Health Benefits of Music

Anyone who knows me knows that music is like oxygen to me. I can't live without it. I use it in different ways to deepen my experience of moments in life, both beautiful and painful. I look to it as a way to enrich my life, connect with my body, my spirit and with other people.

Someone posted this on facebook and I had to share it. It is clear that these smaller people are allowing music to move them, take over their consciousness for a few minutes uniting them in a shared experience.



All this brings me to music therapy and the health benefits music might provide all of us.

What is music therapy?

Music therapy is the skillful use of music and musical elements by an accredited music therapist to promote, maintain, and restore mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Music has nonverbal, creative, structural, and emotional qualities. These are used in the therapeutic relationship to facilitate contact, interaction, self-awareness, learning, self-expression, communication, and personal development.

Music therapy is used with individuals of various ages, abilities, and musical backgrounds in institutional, community and private practice settings. This includes but is not limited to:

Acquired Brain Injury
AIDS
Autism and other Pervasive Development Disabilities
Critical Care
Developmental Disabilities
Emotional Traumas
Geriatric Care
Hearing Impairments
Mental Health
Neonatal Care
Obstetrics
Oncology
Pain Control
Palliative Care
Personal Growth
Physical Disabilities
Speech and Language Impairments
Substance Abuse
Teens at Risk
Victims of Abuse
Visual Impairments

(taken from Canadian Association for Music Therapy)

When clients come in for sessions, I'm often concerned with finding the right music to fit with their mood or personality. When I started teaching group fitness in 1991, eek! getting old ;), I would spend loads of time thinking about my music choices. Sometimes music just clicks and really adds to whatever experience people are having while they are moving, sweating, grunting and focusing on their well being.

If you haven't found your personal connection with music yet, I would bet you just haven't explored enough genres or artists. Normally, I can point people in the right direction. Don't be afraid to ask.

I'm booking me a massage

Here's why...not that we actually need a study to convince us that massage is good for us. Kind of one of those no brainers right?

Who doesn't love getting a good rub down and walk away from a great massage feeling like the world is a beautiful place. It might not last but every moment of vitality we can grab is precious!

Does a good massage do more than just relax your muscles? To find out, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles recruited 53 healthy adults and randomly assigned 29 of them to a 45-minute session of deep-tissue Swedish massage and the other 24 to a session of light massage.

Volunteers who received Swedish massage experienced significant decreases in levels of the stress hormone cortisol in blood and saliva, and in arginine vasopressin, a hormone that can lead to increases in cortisol. They also had increases in the number of lymphocytes, white blood cells that are part of the immune system.

Volunteers who had the light massage experienced greater increases in oxytocin, a hormone associated with contentment, than the Swedish massage group, and bigger decreases in adrenal corticotropin hormone, which stimulates the adrenal glands to release cortisol.

Taken from New York Times

I prefer a deep tissue massage personally. I want to kind of have to bite down on something while someone gets the grissle out of my muscles. Can't stand massages I've had by people who don't know what they're doing and just kind of move massage oil around without putting a little elbow grease into it.

Looking forward to a massage ASAP. Thanks New York Times for reminding me to book one. This study just goes to show, yet again, restorative activities should be as important as the sweaty butt kicking workouts.

Polaris Award and Finding Musical Inspiration

Music is a HUGE part of my life. I'm spoiled because I have the time and the need to find new music, explore new genres and find good music fits for my clients. It's part of the experience at Urbanfitt so I can justify the time I spend listening.

It's not unusual for me to forfeit TV or reading in the evening and put head phones on, write for pleasure and let whatever I'm listening to impact me to my deepest core.

One really easy go to source to expand your musical horizons is the Polaris Music Award. Most Canadian music lovers already know about it. But for those music lovers who don't, this is the go to place to find new bands and new sounds that might just be your thing.

Over the past few months, we've been carefully following the fifth instalment of the Polaris Music Prize. First, the jury announced its long list of forty nominees, and then whittled those down to a short list of ten. Last night (September 20), the grand jury revealed its pick for the best Canadian album released between June 1, 2009 and May 31, 2010: Les Chemins De Verre by atmospheric rockers Karkwa.

The Montreal band took home the $20,000 prize as well the as the honour of their LP being deemed the best release of the past year based on artistic merit alone. Karkwa join the ranks of past winners Final Fantasy, Patrick Watson, Cairbou and Fucked Up, becoming the first Francophone band to win the prize.

