The "exploratory examination" found 10 weeks of group drumming had significant benefits for a group of people suffering from mental illnesses. The research conducted even concluded that the improvements persisted for at least three months after the sessions had wrapped up.
"This study demonstrates the psychological benefits of group drumming, and also suggests underlying biological effects, supporting its therapeutic potential for mental health," explained a research team led by Aaron Williamon and Daisy Fancourt of the Royal College of Music's Centre for Performance Science. Published in the online journal PLoS One, the study featured 45 Londoners, 30 of whom took part in the drumming lessons and 15 of whom served as a control group. All participants were "adults accessing mental health services."
The 30 participants in the experimental group took weekly 90-minute group drumming lessons led by a professional drummer. "The professional drummer taught the participants the basics of how to use the drum, led the participants in a series of 'call and response' exercises where they copied the leader, and taught the participants rhythmic patterns," explained the researchers. As the course went on, the complexity of the music they played gradually increased.
Each week all 45 participants filled out questionnaires regarding their levels of anxiety, depression, and general well-being. The drumming group participants also gave weekly saliva examples that the scientists used to measure the strength of pro- and anti-inflammatory markers.
"Significant improvements were found in the drumming group, but not the control group," noted the researchers. By week six, they said, "there were decreases in depression, and increases in social resilience. By week 10, these had further improved, alongside significant improvements in anxiety and mental well-being." They added that follow-up interviews taken three months later revealed that "all significant changes were maintained."
QUANTUM HEALTH TIP: Drumming has the potential to "modulate" endocrine and nervous system responses, meaning hypo- and hyper-conditions are brought into normal range. This is also what our E-1 Formula does. So dose with E-1 and then drum your heart out for a quantum leap in potency!
Truth: Dealing With Negativity
Energetic Shielding - I'm a huge fan of this, but you need to be careful about your intention behind it. All you need to do is envision a white light (or specific colour that resonates with you) around you that's "shielding" your body from any outer energies. For example, I've done this at funerals, while driving, or in other settings people perceive to be full of negative energy or danger. However, if you're energetically shielding yourself from the negativity you're perceiving to be coming from another individual, this may be a good opportunity to look inwards. Why is it that you're perceiving this individual as being so negative? Since we're all, at least to some degree, reflections of each other, if that individual has a trait you're perceiving to be extremely negative, perhaps that trait is one that you hold within you as well.
It's also important to note that energetic shields force you to spend a lot of energy holding them up. If you're consciously thinking about creating and maintaining that field, then you may not be fully present. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with energetic shielding — it is a beautiful practice with many excellent uses — but you should consider the intent behind your shield as well as weigh your other options before using one.
Cord Cutting - Emotional cords are bound to you, often from specific events, traumas, and/or from other people transferring energy to you, and they can be considered as positive or negative. For example, positive cords can be found when you're in love, as your partner wishes the best for you. Negative cords could be created from your own self-judgement or from someone pushing negative emotions onto you. Whether the cords you have are positive or negative, it is ideal to have no emotional cords whatsoever.
Sound Reiki Healer Catherine Varga shared this simple method with me to release energetic/emotional cords. Whenever you feel an energetic tie or emotional cord has been established, you can release it by physically pulling it out of you. Once you notice its presence on one of your chakras, you can use your hands to pull the cord out of you, as if you're pulling a rope, and then visualize it leaving your body.
Washing Your Hands or Body - Much like your physical body, your energetic body needs to maintain good hygiene, too. Water is one of our greatest assets because it can cleanse both our physical and energetic bodies. An excellent way to rid yourself of other people's energy is to actually physically wash your hands or whole body. As you feel the water flowing down on you, envision all of the negative energy washing off too.
Sage or "Smudging" - Not only does sage smell awesome, but it can also cleanse your home and your body of negative energy. Smudging with sage has been used for centuries to cleanse people's energetic auras and rid outer environments of negative energy.
QUANTUM HEALTH TIP: We have our Clean Sweep spray, which immediately neutralizes all forms of negativity from EMF to human emotion. Additionally, you can use our Trinity Black Tourmaline and Amber Elixirs for an added punch in transforming perceived negative energy into positive energy.
More Research About Gratitude and Health
The first group was asked to write down five things they were grateful for that had happened in the last week for each of the 10 weeks of the study. This was called the gratitude condition. The second group was asked to write down five daily annoyances or hassles from the previous week. This was the hassles condition. The third group was asked to simply listed five events that had occurred in the last week, but not told to focus on either positive or negative aspects. This was the events or control condition.
The types of things people listed in the grateful condition included:
- Sunset through the clouds.
- The chance to be alive
- The generosity of friends
- The right to vote
And in the hassles condition:
- Hard to find parking
- Burned my macaroni and cheese
- No money for gas
Before the experiment began, participants had kept daily journals to keep track of their moods, physical health, and general attitudes. These observations were then used to provide a comparison for after the 10 week experiment was finished.
