Life is filled with challenges. But it is also filled with beauty, and we can draw from life's beautiful moments when we need help, inspiration, or change. In this activity, we will listen inward, express to the group, and hear our inner sounds and songs reflected back to us, allowing us to luxuriate in our own wellness soundscape.
Paper
Writing utensils
Drawing utensils
Simple instruments
You may read parts of this verbatim or use this as a guide for personalizing the experience for the students you are working with.
Sitting in a circle, take three deep breaths to help ground yourself into the experience. Imagine that with each breath you are taking in fresh energy and releasing anything you do not want to hold during the activity.
Take some additional deep breaths and begin to release a sound with each exhalation. Your sounds do not have to be pretty, and you do not have to sing. Your sounds can be loud, quiet, long, short, voiced, unpitched (e.g., beat box-esque sounds), repeating, or evolving.
As you continue to breathe, bring your sounds to silence and start to either close your eyes, look with a soft gaze, or fix your vision on something static. This will help you focus inward.
Notice your toes. Are they as comfortable as they can be? Continue the body scan all the way up to your crown, allowing your physical self to become as relaxed as possible where you are sitting.
Once your body is comfortable, start to remember a time and place when you felt completely well. You had not a care in the world. Everything was perfect. You felt safe, healthy, and comfortable. You had everything you needed. Your physical environment was exactly how you wanted it to be. (Pause). If it is hard to remember this now, you can feel free to alter some memories or combine multiple memories into a moment of perfect wellness. (Pause). This can be a time or place that happened a long time ago, or it could be recent. This could be a place that currently exists, might exist in the future, or no longer exists. (Pause). As you develop the image of this place of wellness in your mind, take yourself there. Immerse yourself in the senses of the setting. (Pause). Take a look around, what do you see? Notice the whole space. Is there a hallway to look down, or a window to see out of? Is there a clear line on the horizon, where the water meets the sky? (Pause). What does it feel like? Are you sitting on the carpet, lying in the grass, or snuggling under a blanket? What do the fabrics or textures feel like? Can you touch the grass or put your hand in the stream? Is the water cold or warm? Can you touch the wall, and feel the tiny grooves in the wallpaper? Is there an object, or a treasure nearby you can pick up? What material is it made of? Feel all sides of it. (Pause). How does your body feel in that place? (Pause). Now start to notice the smells. Is someone baking downstairs? Is the campfire burning? Is the cool morning mist blending with the aroma of your fresh coffee? Do you smell the salt of the ocean in the air? (Pause). Do you taste anything? (Pause). Now, what do you hear? Listen to all the sounds in this place. (Pause). Do you hear voices? Music? Natural sounds, like birds, bugs, or crashing waves? (Pause). Notice the mixture of how the sounds blend. Do some sounds fade away, or are some constant? Do any of the sounds change or evolve over time? Are some sounds louder than others? Are there sounds close to you, or far away in the distance? (Pause). These can also be sounds that no longer exist. The voice of a passed loved one, the music of an old friend who lives far away now. The soundscape of a forest that has been developed. (Pause). Welcome these sounds as friends, hear them entirely. Appreciate them. Keep listening for another moment, and feel in your body how they comfort you, or otherwise impact your present physical self. (Pause).
Start to thank your memory. If you are with other people or animals in the memory, thank them, and start to say, "until next time." If you are in a particular environment in the memory, start to depart towards our room, knowing that you can return there when you need to. When you feel ready, open your eyes, and rejoin the group.
Pick out one or more of the provided instruments here. Which one(s) might help you sound what you heard in the memory? The sound does not have to be a perfect representation, and you do not have to recreate every sound you may have heard in the memory. You may also use your voice or body percussion.
Find a place in the room to make your sound. You can also make new sounds or improvise.
At the calling of the leader, return to the circle. We will take turns going around the circle to voluntarily offer our sound of wellness, then hear it reflected back to us. Each person will play their sound(s), then the circle will repeat them as the original performer listens. Give a gesture of appreciation after you hear the sounds repeated back to you. Also, notice that each person might have different instruments. How you perform someone's sound for them may have to be altered or adapted. What is most important is that you evoke the spirit of their sound. You might notice certain movements or gestures they make, or you might notice general music elements such as rhythm, tempo, pitch, harmony, and so on.
Once everyone who wanted a turn has had one, take a few minutes to free draw and/or write based on the experience.
In the end, thank your instruments, thank each other, and take a quiet moment to silently listen to the reverberations of the experience before packing up. To close, collectively take a deep breath, and let out sounds together as a "button ending" for the activity.
MU:Cr1.1.5a - Improvise rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic ideas, and explain the connection to specific purpose and context (such as social, cultural, and historical).
MU:Cr1.1.5b - Generate musical ideas (such as rhythms, melodies, and accompaniment patterns) within specifically related tonalities, meters, and simple chord changes.
MU:Cr2.1.5a - Demonstrate selected and developed musical ideas for improvisations, arrangements, or compositions to express intent, and explain the connection to purpose and context.
MU:Cr3.2.5a - Present the final version of personally created music to others that demonstrates craftsmanship, and explain the connection to expressive intent.
MU:Cn10.0.5a - Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding.
MU:Cn11.0.5a - Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.
Self-awareness
Relationship skills
Social awareness
This lesson was adapted from a workshop co-developed with Tawnya D. Smith.