Kundalini Global does love music. We aim to be open-minded and adventurous in our choices when it comes to music, as well as conscious, always. of the role music plays in the energetic field of a class…
If you have been to Carolyn’s classes you will know that she uses a range of music that includes classical and modern… incorporating Arabic, Armenian, Sufi, Muslim, Christian, Catholic, Hindu & Sikh. She uses opera, some carefully chosen pop music… and her choices, of which we are aware there are an enormous number of fans, create an open and accepting environment for all the different and magnificent diversity out there.
Music is a fascinating topic relative to how we can use it within a yoga or breath work class and relative to the stress system… and today we want to explore that topic a little. But first…
A Gift For You: Carolyn’s Original Soundtrack
Carolyn is asked about her music often. Very often. People are known to sit in class with Shazam open continually, within an arm’s reach… and we totally get why. Carolyn is excellent at curating music that supports connection, presence, longing, determination… a huge array of responses that imbue a new depth and/or meaning to the intention of her classes.
Rather generously, Carolyn has allowed us to begin compiling some playlists of some of the most popular music that comes into class.
We start, today, with a playlist entitled Carolyn’s Original Soundtrack.
You will find it linked above, on Spotify.
We hope you enjoy this playlist, and more will be on the way in coming months.
Please, the invitation, if you are a yoga teacher, is not to take these playlists and use track-for-track in your own classes, however tempting that may be. Originality is a wonderful thing.
But perhaps it can inspire, lead you down interesting musical rabbit-holes or simply be something very lovely to listen to in your own practise, when cooking, or when taking time for you.
Why does music help?
As humans, most of us can identify ways in which music has brought us solace, joy, connection…
Whether soothing a broken heart, motivating us on a long run, or pressing play on a track that we know will get the entire room up and dancing… music moves us.
Relative to the yoga classroom, it is interesting to note that music is known to have many scientifically studied benefits relative to how we feel, our health and our experience of our lives.
Music and the stress system
When we look at what systems are in play when listening to music, it is very much about the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system in the body and the limbic system in the brain. Aspects of human physiology that are front and centre of what we work with in Kundalini Global.
In the simplest terms, if music is slow and gentle then, generally speaking, the the response in the body meets that, becoming slow and gentle too (ok, you may have personal exceptions to this… if Adele’s ballads make you irate or similar…) Generally speaking, in response to slow, gentle, sound and music our heart rate will decrease, our blood pressure will lower, major muscles will soften, including the diaphragm which will allow the breath to slow, and leads also to the the release of tension from areas such as the neck, shoulders, stomach and back… and we will feel, as a result, much more able to stay in the moment rather than jumping into the past or future in our thought processes.
Conversely, often in classes we need some support in holding ourselves through challenging postures or practises. Here, the use of music is very helpful too. We may use something faster, perhaps even louder, and we could even consider that the impact in doing so supports the conscious stress and tension the posture is encouraging. We are rewarded for enduring this stress, at the end, with the gift of endorphins… in the release of that conscious, purposeful, tension which our louder, faster, music supports.
This is why we don’t generally continue to play the same track we used for a strong posture or breath practise as we lie back after it. We will usually switch to something gentler and softer to support the switch to the parasympathetic response: to be soft, to be gentle, to be safe enough to be still.
You can read a study on music relative to the stress system here, which is very interesting, suggesting the use of calming music allowed for a faster ‘autonomic recovery’ (coming out of a stress response) after stress:
The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response
Beyond this study, there is much evidence available for the efficacy of music listening for stress reduction… we could write about it all day…
But this is not the only reason music is helpful within the container of a yoga class…
Music builds connection within community…
We believe that, aside from how fabulous the choices are, one of the reasons that Carolyn is asked so very often about her music is to do with how the familiar tracks become so synonymous with the community and feeling of connection that comes from regularly attending classes. Listening to the music from class outside of it is an act of remembering… remembering that connection, remembering how you made yourself feel…
It is known that our stories, our histories, influence our taste in music… but sociology more broadly plays in our musical tastes and where we find enjoyment, solace… too.
Where and when we grew up, the musical influences that were in the air during our younger years… the song that was playing when our child was born… they all play a role in what we like and enjoy. But all humans also participate in a huge variety of subcultures based on what it is that we find we encounter and then ‘like.’
When we have a community, just like the Kundalini Global community, or the one specific to Carolyn’s classes, we gain access to specific music by way of simply being a part of a group, and when that group means something to you, over time, the music will tend to too.
The science of music, and the history and sociology of music in how it shifts, shapes, changes… us… and in turn transforms itself as an art form relative to how it is practised, composed, shared and consumed… they are fascinating topics and ones that, if you are a teacher, or someone who uses music in a conscious way in other realms, you may find interesting.
Some books we can recommend include:
The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth
Sadly, these 3 books are all by men… we are yet to encounter books that bring together music, sociology and/or neuroscience that are written by women but, if you do find any, please do get in touch and let us know.
Enjoy Carolyn’s original soundtrack and expect more from us on music in coming months.
And don’t forget to check out the classes available with our teachers over this and coming weeks.
