Chef Whitt’s Web Site

Melodies That Mellow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is some 4,500-registered music therapist in the United States who use music to relieve distress. Why is music so effective in relaxing muscles and minds? No one knows exactly says the National Association of Music Therapy. “Music somehow influences our heart rate and breathing. It also helps release emotional stress in a non-threatening way.”

(Ephesians 5, 19). Speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

   If you’re going to try music, what type should you choose? Whatever works for you, most experts say. What helps you sleep may agitate or depress me. The ‘right’ music depends on your cultural background, and preference and our mood.

   Many therapists agree on certain rules of thumb. Slow music sedates us more often than fast music. Strings and woodwinds are more soothing than trombones. Music lacking the percussion of rock or the syncopation of jazz is easier to relax to than music with an intrusive beat. (Psalm 33, 2). Praise the Lord with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.

(Psalm 144, 9). I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.

 

   Avoid those lyrics, the experts say that ruffle the mind and cause us to summon up and visualize, and remember unpleasant memories. (Isaiah 12, 2). Behold, God is my salvation: I will trust and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

(Ephesians 5, 19). Speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

 

Suggested Techniques for Tuning In

(Respondent Conditioning)

 

· Listen to various pieces of music to find one that seems most restful to you.

After turning out the light, turn on the piece of music you selected. Listen to it over and over until you fall asleep.

Melodies That Mellow

 

Suggested Techniques for Tuning In

(Respondent Conditioning)

 

Listen to this same selection each night when you’re ready to sleep, but don’t listen to it any other time. Eventually the music will stimulate a “time to sleep” response, and you’ll drift off before it has hardly begun.

 

Calming Disquieting Thoughts

 

Turn on the light; fix something soothing to drink.

Get comfortable, turn on music that makes you feel good, close your eyes a moment and listen. The music provides a focal point to help you feel in control.

Write down in a notebook whatever thoughts the music suggests, no matter how little sense they seem to make. Keep listening and writing until you feel sleepy.

The next day, read over what you wrote and share it with a close friend.

 

   Following this regimen will help keep your mind clear at night, allowing you to sleep, according to several noted music therapists.

 

Tonal Massage

 

   By visualizing tones massaging our bodies, we relax muscles and promote inner harmony. The more harmonious we feel, the more easily we fall asleep.

 

· Turn on the music and concentrate on the sounds while clearing your mind of regrets and worries.

· Imagine that the tones, starting at your feet, are moving up your legs and into your abdomen like the fingers of a masseur or masseuse.

· Imagine how your heart looks, with its valves and vessels, then imagine how your lungs look with their air sacs and branches. Visualize the tones relaxing these organs, slowing down and regularizing their rhythms.

· Visualize the tonal fingers working on your shoulders and neck, then on your jaw, eyeballs and temples.

Visualize your muscles, organs and glands as a complex machine with all the parts interacting in harmony. Your increasingly slow breathing lets you know that you are about to fall asleep.

    (Proverbs 3, 24). When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

(1 Thessalonians 4, 14). For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with them.

 

Melodies That Mellow

 

Tunes Build Muscle Tone

 

   If you are a shower-stall serenader or a housecleaning crooner, keep it up. A study reported in the American Journal of Nursing suggests singing and listing to music may be good aerobic exercise as your body twist and turns to the song or music.

   In a recent study twenty singers were compared with a like group of nonsingers and, sure enough, the singers had more cardio respiratory pizzazz.

   Come to find out ‘singing’ is a conditioning exercise of the muscles of respiration, the researchers concluded. It very efficiently tones up the chest wall muscles in a manner similar to swimming, rowing and yoga.

   So folks in closing, for good mental and physical well-being follow the Bible (Psalm 95, 1-2). O Come let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

Amen!