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Depression Music Meditation Social Media Sound healing

Social Media Surfing and Depression

Social Media Surfing and Depression

INTRODUCTION

In today’s fast-paced and quickly turning upside-down digital space, there is no upper or lower limit for the age group that travels in the social media empire. Statistics show 25% of women and 12% of men of any age, are at risk of developing depression. 

Let’s first understand the universe of depression, and then move onto why and how social media can cause it. 

DEPRESSION

Depression gets enveloped by three feelings- 

  1. Worthlessness
  2. Hopelessness
  3. Helplessness

Worthlessness comes when you see a post having a brand-new Lamborghini. Hopelessness sweeps in when you like a story you did not want. And, helplessness pounces on you when you see your acquaintances celebrating the marriage of your close friend. These are just examples. Some people genuinely feel it in varicolored emotions. Are you too one of them?

Read on to find out more about it.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn came into existence to make our lives better. They wanted to help humans communicate better.

But there is so much miscommunication happening in the forests of social media that nobody understands. Just depressed souls do. For example? #FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) runs in the blood and swims in the brain pool of the depressed souls. Depressed souls question their existence, attempt to quit their lives, and walk on eggshells because of social media. 

AFTERMATH OF DEPRESSION DUE TO SOCIAL MEDIA

In most people, depression gives rise to feelings of body-image dissatisfaction, lowered or nil self-esteem, and questionable self-concepts. Their world collapses if they do not get many likes, comments, subscribers, or reactions to the posts. They take it as if the women or men who got the maximum number of likes, comments, or subscribers were equivalent to Miss or Mister World. Or, they probably get treated like the King or Queen of the social media platform.  

PSMU

Nowadays, a new term has got coined for depression. It is called PSMU- Passive Social Media Use. One merely keeps on scrolling through the various social media platforms on looking for a ray of hope or post that would make them feel happy about themselves. PSMU gets closely linked to depression. 

A study was conducted on students to help understand PSMU better. It led to the belief that the students who spent more time scrolling suffered from loss of interest and concentration, loneliness, fatigue, and an inferiority complex. In the past 25 years, the episodes or prevalence of anxiety and depression have increased by 70 percent in young people. 

SOCIAL MEDIA- A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD 

Let’s say that some social media leads to addiction, but on the other hand, it helps some people through catharsis. Catharsis is the act of opening up emotions and feelings to someone or the world. 

Some mental health doctors over the social media platforms use scrolling through the patient accounts to understand them better. A person usually posts about what they truly feel. Some might mask their depression- that is a whole new topic altogether, called the masked depression. We can talk about it later. 

Depression is a genuine health condition, and it needs monitoring and treatment immediately. Thanks to the widespread awareness of depression through again, the double-edged sword- our very own- social media platforms. 

DEPRESSION IN CELEBRITIES 

Depression does not necessarily affect only the general population. It has gladly affected the celebrity clan as well. Celebrities like – Robin Williams, Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp, Chris Evans, Dwayne Johnson, Marilyn Monroe, Katy Perry, Sia, Lady Gaga, Angelina Jolie, J. K. Rowling, Deepika Padukone, Sushant Singh Rajput, and many others suffered from depression. 

HOW CAN YOU COPE WITH IT?

Give sound therapy a chance. It might seem funny at the moment, but music has the power to heal a deadened soul. It has proven to be beneficial and healthy in healing depressed souls. For starters, how about you listen to music by Dr. Karen Olson?

CONCLUSION

As often as possible, move from observing life to fully living it! Change to inside out thinking rather than outside in. Use movement, vibrations to help shift your mood. Stagnant energy can be a definition of depression. Find your flow and follow it. Vibrational sound therapy is energy in motion traveling through the sound and music to your heart which frees stuck places inside. Being able to move, listen and flow through music and sound therapy is an effective way to combat the harmful effects of social media.

Using sound therapy can help to raise your energy, vibration, and mood level. Depression can cause you to be feel lethargic. Simply listening to your favourite music can be one form of sound therapy that can help you counteract the sadness that social media can create.

