Have you ever watched a small child listen to music? They smile and move. If they’re walking, they dance. Even when they’re infants, they respond to music. Kids love music. And dogs seem to like it, too, if their tendency to “sing” along is any indication.
Sometimes we need to put on some music and sit with it and let it talk to our spirits. Here are some suggestions on how you can start adding music to your life.
Our society puts a lot of emphasis on music. Who do you see in the news all the time? Singers like Britney Spears and Foxy Brown. One of the biggest legal issues today is MP3 sharing over peer-to-peer networks. Remember Napster? That was all about music.
So what is the big deal about music? You’ve no doubt heard music has “powers to soothe the savage beast.” Music can soothe us, too.
What are you listening to right now? If you’re in your office, probably the radio, or nothing. In your car, do you listen to music? Most of us listen to far less music as we get older, and then we tend to listen mostly in the car or occasionally in our offices on the radio.
What if we started focusing on listening to music? What if we decided to choose music that has meaning to us, and listen to some every day? For you that might mean Mozart or it might mean a Christian artist like Mercy Me, or it might mean someone like Tim McGraw or Keith Urban. Find music that matters to you.
We connect very deeply with certain music, and I believe that’s because music often captures something in our souls that we can’t articulate. But we can hear a song and immediately know that it’s “the” song to express what we feel.
Billy Joel had a huge hit twenty years ago with “Innocent Man” for just that reason. Other singers have had great success with songs that really reach out. Cher’s song “Believe,” for instance, became a number one hit long after some critics thought Cher was down for the count.
Listening to music helps us open up and listen to what we’re feeling. That’s important because far too many of us do not listen to ourselves. In fact, we find lots of noise to cover up what we’re feeling, from movies to television to talk radio.
There is nothing wrong with music or television or talk radio. They’re all great. But sometimes we need to just put on some music and sit with it and let it talk to our spirits and tell us what we need to know.
And sometimes we need to go to a concert and experience that feeling of being in a crowd of people who all connect with the music we connect with. That’s an experience we all can benefit from, at least once in a while.
How can you add music to your life? Start today by:
- Picking out an old CD you used to love, but have not listened to lately.
- Setting aside an hour to listen to music.
- Exploring the Internet for more artists you might enjoy.
Thanks to Positive and Successful Lifestyle Tips for including this post in the Carnival of Inspiration and Motivation.
