As the summer’s heat seems to only get more intense, I’m reminded of a challenging period when pain controlled my world. After a severe car accident in 2023 left me with a traumatic brain injury, I faced debilitating symptoms that felt overwhelming. I barely spoke, I couldn’t be in the sun, and I wasn’t able to read for more than two sentences without my vision becoming blurred; I was convinced I was never going to be the person I was ever again. Even in that hot summer sun, my life had turned very dark. I often think of how blessed I am - Just to be writing this is a luxury that I no longer take for granted.
Through my journey, I discovered powerful ways to manage chronic pain that transformed my healing process. In this blog, I’ll share effective methods rooted in music therapy and holistic practices that can help you with your own path to recovery.
Pain is complex, varying in many factors such as region, type, intensity and other external causes. The biggest variant of pain is not the pain itself, but our perception of it. Due to this, music therapists world-wide have found promising solutions that aid in the recovery process of chronic pain, healing our bodies from the inside out!
Music therapy has the power to shift how we perceive pain, reduce our reliance on medications, and even recover from traumatically painful experiences such as childbirth (Garza-Villarreal et. al, 2017). For example: In 2022, a university in Germany analyzed a woman who suffered from Chronic Pain Disorder, fibromyalgia, and various other somatic illnesses. In the first week, she rated her pain at an 8, then reducing it to a remarkable 4 at the end of her treatment (Glomb et. al, 2022). The most important part of these studies is not what they achieved but how they achieved it. For fun, we are going to explore some of these methods for ourselves!
Personalized Playlist Curation
One of the most effective methods in music therapy for any disturbance is Playlist Curation. This involves creating playlists that either mirror the pain you’re experiencing or represent your recovery journey.
Steps to Create Your Playlist:
Identify Your Emotions! Choose songs that reflect your current feelings or those that motivate and uplift you.
Mix It Up! Include a variety of tracks—from those that express your pain to those that inspire hope and strength. You can also incorporate healing frequencies if you’re interested.
Enjoy and Engage! Listen to your playlist during difficult moments. Bonus points if you dance or sing along!
Reflect: What songs resonated the most for you? Feel free to comment and help someone else!
Somatic Meditation and Therapy
Somatic therapy focuses on body awareness and relaxation, often using healing frequencies. This can be a powerful complement to music therapy.
Before I give you a step by step, I want to stress the importance of healing frequencies along with these meditations. Each frequency is often characterized by a hertz number and has a different effect on our minds and bodies. The most notable frequencies for physical pain are:
40 Hz - Effective with joint conditions such as arthritis, low back and knee pains.
527 Hz - Aids in DNA repair and promotes balance.
285 Hz - Promotes physical healing and is used to restore tissue and cells. You can also find a playlist for somatic therapy here and attempt the following exercises along with it!
Simple Somatic Techniques:
Cold Water: Run your hands under cold water and focus on the sensations. Breathe deeply while doing this.
Deep Breathing: Practice deep breathing: inhale for four seconds, hold for two, and exhale for six. This helps slow the heart rate and relax the body.
Integrate Music: Play your personalized playlist while practicing these techniques to enhance the calming effect.
Trying a beginner Guided Somatic Meditation on Youtube for more instruction and a better idea of how somatic therapy may benefit you, as many people are training this line of work and their results are vetted by users all over. Explore different frequencies and meditation practices to find what works best for you!
Music Imaginative Pain Treatment
If you’ve tried the other two, consider this extra credit. Music Imaginative Pain Treatment (MIPT) is a therapeutic approach that encourages you to create music representing your pain or your visualization of recovery. You might have seen scenes in movies where artists express their emotions through spontaneous music; This is what we're aiming for here. But remember, it doesn’t have to be picture perfect. If you watch Amy Winehouse’s first vocal improvisation of You Know I’m No Good, then you’ll know the song didn’t really start off all that great (No pun intended). The goal is nothing more than to start and express ourselves.
Steps to Get Started:
Find Your Space: Choose a quiet, distraction-free environment where you can make as much noise as needed without feeling self-conscious.
Select Your Instrument: Pick an instrument that resonates with you. This could be anything from a guitar to a piano, and even your voice. If you don’t have an instrument, try using apps like GarageBand or find instrumental versions of songs online. A tutorial for GarageBand is linked here!
Begin Playing or Singing: Start with basic chords or notes if you’re using an instrument, or sing whatever comes from your heart. Don’t be afraid to let loose—expressing emotions can be raw and unrefined, and that's okay.
Keep Experimenting: Continue to play or sing, exploring different sounds and styles. The aim is to find what resonates with your feelings, regardless of technical skill. Recording your sessions may also be helpful to see your progress and gain insight into how you truly feel. You may be surprised to know how creative you can be!
Reflect: Try this in a quiet space and comment what you learned from your session. How did creating make you feel? Do you understand your pain more and were you able to express it?
With these proven techniques in hand, I hope you can explore which methods resonate most with you. Commit to incorporating these practices into your routine for at least a week and observe the changes in your mental and physical health. Remember, healing is not linear, and these tools are here to support you along the way. Share your experiences in the comments, and let’s support each other in our journeys. Stay cool and take care!
Comments