Saturday 10 March 2012

Music, Frequency, Ego and Peace

Music can be one of the most accessible and effective gateways to the tranquil realm of present awareness, but – as a mirror to our minds – how it moves you depends on what you listen to.

If you’re feeling low or depressed and you start listening to depressing music, it’s a good bet you’ll remain in that subdued state.

If you’re happy and listen to upbeat, cheerful music, you’re most likely going to remain in good spirits.

If you’re happy and then listen to depressing music for hours on end, there’s a strong chance your mood may lower.

If you’re feeling low or depressed and you start listening to upbeat, cheerful tunes, it may even give you a smile and remind you that life isn’t so bad after all.

Music, and the Universe in general, is all about frequency. We have frequency in light, sound, matter, potatoes… within us and all around us… in fact, the only thing I can think of that doesn’t abide to frequency is my local bus, the 685.

It stands to reason, then, that as microcosm of a mighty cosmos, humans and their fate have an inseparable union with frequency, because we are it.

Fortunately, we can change our frequency. Unfortunately, most people don’t like to admit they know how to change their frequency.

Regard ‘low frequency’ as abuse, anger, depression, disaster, war, famine and all of the bad things of this world, then ‘high frequency’ as all the great things, such as laughter, love, peace, family, friendship.

Unless you’re in a very, very dark place right now, your impulsive preference is for the high frequency qualities of life – to smile, have fun, enjoy what you do, laugh with your mates down the pub or breathe the joy of the world in on your Sunday walk.

Nearly everyone on this planet (even emos) wants to be happy, whether that’s a deep down wish or a one they’d freely share with all around them. Yet… look at the news and you’d think there little more than hatred and ignorance to our species. We seem so entrenched in the negative, low-frequency spectrum of living.

Shrink the problems of the world into a single human body then listen to its rattling mind, and you’ll hear a similar, subjective dialogue: “I don’t like this! Why are they doing that? Are they going to hurt me? They did me harm! This must change. They can’t live there! I’m never going to forget the pain they caused me. They’re doing everything wrong. I’ll never forgive them. Bieber is a wanker.”

But underneath that cacophony of egoic ranting and chanting, most would say something along the lines of this: “I wish to be free, to love, and live a happy, peaceful life.”

So, how can it be that there is so great a will of the high-frequency, good stuff, when most of us dawdle around in the mid-range and some feel their only place in life is at in lowest vibrations?

Yes, it’s the ego again! The bloody ego!

As with your chosen mood of music, likewise with the company you are and the company you keep:

If you’re sad and you’re with a sad person, you’ll stay sad.

If you’re happy and with a happy person, you’ll stay happy.

If you’re happy, with a sad person, then you may find it difficult to stay happy.

If you’re sad, with a happy person, then you may find it difficult to stay sad, unless you’re so good at making the other person sad that the happy person becomes sad, too.

And on, this applies to the human mind and the dreaded ego:

If you’re low or depressed and continue to listen to the thoughts in your head that locked you in that sadness in the first place, you’re going to stay in a low or depressed state and most likely sink lower.

If you’re feeling great and you allow only positive, creative, constructive thoughts to fill your mind, you’re going to continue to feel great.

If you’re feeling great and then decide to focus on negativity, fear and worry, you’re not going to be feeling great for too much longer.

If you’re feeling low or depressed and you charge yourself with only positive, creative, constructive thoughts, you will begin to lift yourself up.

Sadly, it’s a common truth that the egoic mind will attempt to anchor itself in the negatives of life, so even when relatively happy, it will look for a way back down to misery. Even if there’s perceived perfection all around, it will be waiting for something to go wrong, and if that doesn’t happen on its own, soon enough, it’ll find a way to make sure its self-fulfilled prophecy comes true.

It will also look for misery when miserable. It will want those around it to know that it’s miserable. It will try to make them miserable, too. The ego is an skank like that.

Fortunately, as much of an arse the ego is, it only exists in your head and you have the ability to turn it off, through the engagement of present awareness…

Reader’s Voice: “But Les, present awareness is so difficult to learn and I just don’t think I’ll ever find it.”

Blah-blah-blah, is my response to that!

As I opened this blog with, music can be one of the most accessible and effective gateways to the tranquil realm of present awareness… but so can painting, writing, fell-walking, bird-watching, love-making, footballery and an almost limitless supply of other activities that focus our attention on the living moment.

