Q. I’m tired
and I have little energy. My doctor can find nothing wrong with me after many
tests. I’ve increased the hours I sleep at night and I exercise some but I’m
still listless. I’ve been to a counselor but that didn’t help either. I have a
good job, a good marriage and good kids. My doctor suggested an anti-depressant
but I don’t want to take medication. What else can I do to overcome my
sluggishness?
A. Try
singing! New evidence suggests that singing is good for our health and boosts
our energy levels. Lilias Folan, well known yoga teacher, in one of her
articles some time ago told of a Benedictine monastery in France. The Benedictines
are a silent order. They begin their day early each morning with chanting and
prayers followed by manual labor and more chanting at intervals throughout the
day and into the night.
When there
were conflicts about whether to chant in Latin or in English, a new young abbot
decided to eliminate chanting. After several months of not chanting, the monks
became tired and listless. Doctors were called in and various remedies were
tried including giving them more sleep and changing their diet. These changes
did not help; instead, the monks became even more fatigued.
Another
doctor was called in. He found a majority of the monks “slumped in their cells
like wet dish rags.” This doctor
speculated that the chanting which the monks had previously done served to
recharge them. Chanting was reintroduced and the monks gradually returned to health.
Research
shows that music can affect our health positively in many ways. Soothing sounds
are credited with preventing colds, easing labor pains, lowering blood
pressure, increasing endorphins (the body’s natural painkillers), calming
anxiety and boosting our immune system.
One study
found that surgery patients exposed to soothing music had less pain and shorter
recovery time than those who were not. Dr. Mitchell L. Gaynor, author of Sounds of Healing, uses harmonious
sounds in helping cancer patients recover. “I’ve
never found anything more powerful than sound and voice and music to begin to
heal and transform every aspect of people’s lives” Gaynor says. Music makes
a difference even before we’re born. The unborn child is capable of hearing for
half the pregnancy and is “affected profoundly” by what he or she hears
according to Gaynor.
The sounds of
soothing music are low. Sounds above 90 decibels cause stress and ear damage -
the opposite effect. Disharmony and noise jar our nerves and cause depressed or
pessimistic thoughts or feelings.
Researchers
at the University of California, Irvine studied choir members who sang a
Beethoven choral number. The researchers found that a protein used by the
immune system to fight disease increased 150 percent during rehearsals and 240
percent during a performance. The boost seemed related to the singers’ happy or
euphoric state of mind. The more passionate they felt while singing, the
greater the increase.
This research
suggests that we should all rush out and join a choir! We at least should find
a place of worship with a great deal of uplifting singing and music. Short of
that we certainly should sing in the shower, chant or sing as we meditate or
pray and listen to comforting or uplifting music on a daily basis.
It also
suggests we should avoid disharmony. Many stress producing sounds bombard our
ears every day. We can’t totally avoid the shouting boss, the noise of jackhammers
or the sounds of traffic. But we can mute the jarring TV commercials, choose to
turn off the violent or pessimistic fare offered on TV and keep our voices
pleasant at home. And we can sing!
“I will give thanks to
You, O Lord, among the nations, and I will sing praises to Your name.” 2 Samuel
22:50
Blessings,
Dottie
