Using music in mindfulness can help us to connect with how we’re feeling in the moment and can often intensify an emotion, whether good or bad. Learning to face a difficult emotion through being mindful and fully present can help us to recognize it, name it, and work through why we feel that way and then consequently help us to regulate the emotion and stop our minds from running away with themselves and exaggerating the reaction. It can help prevent us from ruminating on a problem and allowing the emotional response to overwhelm us. Ruminating on a situation, is to go over and over the negative which causes increased anxiety and a propensity to catastrophise.

Music calms the soul, connects the spirit and nourishes the body! Playing or listening to music also inspires us to connect with our creative centre, stimulate positive thinking and boost our energy. If you’re feeling stressed or anxious then playing a relaxing piece of music can be calming and help you to invite peace into that moment. If you’re in need of increased energy to face a task then putting on a quiet relaxation piece might not be what you need, Darude – Sandstorm might be better!

Although mindful walking is often better done without any music so you can fully connect with the present moment, occasionally I think it’s helpful to put on some ear or headphones and play your favourite tracks in line with how you’re feeling. Visualise yourself as the star of your own movie and give that scene a name and then walk. Walk with energy and raise your vibration to moods that produce a higher state, such as joy, happiness, love. Your life is your movie after all. It’s your story! So, name the scene, choose the soundtrack for that scene and connect with it. If it’s a sad time, then choose the soundtrack that helps you to connect with that and allow yourself to feel. You can do this in the privacy of your own home in stereo if you need or want to. Maybe you need to cry, and that’s ok too.

So choose the music that supports your health and well-being this week and allow yourself to flow with the range of emotions that we all experience; and if you’re missing an emotion that you really long to feel then choose the music that will lead you to it!

Love & blessings, Sam ❤