments he offered patients. He often took his mental patients to the Temple of Asclepius, to make them listen to healing music - the ringing of bells.
To the sage Pythagoras, good music was associated with the rhythms of life. Pythagoras did apparently use music systematically for therapeutic purposes: they would sing and play the lyre when they rose in the morning so that they started the day bright and alert, and again at night to carry away the day’s cares and prepare them for propitious dreams.
References to the healing power of music can be found as far back as the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Around 400BCE, Plato shared his profound belief, "Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good, just, and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but nevertheless dazzling, passionate and eternal form."
In ancient Greece, Apollo was both the god of music and medicine. Ancient Greeks said, "Music is an art imbued with power to penetrate into the very depths of the soul."
Paracelsus used the metaphor “musical medicine” to indicate a form of therapeutic music composed to deal with specific anomalies. This prefigured, in several ways, the idea of medieval minstrels playing music for patients in convalescence, fostering their recovery.
Handel supposedly composed his famous "Water Music" at the request of King George I of England to aid him with his poor memory, whether the music helped or not is undetermined.
The end of the 19th century also saw the birth of another philosophical approach – or spiritual philosophy: Anthroposophy. According to its founder, Rudolf Steiner, humans and indeed all objects in the world have a spiritual tone which interacts with sound, and so musical tones can be used in therapeutic practice. Anthroposophy is well known for eurhythmy, a movement art that combines sound, speech and dance, but which is also applied to compensate for somatic and psychological imbalances, the aim being to strengthen the sick person’s capacity for self-healing.
Music Is Medicine for the Soul
Since time immemorial, music has infused a spark of the Divine in human beings. Stating the esoteric nature of music, Sufi saint and musician Hazrat Inayat Khan said: "The true harmony of music comes from the harmony of the soul. That music alone can be called real which comes from the harmony of the soul, its true source, and when it comes from there, it must appeal to all souls." Inevitably, music has a very powerful therapeutic effect on the human psyche. It has always been part of our association with specific emotions, and those emotions themselves have given rise to great music.
Music and rhythm create their healing effects by calming the constant chatter of the left-brain. " When sensory input is decreased, the normally noisy left brain with its internal conversations, analyses, and logical judgments subsides to a murmur, stimulating deeper parts of the brain that are throne-rooms of symbols, visualization, and emotions. “This is the seat of ritual in tribal societies." There is a clear, distinct parallel between traditional shamanism and the practices we do in music therapy today.
There is much proof of music's positive effects on health and immunity, how music is processed in the brain, the interplay between language and music, and the relationship between our emotions and music. Music can spark the fame of passion, nurture our sense of belonging, and kindle our hopes for yet another love. It fulfills life and with life a world around us. The highly evocative nature of music becomes highly effective in inspiring the mind, in galvanising human spirit into action, and in instilling sobriety in our sometimes-chaotic feelings.
Music can put to sleep a restless spirit and it can wake up tired mind. Music can change the mood of a person. It brings an indefinite joy when we heard good music and a bad feeling when we heard sad music. It doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to realize music's impact on our lives. There's no doubt it has the power to orchestrate our emotional tone. Music can trigger just about any emotion – it can bring joy to our hearts or sadness in anticipation of pain, loss, or separation. It enables us to celebrate life, to sing and to dance, and it centers us peacefully in prayer or meditation. Music can create the feelings of wonder, tenderness, transcendence and nostalgia, enhance us with inner peace, fuel our energy, and inspire us to joyful activities, release tension and sadness.
Emotional Effects
The ability of music to influence human emotion is well known, and is used extensively by movie makers. A variety of musical moods may be used to create feelings of calmness, tension, excitement, or romance. Lullabies have long been popular for soothing babies to sleep. Music can also be used to express emotion non verbally, which can be a very valuable therapeutic tool in some settings.
Music is very powerful and can shake your emotions to the core. It can create happiness in a dark place, awaken a soul that has been asleep, and help those who have been in pain. Many people turn to music as an outlet to ease their frustrations, anger, and resentments.. If we as listeners become so stirred by the music we hear, why not continue the process of full emotional awakeningby playing a musical instrument or singing to your heart’s content? Music stirs the emotions for a reason.
Music can be a tool to help us deal with feelings within us, whether we're aware of them or not. This is one of the wonderful ways music can be incredibly healing.
If we're feeling stressed, angry, anxious, or irritable, our heart rates tend to increase. Music can help our heart rates slow down to a more relaxing pace, changing our physiology. It helps us to open ourselves emotionally and let loose with feelings that may be causing disease. It inspires us to examine our lives, our relationships and ourselves. Through our mind and emotion, music can reduce stress.
Music help improve your listening skills and with this, you will be able to take advantage of it in everyday situations, like driving, listening to friends and colleagues, and even picking up on sounds you didn’t realize you could hear, like the high pitch sound of a camera.
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything." “What exercise is to the body, music is to the brain.” The power of music often inspires physical movement and can be used in combination to encourage gentle exercise.
Music is like meditation, if detached oneself from everything around.
It broadens one’s thinking ability. Once somebody dives into the pool of music, the rhythm flows through our body. It is there in our nerves, on our fingertips and feet tapping to enjoy the sound and always playing on our minds. It is really difficult to detach oneself from music.
