Perhaps this doesn't deserve its own thread but I was reading today about ways of overcoming torture (not a nice easy read but a personal fear). The suggestion for surviving extreme heats was to meditate and for extreme cold to have a good sing - I thought this was a really interesting piece of advice and it kinda made me think of people's descriptions of machine elves singing matter into existence. There must be a really important intrinsic good in using our voices to sing and laugh.

What do you lot think about this?

Singing is a powerful thing.

The first thing you hear as you are birthed, and you do, is scream. Then comes the calming breath of the mother, and eventually the singing. It's the primary form of expression. The mouth is the most expressive tool of the body in many ways, you can create so much different sounds, it's so free in its movements, fluid. To use this most creative part of our selves to transcend trauma, to go beyond screaming, it's all sized up to be that, a healing way.

One difference about singing and playing music is that you don't use your hands. Hands are tools of control we use to grasp things - it's kind of ironical most of the technology we have invented to move requires hands, when those are not needed for walking (the belly directs movements - the belly is obviously related to the mouth). Singing requires to don't use your legs and arms, your focus is directed somewhere else - the relationship of the inside of the body, the belly and the lungs, to the head (maybe?).

Modern society has seen us rely to ill extent on language to not feel alone. It appears to me it's one of the reason we have cut ourselves from nature, which you need not hear in the same "ways". Melody is more abstract. Singing doesn't relies on visual things: it comes from the unknown, the inside. It doesn't say, it translates and evokes, it does not define. This is, as well as its ephemeral nature, is very liberating. It's about letting go.

Physically, the area of the lips is tied to the back of the neck, and it can relax it heavily, letting all energies locked beside in the back to fluctuate again. It's easy to feel when you sing, it goes to your whole body, it makes things in touch. It's also a tool of de(con)struction we can use to create.

All those things makes it to be a pretty big deal yes. I often regret singing is not more integrated as a fundamental part of the ways we communicate together.

Once in a long while I’ll be dreaming and hear a melody that is simple and heartfelt, or serene. I had one the other week, and on and off I will hum the melody. Yesterday I microdosed some cubes and it was just a shitty trio all day. Got home and in the pits of misery started humming that tune. Felt a release of joyous feeling and contentment that pulled me from a dark place.

Looking up the benefits of singing it looks as if everyone could really do with singing more often!

It's been known to strengthen the immune system by increasing the number of protein used as antibodies, strengthens throat muscles which aid with sleep, acts as an anti-depressant with the release of endorphins, and lowers stress levels.