The Harp: Emotional Intelligence and Healing

THE HARP - an appropriate topic for Christmas time

Some say the harp is the most healing instrument -- both to listen to, and to play. Read about HEALING STRINGS - serving the critically and chronically ill and the dying, providing harp music at the bedside from the neonatal ICU to Hospice.

"It took me away from the hospital to a place to beauty and stillness." - a post-op patient

Why the harp? It has centuries of archetypal associations to angels, peace, healing, comfort, the end of suffering, and

... Heaven.



Why the harp?

It's wide pitch range (low C-32.703 Hz to high G-3136.0 Hz), vibrates the entire body;

It's unique glissando technique, using enharmonic tones, is heavenly;

Pythagoras saw the strings as symbols of the nervous system and plucking the strings appears to release tension;

Playing the harp vibrates the harpist's body, especially the thymus gland which is in the chest and important to the immune system

Even as long as 3,000 years ago, we understood the relationship between the music of the harp and the healing of the body and mind.

Recent medical studies have confirmed that the particular frequencies and sounds of the harp can aid healing and foster well-being.

This is true of other instruments and of classical music.



Susan Dunn, the EQ Coach also offer Club Vivo Per Lei

10 Ways to Use Music During the Holiday Season

This might be a time of year where you're looking for, oh, some different ways to soothe, level, motivate, energize yourself and otherwise get on top of your cascading emotions. The EQ Foundation Course© emphasizes the great arts as an adjunct to Emotional Intelligence, though the not-so-great arts are helpful too. May we suggest?

1. Need to get solidly centered
Like, as the metaphysicians say, when you vision yourself growing a tail and having it grow like an anchor down to the center of the earth kind of centered?

Try anything with a big solid bass, up loud, but make sure the lyrics don't interfere. The right-brain will dominate and you'll hear the music first, but your left-brain will still be getting the lyrics. Thus, avoid "Oh Elizabeth" which has the beat, but the lyrics are sad.

OUR SUGGESTION: "I Loved ‘Em Everyone," by T. G. Sheppard

2. Need to deal with something heavy, such as last year your father died on Christmas Eve and here comes the first anniversary

OUR SUGGESTION: Only classical music will work for this and that's why we call it classical. For such a deep need, to maintain your grip when something's rocked the foundation of your world, we recommend, Beethoven's "Eroica".

"Eroica" means "heroic" and that you will need to be.

Beethoven lived through the worst thing that can happen to a person. It's there, in his music. For you.

3. To get lightly level

OUR SUGGESTION: Nothing will probably ever compare to Pachelbel's "Canon". After that we give 5 stars to George Winston, particularly "December." Good masseuses play these tapes. There are no ups and downs and that may be just what you're aiming at. :)

Also "What Child is This"

4. To rip the heart out of Christmas, like when you want to just sit down in front of the tree and cry at the beauty and the splendor of it all and get it over with (and get the toxins out) and then eat a pint of Haagen Daz and go to sleep

OUR SUGGESTION: Pavarotti's Christmas video, Panis Angelicus duet with the little boy, especially if you had a little boy who now has whiskers on his cheeks. Or Placido Domingo with the Vienna Boys Choir. Then you can pull out your heart and put it on the table beside you, right there beside the dish of peppermints, and the cinnamon-scented candle, and you'll know you had Christmas.

5. Want something Christmassy but light

OUR SUGGESTION: Harp music is good for this, like for baking cookies to. It doesn't pull the emotions. It's close to the lyre, the instrument the Greek god Orpheus played to soothe the savage beasts, and to win a favor from Hades, the god to whom there is no altar (death), the god with whom there is no bargaining.

Completely upbeat, light and fun is "A Reggae Christmas," by Various Artists, and yes, my friend, "sensei" does rhyme with "pear tree." Listen to it on the way in to work. That's girl's laughter will carry you through your day - The Ras Family, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," and June Lodge's "Joy to the World" will put joy in YOUR world.

6. Need to get some physical work done, sick of Christmas, got the kids around

GP RECOMMENDATION: (1) "Great Balls of Fire," Jerry Lee Lewis. How could you possibly be "mindful" with that going on? It's great fun. It will clear the air. (2) "Don't Worry Be Happy," by Marley.

7. The out-laws are coming, I mean the IN-laws, and you, exhausted, crabby and high on sugar as you are, must clean the house and you aren't exactly in the MOOD for a Christmas Carol, if you know what I mean

OUR SUGGESTION: If you haven't cleaned house with your two preschoolers marching along behind you to a John Philip Sousa march, you haven't lived. Give the little one a paper hat and get out his toy drum. Ok, quit laughing and taking pictures and get back to work, you!

OUR PG SUGGESTION: Got older kids you need to get working with you? Call it "the main event," and put on the Jock Jams, "Let's Get Ready to Rumble."

OUR X RATED SUGGESTION: You and your partner put "Cotton Eyed Joe" on -- I mean the Texas version - and invent your own lyrics appropos to the, um, challenges of the moment. (This is popular at office holiday parties with adjusted lyrics as well!) And DO the Cotton Eye Joe as you push that vacuum around. Here's how.

OUR X-17 RATED SUGGESTION: The Pogues, "A New York Fairytale." The boys in the NYPD were singing Galway Bay ... (a little venting).

8. Need to be inspired and also to get in touch with the spiritual side of Christmas

OUR SUGGESTION: Handel's "Messiah, Hallelujah Chorus," of course. Just the chorus, unless you're an aficianado and can afford to tire yourself out.

Remember, if you will, that when you hear "The Hallelujah Chorus," you are to stand up.

Do this. Right there at home in your living room. It will do something for you.

Great Christmas Carols like "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and "Go Tell It on the Mountain"

9. Now, or any time you're beginning to feel just slightly resentful of all your "blessings"

OUR SUGGESTION: "Lord, What Did I Ever Do," by the Oak Ridge Boys is great for attitude adjustment.

10. For the peace that passeth all understanding

OUR SUGGESTION: Stille Naq, Noite de Paz, Noche de Paz, Sainte Nuit, Cicha Noc, Glade Jul, Stille Nacht, Po La`i E, or, as many of us know it, Silent Night, the lullaby that's been translated into every language on earth, composed by the greatest unsung duo in musical history, Mohr (lyrics) and Gruber (melody).

We also recommend "Ave Maria."

Let them still your heart and bring you peace.

How to Have a Peaceful, Meaningful Christmas

My article, "Post Holiday Blues" is featured in an ebook you may want to read. It's called HOLIDAY BLUES GUIDE, by Barbara Kilikevicius, written "for all who seek solace during the Christmas season."

Post Holiday Blues
By, Susan Dunn, MA

“You gotta pay the price,” one of my clients is always telling me. She’s referring to what is a law of physics, and also the way things work – what goes up must come down.

The higher your Christmas, the more exciting, chaotic and tumultuous, the more likely you’ll be tumbling down just as far. Why? According to sychoneuroimmunologist (big word meaning the effect of brain and emotions on health, i.e., immunology), Paul Pearsall, Ph.D., our smart bodies want to establish equilibrium. Picture a graph on a midline. The midline is calm, routine. We can get very happy
and go up; or very unhappy and go down. Therefore, if our emotions go way up, there will come a time when our inner wisdom brings us down low, so we settle back into that middle space.

Does this mean if you have a terrible grief or depression, you can expect to be that happy at some time in the future? I’ve seen it happen. It’s a tenet of Emotional Intelligence that if you don’t fully experience one emotion, you stuff down ALL emotions. In other words, if you face grief and go through it, not around it, you will carve out a space to be filled with happiness. If you don’t, you shut down, and
become numb, in which case you don’t feel the bad, but you also don’t feel the good, and greatly limit your experience of life.

So, if you’re having a “down” period now what do you do? First of all, accept it. You can last it out. To speed it on its way:

1. Get active. Exercise an extra hour. It creates physical energy, it clears the mind, and flushes out toxic emotions. Do it especially if you don’t feel like it.

2. If you’re an introvert you may prefer meditation, yoga or Tai Chi.

3. Clean your house from top to bottom, doing the physical work yourself. Do it like a ritual, that is, with meaning. This is to get rid of the yuch, and make room for the sunshine. This is a tradition in many cultures at the New Year for a reason – because of what we’re all going through right now! Throw stuff out, sweep toward the doors, vacuum then take the bag out and dump it in the garbage, wash the furniture with something like Murphy’s soap.

4. Accept quiet times and go with the flow. Curl up by the fire and read good books. Coddle yourself with extra long baths with special lotions. Get your nails done. Get massages. Fix yourself a warm breakfast. It’s kind of a hibernating time anyway.

5. Jump-start your thinking brain. Start a new course. If you’re an extrovert, go to community ed classes. If you’re an introvert, enjoy yourself on the Internet with distance learning courses and take teleclasses.

6. Start a new intellectual project at work and at home. Start a new physical project at home - build a greenhouse, paint the spare bedroom.

7. Start anything new – new health club, new piano lessons, coaching, fencing lessons, new hairstyle, new friendship, new career.

8. If you live in an area where this is high allergy-time (such as Texas), make adjustments to your diet, because it’s cumulative - pollen PLUS diet PLUS dust and mold inside your house. Clean your air ducts.

9. Laugh. One simple exercise is to put a pencil in your teeth crosswise. This makes the muscles of your face into a smile, and this helps our bodies. It gives us the same great relief a good laugh does.

10. Don’t fight it. There is no need to appear “Miss Congeniality” when you aren’t feeling that way. It’s okay to be in a quiet place. Also, because this is the peak of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), get more sunshine. Exercise outside. Take a Caribbean cruise. When the sun crosses the bed in the spare bedroom, go lie down and soak up the rays.

Change is the only thing that stays constant, so know that your mood will eventually find its place. If you are seriously depressed, check with your personal health care professional.

Susan Dunn, M.A. (http://www.susandunn.cc/), individual coaching, coach
certification program, ebooks and seminars for mindful living and success.

Please contact me for coaching during this time! It's one of my specialties. sdunn@susandunn.cc . Coaching by email, phone and in person. Payment accepted by personal check, credit card, or PayPal.

Barbara writes in the introduction:
, emotional

My original intent was to add a small subchapter in my book A Mindful Christmas ~ How to Create a Meaningful, Peaceful Holiday. After hearing from many experts I decided to put together this free guide for anyone that needs some relief now. If you suffer from the holiday blues or know someone that does then this guide is for you. Please feel free to print this out or send anyone our way via the website http://www.amindfulchristmas.com to
download a free copy of this ebook themselves.

May it be a peaceful and meaningful season for you and yours. Let me help you if I can.

Susan

FOR CHRISTMAS MUSIC SELECTIONS THAT SOOTHE, AND USING THE POWER OF MUSIC TO MAKE YOUR HOLIDAYS PEACEFUL AND MEANINGFUL, VISIT CLUB VIVO PER LEI - I live for music.

Music for the Holidays

Free mini coaching sessions for the month of December. Email to schedule yours, sdunn@susandunn.cc .

Pavarotti, Mario Lanza, Beethoven, Verdi, the joy of music.

Let's face it, the holidays work over our emotions. They also work on our emotions, which is to say it's an emotional time. We inherit what seems like another full-time job, we have to cope with Scrooges, grumpy co-workers, stressed our postal workers and shop clerks, increased traffic, bittersweet memories of holidays-past, and ... YIKES!!

What we can we do to soothe, level, motivate, energize ourselves and otherwise get on top of these cascading emotions that won't stress us out more by requiring money and time we don't have?

Well, how about some music! We include the great arts in our highly acclaimed emotional intelligence programs, because culture is one of the components of emotional intelligence. The salutary effects of music are well known, and, for the most part, easy to come by.

When you’re feeling stressed, need to relax or to pep up, get some energy, or work out the kind of nameless sadness that can happen at the holidays, music works. Even if you can’t get your hands on a CD or don't own a big collection of tapes, you can get on the Internet (see Club Vivo Per Lei) or turn on a radio.

Here are some suggestions for how to "use" this to your advantage and good health over the holidays.

1. Need to get solidly centered?

Like, as the metaphysicians say, when you vision yourself growing a tail and having it grow like an anchor down to the center of the earth kind of centered?

Try anything with a big solid bass, up loud, and brass – trumpets! Just make sure the lyrics don’t interfere. The right-brain will dominate and you’ll hear the music first, but your left-brain will still be getting the lyrics. So, for instance, don't use "Oh Elizabeth," though the beat is right, because the lyrics are sad.

OUR SUGGESTION: “I Loved ‘Em Everyone,” by T. G. Sheppard

2. Need to deal with something heavy, such as last year your father died on Christmas Eve and here comes the first anniversary

OUR SUGGESTION: Only classical music will work for this and that’s why we call it classical. For such a deep need, to maintain your grip when something’s rocked the foundation of your world, we recommend, Beethoven’s “Eroica”. Beethoven is the most popular composer in the world, for a reason."Eroica" means "heroic" and that you will need to be. Beethoven lived through the worst thing that can happen to a person, and prevailed. He wrote some of his most triumphant work after going deaf. It’s there, in his music. For you.

3. To get lightly level

OUR SUGGESTION: Pachelbel’s "Canon" tops the list. The Trans-Siberian orchestra has a beautiful recording and video (http://wm.atlrec.com/Trans-Siberian_Orchestra/new_03/christmascanon_300.wmv ) of this with children singing lyrics they composed. Leveling music contains no crescendos or shifts in rhythm, what you’re after, right?

4. To rip the heart out of Christmas, like when you want to just sit down in front of the tree and cry at the beauty and the splendor of it all and get it over with and then eat a pint of Haagen Daz and go to bed

OUR SUGGESTION: Pavarotti's Christmas video (God rest his soul in peace), Panis Angelicus duet with the little boy, especially if you had a little boy who now has whiskers on his cheeks. Or Mario Lanza singing “Ave Maria” with the boys choir: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I-Z26gkNVk . Then you can pull out your heart and put it on the table beside you, right there beside the dish of peppermints, and the cinnamon-scented candle, and you'll know you had Christmas.

5. Want something Christmassy but light

OUR SUGGESTION: Harp music is good for this, like for baking cookies to. It doesn’t pull the emotions. It’s close to the lyre, the instrument the Greek god Orpheus played to soothe the savage and to win a favor from Hades, the god to whom there is no altar (death), the god with whom there is no bargaining. He used it to put people to sleep, and you can use it to put your emotions to sleep.

Completely upbeat, light and fun is "A Reggae Christmas," (http://tinyurl.com/y6sp ) by Various Artists, and yes, my friend, "sensei" does rhyme with "pear tree." Listen to it on the way in to work. That's girl's laughter will carry you through your day - The Ras Family, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas and June Lodge's "Joy to the World" will add joy to YOUR world.

6. Need to get some physical work done, sick of Christmas,got the kids around

OUR SUGGESTIONS: (1) "Great Balls of Fire," Jerry Lee Lewis. How could you possibly be “mindful” with that going on? It’s great fun. It will clear the air. (2) "Don't Worry Be Happy," by Marley. The key is the beat, the rhythm, and getting away from "Christmas."

7. The out-laws are coming, I mean the IN-laws, and you, exhausted, crabby and high on sugar as you are, must clean the house and you aren’t exactly in the MOOD for a Christmas Carol, if you know what I mean

G RATED SUGGESTION: If you haven’t cleaned house with your two preschoolers marching along behind you to a John Philip Sousa march, you haven’t lived. Give the little one a paper hat and get out his toy drum. Ok, quit laughing and taking photos and get back to work, you!

PG RATED SUGGESTION: Got older kids you need to get working with you? Call it "the main event," and put on the Jock Jams, "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" (http://tinyurl.com/y6tw ).

X RATED SUGGESTION: You and your partner put "Cotton Eyed Joe" on -- I mean the Texas version – and invent your own lyrics appropos to the, um, challenges of the moment. (This is popular at office holiday parties with adjusted lyrics as well - at the after-the-party-party, when the "bosses" have left) And DO the Cotton Eye Joe as you push that vacuum around. Here's how: http://www.partydirectory.com/guide/cotton.htm .

8. Need to be inspired and also to get in touch with the spiritual side of Christmas
OUR SUGGESTION: Handel's “Messiah, Hallelujah Chorus,” of course. Just the chorus, unless you're an aficianado and can afford to tire yourself out.

Remember, if you will, that when you hear "The Hallelujah Chorus," you are to stand up. (Traditions and respect anchor us too. They remind us there's always a bigger picture, yes?)

Do this. Right there at home in your living room. In your grubby bathrobe and slippers. It will do something for you.

9. Now, or any time you’re beginning to feel just slightly resentful of all your “blessings”

OUR SUGGESTION: “Lord, What Did I Ever Do?” by the Oak Ridge Boys is great for attitude adjustment.

10. For the peace that passeth all understanding

OUR SUGGESTION: Stille Naq, Noite de Paz, Noche de Paz, Sainte Nuit, Cicha Noc, Glade Jul, Stille Nacht, Po La`i E, or, as many of us know it, Silent Night, the lullaby that's been translated into every language on earth, composed by the greatest unsung duo in musical history, Mohr (lyrics) and Gruber (melody). And here it is in Japanese, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MssiavJIp-Y, Lee Heung Lan sings it in the Japanese film, “Scandal.”
We also recommend "Ave Maria."

Let them still your heart and bring you peace.

To increase your understanding and enjoyment of music, and help you bring more of it into your life, join Club Vivo Per Lei / I Live for Music, www.susandunn.cc/vivoperlei.htm . It's fr**, our gift to you.