Experiencing different modes of attention
In discussions about Iain’s work, I find repeatedly that there is an implicit assumption that we know... View more
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Music and Feeling
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Music and Feeling
A few years ago I had a mystical experience with music. Until that point I had been more in a mode of attention that in my opinion resonates with the LH mode of attention. I can see how I was trying to add up the pieces to learn and gain competency when playing music. After dipping into a mode of attention that was more in my heart, feeling its way through playing. I was able to relate that experience to the idea of “play from your heart”, something that had just been words to me before. It has sent me on a journey of playing with modes of attention when practicing music and the quality of that attention.
-I have seen Iain mention a meditation of ‘focusing on allowing’ which is something I added to practicing. Which helps me access this mode of feeling deeper in my opinion. It has brought to my awareness something I can only describe as some kind of habitual psychosomatic holding on that gets in the way of feeling on a deeper level.
-A simple practice of attention with allowing myself to feel the notes move inside of my body and or heart. Maybe with just a simple warm up of listening to a single note resonate out for a duration but staying with it in that feeling sense.
There may be some other stuff I am forgetting at the moment. 😀 It has been fun though and really helped me notice when I am forcing myself on the music or just letting a creative flow move the way it wants to move.
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I have found that Iain is right about the different modes of attention. Meditation is easier when I focus on being in the present moment. My meditation teacher actually uses the term “sinking in” to practice meditation. It is similar to taking a bath. Rather than analyze the water temperature (domain of the left hemisphere) just be present to the sensations of the bath. Interestingly, Stanley Block, MD wrote a book called “Come to your Senses” to describe a process called mind-body bridging, and the practices in that book are definitely right hemisphere related. My focus now is that why does Western culture value everything in the left hemisphere, and yet what makes life feel alive and meaningful is in the right hemisphere? I have decided to shift from an achievement focus to a relationship focus since it is relationships that make life fulfilling.
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