MUSIC IN MENTAL WELL-BEING

Whether we passively listen to our favourite songs or actively engage in music-making by singing or playing instruments, music can have a profoung influence on our socio-emotional development and overall well-being.

Research suggests that music engagement not only shapes our personal and cultural identities but also plays a role in mood regulation.

Music therapy is an evidence-based therapeutic using music to accomplish health and education goals, such as improving mental wellness, reducing stress and alliviating pain.

Genres such as hip-hop, reggae, jazz, blues...have historically served as platforms for marginalized voices, enabling them to reclaim their narratives and challenge societal forms.

Emerging evidence indicates that music has the potencial to enhance prosocial behaviour promote social connectedness, and develop emotional competence. 

 

GREGORIAN CHANT

Developed during the early Middle Ages and named after Pope Gregory I, Gregorian chant is a form of monophony, unaccompanied sacred song of the Roman Catholic Church. It has also found a place in modern culture, including albums and film soundtracks, where it often evokes a sense of deep calm, spirituality and timelessness. It can be a perfect soundtrack to meditation and mindfulness, too. It is a great genre of music to explore if you`re looking to improve your mental health.

Gregorian chant is a form of sacred song in latin employed within the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. It has had two distinguishing features. Firstly, it is unaccompanied (there are no musical instruments accompanying the singing). Secondly, it is monophonic (there is just one melodic line followed by all the singers).

There are a couple of other key features to Gregorian chant. Firstly, it has been based on Medieval modes. Secondly, it is almost exclusively sung in latin.

The peak period for the development of Gregorian chant was 9th and 10th century Europe.

Gregorian chant was essentially performed either during the Roman Catholic Mass, or during the monastic Office (the sequence of religious services, or times of prayer, among religious communities).

This beautiful and spiritual music form had a profound impact on the patterns taken by both Medieval and Renaissance music.

The album entitled Chant (by Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain) became the best-selling album of Gregorian chant of all time.

MUSIC FOR THE SOUL

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR 2026

 For many, Christmas has become the winter holiday of this modern society. In fact, our consumer society uses every imaginable resource and mechanism during these days to encourage people to buy, spend and enjoy. It seems as if only those with money and the means to buy can celebrate these holidays.

God is the best gift that can be offered to humankind. Our mistake is thinking that we do not need Him. Believing that a little more comfort, a little more money, health, luck and security are enough.

Celebrating Christmas is not about sparking fleeting euphoria with a few glasses of champagne, bur about nurturing our inner joy and our trust in the closeness of a God who is present in our daily lives.

Gift exchanges, Christmas bonuses, extra pay, raffles, special lottery prizes... Everything has been conveniently used by consumer society to encourage us to buy and consume.

We are collectively creating a self-serving and egotistical society, and we are forgetting what true gift is. We risk turning everything into compliance, self-interest, and selfish calculation.

Just as the The Three Kings brought their gifts to the child born in Bethlehem, believers also express their gratitude to God by giving gifts to children, the poor, the needy, or loved ones. However, the greatest gift for mankind is Jesus Christ.

God´s solidarity with humanity is the deepest foundation we can conceive for solidarity and fraternity among human beings. A believer cannot celebrate these holidays with satisfaction, nor eat or dine in peace, forgetting all those men and women for whom Christmas will not be a cause for celebration but something that will remind them even more starkly of their old age, their powerlessness, and their anxieties.

Christmas should be a time for reflection and commitment to creating among us a different way of understanding political struggle and the common effort for a better society. Above political objectives, party interests, or strategic considerations, the other is always our brother or sister, even when presented as an adversary.

It is impossible to celebrate Christmas without sincerely seeking peace. New Year`s Day is celebrated as World Peace Day. However, even during these Christmas holidays, new attacks, violence, deaths, and torture will continue to emerge, reminding us each morning that there is no peace in the world.

Text by José Antonio Pagola

PEACE

We are living in the 21st century, the year 2023. I'm 66. All my life wishing peace for me, around me, in the whole world. Something must be wrong with us the humans. Wars are going on all around the world. Right now there are two awful wars which make me feel horrible and distressed. It's depressing what's happening between Ukraine and Russia, and also between Israel and Palestine - thousands of dead, oceans of blood shading.

Lots of politicians supposedly dealing with the shame of the century: war and climate change. And yet nobody seems to be able to do anything to stop them. I'm tired of asking myself why it is so hard to agree on a final ceasefire as soon as possible. Why is it so difficult not to allow any more wars to come up...the questions might be endless.

Perhaps it could be a good idea to prevent wars beginning from the end. All of us, especially politicians and diplomats around the world, might start, first by visualising the war and its harmful consequences and then doing whatever is necessary to avoid it.

 

STILL THE YEAR OF COVID-19

The ending of the current year, 2021 has been a bit hard. This Covid-19 affair is being endless. Sometimes I feel tired of everything. I wouldn't like depression to take me where I don't want to be driven. Fear is present all the time. Fear of being ill, infecting others, of dying...It's hard to live with fear. I want to enjoy life despite this horrific virus.

COPING WITH OUR EMOTIONS

It's not easy to be fully conscious of our emotions. Sometimes we feel thrown away by strong winds. winds that will end up at any moment. But these moments seem to have come to stay forever.  However, nothing is forever, nothing seems to be permanent. Everything stops when we stop breathing. Life can be simple.

CONCENTRATE ON ALL THE GOOD THINGS IN YOUR LIVE

Sometimes we are aware of life when death is so near us. Learning to live joyfully with our everyday routines, family, walks, doings, injuries... is so hard that we are not conscious of all the blessings surrounding us. Sometimes it´s difficult to focus on the positive side. It´s hard to be present and be aware of our emotions.