The results of the study concluded that happiness levels were up by 25%. Those who were in the gratitude condition were more optimistic about the future, they felt better about their lives, and they even did on average about 1.5 more hours of exercise per week than those who where in the hassles or events condition. It's amazing to think that all of this can be achieved just from focusing on your blessings rather than your burdens.
QUANTUM HEALTH TIP: Having a sense of inner peace goes a long way toward feeling gratitude in every day affairs. Wear our Vital Force Inner Peace Crystal to create a subtle energy field around you and watch how easy it is to be truly grateful.
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Emotionally: Inspires love and devotion. Dissolves ingrained behavior patterns. Fortifies, activates and strengthens the survival instinct, inspires love and devotion, alleviates emotional disharmony.
Mentally: Helps to release useless, old, or obsolete ideas.
Physically: May help regenerate the body and stimulate the metabolism. May assist spinal and cellular disorders. May purify and reenergize blood, heart, and lungs, may help regenerate DNA.
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Trumped: Moral Politics
In the shamanic world--a world we are addressing with the idea of a "Quantum Life"--we see everything as energy. There is "negative energy", the energy of the destructive, death and decay, of fermentation and marination; and then there is "positive" energy--the energy of the creative, life-giving, growing, flowering. Both of these energies create the yin-yang of the physical world that we perceive through our senses. There would not be one without the other. Hence, ultimately, the division of energies into "positive" and "negative"--making one good and the other bad--is an arbitrary judgment having nothing to do with the truth of Reality.
We also must remember that the word "democracy" was shunned by the founding fathers, who saw fit to not use it in the Constitution. As Thomas Jefferson stated, "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."
Basically, feelings of love, gratitude, appreciation and other "positive" emotions not only have an effect on our nervous system, but they have an affect on those around us, far beyond what we might have previously thought.
Dr. Martin Samuels is head of the Neuro-Cardiology department at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Samuels studies the relationship between thinking and heart health. He has numerous examples of healthy young men and women who have died on roller coasters and in other suddenly stressful situations from the massive dumping of stress chemicals into the blood stream.
Studies have been conducted which investigate the influence of A's intention on B's physiological state — a process referred to as "remote intention." They further examine the influence of A's attention on B's physiological state while A gazes at B over a 1 way video link, called "remote staring." Last but not least, they study the influence of A's intention on B's attention or behaviour, which is referred to as "remote helping", measured using electrodermal activity, heart rate, blood volume pulse, and electrocortical activity (EEG electrodermal activity, heart rate, blood volume pulse, brain blood oxygenation [MRI], and electrogastrogram [EGG]).
It's been a challenging last two months for me, where things seemed to spiral downward despite my best efforts. I was forced realize that my expectations of where I should be going and how fast, were being completely de-constucted.
Yes, sometimes things do seem like they are moving like molasses in January--but that doesn't mean they've stopped moving! Besides, why focus in on the molasses, when unique snowflakes are falling, the elk are running, the wind is gusting, and the plant world is awakening with green promises of Spring.
Researchers at Mindlab International in the U.K. wanted to know what kind of music induces the greatest state of relaxation. The study involved having participants try to solve difficult puzzles — which inherently triggered a certain degree of stress — while connected to sensors. At the same time, participants listened to a range of songs as researchers measured their brain activity, heart rate, blood pressure and rate of breathing.
Have you ever felt exhausted, bored, irritated, stressed, anxious, threatened, overwhelmed or depressed, all at the same time, after just a few moments in the company of a person? He or she may be an energy vampire who can have a bad influence on you. Like movie vampires, these are the negative people who are incapable of generating positive energy. Hence they feed off the energy of others.
The language we speak can help us see the future. That's the premise of the alien language in the movie Arrival--and it's a big deal. In Arrival, aliens arrive on Earth to talk to us, unlike typical alien invasion movies. A linguistics professor teaches the aliens English while learning their language. What the professor learns is that speaking the alien language re-shapes her brain to let her see into the future. Fictitious as that science sounds, language might really do that.
Spiritually: Promotes Spiritual attunement and enhances communication between the physical and spiritual worlds. Enhances intuition and meditation.
I'm tempted every year at this time to go on a rant about "New Year's Resolutions", and this year I think it's time to burst the bubble of control many of us believe we have that would make us believe we can "keep" those resolutions made.
First, it's not about "control". There is no such thing as "controlling your life". We believe we have control because we can make some predictions about what is going to happen based on specific actions we take: I'm controlling my life by getting up every day at 7AM, doing my workout, then driving to work. I'm in control. This is an illusion. What is happening here is that you are simply following along a certain pattern of energy that you chose in the past.