Did you experience mind-body healing today?

I hope that today you experienced some of the healing that comes at this time of year from the beautiful music of the season. Yesterday, Christmas Eve, my oldest daughter and I played at the Christmas Eve service at our church. The music was sublime and I enjoyed many of my favorites. A particular favorite was the spiritual "Mary Had a Baby." My daughter and I played "Maria Wiegenlied" by Max Reger and "Il est ne," a French Folk Carol. It was definitely an uplifting and healing experience for me. Please let me know what musical experiences you had!

Movie Music in "Blood Diamond"

Today I went to see the new movie "Blood Diamond." It is a disturbing but riveting movie about the diamond business in Sierra Leone in the 1990's. The movie depicts tremendous civil warring and violence among the peoples who live there. Three or four times we see pick-up trucks full of young African militiamen, tearing into a village, guns blazing and American gangsta rap blaring. Is this really the way it happened?? There is much native African music in the more peaceful parts of the movie, but when extreme violence is portrayed, it's the American gangsta rap screaming in the background. I just thought this was interesting. What do you think??

What Does Holiday Music do for YOU?

This seems to be a controverial topic. Personally, I love Christmas music and I love holiday music in general. It just reminds me of happy childhood times and happy young adult and young parents times. Every decade brings with it new holiday compositions and even though I don't care for all of them ("Grandma got run over by a reindeer"?) I really enjoy many of them and have spent quite a bit of time over the last few years creating my own arrangements of them.

However, I knowquite a few people that seem a bit Grinch-like when it comes to holiday music. I've been told it's "cheesy," "hokey," and too commercial. I guess like all music, it's a very personal thing but I love to play it all year long. To me, it's magical!

Choosing music for the Mind-Body

Choosing music for the mind-body involves first choosing music that you specifically would like for either the mind or the body. Confusing? OK, for example let's say that you are driving in your car and you decide to find a radio station that will be relaxing but not put you to sleep. You end up with an NPR station that is playing some classic jazz. Within 60 seconds probably your muscles are relaxing and your no longer gripping the wheel nor driving 10 miles per hour above the speed limit. You're also having thoughts nad memories of more pleasant times that are associated, perhaps subconsciously with this music. What I'm trying to say is, the music we choose everyday affects both mind and body all the time because the mind and the body are inseparably connected! Choose carefully! By the way, this diagram of the brain's response to music is courtesy of Dr. Arthur Harvey of Music for Health Services. Google his name and learn more about his important work!