Another suggestion is to find uplifting people to follow on social media. Make a point to unfollow or pass by posts that take you to a dark place. And, of course, it would be a fantastic goal to gradually decrease your time on social media. Do your best to create posts with that will uplift people, and move away from the urge to feel you need to impress others. Create a community of support in your social media “family” of friends and followers.

Choose to social media surfing with uplifting music, dancing, going for a walk, journaling, watching a positive video, anything that you enjoy doing. Find the ways and activities that bring you joy and notice more light coming into your heart and life.

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Music Meditation Sound healing

Music and Vibration Tips for Sound Healing Meditations

Sound healer and best-selling author Karen Olson is well-known for using her sound healing method to help people find peace, freedom, and the power to live their dreams.

Did you know that adding a form of vocal toning and vibration/sounds can improve the effectiveness of your music for meditation and sound healing?

How Can Sound Healing and Vibration Improve Your Music?

We are a planet of approximately 7.8 billion. All of us hail from vastly diverse backgrounds and reside in different corners of the earth. However, amidst this diversity, there exists something that ties all our living and waking moments together- sound. Every day, as we step out into the world, we come across different kinds of sounds. While some we categorise as noise, some we classify as music. Both music and sound are mixtures of sound waves at varying frequencies. However, for the purpose of distinction, one can refer to music as ordered sound, and to noise as unordered sound.

sound healing
https://blog.karenolson.com/what-are-the-benefits-of-sound-therapy/

Music at a Glance

At the outset, music is defined as the art and science of ordering and combining tones in a manner that is both meaningful and evocative. From listening to it while strolling the streets, to pursuing it as a career, there’s hardly anyone out there who’s not familiar with the concept of music. Adept at both conveying as well as coaxing emotions, some of the most common elements of music include tempo, rhythm, melody, harmony, pitch, timbre, dynamics, texture, and the kind.

However, besides its array of elements and instruments, there’s much more to music than what meets the eye. There exist elements such as mindful sounds and inaudible vibrations that not only grant listeners a greater understanding of the musical landscape but also arm budding musicians with the tools to whip up compositions that are as impactful as they are vivid. Techniques such as vocal toning for healing have long been used by sound therapists and other practitioners alike to improve their physical and emotional health and well-being. Other tools such as using vibration sounds for meditation prove to be equally effective as well. However, besides improving one’s quality of life, there also exist other measures which promise to enhance the quality of a musical composition by a great deal.

Let’s take a look at some of them.

Evolving Intros and Sound Effects

Whether you can add some basic, even guttural sounds or singing simple vowel patterns while you listen to music or you are a composer and sound engineer who starts a piece with noise and gradually transforming that noise into music, sound and music has many effective variables. Most artists, who work with these “techniques”, use an analogue synthesizer to first create a tone. Subsequently, they convert the tone into a warble, and then turn the warble into a rhythm. Consequently, they layer all the different patterns together to produce a unified piece of music. Using your voice to layer sounds while you are simply listening, or creating a recording, you can feel the vibrations move inside of you.

By using this technique, you can also organise noise into various textures and compositions and settle with the one that aligns best with your mind. For this purpose, you can take the help of a synth sound bank that provide you with a host of different noises that you can include in your music. Introducing such sound effects, (or simply adding drums or percussive sounds that you create), into your composition can increase the quality of your composition by leaps and bounds and allow you to leave a subliminal impact on your listeners and yourself.

Pad Layering

With the help of pad layering, you can incorporate Solfeggio frequencies into the layers of your composition and render them with a feeling of bliss, peace, and serenity for the listener. The six frequencies that are part of the Solfeggio frequencies can be infused into any genre of music. Because of the sentiments that they evoke, these frequencies have long been linked with the school of meditation music. Besides adding a layer of finesse to your composition, the Solfeggio frequencies are also known to leave a deep impact on an individual’s conscious and subconscious mind, stimulating their inner healing in the process. A simplified version, of vocal toning using vowels can create a counter-part.

