Home » Health & Wellness » Fibromyalgia » The Healing Touch of Music

The Healing Touch of Music

© Cynthia Webber (Jausten)

Music as therapy has been used by a multitude of people to deal with both physical and emotional conditions. It doesn't matter whether we are just listening to it or actually creating it for it to have an impact upon us.

For example, when I was working as a nurse, I remember a patient on the ward who would play his violin during the day. It was soothing not only for the nurses, but also the patients. The call bells rang less frequently while he was playing, the entire ward seemed less stressful, and there was a calmness in the air.

Having to almost totally stop playing the piano due to my fibromyalgia, I have found other ways to enjoy or create music. As I'm working on my web site, creating graphics, writing articles, or doing other things on the computer, I will put a CD into the computer and just let the music relax me. I have also been known to put a CD on and have a friend online listen to the same CD at the same time as we chat, and as I type the words of the song across the screen. It is a form of singing online and sharing beautiful music and words with someone who is miles away from me.

I can also enjoy my daughter practicing piano, and even though she may repeat certain bars and notes many times trying to get them to sound right. It is still beautiful music to me. When my older two children were young, they took violin lessons, and most people couldn't understand how I could sit and just listen to them as they were beginning to learn this difficult instrument. But, to me, they were learning a skill which I did not have, and I was in awe of how quickly they learned. I didn't hear squeaks and scratches. I heard music.

As a child, my first music was simple children's songs which I sang with my playmates. I spent hours watching the Mickey Mouse Club and singing along with all the mouseketeers. Disneyland brought new music into my life, and I loved all the musicals that were produced in the movie theatres. I also began piano lessons, and, although I only took lessons for three years, I was able to learn very quickly. I loved the joy of making my own music. I began playing the guitar in my 20's and used to spend hours practicing each evening.

The copyright of the article The Healing Touch of Music in Fibromyalgia is owned by Cynthia Webber (Jausten). Permission to republish The Healing Touch of Music in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.