Using Your Flute to Meditate:

Meditation is no longer looked upon as some geeky, dangerous, heathen activity. Through considerable research, especially through the research of Dr. Herbert Benson, the daily practice of meditation has been found to be beneficial to our physical, mental and emotional health. And when we experience these benefits, our spiritual state becomes more healthy, as well. In fact, the very act of meditation can directly take us to our spiritual state.

Of course, the tough part about meditation is the "daily" part. If we don't practice regularly, meditation won't do us much good. Meditating every few days is equivalent to brushing our teeth every few days: It may help a little, but it won't keep the cavities away. More years ago than I care to admit, I began meditating. All went well for the first two years. Then our daughter arrived. Our daughter was the greatest blessing in my life, but the little stinker sure knocked the heck out of my meditation schedule!

Years went by. I'd try to get back on a regular meditation schedule, but it was very difficult. I was raising my daughter, working every day, and just plain living my life. It seemed I was always too busy to meditate.

A few years ago I purchased my first Native American flute. And when I began to master it, something clicked inside me. The flute's tone, the act of playing it, the feel of it in my hands had an effect on me like no instrument I'd ever played before. And I've played a lot of instruments. The flute became part of my meditation sessions. And once it took hold of me, I began to meditate much more regularly.

If you don't know how to meditate, but have a desire to learn, you will find useful links at the end of this article. If you do know how, let me explain how I use my flute(s) to reach the meditative state. A quiet place to meditate is essential, whether you use a flute or not. In this quiet place sit down with your flute. Whether you sit in a chair or sit on the floor, it doesn't matter. Now hold the flute in your hands, look at the flute, feel the flute. Close your eyes and begin slowly playing a tune. If you haven't learned any tunes on it, yet, just close all the holes, blow gently, then start playing any notes. Play softly (you don't want to jar yourself), and breathe easily. Try to make your playing effortless. As you play, you will find your mind beginning to quiet. When this happens, slowly lay your flute in your lap, but loosely maintain a grip on it with both hands. Then begin silently saying your mantra. Eventually you won't feel the flute anymore. You will, instead, find yourself lost in the mantra because your flute music will have eased the transition between fully alert and the meditative state. Eventually, though, after fifteen or twenty minutes, your mind will begin to rouse back to the surface. When you feel you have emerged, somewhat, from the meditative state, slowly pick up the flute and begin to play. Try to play the same tune or play in the same extemporaneous way you began the session. This nicely encapsulates your meditation period and gives a feeling of ending the session. After a couple of minutes, the flute will have gently brought you back to full awareness. Stop playing, then sit for a couple more minutes before you get up and go about your active day.

Regardless of your personal faith, or lack of a formal faith, you will be able to find a meditation technique that you can be comfortable with. If you don't find it in the links below, do some searching. There are many mediation sites. The ones below are only representative of what you might find.

The Relaxation Response: Dr. Herbert Benson took the mystery out of meditation and gives us his own method. Not faith based.

http://www.mbmi.org/home/

Christian Meditation (Father John Maine's mantra):

http://www.wccm.org/

Praying the Rosary: Using Rosary beads as a meditation tool. This link immediately downloads a pdf that you can print out to use as reference.

www.newadvent.org/library/rosary.pdf

Transcendental Meditation: This began the meditation revolution. Not faith based.

http://www.mum.edu/