Music Moves. Awareness Witnesses
Music Moves. Awareness Witnesses
When you listen to a song for the first time, do you ever notice how it moves you before you’ve even decided how you feel about it? Can a familiar song or rhythm change your mood? I can definitely say that it does for me. Whether it’s the lyrics, the melody, or the voice of the person singing, there is something special about the way music can transport us somewhere else in an instant. Sometimes it gives me inspiration for the future. Other times, it takes me back to someplace I haven’t visited in years. And along the way, it can carry sadness and comfort separately—or somehow allow us to feel both at the same time.
I wish I could take a poll on this: Which artist does that for you? I know, that’s both an easy and a difficult question. I can probably rattle off ten artists without thinking, but if you asked me to choose just one (or name my favorite) the question suddenly becomes much harder. Fortunately, we don’t have to choose.
Music is a shared human experience, but our experience of it is super personal. The same song can make us feel differently depending on when we hear it, where we are, and what’s happening in our lives at that time. And every once in a while, a song hits that spot. You know the one. It shakes your soul, brings back an intimate memory, changes your mood, and/or makes everything around you disappear for a moment. That spot is important because I think there is something important happening there.
When you recognize that a song has moved you, when you become aware of the memory it awakened or the feeling it brought forward, that kind of recognition can become your moment of clarity. And that is a Kind Rebirth.
That’s how mindful awareness through music can work. The combination of the right song and your awareness of what is happening inside you doesn't necessarily ask you to fix something, change something, or try to explain anything. Sometimes that spot just lets you stay there for a moment or however long you are compelled to just to breathe and to notice.
So while we celebrate the incredible musicians and artists who have given us these moments of reflection, let’s not forget to honor our own awareness within those moments too. Because the music may create the moment, but awareness allows us to recognize what the moment means to us.
Stay Mindful…
Rebirth.
PS – I know I like to introduce (or reintroduce) jazz stylings, but this is one of those songs that just creates and sets the moment……Mr. Bob Marley & The Wailers – No Woman, No Cry:
