healing music, affirmation, meditation

James Schaller - Two Free Guides

We warmly welcome you to James Schaller, CMP's world of therapeutic music and knowledge to inspire professional and family caregivers to bring music as a powerful, comforting tool to transform love into action.

Guide One

Environment: Powerful Friend or Implacable Foe

by James Schaller c.m.p.

At first glance, it was just another sepia photograph of explorers in National Geographic circa 1912. Grim-faced, cold, unshaven men stand with rough and worn equipment and torn flags in a barren, icy landscape posing for a ‘selfie.’ As I read the caption, I learn that this is Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition to the South Pole, and within a few months, all would be dead.

What killed them; bitter cold, injury, lack of food and medicine? The environment, hostile and brutal did them in. They perished in an environment that did not support their desired goal, and actively worked to thwart their success.

In today’s discourse mentioning ‘the environment’ leads to discussions of weather, climate change and other ‘out there’ conditions. Other types of environment can be more subtle: emotional, home, learning, loving, all these activities have their own emotional, physical and spiritual eco-systems that combine to create environments in which we work, play, raise our family and project creation. The environment is also the situation in which an activity occurs. The environment is powerful – even more powerful than our will-power (as the members of Scott’s expedition would bitterly learn).

Eastern philosophy teaches that we need to be aware that our environment (and that includes people and situations – not just the weather) can prove to be either a powerful ally or a difficult impediment to self-growth. The choice of friends, community, activities, location, and work combine to either support our personal growth or lead us into miserable, blind allies of wasted efforts. If we are not careful, a negative environment can derail our most carefully laid plans. Attention to creating a positive environment can pay dividends as it supports our work and intentions and helps us to bring about desired results.

If we can change the environment or at least shape it to support our desired activity, we have a much better chance of success. If Scott’s team could have somehow changed their environment to help their trek, they would not have perished. How can we use this knowledge to create an environment that will support a vital family meeting such as the mission meeting?

This event is a time for family members to align their goals, desires and work projects. It’s a time to learn and understand what all the family members are pursuing; and how to best support each other. We should undertake all we can to promote a positive outcome for this meeting. How can we affect the meeting environment to help ensure a regular, productive, positive, enriching meeting with a meaningful understanding that results in cooperation among family members?

From quantum physicists to eastern mystics, there is agreement that the nature of matter is vibration and the potential for vibrations to occur. Music is the ordering of vibration into specific patterns of vibrational data that trigger multiple areas of our brain in a particular sequence. It’s powerful! If we can use the power of music to shape the environment for a positive outcome, your family meeting stands a better chance of ending as the Apollo mission’s lunar landing, and not Scott’s failed attempt to return from the South Pole.

Music can support a calm environment suitable for critical thinking and lucid discussions. Certain types of music have been proven to lower the breath and heart rates, distract and calm thought processes, and help to create a restful metabolic state. Music can also be used to support coherent thinking and to energize work activities.

Music is expertly used in major brand retail establishments to create a ‘vibe’ that will generate sales. Music can create a resonance of space, place, and mood to feel comfortable, hip, urban, relaxed, excited, ready-to-party, introspective.

You can use this same principle to set the relaxed, welcoming tone for everyone as they enter your workspace, to create and support creative thinking and the energy to take action.

For example, before a meeting begins, use music to set the tone of the room. Use soft instrumental music that is spacious, simple and relaxed in tempo. Some of the types of music I have used include Renaissance, slow, ‘chill-out’ groove music, slow early American instrumental or Celtic music.

As your meeting moves from the initial sharing of everyone’s goals and aspirations onto specific actions, consider changing the music to either up-tempo versions of the above or western chamber music. The change will help stimulate active excitement and energy for your family as you commit to specific actions and how you can support each other.

Personal music preferences are broad and vary significantly across cultures. A general guideline is to choose slower tempo instrumental music that you find imparts a relaxed or comfortable feeling. (Hint: unfamiliar instrumental music is an excellent choice because no one mentally ‘sings along’ with the lyrics.) When the time comes for discussing actions to be taken, change the music to selections that are faster and energizing. Music should be played at a soft volume that does not ‘step on’ the conversation, because straining to hear the conversation over music causes stress.

Music is an essential component of an environment that can easily be controlled. Pay attention to other aspects such as the choice of room, seating arrangement, food and beverage, protected time from interruption and room temperature and ventilation. Your environment is extremely powerful, and with attention, we can harness its power to support desired results. Consider music as an ally to the creation of a successful family mission meeting, which is a critical step for creative families in their quest to balance mutual support and understanding.