Keira... singing?
Music is special, though – like a gift to our species. It’s an appreciation that almost all people share, in its many expressions. I’ve never seen a deaf person dance (which is an apt caricature of how I dance, now I come to think about it), but I’m sure there’s a joy of release from boogying to a thumping bass they can feel through their whole body.

Have you ever listened to something that you just loved, that made the hair on your arms stand on end and your spine and scalp tingle with energy? Have you ever just lost yourself in an album, feet up, headphones on, and let the rest of the world do its own thing for a while? Have you ever danced with someone, with a smile on your face, and interrupted for a few minutes all the miserable and worrisome stories your ego likes to repeat to you?

If yes, then if you think you’ve never experienced that peace of present awareness, or it’s too tough to reach and not worth trying for, know that you’ve already experienced it. Far from being elusive or unachievable, you’ve been there and it’s in you, waiting for you to go back.

Once you recognise this place, within, you can return just about whenever you please, and you don’t have to use music to take you there.

Granted, there are situations and events in life that throw up a fog which makes it very difficult to navigate back to that peace, immediately, but trust your heart and ignore the deception of ego, and you’ll find your way home.

Go put some music on (I’d suggest something upbeat. Radiohead or Evanescence may not help with this experiment)… listen to the instruments in the back of the song; the drums, the bass, the strings… feel the depth. Every time your mind tries to take over, focus your attention back on the sound. When your ego becomes upset about the peace you’re experiencing and tries to throw a spanner in with random thoughts of past and future, relax back into the moment and understand that everything is okay, right now.

Every one of you reading could go do this, right now, and in ten minutes understand that the same place of peace I so annoyingly bang on about is actually right there within you, too. And it’s quite nice, isn’t it?

Once you’ve got that basic sorted, it’s just a case of practice to feel that way pretty much all of the time.

And remember, you’re like a song to the people around you. If you pump a room full of happy frequency, you may even make grumpy people dance. If they don’t, tell them to get the heck out, then keep dancing.

21 comments:

  1. Thank you soo Much.Les .What I have learned in life is People only change because they want to be better not because someone else want them to ..If your basically a happy person you cant trust in the fact that just because you want something for a person that they will be that something you want them to be..A major problem for a lot of people is they tie their selves to people at a young age before they are even old enough to know who they are themselves..Even when there is no Music playing I carry it in my Heart. Twitter and Facebook Friends Linda Seal Bates Lindajojomom

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  2. Good timing! Having an unusually grumpy day! Putting my happy music on now! Thanks for the reminder.

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  3. Great blog, Les! Oddly enough, just today I was so tired after a stressful week, that I couldn't seem to move off the couch...until I came across an incredibly moving rendition of Chopin by a brilliant 10-year-old. Something in me shifted within the first minute of song, cobwebs parted, and I was up and getting ready to go out and face the day with an entirely different attitude.

    It was amazing to me how easily music lifted the heavy veil of inertia. Thank you for bringing attention to such a powerful life force in your thoughful blog! I look forward to reading more. :-)

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  4. I agree with you. I tend to stay in the down state and feel helpless to get out of it. All it takes is one step or just getting up from the chair. I was directed by a friend to go and photograph some horses just in the field across from the house, wow what a difference, I couldn't believe the change in myself.

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  5. Yes, the only thing we have power over is the present moment. The ego cannot budge us when we take the time to be mindful of what is in front of us right here right now. In fact that Jesus Jones song should be an anthem to maintaining an optimum frequency.

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  6. This Is soo True!!! It also goes the same with when you are reading. As my Publisher would say, "When you read a book that some one wrote or text or blogged, You pick up the Vibrational Energy and frequencies of the writer." thought and words are more powerful then people think. Thanks for Sharing this!! I really enjoyed the read!!

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  7. Very interesting Les!
    I've been experimenting with music for chronic pain recently (just personally, am not a doctor, lol) but have found that my pain levels decrease if I'm listening to music I love. Can't tell you why, maybe it lifts the mood so pain is less noticeable? Whatever, thanks for sharing your interesting articles.

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  8. Hi Les,

    Coldplay are one of my favourite bands of all time and this is because they produce what I call 4D music. You can gain something from their songs no matter what your mood. Not many musicians are like that these days.

