How Learning To Play Guitar Is Helping Me Heal
My family saved my life — playing guitar soothes my soul
A few weeks ago my husband and I started taking guitar lessons. While not significant in itself, for me it was a sign of progress. A sign that I was ready, with trepidation, to learn something new, to give myself the gift of opening my mind, elevating my consciousness, and giving my distressed brain some relief from everpresent sadness. My youngest daughter, Orli, died suddenly at 19 just over two years ago. I’ve been struggling as every parent struggles when their worst nightmare is realized. Until a year ago I couldn’t even listen to music. Music has always symbolized happiness to me. When my daughter died, the music died. There was so much noise in my head that I craved silence. Anything more overwhelmed me.
This last year I’ve welcomed music back into my life. At our Passover Seder, I joined in and sang together with my family. We didn’t sing all the songs at the end; we weren’t ready yet. But we are all making progress.
After Orli went to college my husband and I started taking dancing lessons. It felt important for us to do something together especially being new empty nesters. After all those years of caring for our daughters, we now had time to do something just for us. Then Orli died, the lessons stopped, and we never wanted to start again. That was part of our previous life– when our family was complete.
Lately, my husband and I have been contemplating trying something new, something we could do together. We both had wanted to learn guitar but hesitated to take the first step. Fortunately, my husband took the initiative and found the perfect teacher for us. His philosophy is to enjoy ourselves while we learn. He said anyone can learn to play but joy is the key. We’ve had three lessons so far.
I’ve always heard about the therapeutic benefits of music and art therapy. It had never occurred to me that it would be a tool I could use. I’m not creative. I can barely draw stick figures, and the two years of piano I took as a child went nowhere. I have no fantasy of suddenly being discovered as the next Joni Mitchell at the age of 58. But I do believe that with practice I’ll be able to play recognizable tunes and bring some much-needed joy back into my life.
This is what I’ve experienced after a few lessons: Practicing guitar is more than practicing guitar, as important as practice is. Practicing calms my worries and prevents my mind from going where I’d rather it not go. It is a perfect example of mindfulness. Mindfulness meditation, which focuses on one activity with full sensory engagement in the present moment, is a mental health activity with many benefits. Practicing the guitar is a deep sensory activity that occupies attention in the present moment. By definition, it is a mindfulness meditation activity. Every practice session is inherently meditative if you are fully engaged because the brain engages with its environment with full focus.
When engrossed in playing, you’re fully present in the moment. It is almost impossible for your mind to wander to stressful thoughts or anxieties. I’ve already felt a reduction in anxiety and an increased sense of calm. It is an emotional catharsis through playing that quashes slow, simmering anxiety. Particularly as a beginner, while learning challenging new chords, correct finger placement, reading notes, aching fingertips…I’m starting to appreciate that the struggle to learn makes me focus my attention on the music, where my hands are, and what they are doing. It is a wonderful “brain break” from all the other stressors. There is no room for anything else. I can’t think of anything comparable that stimulates your entire brain. At the very least, it allows the brain to rest and gives it the time and space it requires to heal.
This reminded me of a therapeutic technique I studied in graduate school. Getting your whole brain engaged is similar to a tool used in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy. It is a common therapy for trauma and PTSD that uses bilateral stimulation to work through unprocessed trauma by moving memories and emotions from our limbic brains up into our neocortex, which helps us make sense of past events, process them, and reduce reactivity. Playing an instrument is analogous to bilateral stimulation used in EMDR as it uses both left and right-hand movements. If guitar playing stops you from mentally replaying negative memories or thoughts, those memories will start decaying and lose their emotional impact.
I’m not advocating for eschewing traditional therapies. They have their place, merits, and targetted benefits. But playing a musical instrument is a healthy coping mechanism by which people learn to self-soothe without the aid of drugs or alcohol. It gives people an outlet for processing anger, sadness, and other difficult emotions. It also facilitates self-regulation of these emotions.
I’m not well-versed enough to discuss the evidence-based research that explains the therapeutic dynamics that occur when you play an instrument. But I’ve read enough to learn that engaging in repetitive creative motions such as strumming a guitar will trigger dopamine which when practiced regularly has physical and emotional health benefits, including increased happiness. Studies show that playing musical instruments brings down high blood pressure which in turn relates to greater emotional and mental calm.
We are holistic beings. We must care for our bodies as well as our minds. So we exercise to promote our physical well-being and we can learn a musical instrument to provide a workout for our brain. The focus, discipline, and perseverance of playing an instrument are important life skills. All are necessary for optimal health, including better cognitive functioning and stress reduction.
Learning to play guitar allows me to pull out of the sometimes psychologically and physically draining day-to-day realities. For me, playing music is a calming therapy that frees me from unhealthy thoughts.
The love and support of my family saved my life. Learning guitar helps soothe my soul.
Life is like a guitar. You must press down on the strings to produce beautiful music, but it’s not always easy to do. — Author unknown
