How to Heal Cancer With Music – Self Healing
“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”
~Plato
Hello lovely you!
It is such a good feeling to be home and in my own bed. We had an amazing week in downtown Boston in the Seaport area. For decades there were only a couple of restaurants, and most of the Seaport area was parking. Now it is filled with office buildings, restaurants, and great shopping. It is incredible to see what has happened over the last decade. If you come to Boston, it is the “in” place to visit.
It dawned on me as I was waiting for my tea to steep that July is halfway over. This summer is speeding by. Do you feel that way, too?
Anyway, my tea has steeped, my lovely Zuzu is napping, and so I am ready to put my latest thoughts on paper. Or screen.
I forgot where I originally read that quote by Plato, but it instantly resonated with me. I have always been a HUGE music lover. My mother was an opera singer, my Dad played the Piano and my Aunt and Uncle were Cabaret and Jazz entertainers, so I was exposed to all kinds of music growing up. I listened to everything from Elton John and Fleetwood Mac, to Madame Butterfly and John Coltrane and everything in between.
And I knew as a child, as I know today, that there is something very holy about music. It is not just a bunch of notes and instruments; it is a language of God, of love, of light, of change. When we open ourselves up to the power of music, profound things can happen in our lives.
Beyond touching our souls in a deep way, music has been shown to have the power to heal; heal our bodies, our emotions, our spirits and our minds. This makes music one of the most important healing modalities in any cancer treatment plan.
Music for the Body
Did you know that hospitals around the country are now using music therapy to ease patients’ pain? Music is also being used to naturally lower blood pressure and reduce anxiety, which allows the patient to heal faster.
And this isn’t a very recent discovery. Back in 2007, a survey was conducted that found hundreds of healthcare facilities were offering some type of music to their patients.
Other studies have shown wonderful healing benefits of music. For instance, in Finland, severe stroke patients that listened to at least an hour of recorded music per day recovered their verbal memory much faster and experienced less depression than those patients who didn’t listen to music.
Premature babies who listened to two hours of Mozart each week had lowered their heart rate and slept better, according to researchers at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York.
A 2008 study published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine found that terminally ill patients in Australia had less anxiety, pain and drowsiness after one single music therapy session.
Numerous studies at this point have shown the power of music to slow our heart rate, our breathing, and lower blood pressure. Music can naturally take us out of that “fight or flight” mode and put us into our “rest and digest” mode so our bodies can heal from chronic illness and disease.
Music for the Mind
Music is also creating significant change in the way we treat mental illness in this country. It is believed that one in 5 US adults suffers from mental illness. While some alternative treatments such as yoga and meditation have been used successfully to treat depression, it is fairly recently that music therapy has been studied as another potential treatment.
Studies with depressed teens showed that music therapy shifted their brain activity and decreased their levels of cortisol (a stress hormone). Music therapy is being used with positive outcomes on those suffering from substance abuse as well. Drumming therapy has been found particularly beneficial in treating substance abuse issues.
Music for Emotions and Spirit
Music is profoundly moving and has a way of helping us release buried emotions. How many of us, women AND men, have found ourselves in our car, suddenly overcome with tears as we listen to something that gets to the heart of our pain and expresses it for us?
Music not only helps us release trapped emotions, but it also helps us feel new positive ones. When we feel down, we instantly want to put on something that makes us feel happy and upbeat.
This is why films use music so effectively. They understand that the right music at the right moment can help the audience feel exactly what we should be feeling.
And, interestingly, a study on the power of prosocial lyrics found they increased positive thought, empathy and helping behavior. Anthem type songs may have the power to heal more people than all of the psychotherapists put together! We will we will rock you!!
And finally, music not only feeds our soul, but it helps bring us all together, as one spiritual family. Which is what we are. But most of us are so busy living our separate lives that we easily forget the person in the car in front of us or the person in line behind us is our brother or sister. Music has a way of connecting all of us. Sometimes we connect with others while listening to the same songs and sometimes we connect by creating music together in a group. This connection deeply transforms our spirit – we remember who we really are and that our trip in this life is supposed to be lighter and more fun.
At the end of the day, music reminds all of us of our shared human experience. It is profound.
How to Get Started
Just start listening more to the music you love. Unless you love heavy metal. Then I would suggest trying something a bit gentler to your ears and spirit.
Actually, right now I’d like to draw your attention to an experiment done by the famous scientists Dr. Masaru Emoto on how different types of music affected water crystals. The other thing about music is, it is sound, which is frequency and vibrations. And frequency and vibrations can have a huge impact on our bodies.
Dr. Emoto’s experiment on water crystals shows without question that water has consciousness and is profoundly affected by thoughts, words and music. Our bodies are 80% water and can be greatly affected by music. But listening to “the right” type of music is important. Check out this short video so you can see how water crystals responded to different types of music and words.
If you want to find an official music therapy team in your area, you can do that as well. But I would start by spending more time each day listening to music that calms you and uplifts you.
Yours in light, love and boogie woogie…
Prue
