When I was 13, I was very depressed. I rarely looked at people and I didn’t talk much either. I remember talk floating around the house about what to do with me. Therapy wasn’t big back then, but that idea was in the air of the house along with the general worry.
At that time, I remembered a snippet from a song in a movie I saw when I was 5 years old. I remember the seat I was sitting in next to the velvet covered wall that I rubbed my hand across during the movie. How amazing, velvet on a wall! And I remember the way I felt during that movie, joyful, hopeful, uplifted. And I remembered the snippet of that song, “The sun has gone to bed and so must I”.
At 13, I remembered the movie - The Sound of Music - and I bought the album. I then began listening to the entire album every night after dinner (using headphones). I spent an hour every night for a year shifting from pain, sadness, anger and other challenging feelings to joy and love. It was a very good practice and training ground in exploring emotions and how to shift them.
Emotions are frequency, they are chemical, they are energy and they follow (work in tandem with) our thoughts. If we are filled with fear, worry, doom and gloom from the news or other chatter in the zeitgeist, we will have a hard time finding joy.
This morning I decided to try some music therapy again. The first CD that popped out to me was “Real Love” by Lisa Stansfield. A friend sent me this CD last year and I maybe listened to it once in my life. But this morning - It is good therapy! Reminding me to relax the doom and gloom and find my joy!
PS - never apply a bandaid to bypass the core of your pain. But there is a time to do the deep work and a time to knock off the crap (indulgence in fear mongering) and be uplifted. Music is a great way to uplift us all! Find your favorite artist and spend some time with them today.
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