Bass Layering

If your music consists of low-end elements such as the kick and the bass, then you should probably consider layering the famous Schumann resonance into the mix. Scientifically speaking, Schumann resonance is the natural resonant frequency of planet Earth. Many researchers are of the opinion, that if we were to tune our instruments to these resonances, then our music would become more pleasant, and improve our well-being. Additionally, you can also make use of this tone to design a sub-bass layer. Basically, this is a deep, inaudible sound that can also be created when we sing the lowest pitch we can create, as we connect to Mother Earth, as the vibrations ground and connect all of us. This gives sound healing a unified and grounding energetic pulse.

Using Binaural Beats

Binaural beats are defined as auditory illusions that contain various wellness and health benefits. The binaural beat that a person experiences actually has a frequency difference between the tones that enter their left and right ear. Various studies hold binaural beats responsible for having an impact on the brainwave response. Infusing binaural beats into your composition, thus, allows you to explore into newfound avenues and possibilities. The easiest way to create a binaural beat is with a pair of “ting-shaws” which can be found online. Begin by hitting the two brass rings together, and then put one next to each ear. The pitches are slightly out-of-tune creating a beating sound. Our mind needs to make sense and organize them and this process helps to calm the mind.

Using the Power of Sound with Karen   

Sound healer and best-selling author Karen Olson is well-known for using her sound healing method to help people find peace, freedom, and the power to live their dreams. She has established herself as an authority in emotional and physical wellbeing. Her education, training and personal experience is the subject of her award-winning book, SoundPath: Using the Power of Sound and Silence for Health, Harmony and Happiness. Karen’s SoundPath Method is a unique sound therapy method using music, vibrations, percussion, dancing and more. She helps clients effectively and painlessly remove long-held negative childhood beliefs and remove fear by activating their unique power within. They are able to replace blocks with messages of love connecting them to their inner purpose and truth. Please visit www.karenolson.com to learn more.

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Sound healing

FINDING HAPPINESS DURING LIFE’S OBSTACLES

“I am fed up. I have to meet up with a specific target every month and this is really stressing me out”, Cynthia sobbed. She was lost in thought, staring at her laptop until her phone rang. It was her boss calling to know how far she had gone with the documents needed to be submitted and reminding her to meet up with her customers.

Cynthia is a single lady who has two lovely siblings (a brother and sister) and she lives with her mom. She is a banker, but she isn’t happy with her career choice. On her way to work, she saw a letter from the owner of the house that the rent is almost due. “oh, not this time when I am struggling to pay for my brother and sisters’ expenses”, she sighed. Her mom asked what was going on and she showed her the letter. The mom’s paycheck was so little it could not pay the children’s expenses. Cynthia rushed off to work, just in time to catch the bus. She had received a severe warning for being late to meetings, so she really needed to be on time. 

Her everyday life was filled with meeting customers, trying to make her goals; socializing with customers and keeping them interested in the progress. After that, she goes back home, faces the noise from her siblings, and then works on paying bills. She had a lot going on in her life and she usually gets upset, and depressed. Finally, this caused her to get sick, and feel a lot of despair. She was so weak to do anything and even with that weakness she was still stressing herself with trying to meet up with clients while she tried hard to put on a “good face” with make-up and a smile. She needed to because her life and the life of her family depended on her salary and she needed to be sure to keep her job. This went on for days, until she got very sick, and had to be rushed to the hospital. When she felt calmer at the hospital, the doctor gave her some drugs and spoke to her about taking some time out to herself and to remember to just breathe. She explained her situation to him, he understood and suggested she talk to a therapist. The doctor was concerned and checked on her continuously. He gave his full support to help her with her goals. He even helped her find some new clients, and even opened an account with her. She became happier and knew how to control her anxiety. Anytime she feels stressed, she calls her therapist and the doctor and takes time to relax, and play with her younger siblings. She even takes a break from work sometimes. Her mom found a better job with a better paycheck, thanks to the doctor. 

Several months passed, and she started dating the man who helped her see light again. All these happened because she spoke about what had been bothering her. Before, she couldn’t see anything good and felt negative about everything, and she hated being with people, especially when there were crowds. She used to feel hopeless and helpless and cry all the time and she was very lonely. But the minute she spoke up and shared her struggles, she was helped in ways she could not imagine. 

