When Music Talks, Awareness Responds

I love music. Most people do, I imagine. In some magical way, it has the unique ability to reach us and touch us in places that regular conversation don’t. When a few well-placed notes are strung, it can bring us back to some point in our life that we probably haven’t thought about, or forgotten, in some time. Who doesn’t equate a special song with the summer? Think about how we feel when we hear that first Christmas song on the radio the very next day after Thanksgiving. Forget about love songs. Some songs remind you of summer romances or maybe the song you and your partner danced to for the first time. Memories like those we don’t even realize is a memory still hanging on way deep in our subconscious. It’s that place where music and mindful awareness meets.

I’ve spent considerable time talking about life on autopilot for a while now. You may remember that we miss so many things around us because we move through a routine or conditioned experience rather than trying to experience each moment anew. As a consequence, we move forward through repetition. Music has a similar trait. I know hearing the same song over and over again can lead to us hearing the beat, humming the melody, reciting the words, but losing experience of feeling when it’s all combined. Awareness invites us to listen differently though. For me, it asked me to consider all of those things: the lyrics, the instruments, and main goal of the song, but awareness wants us to notice what the music awakens in us…how and what we feel when we hear it.

Music is powerful. It changes moods, it creates and reminds us of old memories, and it creates tension (good and bad). And what’s special is that it has the ability to transcend time. There are songs that I haven’t heard in 20 years that transport me right back to the time when I first heard it. And whatever it makes you feel personally, it doesn’t have to be shared. It’s yours and yours alone.

I hope you all learn to let awareness remind you that it’s like music in that it’s not limited to one genre. Find your awareness through reflection, through meditation, through knowledge, but I hope you let music transport you to that place where you can find clarity. Wherever you are listening to your music, let the music speak to you directly. Who knows what else you may discover.

Stay mindful…

Rebirth