Our Weekly Tip: Sing The Blues

Our Tip of the Week: Let out the roar. Let out the sob. Release what is rising to the surface instead of burying it inside. We can do this in an incredibly effective way using the vibration of our own voices. It doesn’t need to be pretty, and it doesn’t have to be done alone. Since the beginning of memory, humans all over the world have used song to channel the intense and often isolating experience of grief into a collective understanding, expression, and release of energy that is no longer serving the greatest good.

A community choir
(Credit: music.unl.edu)

How-to Suggestion: There are many community choirs who accept members without audition —  and some that are focused specifically on addressing grief through song. Once you’re at a rehearsal gathering, the medicine of the collective vibration will help you shake loose whatever is stuck within you. Come with an open mind and release all judgement. Forgive yourself for being judgemental. Forgive yourself for policing your grief, the evidence of the aliveness of your heart. When you free your voice to sing, you may also begin to unleash your ability to speak up for yourself, create clear personal boundaries, and create your own destiny instead of feeling bombarded and weighed down by the heaviness of the human condition. Open your voice, and let the grief out of its cage.