Emotional healing sessions are known to control the out bursts of emotions in people affected by failures in life, discrimination in competitions, physical or psychological handicaps, traumatic events caused by racism, loss and accidents, nature’s fury such tsunami, floods, drought, hurricanes etc.
The table appended herewith summarizes the areas which cause emotional imbalance, particularly when people suppress such feelings for long, without finding an outlet to address them. In ancient yogic traditions, suppression of any kind of emotions was never recommended. What was recommended was sublimation or transformation through activities such as music, dance, drama and other art forms such as drawing, painting, poetry etc. While all of them help towards transformation and sublimation, music particularly plays a key-role in achieving such results.
What are the Various Emotional Problems that People face?
The answer lies in the Table given below:
| Problem | Cause for the Problem | Solution for the Problem | A Typical Musical Selection, which can be of help (depending on the individual response by the Listeners) |
| Nurturing grudge against people | Caused by the perception that others -people have wronged the subject in the past | By creating a positive outlook with music | All musical forms (be it rock, pop, classical, folk, film) are made of positive patterns and harmony. Since all musical forms are positively and pleasantly oriented by cultivating a listening habit or starting training in music or singing (to divert the mind) one could fill up his mindscape with positive vibrations. Whenever negative thoughts occur, it is the time for music and music to be switched on and contemplated upon. |
| Irritation and Lack of Patience | When a person is impatient and wants the desired event to take place without delay | Practicing patience and acceptance of the fact that everything and everybody is in his or her own rhythm | For slowing down the mental velocity, one needs to be administered slow but steady music, simple, plain, iterative and without twist or turn or dramatic changes. These are the so-called satvik music varieties which help in building patience over a period. The best examples are the slow-paced sloka-rendering or bhajan or kirtan, preferably without percussion. Such music is characterized by very simple melodic structures, iterative tones and words (like mantras) and very, very slow pace (tempo) of rendering. It is found that there is initial opposition for such music by people prone to be impatient. But music therapy has to be patient to treat such patients and slowly makes them like and listen to such ‘boring’ repetitive, slow-paced music! |
| Resentment | Caused by the feeling of getting insulted by others. It also occurs as one feels jealous | In order to overcome jealousy, one has to look more inwards and one should never compare themselves to others | Meditative exercises such as Pranayama or Breathing exercises, in combination with very soft, low-decibel tones with full of harmonics or overtones such as didgeridoo, Tibetan singing bowl, ek tara, flute etc can be of great use in overcoming these negative feeling and thought processes. While listening to such music, one has to visualize the opponents in a positive framework with lots of affection and love emanating from positively-charged rich ragas such as Kanada, Malayamarutham, Bilahari, Purvikalyani, Bihag etc. |
| Contempt | Arises when other’s action is deeply disapproved by a person | In order to overcome such feeling one should separate the person from his action and remember that the other action because of his karma, belief or situation | As the judgements over others need to be suspended, intuitive music which stops the thinking processes is the best. One should be ready to receive such initiative music full of emotional outbursts and nonsense sounds (that is, therapeutic but not aesthetic). In many cases simply drumming violently, people are able to overcome their thinking processes, besides developing certain camaraderie with the fellow drummers. In the United states of America, the current craze seems to be forming what is called a drumming circle with a co-ordinated drummer to initiate musical dialogue and debate through the sounds! |
| Frustration | Cause by sudden events which are not expected, causing great disappointments and mental agony | By accepting the event as “God Sent” and responding them to proactively with selected music | Rajasic music with powerful and assertive tones (as in Raga Mohanam, Bilahari or Sankarabharanam) or such tunes which have definite drum-beats, seeming to assert or uplift one can be useful.Such music can be evolved by trial and error by music therapists over a period of time in order to ensure their efficiency on individuals. It may also be necessary to have inspirational works (such as “I welcome everything and everybody with a smile”. I am strong enough to face all troubles “. I have great will power” etc. etc) intertwined with such musical phrases in order to make the treatment more effective. |
| Rage, the built up of anger | As on finds fault with others, one develops a tendency to feel angry which snowballs over a time into sudden explosions | One has to aim at releasing the anger by engaging in physical action including exercising, karate, boxing, dancing etc depending on one’s interest. Meditation also helps to a great extent, if performed regularly in overcoming anger | Singing and listening to Rajasic music or songs which convey anger or threat as in western classic numbers such as those of Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi etc can – like a thorn removing another thorn – help the listener to address his or her deeply-embedded anger. Violent drum beats can also help one transform feelings of anger that corrode one’s health. |
This article was published in AYURVEDA AND ALL JANUARY 2011 – Pages 34 to 36
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, August 25, 2021