Healing Rhythm for Your Soul

Music comes in many forms, rhythms, styles, and beats.  Advertisements, movies and TV shows have a musical background or theme.  Rides at fairs and amusement parks play a continuous song to entice people to come take a ride.  You turn on your vehicle and usually the radio is playing on a station you have chosen.  Most restaurants, bars, and gas stations play some type of music.  It depends on the location and type of eating establishment what the music genre is. Music is great for working out, walking or running.  It helps to keep your energy up and gives you a good pace. Worship services are filled with music – choirs, praise bands, and congregational singing.  Music is such an integral part of life.

When you hear a familiar song, it may amaze you that you can sing along and know most of the words to songs you have not heard in years.  Songs bring back memories and are connected to events and people.  A song may bring tears to you as you think of your mom or dad because it was their favorite song.  There is a lot of nostalgia related to music – your alma mater fight song, your wedding song, or your favorite love song from your dating years.

 Music goes deep within your soul.  Even people with dementia will remember songs from their lives especially hymns of their faith and be able to sing the entire song from memory.  Music is a rhythm that the brain sustains.  When you listen to music, your body may begin to sway back and forth and you feel the sensations of the beat, and your mind takes in the words to that particular beat.  That is why you remember so quickly a song from just a few notes.  Songs become familiar and are usually tied with a memory.

Everyone has different styles that move them – gospel, contemporary worship songs, country, bluegrass, jazz, classical, pop, rock, and alternative.  There are so many styles and many of them blend together.  Music is also a way to express your emotions.  You may not be able to put into words how you feel, but a song will clarify and define those feelings for you.  Music makes you laugh, cry, release anger, and gives you a place to sit in the sadness and soak in the rhythm.  You can feel your pain and your joy.

 Music also brings healing in your grief.  It is finding songs to express how you feel at each stage and chapter of grief.  You may keep your grief and your feelings private, and music can be a way to give yourself permission to feel and release those emotions.  It is recognizing in grief and loss, you may not be able to name feelings.  Songs can put into words what your heart finds impossible to define.

Music is a tool to release emotions and bring you out of depression and slow you down in your stress and anxiety.  It also helps you enjoy the current moment and connect past memories with present joy.  Music is healing to your souls.  So spend some time every day taking in the rhythm and get lost for a moment or two in the melody, the words, and the memories.

Listening to music, playing music, writing music, and just being a fan of music will bring joy into your heart and healing to your soul. 

Elaine J. Sturtz

Living In The Different