Way back when, humans listened to music without Spotify, Air
Pods, smart phones, and blue teeth/tooths.
In those B.S.P. (Before Smart Phones) days, people would
actually get off their tooshies (medical term for gluteal area) and walk over
to a thing called a stereo to adjust the sound using something called an
equalizer. Crazy huh? Millennials reading this are already distractedly Googling
all of this to verify I am not spinning tall tales.
Let’s use the equalizer analogy as we consider what music we play for ourselves today.
Treble represents the
positive in life – the beautiful moments of each day, the practice of gratitude
and the people and experiences that make us grateful. All that sustains us will
be treble.
Bass, meanwhile, represents the negative – things that
stress us, things that cause us to worry, fear, and which bring on anxiety.
Yes, life does give us a starting material for the music we
hear, but it is our decision of how we adjust the equalizer that makes the
difference between symphony and cacophony.
“Woe is me” is not a reflection of the orchestra, but is a
reflection of that person’s inability to lower the bass so that treble can
ring.
And if treble weren’t easy to tune up, the majority of media
even exist. Regurgitating the same bad news, knowing humans will consume it
over and over and over. In those rare cases of treble amongst so much bass, you
would never hear a “feel good” story repeated one day to the next on the 10pm
news.
“Now to follow up on
that incredible tale of the boy who raised $10,000 for his classmate with
cancer from yesterday. We thought we would take another look at this tale since
we felt it was so important for our city.”
Nope. But crime, natural disasters, political squabbling attract
attention day after day. I think our own internal “news feed” plays out
similarly. Much easier to regurgitate and perseverate on the bass in our lives.
My friends, play with the equalizer today. Play with that
innate ability to attune to treble and let the positive dictate your thoughts
and actions. Bass will still be there, but it will exist in balance with, and
in the context of the treble sound. You might even appreciate new and more
constructive angles on the bass sounds by not
focusing on them.
Today, life will not give us treble or bass. No, today we get
to choose how to manipulate the equalizer and make music out of the sounds that
life presents.
A simple exercise for those interested in tuning their equalizer:
Write down 3 things that have most bothered/worried you in the last week. These are your bass.
Now, take those 3 things and come up with the opposite statement. Ex: “I am worried about my grandmother’s health becomes “I am grateful to have my grandmother in my life.”
Today, as you go about the day, when you find yourself beginning to think in “bass”, simply adjust the equalizer and turn that worry into its “treble” opposite.
Repeat as needed.
Perception makes reality.
ReplyDeleteThe lens through which we perceive the world can change.
The dirge can change to a Cantada if we choose. This is our choice.
When asked...”Is it fair to say ur inner voice has become much more treble over the last years???”
ReplyDeleteMy response was: It has become more treble but it came from the courageous bass that derived from the center of my soul which is the belly button or Ké (the place our life line is traced and the place we are connected to our mothers and our mothers were connected to their mothers and their mothers were connected to their mothers) For when we yell to let our voices be heard we start from the hearty spot of our bellybuttons. Which is a beautiful and positive place to be. My inner mountains were moving at that time is was getting ready to shift to a new sound and that a deeply bass rumble.
When we laugh a pure hearty laughter listen to the bass in the laughter.
Both treble and bass can have negative connotations. Too much of one makes the song sound like an over flooded mush. Just like everything in life the bass and treble must dance together.
And just as it was shared in Black is King...“duality , the balancing of good and evil or the positives and the negatives. These two often appear together and nothing is complete on its own. There is an ongoing exchange between dark and light (positive/negative, etc) and it's not always a battle it's a conversation.”
Therefore bass does not necessarily come from a negative place nor does the treble always come a positive place. For some the bass is positive and the treble could be negative. Every person's musical ear is different and where people see darkness others see light. In the end we are all trying to get to the middle (balance) and the perfect mix for our ears and to our lives.