Singing for the Soul

The band that I sometimes sing with asked me to sing last Friday night at the restaurant at which we often perform. I had had a hectic week from hell and, come Friday afternoon I still had a squillion things to finish before I could call it a week.

Yes, I was tired, in fact, that's probably an understatement: I was exhausted. However, eventually I went home and started getting ready for the gig at the restaurant.

My husband came home and saw me getting ready, despite my fatigue and weariness, and he asked me why I bother going to sing at the restaurant. He said, "You are hardly paid anything for it, and its not like you need the work." All of what he said is true.

However, if I were singing merely for the money - well, I would probably never sing! I explained to him that he had missed the point entirely. I dont sing because I'm paid to: I sing because it makes me feel wonderful.

Have you ever noticed that when you are particularly happy that you whistle, hum or sing a tune? It is no coincidence: happiness and singing are interrelated. Singing can lift your spirits. It is liberating and satisfying as you are using your very own unique instrument to make your very own music. If you have a voice, then you have the potential to be a musician! What a gift!

But apart from making you feel better, Doctors have also advocated singing for health, saying that it encourages good posture and deep breathing. So really, its almost a form of meditation. If you have ever been in your car, or in the shower or in your room and you have played and/or sung the same song over and over again, you will understand just how meditative music can be. When you are listening to, and singing a song that you love, you are thinking about nothing else but the lyrics and the sound that you are producing. Two of the purposes of meditation are to establish a good breathing pattern and to make the mind focus on one thing only, at the exclusion of everything else. This is an exact description of me when I'm singing - and for many of you too, I imagine.

To read about the benefits of singing for mental health, check out this article by Wendy Moore published in The Observer. And finally: just keep on singing your way to good mental health!