The Myth of the Full Moon?
Today is a full moon day. According to Space.com, it is called the Flower Moon and will actually turn completely full at 7:15pm this evening, but it is almost full now. I can tell.
I have always been drawn to the full moon.
I waited to be born on the full moon on this day. It took me three weeks of extra waiting past my due-date, but I arrived on the full moon day. I was one of 30 babies born that day. There were lots of us who wanted to arrive at that time.
My mother says that I have always cycled in my behavior. She would notice changes in my mood, attention, and activity level and then see the moon phase. She continues to say that my cycles were attributable to what was happening with the moon, even when I was an infant.
I have worked with people who dismiss the effect of the moon as poppycock. I can't do that. Those people felt that there was no upswing in behaviors, in changes in patterns, or responses to stimuli. They dismissed my cyclic behavior as something that just happened regardless of moon cycles. I prefer the moon.
My years of cyclic behavior have both helped and hurt me over the years. I tend to get very energetic during full moon phases (I woke at 2am this morning, and am writing now instead of sleeping in on my first day off). I tend to get sluggish during new moon phases. (These things happen when I don't know what the moon phase is, by the way.)
I know that there will always be naysayers about the effect of the moon on behavior. I know that I will always believe. I live it. I live a small part of it. It is real for me.
This is a good lesson for us all. Reality is based on the perceiver, not on the perceptions of others. Over the years, I've learned so many lessons from different people, but one of the most practical was from a professor. She said, "You cannot convince a person who is hallucinating that what they see isn't real." This lesson has been reinforced by many clients who have been convinced that someone was in the room with us, that there were animals doing things just out of their eye line, and that there were other voices going on. I've learned that there is value in acknowledging what others perceive and not discounting what is sensed. (I think my full-moon experiences have helped me here.)
For me, my saving grace is music. I use my energy-full times to write music, to develop therapeutic music experiences (TMEs), to sing, to play my guitar, to dance. I use my playlists and my melancholy music for those times when I am not feeling perky. Many of my clients seem to respond in the same way. Music therapy is a space where they can focus on a shared reality - a shared reality through our musical interaction - rather than just our personal realities.
Music interferes, music intervenes, music demands attention. Music enriches reality.
This is why I love music therapy.
Happy Full Moon day. Whether you believe that the moon affects behavior or not, I will be heading out into this world to make music, to use my energy, and to enjoy! I hope you will as well.
I have always been drawn to the full moon.
I waited to be born on the full moon on this day. It took me three weeks of extra waiting past my due-date, but I arrived on the full moon day. I was one of 30 babies born that day. There were lots of us who wanted to arrive at that time.
My mother says that I have always cycled in my behavior. She would notice changes in my mood, attention, and activity level and then see the moon phase. She continues to say that my cycles were attributable to what was happening with the moon, even when I was an infant.
I have worked with people who dismiss the effect of the moon as poppycock. I can't do that. Those people felt that there was no upswing in behaviors, in changes in patterns, or responses to stimuli. They dismissed my cyclic behavior as something that just happened regardless of moon cycles. I prefer the moon.
My years of cyclic behavior have both helped and hurt me over the years. I tend to get very energetic during full moon phases (I woke at 2am this morning, and am writing now instead of sleeping in on my first day off). I tend to get sluggish during new moon phases. (These things happen when I don't know what the moon phase is, by the way.)
I know that there will always be naysayers about the effect of the moon on behavior. I know that I will always believe. I live it. I live a small part of it. It is real for me.
This is a good lesson for us all. Reality is based on the perceiver, not on the perceptions of others. Over the years, I've learned so many lessons from different people, but one of the most practical was from a professor. She said, "You cannot convince a person who is hallucinating that what they see isn't real." This lesson has been reinforced by many clients who have been convinced that someone was in the room with us, that there were animals doing things just out of their eye line, and that there were other voices going on. I've learned that there is value in acknowledging what others perceive and not discounting what is sensed. (I think my full-moon experiences have helped me here.)
For me, my saving grace is music. I use my energy-full times to write music, to develop therapeutic music experiences (TMEs), to sing, to play my guitar, to dance. I use my playlists and my melancholy music for those times when I am not feeling perky. Many of my clients seem to respond in the same way. Music therapy is a space where they can focus on a shared reality - a shared reality through our musical interaction - rather than just our personal realities.
Music interferes, music intervenes, music demands attention. Music enriches reality.
This is why I love music therapy.
Happy Full Moon day. Whether you believe that the moon affects behavior or not, I will be heading out into this world to make music, to use my energy, and to enjoy! I hope you will as well.
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