Music is primal to life and expressed by each of us every day whether through dancing to a favorite tune, keeping rhythm or remembering a special time when hearing a forgotten melody. It is central to our lives and is embedded in our culture, defining how we acknowledge milestones, rites of passage and celebrations as well as providing comfort, transformation and inspiration. Music links us to our world and provides a pathway back to our past.
Physical Effects
Brain function physically changes in response to music. The rhythm can guide the body into breathing in slower, deeper patterns that have a calming effect. Heart rate and blood pressure are also responsive to the types of music that are listened to. The speed of the heartbeat tends to speed or slow depending on the volume and speed of the auditory stimulus. Louder and faster noises tend to raise both heart rate and blood pressure; slower, softer, and more regular tones produce the opposite result. Music can also relieve muscle tension and improve motor skills. It is often used to help rebuild physical patterning skills in rehabilitation clinics. Levels of endorphins, natural pain relievers, are increased while listening to music, and levels of stress hormones are decreased.
Depending on the type and style of sound, music can either sharpen mental acuity or assist in relaxation. Memory and learning can be enhanced, and this used with good results in children with learning disabilities. This effect may also be partially due to increased concentration that many people have while listening to music. Better productivity is another outcome of an improved ability to concentrate.
Music is all around us.
We don’t need to be sophisticated musicians, experienced concertgoers, or amateur or professional performers to enjoy it. We just need to take time to listen.
Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by a mellifluous strain that tears have streamed down your eyes in a wave of catharsis? Have you ever felt a connection to God through divine music? Or has a soulful melody opened the floodgates of old memories, to transport you back in time to a beautiful reverie? How often have you rocked your blues away listening to feet tapping music? Ever felt that when you walk down the street and the wind is lightly blowing through your hair, that a slight sound of a whistle reminds you of a song?
Music has a way of stirring our innermost feelings and all of our senses, of tapping into parts of ourselves unlike anything else. Music is a universal language that has the ability to speak to us deeply and uniquely.
Music makes a person feel free and can touch emotions in ways that no other words can. "Music is a therapy. It is a communication far more powerful than words, far more immediate, far more efficient."
Music can make your eyes burst into tears when you are happy or let you smile from the bottom of your heart when you are gloomy. Nothing in the world can compare with music, which is also the universal language of the entire globe. We can't communicate if we talk with people who speak another language, however this is easily solved by the rhythms of music.
Throughout the ages music has inspired men with hope, given voice to their joys, kindled their love, and soothed them in times of despair. So often it affects us in ways that we find difficult to explain. At times it becomes a communication of spirit that need not be articulated to be understood and can lead us to moments when we seem to touch the infinite.
Music is a way to tap into the innate knowledge that resides deep in our cells. We live "in" music. Every human life moves to a beat. From the womb to the tomb, we're driven by powerful rhythms we barely understand - the pulse of our blood, the beat of our heart, the rise and fall of our breath.
Great music nourishes us in ways we don't even realize. It inspires us, relaxes us, energizes us - in short, it heals us and keeps us well. And music can be found everywhere in our world. While we may not always be listening to a Beethoven Symphony or a Mozart Sonata, the universe is a tonal symphony of many sounds interacting and vibrating together. Music is the pulse of the energy that courses in and through everything through vibrations.
In The Mozart Effect, Don Campbell talks about using music in a variety of ways throughout the day, in the morning to help energize us, throughout the day to help us focus or concentrate better, music to help our intelligence, and in the evening to help us relax.
What better “medicine” than a “treatment” that has only positive side effects and "therapy" that is actually enjoyable? That is the “miracle of music” when applied with intention.
Don’t wait another day to learn about the remarkable benefits for you and your family’s health. Learn how to use music as a tool for healing.
- Soothe your jangled nerves
- Focus your mind and intention
- No prescription needed
- Calm your mind and body
- Lower your blood pressure
- Boost your immune system
- No worries of addiction
- No refills required
- Music nourishes the soul and the spirit
- Music soothes and heals the heart
- Music for enlightenment
- Music for calming the mind
- Music invigorates spirit and body
- Music has the amazing ability to turn emotions on and off, to transport us to another place and yes and to heal.
- Music is medicine for the body, the mind, and the soul.
- Music transcends race, sex, religion and boundaries of time and space.
- Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
- Music becomes a method of communication, a tool of expression and a coping mechanism.
- Music comes from deep inside. It is a universal language that all people can hear and understand.
- Music can connect people of every nation and tongue in an emotional binding way.
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Music has a way of stirring our innermost feelings and all of our senses, of tapping into parts of ourselves unlike anything else. Music is a universal language that has the ability to speak to us deeply and uniquely.
If you've paid much attention to how you respond to a variety of music, you may have noticed that some music seems to energize you, some music can move you to tears or spark a special memory of a time, place, food, or perhaps a certain person. Some music seems to make you relax, feel less stressed, and feel happier. And some music fills us with deep spiritual attunement.
With music all around us, in our lives at work or home, try to pay attention to what you hear and what you play. Use music as a tool to balance and manage the mind and body. Music used in the appropriate way can be healing. The key is to use wisdom and listen to what our inner healer tells us about how music makes us feel. Think of music as a wonderful therapeutic tool that can be very enjoyable. Music has many qualities; learn to use them to your advantage.
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