The winner was announced at a gala at Toronto's Masonic Temple. For the second consecutive year, the evening featured live performances from all ten nominated artists: the Besnard Lakes, Broken Social Scene, Caribou, Karkwa, Dan Mangan, Owen Pallett, Radio Radio, the Sadies, Shad, and Tegan and Sara.

All you have to do is visit the Polaris Music Award website to get a music sample of the short list of nominees. Check it out. Right hand side of the page. Maybe you'll even drop into the West End's favourite music store, Soundscapes and show your support for these folks.

LMFAO

Nuf said.

Depression can break your heart

Last year I visited the Body Worlds Exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre.

"Body Worlds (German title: Körperwelten) is a traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts that are prepared using a technique called plastination to reveal inner anatomical structures. The exhibition's developer and promoter is German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, who invented the plastination technique in the late 1970s at the University of Heidelberg."

Body Worlds is shrouded in controversy but nonetheless I visited it and was moved, disgusted and intrigued. Even learned a few things.

Body Worlds 3 was focused on the heart, a part of us that is so much more than a collection of muscle fibres, valves and tissue. Our hearts explode, ache, skip beats and even seem to stop in certain situations despite our ability to keep breathing.

Gunther von Hagens spread his own wonder with the human heart and presented recent research regarding the impact of heart break and depression on the heart's life span and overall health.

Given I've worked with clients with a particular set of medical conditions or illnesses, I've always wondered if there is a correlation between personality types, propensity towards anxiety and depression and physical illness including heart disease. I've also wondered what those gut wrenching, heart breaking moments in life have had on my heart muscle. What's the physical impact on the heart during times of suffering?

For years cardiologists and mental health experts have known that depression raises risk for heart attack by 50 percent or more.

But what hasn’t been clear is why depressed people have more heart problems. Does depression cause some biological change that increases risk? Does the inflammatory process that leads to heart disease also trigger depression?

The answer may be far simpler. A study done in 2008 suggests that people who are depressed are simply less likely to exercise, a finding that explains their dramatically higher risk for heart problems.

Researchers, led by doctors from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco, recruited 1,017 participants with heart disease to track their health and lifestyle habits. As they expected, those patients who had symptoms of depression fared worse. About 10 percent of depressed heart patients had additional heart problems, during the study, compared with 6.7 percent of the other patients. After controlling for other illnesses and the severity of heart disease, the finding translates to a 31 percent higher risk of heart problems among the depressed people, according to the study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Taken from NYTimes.com

So maybe it's not such a big mystery at all. When we feel like crapola or down in the dumps, we are less likely to take care of ourselves. This is the time we need to try really hard to pull ourselves up and take action. If we let the domino effect of a rough patch in life get the best of our get up and go, we might just end up leaving this wonderful life prematurely.

But I don't think the impact of emotional and spiritual pain on our hearts can be fully understood in such a simplistic way. If you have ever fallen in love, you can literally feel the centre of your chest opening, softening, aching and expanding. And when love fades or is taken away during a break up or death, there is a pain so incredibly real and tangible in the centre of our chest that just can't be measured.

Sure. doing the good things we don't feel like doing can be a true test of our character and resilience. Wallowing for too long is just not good. But how we choose to let pain impact us in the long run is up to us and clearly acts of self love like taking good care of ourselves is what will truly heal our hearts physically and spiritually.

What's with men and a fear of needles

It's called Aichmophobia- Fear of needles or pointed objects.

Don't want to come across of sexist or anything but really, what is up with so many men being squeamish when it comes to needles. I see a lot of clients going through fertility treatment. This process involves a lot of poking. Men like to poke things yes, but not when it comes to poking with needles.

Both of my morning clients told me that their partners have a fear of needles, even if they are the ones doing the poking, not getting poked. IVF treatment involves a whole lot of needles, sometimes in the belly, sometimes in the ass.

Turns out that one of my clients, let's call her Stephanie, has to reach around and poke her own ass injection of progesterone. I said, "I'll take care it if your husband can't handle it". Unfortunately, her injections are a nightly thing so I won't be able to lend a helping hand. Might be out of my scope in terms of being a fitness professional, not out of my scope in terms of what I'd do for a friend.

