Many songwriters and makers of music have been evolving and taking responsibility for their creations. Today, however, I want to talk to the listeners of music.
If you are a listener of music, this message is for you.
We live in a pretty loud world. Sound stimulates and bombards us everywhere we go: TVs, construction noise, lawnmowers, neighbours yelling, and music. Music. Everywhere we turn, someone else's choice of music is being broadcast to our ears. You may say that all that sound just blends into the background of white noise, but if it is so benign and doesn't really have an affect, then why do you walk away singing a song that you didn't even know you heard.
Why are you humming a tv commercial jingle that you hate?
Your conscious awareness may not be aware of the music that you have "tuned out," but your receptive subconscious awareness is very much aware of what is going on. It’s taking it all in, whether you want it to or not. That is the beauty and trouble with the subconscious. It is hyper aware but hidden from us.
If we keep it hidden in the shadows, it runs our lives without us knowing. Here is how I discovered music was running my subconscious.
becoming responsible
About 10 years ago, I went through a massive opening that sharpened my senses and made me ultra sensitive to my surroundings. I became what was to be called a Music Messenger. I started to FEEL the emotional origin of songs being broadcast to me. I was not pleased with what our current musicians were creating, because most of the music I heard came from pain. I could FEEL this pain. And I didn’t like it.
This pain from others, (or other musicians) woke me up.
As a spiritual seeker on an evolutionary path, I was fully committed to the process of watching my thoughts for negative content and doing my best to to eliminate or transform those hurtful thoughts. I was on a mission and I was hyper aware of all the stimulus affecting my mind and body. Then one day, after playing one sad song after another, I just collapsed. I felt so hopeless and desolate that I couldn't imagine facing another day. Then such a ferocious rage came over me that I threw my iPod across the room. "Where was the hope!" I screamed. "Why are we all so friggin’ miserable?" After this explosion of emotion, I experienced an overwhelming need to hear messages of HOPE. No…I wanted to hear full blown anthems of hope.
This was the moment it all changed.
For the first time, I wanted to be uplifted by my music.
Until that moment, I didn’t care.
Until that moment, I just let music do its thing.
Until that moment, I had forgotten the power of music. Its ability to cut through our mind chatter to touch the Spirit. I had forgotten that nothing goes in my ears without reaching my Soul.
So I went searching for a way to use this power for good.
I rushed to my computer, and searched for "uplifting music" and "happy music" or whatever term I could think of. This was not a successful search. But it did force me to acknowledge all the uplifting songs I had been in contact with since I was a child. Like songs from Sesame Street or Disney movies. Then more and more songs popped into my head from artists like: Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Buffy Sainte Marie, India Arie, James Taylor, Little River Band, Marvin Gaye, ABBA. Not as many as I would have liked, but this was a start.
I made myself a nerdy, “Joyful, Uplifting Playlist.”
I let these uplifting anthems wash over me. And boy oh boy, did it wash over me...and out me. I wept and wept and wept. For the joy, the beauty of our journey, and the exquisite love that is ours to experience.
I was hooked. I became obsessed with this playlist and kept trying to build it with songs that uplifted the world. When I would remember a song, I'd jot it down and then go home and add it. But I was still unsatisfied with the length. I wanted more, more, more! I was so overcome with the need to hear and sing music with a positive message that I decided to write an album like that myself. I called my co-writer and soul-brother Robert Walsh and a few songs later, my album Lift was born. I became a responsible creator of music…a music messenger.
I didn't know it at the time, but I was also becoming a responsible listener of music.
I was birthing a way to bring more joy into my life and I was using music to do it. This not a new concept by any means. But for me, the realization that music was a powerful tool for healing became a profound teaching. If music could uplift me, it could depress me too. This meant that some emotions weren’t just “happening” to me, like I thought. They were also being “caused” by me.
If music could uplift me…
…it could depress me too.
Music Messengers are getting conscious and becoming responsible for our creations, but there is also a responsibility that lies in you, as listeners of music. If you want to create more joy in your life and become an agent of love on this planet, then you also need to take responsibility for what you let into your mind.
Are you still listening to sad songs over and over and wondering why you are sad?
Are you still seeing your spouse or partner as an oppressor because every song you hear tells you that you are a victim?
Do you get a hit of adrenaline when you "win" something over someone because a song encourages you to see others as "losers"?
Do you feel entitled to more than your share because a song says you deserve it?
These are just a few ways that music can program your mind to think things you didn't even know you were thinking.
Did you know you have a choice to be a victim?
Did you know that when you are at your loving best, you want everyone to win?
Did you know that when you feel sad, your body needs to release that emotion through tears or wailing, and when we just let it sit in our bodies it turns to depression?
If you are not good at releasing emotion at the time it demands to be released, then your poor body will be forced to hold those emotions in a static state that causes great harm.
I am not writing to scare you or judge the music that you deeply love. I GET that your music is sacred to you. All I ask is that you wake up to the idea that your music could be the hidden cause of some of your negative thoughts. Music can cut through to your Soul, which is why you LOVE music! But if you on a journey of self-evolution, you may want to take a look at the music you are feeding your Soul. Are the lyrics telling you that you are amazing and that your partner is worthy of your love? Or are you being validated for hating your partner because the music you listen to keeps telling you he/she is unworthy?
Whatever you choose is perfectly okay. Your life will continue to have a soundtrack, no matter what I say. But if you are looking for more. If you are asking why your life isn't working, maybe you were brought to this blog so you may ask the question, "Is my music serving me or hurting me?"
And in case you didn't know, we Music Messengers are here to serve.
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