Singing:
Birds are creatures that sing all day long. Knowing how tough the world is and how burdened we humans often become, I pondered on this singing attitude of birds. Any time of day, it seems, they have no problem in airing their song. I discovered there is no magic to it. They just don’t have all the problems that other creatures have. The creatures on the ground and in the seas are ever nervous that something is about to eat them up. But birds, they are relatively safe up there in those branches and the audacious ones also perch on the top of the houses we built for ourselves. Why won’t they sing? How many enemies and problems meet them up there? Far fewer than those down below. The moral of the story is that if we want to enjoy relaxation and be happy enough to sing, we have to rise above our problems and enemies and bad situations every now and then. We need abirdietype of attitude.
When did you last sing or hum? That is an interesting question. Maybe most of us now have earphones and listen to music instead, with the various gadgets that never leave our hands. Yes indeed, music and singing are effective in dissolving stress.
Just watch Dame Patience dance these days towards the Nigerian elections. You would have thought that with all the stress of the months-long campaign train she would be flat out. The ancient General too seems to have the energy of youths. The whole thing looks so fun that I wouldn’t mind being a politician (a nice one, hopefully) but I prefer watching them on TV. It seems that song supersedes stress. Any event that involves singing and dancing, no matter the opposition, sufferings, difficulties, uncertainties, losses, pains, etc ., always looks fun, and perhaps is actually very fun.
Where did black music in the USA come from? Soul, blues, and gospel apparently have roots in slavery and suffering. In those days, song was the ready and perhaps only remedy.
It is helpful to sing and dance every now and then but this needs to come from inside of you to be effective in helping you relax. Some therapists teach autogenic relaxation. That is a sense or attitude or feeling of relaxation that comes from inside you; that you draw from inside you. It could be from your faith or principles or culture or vision of your future, etc. You see that some people who feel cool and protected are always singing something. Don’t mind those churchgoers. The various religions of this world involve music in their activities. Music has a positive effect on our being and is a positive expression of our being and it can drown negativities. You should have some favorite songs, pop songs, hymns, folk songs that lighten you up. You should have some principles that help you ride over problems and stay above negativities.
Nigerians, perhaps, are actually quite good at being relaxed and happy compared to people from many parts of the world. This kind of happiness beats lack of electricity or lack of other essentials of modern life and productivity. The thing is, they are simply autogenic in relaxing. In spite of all the doom and catastrophes predicted for the highly contested election at hand, you can be sure that we will see most Nigerians display their typical autogenic relaxation of mind and body and go on living.
Our homes are very important for our after-hours relaxation. Many of us may not take interest in home making but it is essential for our well-being. If you have spent the whole day stressing at work, physically and mentally, you should be able to come home to sing. It does not mean being rich and having a fancy home. It just means that you have made the place your “treetop” (the place where you can feel like singing) and only you know how best to do that with whatever means or resources you have. In fact, as time goes on and you keep improving it in whatever way you can, you will find that anytime you come home, you automatically feel relaxed and able to “sing” (be above your problems and the things the world did to you).
Those who have young children should avail themselves of the opportunity to sing as kids naturally love singing and are very capable of singing. You see, they have not been there, done that, and seen things that adults have. We adults have lost a lot of our song. We can hypothesize that the greater the singing the less the problems or stress is inversely proportional to song or song and stress don’t mix because one consumes the other. We may not even need to prove these hypotheses. Just look at birds and kids. What do they have in common? Fewer problems and more songs.If you don’t believe me, try and philosophy a little. Why do humans have an ability to sing? It is surely not for nothing. Music has various physiological and psychological effects which we shall examine next.
Dr. ‘Bola John is a biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA. For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635f