My other client this morning told me that her partner had to go in for a personal lesson from the nurse at the fertility clinic so that he could get over his fear and know that he was doing it properly. The instructions of inserting needle into butt muscle and pushing the plunger thingy wasn't enough. In the end, he stepped up but only after a little hand holding.

I have known some men that won't go to see a doctor for a problem, just in the off chance they might have to get a needle of some sort. Really? It's just a tiny little prick for a second boys.

While women take it for the team over and over again in terms of child bearing, nursing or even going through the turmoil of fertility treatments, sometimes surgeries to fix the plumbing etc. I think we should stand up and say, "just do the poking when necessary boys and shut it". That's my two bits about it.

And if anyone would like me to do their nightly injections for them, just swing on by. I'll help you out. I'm not afraid to help a sister out in her pursuit of getting knocked up.

I should try to make this post relevant to fitness somehow so here goes...

Given the roller coaster ride involved in fertility treatments and IVF, I have truly been blessed to share this journey with many women. Even if I've just been a place to let the stress out while helping women still feel somewhat in control of their bodies and destinies, we all deserve a soft place to fall when life isn't going to way we had really hoped it would.

Working out while going through fertility treatment is a great way to manage stress, blow off some steam and not let all those crazy hormones get the best of you. Can also help manage the normal weight gain or redistribution of muscle and fat that goes along with all the hormonal shifts.

But really, I'm just poking fun at the boys. I could do more justice to the working out during fertility treatment subject at a later date.

The Limp Shakers Die Younger

Ick. You know that feeling when you shake someone's hand and it just kind of goes limp. What's that all about? Squeeze a little would ya limpy. I often let my mind wander a bit. Limp handshake makes my perverse mind leap into superficial judgements about someone within seconds. You know what I'm talking about. I can't say that I would be compelled to linger for conversation post limp. We all jump to conclusions about the limpy ones don't we even if we aren't truly conscious of these judgements.

I've always wondered what conclusions can be drawn about people who can't grip despite the commonly held belief that a firm handshake is an essential life skill.

When I was trolling the Globe and Mail Health and Fitness section tonight I was gleeful. Finally, someone studied this for me and saved me the trouble!

Study: A firm handshake means longer life

A firm handshake could be a sign of a longer life expectancy, according to British researchers.

Scientists at the Medical Research Council found that elderly people who could still give a firm handshake and walk at a brisk pace were likely to outlive their slower peers.

They found simple measures of physical capability like shaking hands, walking, getting up from a chair and balancing on one leg were related to life span, even after accounting for age, sex and body size.

The death rate over the period of the studies for people with weak handshakes was 67 per cent higher than for people with a firm grip.

Now I will go further with these findings to create my own hypothesis about the limp shakers.

1) People who grip when they shake are more likely to be fighters. When life could beat them down, they have the gumption to keep pushing ahead. Perhaps they just aren't as timid in life overall.

2) Limp shakers don't have a fire alive inside them or at least their fire isn't ablaze to the same extent. Not that this makes them bad people. It just means that they might not possess a certain effervescence that makes them meet people with assertiveness and confidence.

3) Firm grip folks might possess a different gene that makes them want to express their strength in a hand shake. Laws of the jungle. Don't mess with me might be subtly communicated in a split second hand shake. The limp folks might be more likely to fall into a beta category.

4) Last but not least, have you ever noticed that limp hand shakers don't generally make direct eye contact yet firm shakers do? Could it be a fear of intimacy, the non-grip no eye contact thing?

That's that for my sophisticated analysis of the limp shakers and these most recent findings. One question though...should we be worried for the cultures that don't shake hands at all? What does all this mean for them? Will introducing the shaking of hands improve their overall mortality rates?

Emotional frigidity

My personal definition of emotional frigidity is as follows and you're welcome to file this away in "Jane's library of crap".

"The blocking of one's true emotions to the point that our entire beings become a deep freeze with a heart beat."

There I said it. Sometimes I get emotionally frigid clients. Sometimes people plug their internal deep freeze into the wall in the middle of a session. I can feel it. A big chill settles in the room and the person standing with me becomes a shell of who they really are. Or they walk in as a deep freeze and I have to create an opening for them to melt a little. This experience is pretty rare so when it happens it's a bit jolting.