ENJOY LIVE EVERY DAY

Gure inguruan ditugun bedeinkazioak disfrutatzen ikastea da, agian, gure ikasketa handienetako bat. Gozatu dezagun naturarekin, familiarekin, dugun lanarekin, behar dutenei laguntza eskainiz... Jarri arreta aurrera egitera bultzatzen zaituzten gauza errazetan .

GOING HOME - IN LOVING MEMORY

This video is dedicated to my nephew who passed away recently (January 3, 2021). We all think he went too early (he was only 23) but I prefer to think we have enjoyed him for 23 years. We loved him just as he was. We loved his beautiful smile, his loving hugs and his jokes. Go back home, Aitor, peacefully, free of all fear and pain. Rest in peace with all the loving ones.

Walk as if you were kissing the Earth with your feet

Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is a global spiritual leader, poet and peace activist, well-known around the world for his pionieering teachings  on Mindfulness, global ethics and peace.

BELLO ADAGIO DE MOZART

Parece que está científicamente comprobado que escuchar música de Mozart o clásica aumenta nuestro coeficiente intelectual. Su música se puede utilizar para eliminar el estrés, estudiar, meditar y descansar la mente. Mozart también es importante para conciliar el sueño o para descubrir la belleza de nuestro ser.

 

A NEW BEGINNING

 From now on, this blog is meant to be something special for me. I hope it may also become significant for other people who are trying to find new paths in their lives. I'd like to gather here meditation, good news, peaceful thoughts and everything related to beauty. Now that I'm retired and I enjoy having more time for myself it would be a good idea to hang here anything that gives me peace of mind as well as words, pictures, music that have a soothing effect for the soul. I'd like to spread light where there is darkness, joy where there is sadness and love where there is hatred.

TIME TO SAY GOODBYE AND THANK EVERYONE

It's summertime. It's time to have fun and joyful rest. I've enjoyed working, learning and having a peaceful ending to a long and interesting professional job. Just like in times of Covid-19, nothing is going to be the same from now on.

I want to imagine I'll have time for myself. Time to meditate and walk, to read more and write slowly. Perhaps time to learn another language or do some kind of volunteering. Maybe I'll be able to do everything I wanted to do all my life. Maybe I'll just sit and observe. 

I'm grateful to have worked as a teacher for so many years. Now, I'm grateful to start a new journey.

EMMANUEL KELLY - COLDPLAY - IMAGINE

Emmanuel Kelly was born and abandoned into war-torn Iraq. He was raised at an orphanage before he was adopted and brought to Australia for life-changing surgery. His passion for singing, for life, and for "dreaming big" in the face of huge/big obstacles, led him to achieve his dream of becoming a singer.

LEONARD COHEN

Leonard Cohen was born on September 21, 1934, and died on November 7, 2016. He was a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, poet, novelist and painter.

THE NEW YORK TIMES - ARITZ ADURIZ

The Basque striker Aritz Aduriz has said goodbye to his 20-year career. Doctors, he said, had told him he needed a rip replacement "to go about my everyday life as normally as possible."

He is 39. His career as a striker stretches back almost two decades. Far longer than he had ever thought possible last summer he decided this would be his final season. "IT feels like closing a circle, retiring at the same place where I started out," he said. " I've been very fortunate."

A derby between the two biggest clubs in The Basque Country would be the perfect way to leave. But two weeks later, the game was postponed, indefinitely. " Football is people", he said. " It is the fans. We are nothing without the people. A game without anyone there is a different sport".

Back in August, Barcelona came to Bilbao for the first game of the Spanish season. For 87 minutes, Aduriz sat and watched from the bench. A minute later, Aduriz paused, the wily veteran proving to the young defender that sometimes stillness is as effective as speed. Stopping his run bought the space he needed. He contorted his body, propelled himself into the air and swung his right foot.

Nine months later, Aduriz still insists he cannot adequately describe the feeling. What he remembers, from that moment, is the celebration. "It was very emotional, to see them jumping around," he said. He blew a kiss into the sky (to his family). When he returned to the changing room, his teammates stood to sing his name.

The bond between Athletic's players and its fans is an uncommon one. The club is an exception in the hyper-globalized marketplace of the world soccer in only recruiting players born or raised in The Basque Country.

Athletic was his one true love. "success is important", he said. "But it is as important that people remember you".

IMPRESSIONISM

Impressionism can be considered the first distinctly modern movement in painting. It started/developed in Paris in the 1860s and its influence spread throughout Europe and finally the United States. Its originators were artists who rejected the official exhibitions. The impressionists aimed to capture the momentary, sensory effect of a scene - the impression objects made on the eye in a fleeting instant. To achieve this effect, many Impressionist artists moved from the studio to the streets and countryside.

THE BEAUTY OF NATURE

Watch this breathtaking video and relax. Take your mind to that wonderful place and enjoy the blessings of our Mother Nature. Take a deep breath and forget about the problems you may have for over two minutes or so. Appreciate the pictures and feel the peace in you. 

(Soon coming... a new question)

A LONG-TAILED TIT BIRD

This tiny ball of fluff with an impossibly long tail, has almost doubled in numbers since the 1980s. These flying lollipops flit from one tree to the next, pause, grab an invisible insect, and then move rapidly on.

They have sociable habits: youngsters from a previous brood will often help their parents raise the next one, in what scientists call "co-operative breeding". You never see a lone long-tailed tit. One is always followed by another, then another, until a host of them are flitting around you, seemingly fearless.