“Lullabies and Training the Mind”
In some of my worst moments of loving someone with an addiction, I would lock the door to my bedroom and put on my Shaina Noll tapes. I had heard of Shaina Noll from my women’s group. In those days, I did not know about the healing power of song from a physiological perspective. I just knew it worked to take me away from the pain of the life of what I call “Second Hand Addiction”. My life back then was a madhouse- a roller coaster of conflicting emotions and powerlessness, with no ability to get off the ride.
My favorite of Shaina’s CD’s is called SONGS FOR THE INNER CHILD. The CD is of lullabies, soft and sweet and comforting. When I heard them- laying on the bed with a comforting blanket- I would revert back to the state of being a little girl. I was being hugged, loved, comforted. Soon those songs would take me out of that personal hell place that I lived in and bring me back to a place of love.
We often forget the power of music to affect the human brain in a positive or negative direction. It is an important thing to remember- the brain being comprised of electrical circuits and impulses, and musical vibrations being converted to electrical impulse in the brain. So there is a strong connection. If you have never seen it, it is fascinating to watch a video of music’s effect on the cells of the human body- realigning them and literally changing their physical shape.
After this lullaby realignment, I could then go back the real world, able to function. The music had worked its magic on the very cells in my body- in much the same way that mind entrainment works.
Later, when I was escaping that life, I would sing those same lullabies to my children. In this way I passed on the peace and healing in their life of turmoil with a disintegrating family. Once I even sang the Shaina Noll songs to a group of adults at a retreat. To sing them as a singer had become even more healing than to listen- if that was possible.
Today, as a budding teenager, my son still asks me to sing him a Shaina Noll lullaby once in a while. The one he loves is has the message: You can be Anybody That You Want to Be (The song is called Everything Possible), and it sets the tone for him to have a great life.
Because to tell the truth, lullabies should not only be for children. Or perhaps they should always be for a child- the child within us all.
–Lorelei F.
For more of Lorelei’s writings, check out her blog:
Secondhand Addiction