So, whatever you might be going through, be it, schoolwork, business, bullying, rape, financial struggles … whatever would lead you to overthink, know there is help. The saddest thing is when someone feels there is no hope, and they never reach out and share so they can’t receive help, and in the saddest case, this can lead to suicide. Remember, there is someone who will understand what you are going through, know you are not alone. Don’t allow your mind to get stuck in negative, hopeless thoughts that destroy your peace of mind. We are all human. Everyone has challenges, everyone feels like they have made mistakes. Please learn to share and talk about it. Reach out, be around your loved ones, exercise, take a deep breath and give yourself credit for how far you have come. Speak to yourself in positive affirming ways.

Learn about The SoundPath Method (a unique sound therapy process); you will find a way to work through challenges step by step. You will experience the healing power of music which heals the body, mind and soul. Most importantly, trust that you will find the guidance you seek, and you will have peace for your journey as you find your dreams.

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Music Meditation Sound healing

The World of Sound, Silence, Vibrations and Change

We experience sound before we are born, and it carries us beyond the veil as we transition from this life. We hear a symphony of sounds in our mother’s womb, with the surrounding fluid magnifying and transmitting the vibrations into our cells. Our mother’s heartbeat, her breathing, and the pulsation of blood swooshes a rhythmic pulse, which peacefully accompanies the building of our cells and organs. Our parents’ voices and the sounds of our mother’s day-to-day life make up our interior world from the very beginning of our time on earth.


As we go through the various stages of life, our body stores our experiences in a manner more primal than language and explanation. If something traumatic happens, and it seems to be more than we can handle, we create internal protections. These protections can help at that moment, but then that pat- tern becomes instilled, stored, and stuck inside of us on a deep subconscious level. We need to unlearn and replace these defense mechanisms.


Sound and vibrations reach below the conscious mind, below language and explanation, to use “ultrasonic surgery” to dislodge old patterns. Then, we can fill those stuck and empty spaces with unconditional love, reconnecting to the place we remember subconsciously in our mother’s womb—that place where all our needs were met, where we were enough and knew that we were loved.


Even if there were times when we couldn’t receive this fully as a child, we can do it now. We can reset to our pre-trauma state. That trauma doesn’t have to be a huge incident that appeared in the newspaper. We can experience chronic trauma over time— constant put-downs, feeling unsupported, or being subjected to any behavior that made us feel unnurtured, unloved or unaccepted by our “tribe.”


We innately know that we were born to fit in and be cared for. We know that we are unique and special. I believe that even though trauma may have drowned out that message, it remains underneath the chaos and is always there for us to reconnect with.


Your soul knows and never forgets the truth of who you are and what you are here to do. You are seeking this connection. This is the quiet voice that silence can help you to hear.


When you tune in to higher vibrations so we can co-create a new lifestyle based on faith instead of fear, trust instead of doubt, and harmony instead of discord. Tuning up the mind and body creates balance and a renewed sense of clarity.


If you’ve gone through life feeling like you’re not enough or striven to earn the approval of others—listening and finding connection through meditation and music will raise your confidence and increase your peace of mind.


Explore various sound healing methods such as The SoundPath Method to gain insight and to learn vibrational tools that access the subconscious mind and the brain’s ability to reprogram pathways within itself—opening up new channels to a life filled with ease, harmony, happiness, and success. These vibrational tools often involve music, or at the very least, rhythm. However, no specific knowledge of music or rhythm is required. The SoundPath Method is flexible enough to adapt to one’s own preferences and tastes.


Let’s begin by looking at the concept that humans are instruments that need to be kept “in tune” in order to achieve the best results. Most people—even those with no musical training at all—can recognize when a singer is out of tune. Fortunately, most people’s lives are not so far “out of tune” as to be beyond help—if they understand some basic concepts and implement the right corrective measures.


Music is a conduit to connect to the energy and vibrations, when used intentionally, they create change Fundamental to the SoundPath Method are some lofty scientific principles about energy, but again they need not be thoroughly studied nor completely understood. We just need to know enough to be able to use them to reach our own self-improvement goals. Like gravity, we only need to know that it works. We can leave it up to the experts to debate about how it works.


