music, therapy, and me

I dragged my body out of bed this morning at 4:15 am because it has to be done. I have to get into a routine of getting up and getting going during these early morning hours for this week before a week where I do not have to be up this early. I think that this is cruel and unusual punishment. In addition, this is a week with a 12-hour day in it, so that means late night medication, medication side effects, and late arrival at work for a kid-day the next day. There is so much that is wrong with this week, but it all starts with the time change. I woke up with an actual aural alarm this morning. This is unusual for me. Music in my environment tends to be startling, so I use a light to help me get up. I am usually awake before the light turns on, but not always. The change in the light environment helps me wake up. I think my father is responsible for this. He used to tell me it was time to get up by turning on my bedroom light when I was younger. As much as I pleaded that he turn on the ...

This is one of my least favorite days of the year - the day where we spring forward and mess with time. I don't understand it, the number of hours of daylight do not change at all, it doesn't help the farmers, and there doesn't seem to be any reason to continue to go through this process of changing time, but it continues. I am tired already, and it has only been one morning. Ugh. 

I am in the middle of the World Music in the Classroom Summit and also had a peer supervision session with a fellow music therapist earlier today, and I am finding some inspiration for my blog post a bit later than usual today. In the 11 minutes between sessions, I will try to put some of my ideas down here. One of the things that has struck me as I am watching music educators talk about their musical passions is that my own change significantly based on day, hour, and minute. Not to mention the changes that have happened over the weeks, months, years, and decades of being a professional music therapist. It is often interesting to look back on the things that I found interesting back when I was brand new and compare them to the things that I find interesting now. I think about this as finding my "why." Why do I enjoy my job? Why do I enjoy being a music therapist? Why do I engage in continuing education topics? Why do I want to do things like content creation and information ...

Yesterday, as I was scrolling my Instagram feed, I found a notification about an education summit all about global music that is starting this afternoon and will go until Sunday. I signed up, and I am getting ready for this conference with a professional development day. I bought Mexican food for this time, and I am now getting ready to uncover my notebook for continuing education and settle into my computer area to watch things unfold. (See yesterday's post for the link to the conference!) To prepare for this conference (which is NOT a music therapy conference but that works with one of my interests as a music therapist and content creator), I am not doing anything all that specific or taxing. I am resting this morning so I will be ready for the information overload that will be happening later on today. From 10-5 my time for the next two days, I will be listening to ways to bring in more world music into my music therapy sessions.  I am looking forward to this. Elementary music e...

I was scrolling around Instagram this morning and found a FREE world music summit opportunity, so I signed up! As you may know, I do a "Country of the Month" theme in my music therapy sessions. Each month, I feature the music and some of the cultural elements of a different country. We learn about the instruments, we watch videos about the traditional and current music played in the country, and we learn a bit about what life is like in different countries. It is an interesting process to introduce the world to my clients who often do not understand the concept of language, cultural differences, and other aspects of culture and community. West music (I love them!) is sponsoring this summit, and I am hoping that I can get tomorrow off so I can attend most of the presentations. This is not something that is preapproved for Continuing Music Therapy Education (CMTE) credits, but it will not be difficult to make a case for myself and for CBMT about why this is important to learn. ...

I am not sure what is going on with my brain lately - well, that's not entirely true, I know what is happening that is making my brain go into impossible, anxiety-inducing thoughts and responses, but I am trying to figure out how to decrease the amount of dreaming that I am doing right now. Last night's dream was about a tragedy of some sort that happened to all of us. I was one of several people moving through the world after a big event that affected all sorts of things. I woke up after discovering a bunch of car keys and starting a plan to use different cars that we could find in the parking lot to go to the next destination. I can completely see why this is my current frame of mind when sleeping. There is so much horrible stuff happening in the world, and I have been watching a K-drama that has to do with a nuclear incident. So, I totally know why this is on my mind, but I do not like that it is leaking into my dreams right now. I do not remember most of my dreams. I assume...