The magic in a coaching relationship is in the dynamic between the two people. It's so much more than paying for a service and getting what you asked for. It's a two way street and a relationship.

Perhaps growing up in a house where I had to be hypervigilant about the climate du jour has now been tranformed into one of the major strengths I bring to what I do, one of those crap into fertilizer situations likely responsible for my ability to tune in and read people. I can tell if someone is hungry before they are hungry, are about to get dizzy before they do or need to get a good cry out of the way to be able to be truly present and keep working on the task at hand. I make it my mission to put people at ease around me. I HATE making people feel ill at ease.

Every time we interact with people we are entering into some type of dynamic whether it be the cashier at a store or a lover in a bed. We have a choice, to a certain extent, about how these interactions are going to go down.

Certainly when we are suffering or stressed, it's harder to give a flying shit how our behaviour affects people around us. How we decide to interact in our community, with our loved ones, with a service provider like me really defines who we are. Despite the shit we are going through, we can connect better with people while we still give a hoot about how we affect people around us. Having a bad day is no excuse to ignore how we are impacting other people.

I'm not saying put a big fake smile on your face and pretend all is good. I just think we can all get really good at letting our emotionally protective moats go up, build a giant barrier between us and other people and turn around one day and find ourselves alone and isolated. Or even worse, we could become so frozen and shut down that we don't even have the ability to notice the emotional disconnect anymore. I call these folks the living dead.

I can deal with almost anything from a client over emotional frigidity. I've always found it more lonely being in a room with someone you don't connect with than being alone in a room. Just remember next time you're with someone who's providing you with a service, packing your groceries or changing your oil, money is only one of the forms of payment that go along with being humans together on this planet. A little eye contact or recognition that maybe they need a little warmth might just make your life better and melt your emotional frigidity.

And by the way, I'm not saying I'm never emotionally frigid or implying by any means that I'm perfect. I'm sure someone could write a blog about something annoying I do too, maybe even a book.

I'm going to end this on a cheesy note inspired by my recent viewing of the Tolstoy film "The Last Station".

"If you want to be happy, be."
Tolstoy.

Life altering conversation

When she entered the studio, she looked like any other person coming to try a class for the first time. Buoyant smile. A healthy post summer glow on her skin. Great urban style and excitement about trying a new class in a new environment.

Within five minutes of meeting her I found out she was terminally ill, had been dealing with cancer in various forms and locations for over five years, has two small kids and was supposed to die a year ago.

Just matter of fact like that.

I nodded. I tried not to ooze the usual, "oh my goodness. I'm so sorry". Instead, I tried to meet her with a nod and a few simple questions.

Last night, I spoke with my friend who volunteers with hospice. He says it normally goes that way. A terminally ill person has come to accept their fate and other people around them haven't quite caught up. He said it's a great relief for people in her shoes to be met with a matter of fact response. Perhaps it limits the feelings of victimization to be looked at as a victim of the big C. Maybe people just get tired of trying to make other people feel better about suffering over their suffering.

She said she had noticed a benign lump years ago that didn't change size or consistency so she never was alarmed by it for several years after. She of course monitored it after her first diagnosis. However, over time it had become cancerous. Here's the tricky part. Nursing changes our breasts and from what I hear, many lumps get missed while lactating. She was diagnosed before her second child turned one. I can't imagine having a new baby and finding out I had breast cancer. The human spirit is truly incredible at times.

She thought all was good after her first round of treatment but two years after she found out the cancer had spread.

As I write this I feel a real fear in my gut liberally doused with a drive to enjoy everything. Remove the blinders. See the big picture. Drop the pettiness and focus on the good and beautiful. Anything can happen to anyone. We all get so caught up with myopic issues like having perfectly clean houses, perfectly decorated homes and working our butts off to get 'enough' money in the bank and let the hustle and bustle or disappointments dim our life force.

Right now, I'm drinking the best cup of Earl Grey tea in my favourite coffee shop on the planet with my kind of music dancing in the air above me.

Thanks to her, she helped me experience this particular moment. Fully. Completely.

Waiting for Warrior Within

As I sit here waiting for my new group of women dealing with the big C to come in for their first class, my belly is full of anticipation, fear and excitement.

Will I actually be able to offer something to these women dealing with breast cancer?

What do I know about how they're feeling emotionally and physically really?