Among those experts is Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., who made groundbreaking discoveries about the role of the conscious versus the subconscious minds, as outlined in his book: The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Conscious Matter and Miracles. It has been shown that only about five percent of what we do is controlled by our conscious minds. And, considering that much of what we observe and experience in our lives today is related to the behavior of our parents who had modeled for us what they themselves had learned at a young age…it could be stated that we behave more out of habit than choice. Lipton’s concepts, when effectively applied, have the potential to change lives. We no longer have to passively watch our own stubborn patterns accelerate and repeat in mysterious and “unfair” ways.


Scientists used to believe that our genetics determined our fate. But, now we understand that our genes act as a blueprint that receive programming based on observation and the experience of repeated behaviors. After age seven, our programming controls our genes! The programs have been “auto-saved,” becoming our very own GPS—our personal navigational reference system. When our subconscious mind is running the show, we tend to be unaware of it, so we can easily believe that we are victims. However, we don’t need to pass along all of our ancestor’s habits and beliefs. We do have a choice!


The first step in this sound and vibrational reprogramming process is gaining awareness. Usually, our minds are in “la-la land” while we unknowingly sabotage ourselves. What the conscious mind wishes is very different than the wishes of the subconscious mind. It’s like the unconscious mind is in the driver’s seat while the conscious mind occasionally barks an unheard order from the back seat. The subconscious mind doesn’t like to change. Our best chance for creating new subconscious patterns is when we’re in a meditative or Theta brainwave state; just before we fall asleep and wake up is an optimal time to “rehearse” the changes we want.


From an energetic and vibrational standpoint, music allows the spiritually connected listener to have more direct contact with one’s subconscious programming. I see this regularly as I practice and teach the viola. I can remember the tedious hours, days, and weeks I would spend, trying to learn a new way to hold my bow or align my left-hand finger motion until it became a part of my playing without my thought. Of course, I used the new “habit” over and over again, so it automatically received consistent reinforcement.


This principle and the process of creating new habits are very apparent when I am teaching a proper bow-arm technique to my students. The right arm motion is not at all natural. The elbow needs to learn to open at a right angle and extend to keep the bow parallel to the bridge so it can create a ringing sound. When the bow goes “off course” the sound gets thin, glassy, unpleasant sounding almost like a whistle. We can work very hard to break that habit. Yet, if we are focusing on a difficult left-hand technique, for instance, the bow will wander back to its old habit. I have learned very well that we need to focus on one task at a time until the mind can gradually put it all together. There is no need to become disappointed when the bow begins to wander again. But it is a reminder that the consistent work isn’t complete, as the new habit has yet to fully replace the old. Even once it has become a habit, it’s still important to warm up each day, like an athlete, to provide the proper reinforcement.


If the conscious mind has barely a five percent impact on the choices we make and the situations that manifest in our experience, how do we bypass it and communicate directly with the subconscious mind? Even the attempt to make a change in the conscious mind, often only reinforces the problem we’re trying to solve. The SoundPath Method will give you a way to establish direct communication with your subconscious mind and bring into awareness your core beliefs. The tools and exercises in this book will explain how to use sound therapy and specific vibratory frequencies—along with more traditional methods of self-healing, like meditation—to create positive change down to the cellular level by reprogramming subconscious beliefs.


You can choose to move on from feeling stuck, in pain, grief-stricken, or hopelessness. New patterns can finally be established. Past situations no longer need to influence the present moment; now you’ll have a way to move forward and freely choose to live your dreams.
The SoundPath Method exercises will often include using your imaginative sense, like daydreaming, to create an experience as if it is real. The subconscious mind does not fully distinguish between what is experienced and what is imagined. We can choose to use this ability to our advantage. For example, you will be asked to imagine the vibrations inside of you, similar to when you stand near a huge loudspeaker with pounding bass notes that shake within you. The energetic messages to the subconscious mind are felt; they can be perceived physically, or through guided imagery, just below the threshold of your think- ing, conscious mind.


