How to positively process emotions

This is simply a no brainer.
This also follows on from yesterdays Mind Alchemy session where Steven Aitchison encouraged us so seek our music that motivates and inspires us. 
Whilst yesterday, I focused on popular and modern music from the charts in recent years, I have a strong connection with classical music. In so many ways I find classical music to be a powerful force to process emotions. 


Strong emotions come in waves. Some of these waves are gentle surges followed by followed by down times. There are times of peace, stillness and tranquillity. Then again come times of urgency. Sometimes there is mild pain and suffering. 

I've always loved the music of Richard Wagner.
Procession to the Minister from "Lohengrin" gives the opportunity to feel the emotions I described above. However, then ending of this piece brings some extremities of emotion. There is build up of orgasmic sound that crashes over in a wave, then immediately another much larger wave that is almost overwhelming. Finally again there is a 3rd rush of sound orgasm that every cell in the body to magnify and glow like burning magnesium. To experience this is to witness something that I believe no drug ever produced can replicate. 

I created the video below some time ago as a tribute to the hard toil of mine workers in their daily struggle to ekk out a living. 
Grimethorpe is a band that represents the core of the British coal mining community, now sadly lost. Those communities pretty much dispersed. 

A mining village represents the passion of a community that is close knit and works together supporting each other.  

To be successful in our lives, there is much we need to do ourselves and to that end we need each other as support to grow. We now have to ability communicate like never before through the power of the internet. We can share and lift each other up. We can obtain wisdom like never before. 
Those of us taking part in the Mind Alchemy course can do this. We have the opportunity to experience all emotions to the full. The waves and surges. I sense that as we get toward the end of this course, we have the ability to experience something similar to the and of the music in Wagner's "Procession" 

Honour the memory those who touched our lives, no longer with us

"HEY MAN"

Bereavement causes such a powerful emotion of sadness. It is very much something that needs to be worked through.

How can we move forward in our lives without the sadness contaminating the rest of what we have?

The process is well written about but for me, the most important part is to treasure the precious memories of fun and happiness.

I lost a few people in my life last year, one in very tragic circumstances. To that end, I wrote with the assistance of the guys from the band Beggars' Belief a song in tribute to this dear friend, remembering the fun, laughter and good times we had. 
The song starts with a single bar of solo trombone melancholy, followed by a foot tapping, upbeat and uplifting tune. 

I miss my pal, but choose to remember the good times we had that invariably involved real belly laughing that brought tears to our eyes. 
Now THAT is a powerful healer folks! 
Check out our song "Hey Man" below and see if the words relate to anyone you have known and lost. 
Take care folks.

Childhood dreams of success

Who is that little lad in the photo? What dreams did he have in the innocence of childhood? What caused him to daydream of expectant excitement that life had to offer?





Well you probably guessed that the photo is of myself. I was influenced by many things as many children are. The 1970s were full of cool, hip and trendy famous people. I idolised the likes of George Best of Manchester United Marc Bolan of T Rex. If you asked me back then what I wanted to be when I grew up, I'd have told you that I wanted to be a professional footballer or a pop star. As children, we only see the facade of happy, confident and beautiful that is promoted by the media of those stars. I longed for excitement and adventure that I found in the book of Enid Blyton with The Secret Seven and The Famous Five. On reflection now, I believe I was smitten by the emotion that was portrayed (and that I felt) in all of the above. I also had many other dreams and desires that seemed impossible at the time (probably due to my low self esteem). Getting married and having a family was one and in that I achieved a dream I've been blessed with.



"What's brought all this on?" I here you ask. Well, dare I say it, it's considering what makes a TV programme such as X Factor so successful. There is no getting away from it, every time I watch this series, I get taken in by it. OK, so I can see through the obvious staged managed area's of it where the early rounds pretty obviously have contestants "screened" before going before the judges. Why else would the better candidates all conveniently appear "at the end of the day".

The programme has me hooked for no other reason that the raw emotion displayed in these folk pursuing their dream. In many ways, watching this show is an outlet for me. I'm able to shut myself away in the bedroom and shed tears along with those that both win and lose. For me, it releases the stress and pressure in life. Music itself does that in many other environments. It has me wondering if...... maybe sometimes, the ability to empathize with the emotion of somebody completely unconnected with ones real life somehow allows the pent up emotion trapped for the hidden reasons of our own lives can be released in a safe and healthy manner. People throughout the world mourned for the sudden and unexpected deaths of Princess Diana and in more recent times Steve Irwin by those in Australia.