Guide Two

Harness The Hidden Power of Music!

Why is it so easy for us to overlook the pure beauty and mysteries of life? How often do we need to remind ourselves to stop and enjoy the fragrance of a rose, a majestic sunset, the miracle of our children or the profound pleasures of companionship? What is it about a simple melody that can resurrect our feelings of childhood? How does hearing a song can instantly transport us to the emotions of our youth – and THAT particular party? Music is one of the mysteries of life that can be not appreciated because of its prevalence and over-saturation in today’s culture.

We are 'wired' for music. Mounting research confirms that we are bundled systems of energy vibrating at different rates, and music (think ordered patterns of vibration) dramatically affects all of us throughout our day and life.

Music’s presence in all areas of life can obscure its hidden abilities to bring peace, reduce anxiety and have numerous benefits, physical effects on our bodies and our environment. The problem is that we are awash in a deluge of music: from weddings to funerals, around the campfire, in movies, in video games, in cars, in every restaurant and retail establishment, and yes even in the elevator.

Music has become the sonic wallpaper for our lives, and our brain has learned to tune much of it out. Most of the music we encounter throughout the day is designed to fill space, motivate a purchase, manipulate an emotion or provide a noise floor that masks our mind chatter. Shopping the mall at a young person's clothing store (with loud music) does not fit an elderly couple who maybe want a gentler experience. Some people want to hear their thoughts, and many do not.

Today we grow up around so much music that it’s easy for us to take it for granted, and since our nervous system has become de-sensitized, we don’t pay much attention to music – except when we want to party! Also, today’s music playback equipment and file compression have somewhat reduced the ability of music to impact our ears/brain/nervous system; on the contrary, it can irritate us.

Have you ever been to a Renaissance Faire? As you walk around, sometimes you’ll hear a musician playing an ancient acoustic instrument, i.e., lute, psaltery, harp, flute, recorder, hand-drum, etc. (and oldest of all - the voice). Try to imagine growing up in a strikingly quiet world when a villager picks up a crude home-made instrument, or when a minstrel visits your village as the only time music is heard. Your ear and mind would leap to embrace the music. Listening to music would be an enchanting experience, and it would have profound effects upon the listeners because the ears/brain/nervous systems would be very open and receptive; much like a clean palate relishing the taste of fine wine for the first time in months. We need to clear our aural palates and allow our ears/brains/nervous system to again experience a modality for which we are wired – music!

It’s times like before dinner with children underfoot, homework scattered across three rooms, sibling scuffling, microwave humming, iPods and boom boxes playing and the TV blaring……that can make our homes anything but havens of peace. Our homes are important. With awareness and a little effort; music can help us create a refuge from the onslaught of stress that we endure in our busy lives.

At other times we may desire to support a workspace that is creative and stimulating – for our home office or when our children are doing homework. Or we may need to be energized for physical work….or workout.

Try our product Your Life on Music to discover how music has been used to influence and affect our emotional and physical bodies. Learn to harness this resource to benefit families, heal our body and spirit, meditate, change negative thought patterns and enhance our creativity Together we will experience, enjoy and understand the miracle of music that can become a powerful tool for peace and health in our home.

Try this:

Pay attention to the music played in different stores as you shop at your local mall. How do you feel when you walk into each store? How loud is the music? Do some stores feel more inviting than others?

Just before bed, take a deep breath and then sit quietly for 5 minutes with no music/video/iPad, iPod/etc. Pay attention to the sounds in your room/apartment/house. What do you hear? What are the sounds in the room, traffic, air conditioner, people outside or upstairs, appliances? Let your attention move from one sound to another….and then to the sound of your breath, listen. Now continue with your eyes closed. Don’t evaluate the sound (pleasant/annoying, loud/soft,) listen.

Be sure to subscribe to Healer, Heal Thyself!, my free metaphysical blog and podcast that taps all spiritual traditions to awaken, resonate with, encourage and serve the post-modern healer. Topics include how to manage and overcome pain, addiction, loneliness, stress. Wisdom is drawn from Sound, Music, Vibration and Meditation healing traditions. All is related to modern life with a focus on healing ourselves spiritually, mentally and physically. If the Healer is healed, we can heal the world.

James Schaller c.m.p.

The Healer's Visit

VanYoung Music

Questions? Contact us at [email protected]