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  9. Uplifting, thought provoking and amusing. Wonderful. Thank you.

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  10. So true. I enjoy reading your life story and spiritual insights. Love Vine

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  11. Music.. oh how it soothes the savage beast... yes it does and also lets you get your wiggle on :~) Music unlike anything else has a magical way to move your frequency deep, fast and furious... where positive thoughts can be more like a gentle walk .... maybe that's not the right analogy LOL
    for me music forms my day.. I sing all the time.. amazing how much release comes from singing..you can set your frequency instantly with the right song... I have a million of them LOL
    music...it holds you present...and we each have a song

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  12. As a musician, I love music. But I can't work with it -- or really even relax with it -- playing. Because whereas most people can sit back and lose themselves in, say, "Ticket To Ride," I can't help but hear A Bm E...

    On a related note (pun intended) at one point I considered getting a music score as a tattoo. But the girl in the image you included...well, that's extreme.

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  13. I recommend Emili Sande - Next to Me- as an up to date mood lifter.

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  14. Deaf people do indeed dance, because music is more than tones; it's also rhythm. We are hard-wired to feel beat because we are language creatures. Together: tone and rhythm, we respond to "music."

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  15. Music is definitely a god send and a gift to be shared. I feel lucky to have had music always in my life, from child hood to the present day. What a solace and escape form grief it's been, and over the years have sung and danced my heart, hurt and frustrations out so many times. One of my most favorite places to be is dancing, with my eyes closed (an automatic reaction), feeling the beats, melting into the sounds, losing myself in a space of total well being and freedom, where nothing else matters. Where would we be without great music, it can help make your heart smile and is wholesome for the soul.

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  16. Les..... you "ROCK" hehe.

    Is anyone lately listening to really soothing music and lovin' it? I am finding awesome soft soothing sounds on Youtube and listen for hours. It is like an inner spirit massage via sounds, listening to forest sounds, waves, birds, soft soothing melodies, tibetan flutes, Nothing with words just soft soothing nature sounds. It is soothing to my soul, calming. Ear-gasmic. :-)

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  17. Music, ah! For over a year, I have had a condition which REQUIRES that I have music just to read or write. It has to be music with just the right rhythm...a slower pace than my mind might want to try going. If I don't have the music playing, my mind races way too fast; and the words I am trying to read become unintelligible. At certain times in any given day, I can and will listen to more fast paced music but not normally while I'm engaged in reading or writing.

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  18. I've long believed that music has tremendous restorative powers related to both our internal frequencies (brain waves) and rhythms (pulse).

    Thanks for great post!

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  19. I have always found music to be healing, in a way much like the quality of forgiveness. If I am sad, I can see myself listening to Depeche Mode, old Pink Floyd, not that I want to be more sad, but to "feel", and allow myself to go and grow through the emotion. Sad music can be strangely comforting, allowing you to complete the phase, and move on. On the same note, from Beethoven, to Queensryche, I can listen to anything, and it take me back in my past, and bring out good and past memories. I believe music allows us to connect with the emotional side that we think we cannot control, but do!

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  20. Thanks Les. Ii have returned to making music after a "too, too long" hiatus. Just performed my debut album EARTH RISE for a fine dining venue last night and the joy for me was how my music was received by the guests. Not about the music itself, but 'how it made them feel' ; reaching people from the inside out.

    Uplifting ❤ Relaxing ❤ Contemplative ❤ Sensual ❤ Meditative

    ❧ EARTH RISE ❧
    my debut album for Solo Guitar of Classical & Jazz Infusion amid Rich Orchestrations, Piano & World Rhythms.
    As a composer of many styles and influences, "Earth Rise" is a bit New Age, a bit Classical & Jazz, a bit World-Beat.

    ♬Facebook| j michael christophre - composer
    https://www.facebook.com/jmichaelchristophremusic
    click "Artist's Playlist" and you can preview entire songs
    click LIKE my page to follow updates
    ♬SoundCloud
    https://soundcloud.com/j-michael-christophre
    ♬iTunes
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/earth-rise/id694258295

    ❥❥❥ enJoy ❥❥❥
    jMichael

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  21. Music is the gospel to my soul (James D-Train Williams) I cannot imagine a single day without music in my life! Thank you for this blog I've already put this on Twitter @liesbethdesmit

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