Must buy the perfect present… What to have for Christmas dinner… Get those Christmas cookies baked. When are we trimming the tree? Clean the house... Who will I be with this Christmas? YIKES - I CANNOT HANDLE THIS: ( ... Stress! Stress! Stress!

These familiar feelings of dread make a sharp contrast with the true significance of Christmas – Peace on Earth, Goodwill, Joy and Love; Celebration! So how do we reconcile the hustle and bustle and Christmas EXHAUSTION – with the deep feelings of peace and love that we all want?

The fastest way that I know of - to enjoy a healthy and balanced Holiday - is right in front of our noses - Music. Not just traditional holiday music, but peaceful, uplifting music that radiates the feeling of joy and goodwill to all who listen! Everyone knows that music alters our emotions, yet we diminish its value by considering music as only entertainment. Music is much more. 

Music (and other special sounds) makes you feel - it interacts with your emotions. Everyone has snapped their fingers to a lively beat, and relaxed to the soothing sound of the ocean. Music and a wide array of special sound waves interact with our emotions and environment, which are actually energies. Music is comprised of sound waves, which combine with YOU (best when in close proximity). This opens up a whole new way of looking at our world.

With each listen you absorb a tiny amount of this precious energy (feeling) via the musical sound energy. If you ingest enough, this fluid energy begins to alter your inner frequencies. Music sets a mood, but with repeated exposure to relaxing and calming music, you gain a peaceful habit. You can listen over and over to relaxing music to until the feelings of the music surface from your subconscious mind as an automated response – no matter how much stress you have. Music’s ability to change our very essence is something we all know, yet inevitably underestimate. 

Tune your Christmas this year. Enjoy life-long family traditions, family, friends and love without letting materialism, chaos and obligation get in the way. Ingest uplifting music. Use the carols you loved in happy times to transport back into those good spaces and energies. Not just listening to the Christmas channel, but consider soaking in a number of classical selections or music with nature sounds, and bask in a bath of calming energies. Use music to awaken and strengthen your sense of wonder, beauty and magic. My musical compositions typically include carefully crafted healing music; I inject nature sounds, healing frequencies, and rhythms designed to calm your heartbeat and gently transport you into a dimension of peace and relaxation. Music provides a bountiful selection of Christmas gifts - for free or very low cost.

In addition to playing music, while driving or baking Christmas cookies, you can relax for just ten minutes and focus on the subtle alterations you receive from listening. Your attention strengthens the healing abilities of music. Science resoundingly reports the positive changes that meditation has on our well-being; but music is “automatic mediation”, if we allow it to get under our skin. With no effort, but just slipping into its mood, music alters and uplifts your consciousness… transporting you to the space of “goodwill towards men”!

Music is the continual Christmas tonic to calm the holiday stress and anxiety. The music you play around others is your subtle gift of calming energy. Although we don’t unwrap this gift, or even consider it a gift, the selection of music for our loved ones is precious and influential. Other gifts are material, but this one is deeply absorbed and the energies become part of the fabric of the listener.

Here is a simple specific step that we can all take during the Holidays to calm and nourish and have fun too. Go Christmas Caroling. When we return to this old-time tradition we are engaging in a very healthy and uplifting activity. Think about it: We are with folks we love, we are outdoors, we are singing! We are revisiting loved songs that we know intimately from our childhood. The energy surrounding caroling is sublime. Try it!

So this blessing of music is something I encourage everyone to try this year. Take the time to truly LISTEN and special music will continually bestow the feeling of peace and love – the ever giving gift of goodwill and inner harmony - a healthy respite during the Christmas mania season. 

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