As our connection to the energy fields of sound and music helps us use these exercises and gain knowledge to implement change, we become progressively clearer and more vibrant. When our body, mind, and spirit, are in alignment, our body knows how to heal and achieve optimal health. In this state, we are able to magnify the results of all our desires, including medical care and optimal health. Our higher level of vibration helps us to sing from the mountaintops, as the resonant sound echoes our symphony of support. Learning the SoundPath Method does not include one-time moments of awareness that are then forgotten and discarded. Instead, it can become a “way of life” that includes ongoing maintenance exercises, similar to getting and keeping your physical body in shape rather than dieting only to blindly return to a former lifestyle.


Spiritually speaking, when our instrument is in tune, the overtones are all ringing and resonating in agreement. In other words, our relationships are whole and healthy; our finances are abundant; we have the courage and the passion for living our purpose; we experience high self-esteem and joyful self-expression. However, if the instrument is unbalanced or out of tune, it isn’t effective on any level. The sound is terrible. No matter how skilled the musician, it can’t be played effectively, and trying to do so is a miserable experience.


Likewise, when a person is “out of tune,” he or she will experience symptoms such as anxiety, insecurity, doubt, shame, blame, jealousy, and addiction. Such a person is prone to seeking direction and approval from others. Life feels unnecessarily difficult; things often go wrong, and accidents happen far too frequently. Intimate relationships are tarnished with disagreements. And, since schedules tend to be hectic, it can become difficult to care for one’s physical needs like eating well, exercising, or getting enough sleep. Most challenging of all, it may feel impossible to get control over negative core beliefs that magnify these struggles. This is certainly the opposite of being in the flow and having things come together with joy, happiness, and ease. It is our lifelong imperative to get our instruments in tune.


So how do we do this? How can we create harmony and alignment between the player and the instrument which will restore balance and allow our music to ring out freely? How do we release the chaos of negative core beliefs that may have haunted us throughout our lives despite our best efforts to change?


As with any instrument, making the right adjustments is crucial. We must learn specific practices which will keep our instrument tuned so we can experience all that life has to offer. The process of tuning up our “instrument” is remarkably similar to the experience of a musician tuning a physical instrument. And, it all comes down to sound and vibration.


The SoundPath Method shows us how to become master musicians for our own emotional and spiritual awakening. These techniques will demonstrate ways to combine vibration, entrainment, tapping, and drumming, with techniques like meditation, breath work, intention-setting, and movement, to bypass subconscious blocks. These blocks keep us reliving the same negative experiences over and over again, regardless whether we “know better by now” or have struggled to overcome the same challenges for many years.


I don’t need to tell you that music can affect our moods, emotions, and even our bodies. But, most of us are less familiar with other ways that music has played a pivotal role in human social and emotional development throughout recorded history. From Paleolithic flutes carved more than forty thousand years ago to Native Americans ritual songs for everything from marriage celebrations to war, music has long been understood to be a mystical force in our world.


There are extreme examples of using music to create trance states so deep that people in India have reported being bitten by cobras without experiencing illness. Prisoners of war have endured terrible abuse such as starvation and physical injury using humming and singing as a technique to focus the mind beyond the pain. And, we all know people, you may even be one of those people, who’ve come through a time of depression or trauma by focusing on a piece of music that spoke to them giving courage to keep moving forward.


There’s music within each of us, waiting to be awakened. You must allow that music to come to you because gifts that aren’t shared will eventually disappear. Gifts we share are multiplied. Memories of pain we keep reliving can be healed and released, allowing us to move forward and make more joyful memories. This vibrational memory can carry us to higher places where we no longer allow anger, negativity, and fear to steal our gifts from us.


Instead of resigning ourselves to more years of struggle, we can use sound to cut a new pathway through our subconscious blocks, finally healing lifelong negative core beliefs. This is a new concept for most people, but it isn’t nearly as far-fetched as it may appear at first glance. The famed scientist Nikola Tesla said, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.”


There’s a power greater than our problems. Sound opens our consciousness to reflect it. Learn to think in sound. Let rhythm be our inner pulse connecting us to universal life. Let the music lead us to our inner story