Feelings outside in

Last week I had the pleasure of taking a course about Brazilian music, Which I guess could be described as an engaging two hours of hearing stories about some of the classic names of Brazilian music + singing their songs, led by two great musicians.

In love with music, one of the teachers expressed his special appreciation for this particular type of art which invades the listener. There's no way a person can "watch" a song; music always interacts with us in a different level, bringing remembrances, fostering daydreams and influencing on how we feel.

Reflect about that made me wonder why we tend to think we need a reason to be who we are and feel how we feel, when there are uncountable examples of "external" stimuli which influence our mood and / or the way we behave.

In one of his recent book (I think it is Blink), Malcolm Gladwell described he would arrive home angry after a whole afternoon practicing angry / upset / sad faces. Without a reason, anger would appear from the simple fact angry faces were being tried.

Even more impressive have been my yoga classes. Frequent physical exercises of chest opening, spine twisting, turning upside down and projecting the body forward have brought unbelievable benefits to practitioners when it comes to being more open and affectionate, becoming more flexible to different points of view, believing in ourselves and happily planning the future.

That is probably why in meditation we first learn how to maintain our bodies still before we are truly able to calm down our minds.