This video provides an excellent example of music as an enjoyable and powerful tool in our Healing Journey.
In her quest to become a world-famous violinist, Ji-Hae Park fell into a severe depression. All the words of help became a miasma of noise until, ironically, only music was able to lift her out again.
But NOT the expression and pursuit of music the way she had been experiencing it thus far. Through using music to connect to her soul, rather than being pressured perform for others, her Healing Journey transformed her purpose here on this planet. Now she shares the gift of music in many different venues, from Carnegie Hall to prisons.
I bawled like a baby when she played the second piece in this video and I allowed the connection to this emotion to flood and flow through me like a cleansing stream. In her amazing book, The Language of Emotions, Karla McLaren invites us to experience the positive and healing side of emotions – like sadness, or fear – that we may have classed as negative.
For example, when you allow ‘sadness’ to flow freely through your body (rather than trapping it in the cells and tissues) it becomes a flow that connects you back to the core of yourself, roots and grounds you into your deepest self and the beauty and wisdom that resides there for you. In this video, Ji-Hae Park facilitates this connection for us – particularly strongly in the second piece. The Divine has provided many pathways to healing for all of us and I invite you to connect to this one and release yourself into the flow…
For those of you who are curious, the pieces she plays are:
1. Vivaldi – Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, RV 315 – Summer – Presto
2. Chopin – Nocturne in C-sharp minor
3. Handel – Keyboard suite in D minor, HWV 437 – Sarabande
Thanks for the book recommendation (i.e. Language of Emotion), Jini. Based on the reviews – it seems to have resonated with a very varied individuals. Do you think its message and approach would be equally palatable for both men and women? The distance between the idealized vision of what one really wants/desires and what they actually currently have is noted to be a good predictor for depression in men in particular – and the feelings of inadequacy and feeling stuck this invokes can take a real toll on their mental and physical well-being.
The book is quite academic in tone. It is like Brene Brown’s book, Daring Greatly is the teaser, and then this is the main course. But Brown’s audience would not likely wade through this one, so… I don’t think the gender is as important as the type of reader. I led my son through one of McLaren’s exercises and he benefited greatly from it. But would he read or do the exercise himself? No chance.
A friend of mine (Lori Clarke) is in the midst of producing an audio series of Guided Connection healing sessions and one of them addresses exactly what you have highlighted here: That depression can result from feelings of inadequacy. Her audio (which would be very useful for men) takes you through the process behind “I am not enough” and brings healing. I’ll be carrying them in my Shoppe and will post here when they’re available.
Your son is one lucky guy to have such a broad-minded and, for a lack of a more appropriate adjective, cool mother. Thanks for the info. It definitely sounds like a book that would be worth my time, but it may not be something my brother would want to spend his time chewing – he would, I think, really benefit from the ideas presented therein. Yes, inadequacy and the inability to see one’s own gold usually results in short-changing oneself – in ambitions, relationships and ultimately joy. Negative self-evaluation is a very difficult habit to break though, and some come to a junction in midlife where they once again ponder whether they want to continue on this road to nowhere fast or make some radical changes. Having watched people go through this passage, it seems there is a definite sex difference – and surprisingly men more often carry a feeling of shame. Thanks again for providing such holistic resources for well-being – probably an aspiration common to many if not all.