What do I know about what it's like to live in their bodies and go see oncologists for hours at a time and have a catheter in my body 24/7, lose all my hair and wake up with the knowledge everyday that my body is dealing with a potential life or death struggle?

The foremost feeling I have right now is humility. These women have never met me but are willing to make time in their lives to come and meet me and see if I can help them feel more vital somehow.

I was so full of anticipation I forced myself to have some lunch knowing that I could easily hit that low blood sugar zombie state of being if I didn't.

What do I have planned for them today? A combo of dynamic warm up, body weight training, yoga and pilates and some good relaxation, lights out and some mysofascial release at the end.

I will report back after class. I hear someone coming now.

Wish us luck,

Jane

Summer 2010 in a nutshell

Tomorrow is Labour Day up here in the great white north and marks the end of summer, at least for some of us. The day before the first day back to school is really the last day of summer for me having been programmed into me as a child. So tonight I thought I would flex my gratitude muscle and reflect on what a FREAKIN awesome summer I've had.

I had a discussion with someone last night about how, in his opinion, the word awesome is over used. I then rebutted with, "well maybe you're not as in awe of the world as some people like me might be". Touche I say.

I have had one of the best summers in memory not necessarily because of everything I did but something else harder to express in words. Maybe it's getting older. Maybe it's working with the sick folks or the recovered clients I do. Or maybe I'm just starting to slowly figure out this enjoying the moment more thing.

So here's a laconic list of the things that have peppered my summer with joy, made me pee my pants with laughter, strummed the chords of my heart and made me stop and say "THANK YOU!".

Trip to Paris with a huge list of things within those days including:
swimming in old art deco pool, watching my child almost breathless with wonderment whilst on the highest level of the Eiffel Tower, Yves Saint Laurent exhibit, Gustave Moreau's house, Luxembourg gardens, Versailles, best quiche I've ever tasted, reconnecting with high school friend in her gorgeous apartment in the Bastille, the best aged goat cheese abundantly available, chilled Beaujolais, white chocolate ice cream to die for, Parisian Pizza, bateau mouche, sitting on the Seine, could go on and on

David Gray, Ray LaMontagne, Serena Ryder concert. Thank you Helen!

Walking through the summer streets late last Saturday with my bud Vic and giggling like school girls for a good 2 hours. Don't ask.

Bumper boats at Ontario Place

Bruce Peninsula weekend at Ilana's and my first Pow Wow...danced and danced.

Picnics in Trinity Bellwoods and Dufferin Grove

Swimming at Christie Pitts

BBQs at Vics with excellent food and better company

A couple circus days at Dufferin Grove

Pedicure with girlfriends

Dinners out at Enoteca Sociale and Foxley and Boehmer

Night out with Sarah P and Shannon that included great band at the Dakota

World Cup party at Ilana's

Summer camp drop off and pick ups - the excitement was beautiful

Watching a theatre production put on by midgets including one of my own

AGO Drama and Desire exhibit

Afternoon on a blanket at Bickford park

Beautiful warm mornings at dog parks

Summer movie nights and stepping out at 11 pm and it still being warm

Feeding friends at my house on multiple occasions and them pretending they loved all the food I made

Trips to the corner store for freezies or popsicles

Lemonade stand - home made only of course

The final completion of living room reno and renting a jackhammer for first and only time in my life

Workouts at Clinton School...I watched of course

Pull up contest at Silvie's on Saturday...almost passed out

Pho at Golden Turtle with friends on multiple occasions

Numerous humbling self disclosures from people and clients

Brunch at Mitzi's on College

Getting huge kiddie pool home from the Dirty Duff without incident and reaping the reward...wet kids running through the house

Flowers from a 5 year old boy

Rouge Valley hike stepping into an idyllic meadow, grass swaying under the wind

Visit to the Beaches on a windy day watching the pooches frolic

Worst line during a date I've ever heard that in the end has provided extensive entertainment to numerous people

Sleeping on a couch while someone else made dinner

Summer sun showers

Sun rises on my way to work - yes I work EARLY sometimes

New buddy workouts with Sarah and Sara-Clare and sometimes Vic ;)

A totally unplanned afternoon under a tree sitting peacefully, no words

Phew. I can't think of anything else. Just wanted to reflect for a moment. I'm sure I've forgotten something significant. It'll come to me later but for now, I sleep.

Good bye summer 2010.

Jane