What draws us to music? To listen to music? To learn to play an instrument?
Music touches our souls through the many seasons and milestones of our lives. It transports us to another dimension. To read more about that, see my post – Touching Lives Through Music - https://www.happystrumming.org/happy-strumming-blog/touching-lives-through-music
In this post, however, I want to touch on another way music impacts our lives.
Music brings us into the present moment. It’s meditative and restorative. It brings us to our happy place.
You may be asking, “really? how?”
I’d like to share a short example from my search for contentment and happiness.
Summarizing, “Don’t let your thoughts keep you in the past that’s already over, and don’t let your thoughts take you into the future because that hasn’t happened, keep your thoughts in the present. You will feel refreshed and energized.”
My first thought was, “that sounds awesome.” But my second thought was, “how do I wrangle in my thoughts and live in the present moment? It’s soooo hard not to let my thoughts drift to the past or the future.” It’s hopeless I thought :(
But then one day, I was thinking, what have I done that has made me feel truly happy? Here are just a few things I came up with – tearing apart my front brick stoop and rebuilding it, trimming bushes with an electric hedger, and of course, playing music. Now these three examples may not seem to have anything in common. Yet, they have one underlying commonality – they immersed me in the present moment. They required me to fully engage my thoughts and my body into the current activity. With the stoop I had to carefully pay attention when removing the bricks so I could replace them in the same order. With the bush trimming, I could not let my thoughts drift for fear of injury or destroying the bush. When playing music, my mind is listening, singing, humming, reading the music, and interpreting the music. My body is strumming and playing notes on the guitar, ukulele, or whatever instrument I’m playing.
If you are searching for the present moment, consider playing an instrument. It’s engaging, meditative, immersive, restorative and refreshing. Playing will put you in present moment, and there is no better place to be :)
Here’s what my students are saying -
...she selects music my daughter likes and what she wants to play. The result is great enthusiasm and practicing without being asked... – Stephanie
...She is a great musician and inspires me to want to play like she can play... – Jessica
... I’m so excited to keep learning from her! - Isabella
...She makes it fun yet challenging and you walk away from each lesson feeling like you’ve learned something... – Jerry
...I'm very excited to continue learning from her! – Whitney
To read more about how music brings us into the present moment, see my review page - https://www.happystrumming.org/praise
Happy Strumming offers affordable guitar lessons in Naperville, IL. Private Guitar Lessons. Beginner and Intermediate Guitar and Ukulele Lessons. Top-Rated Guitar Lessons.