The Medicine in Music

Music used to touch our souls. It used to be an expression of feeling, all kinds of feelings, feelings about everything. Love, anger, hope, happiness, good times and bad times. We used to be able to feel it, the words used to land somewhere inside of us, they resonated and made us feel connected to them.

I am not proposing that all music is lacking or no longer emotionally touching, there are still songs that can and do ignite that full body rush and surge of feeling like the song was written by your heart. These types of songs are so very powerful, they can motivate, inspire and even become incredibly therapeutic for people.

Michael Jackson, Prince, Tupac, Billy Joel, Bob Marley, Whitney Houston and The Beatles. You might be familiar with some of the aforementioned individuals, they are some of the more well-known artists that have songs that touch our souls. Just think of a song that you know, do you feel connected to the words, is there a memory associated with the song, does it remind you of a particular time in your life? Everything that comes up for you is music dancing its way into the depths of who you are.

Even the most uninterested person can find themselves getting lost in the narration of music from time to time. As human beings we strive to connect, music helps us connect with what we are feeling, want to or need to feel. Connecting with ourselves and going within is so crucial to our existence. Music can be an external guide to self-exploration (our internal guide) if we give ourselves permission to feel the words.

Hear and feel the words as you appreciate the rhythm of the instruments in the background. There is often a message in a well written song no matter the genre, a message that shares the recollection of an experience. Even music without lyrics can elicit certain feelings within the listener. Fully immersing ourselves in a song, the right song, can reconnect us to our feelings, reconnect us to our memories and for some of us even reconnect us with our dreams. Music can support us in diving deeper into our internal world. It can open the door to exploring our own emotions.

The gamut of emotion runs throughout all kinds of music. The strong beat of the drum, the depth of the bass, when the tone of the saxophone hits just right, you feel it. We all feel it, we just have to slow ourselves down and pay attention.

We just have to slow ourselves down, stay present and listen.