One day Dan Cohen was reflecting on the isolation experienced by so many assisted-care facility residents, particularly those living with dementia. He thought, “If I ever find myself in that situation I hope I can still listen to the music I love.” Inspired by that insight, Cohen began volunteering in a facility near his home, interviewing patients about music from their past and loading their favorite songs on iPods. Residents who had been nonverbal for years suddenly came alive, sharing stories, rediscovering joy and literally remembering who they were. Cohen’s work grew, eventually chronicled in the Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary, Alive Inside. Click here to see the trailer. We’ve all had the experience of an unexpected piece of music carrying us back in time and space to a long-forgotten moment. Suddenly we’re there, “seeing” faces and places we haven’t thought of in years. We know experientially, and research confirms, that music can swiftly bypass the more logical and verbal parts of our brains to directly evoke moments, memories, and emotions. Many of those memories and emotions have healing power. When Minneapolis-based musician Mark Mallman’s mother died unexpectedly, he was thrown into a series of disabling panic attacks. He assembled a “Happiness Playlist” of 100 songs, determined to only listen to joyful music until he had recovered enough to cope with his loss. When the playlist actually worked, he wrote a book to help others find the same relief. You can find his story here. While some of Mallman's music choices puzzle me, his book confirmed an intuition I was already exploring: We can deliberately use music to help us be more spiritually resilient. (This fact is no surprise to the thousands of dedicated, professionally trained music therapists in our midst.)
Until the last century humans didn’t have many musical choices. They were limited to their region's music, played on instruments produced by their community, and created by their neighbors and the ancestors who preceded them. A shared regional music united and identified them; generations made, heard and danced to music together. The community owned its music. Today we have access to dozens of kinds of music, a diversity that tends to divide us into subsets according to age, class, geography and even politics. Few of us sing or play instruments together outside of church, deferring music-making to the professionals. We see a persistent tension between “sacred” and “secular” music, with many a congregation split over the choice of music to be used during services. While some arrive at compromises that divide services--and the congregation--into contemporary and traditional camps, others see people leaving altogether when a new music director comes to town. Since we’re working on our own individual spiritual music practice, we don't have to worry about what other people think is appropriate. Whichever music will increase our experience of gratitude, hope, compassion, awe, serenity, joy, inspiration and love is exactly the music we need. “Our” music can belong to any genre and come with or without religious language. Many of us will resonate most deeply with the music that touched us in our youth. What matters is that we find the right music for us, figure out how to make it available, and use it. I have a couple of Spotify playlists, one titled Sacred, the other Healing. Each list continues to expand. When I begin my morning prayer/meditation, I choose a song from one of those lists, play it, and then set a timer for my quiet time. My two current favorites are Joe Wise's Lord, Teach Us To Pray and Marty Haugen's Turn My Heart. ASSEMBLING AND USING OUR OWN MUSICAL TREASURY Your actual strategy for using music as a spiritual practice will depend on how you normally access music. Here are some options:
Click here for a cheat sheet with a quick summary and a space for you to jot down your own intention. Happy listening!
8 Comments
Connie
4/25/2020 05:46:03 am
Thanks, Nancy!
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Mary Jo
4/23/2020 09:46:19 am
I so appreciated your music practice. Alive Inside touched my heart deeply several years ago when I watched the video as we were at the time caring for our dear mother with Alzheimer’s. As her dementia increased and her ability to communicate with words became less and less, music became our deep connection in many ways. She had always been a great MPR listener to classical music and we took her to Orchestra Hall coffee concerts right up until the last year of her life. You never walked into our mom’s home that MPR wasn’t on and we found that her classical music really calmed her when she became agitated and confused. Holding her hand, and listening to music would calm her more than anything we could try to say to her. And then when we learned about Alive Inside, we began listening to all her old records with her ( and later found them with better quality sound on Spotify!!). At the stage when she could no longer string together words to a sentence she could still look at us and sing “You Are My Sunshine.” or something from Sing Along with Mitch if we initiated it and sang with her. It was like a miracle to hear her sweet voice through song..and it was such a connection. I will always be grateful for the connection that music gave us to her in her late stage Alzheimer’s. It seemed so right that we were all surrounding her on the day she died, and sang her favorite song “Let There Be Peace on Earth” to her..and 10 minutes after our song ended, she peacefully left us. Music is such a profound gift.
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Connie
4/25/2020 05:58:09 am
What a wonderful way to accompany your mother as she moved on to the next part of her life! I love the picture of you all surrounding her in song, and know it will inspire others. Thanks for sharing it!
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Claudia Bargiel
4/24/2020 11:21:33 am
Music is healing and regardless of talent everyone loves music no matter the voice. Those listening would be a audience of hummers, clappers and tappers. Music makes the world go round. It soothes, it calms, it brings joy, it can bring sadness, and reverence to the sinners.I still sing but my voice changed from a soprano to a tenor as I aged. Every morning I go outside on my deck and greet the day with Create in Me a Clean Heart O God. My neighbors think I am a fruitcake but I think God knows different.
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Connie
4/25/2020 05:52:51 am
MPR is organizing a weekly "sing out your front door event," and I haven't yet gotten up the courage to stand out there and cut loose. Thanks for being brave enough to share your song with your neighbors!
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Janelle Bussert
4/29/2020 03:58:04 pm
As a Hospice Music Therapist, I so appreciate your thoughts on this spiritual practice. So many times words fail people as they watch their loved one dying, and, of course, we don't know exactly what is going on for the person who is actively dying, but they are perhaps not able to express themselves, but can take in familiar words of Scripture and spiritual songs. And the family knows their spiritual practice and their love for the music that has been with them for a lifetime, and this is the liminal space which is enhanced by the sound of music that expresses faith and/or spirituality in so many diverse ways. Thanks again!
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Larry Schatz
5/1/2020 08:59:44 am
Oh, Connie: thanks for this lesson, both on the brain & on music. The stuff on the brain aligns nicely with a recent class I took at CTU on Spiritual Companioning. And music, well, let’s just say I’m an addict. I have so many playlists, including an ever-growing Spiritual one, that I use a lot, esp. In community prayer. So many wonderful songs and hymns out there. The video trailer really touched my heart; amazing the power of music to bring us back to another time and place. What a gift & blessing! Happy May, by the way. (I’m a little behind)
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