06/19/2014 #159——–07/03/2014

 

And it Stoned Me, Part 2  (Originally published July 7th, 2014

 

In my last email “And it Stoned Me” I talked about how playing the harmonica can trigger our own internal supply of “happy drugs”

 

If you missed that post you can read it here: http://rsleigh.com/and-it-stoned-me/

 

The more I look into this, the better it gets…

 

Here are a couple of comments from one of my readers that expand on the subject:

 

“I have a weekly meeting with other people who’re in “recovery” from opiate dependence which is facilitated by that rare therapist who truly, truly knows what she is doing (she approaches what she does like a great performer; think of Big Walter–as-Therapist)…

 

Last session she exploded the myth that once a person has years of opiate abuse behind them, then they are doomed to live out the rest of their days without being able to access those wonderful, naturally-occuring endorphins that the human physiology produces.  In fact, all evidence is to the contrary, and even the most stone-cold user will begin to feel the endorphins at work very soon after leaving the dope.

 

That was certainly my experience, and the more I abandoned myself to whole-hearted harp-blowing, the more fully I experienced the wonder of my natural endorphins. ”

 

Amen!  Or as John Lee Hooker says: “its in me and it gots to get out”

 

Well today, my friend, we are going to take it up another notch. John Lee Hooker might put it this way: “Its all around me and it gots to get in”

 

Not only do you have natural feel good drugs inside of you that you learn to trigger through practicing on your harps and increasing your ability to cut loose…

 

You also have an unlimited supply of energy that surrounds you at all times, and you tap into it  through the same process that triggers your internal drugs.

 

One word for this energy is “chi”. I am sure you have heard stories of someone lifting up a car to save the life of their child, some otherwise normal person running  into a burning building to rescue a baby they heard crying.

 

Emergencies break the hypnotic spell of everyday life and put us in touch with this other world of energy. There are other less sensational ways to tap into chi. Could it be that what runners and other athletes call “the second wind” be an infusion of chi?

 

Wouldn’t it be great to find your own answers to these kinds of questions?

 

If you hang in there long enough in focused practice sessions. you find your own ways to tap into this super-natural power supply. If the harmonica is your path, be open to the idea that you can train yourself to pull in the chi energy around you as part of your practice.

 

My experience is that this begins to happen for me when I push beyond what i believe I can do. Like practice for 10 minutes in a row instead of 7, even when I “know” that I am a lazy bastard who has never had much self discipline….

 

Some days that is just the way it is for me. I get these horrible stories running around in my head about how I usually can’t focus my way out of a wet paper bag. If I can just meet these stories with something like “oh its you again”  and just keep practicing, the stories eventually give up and go away. That is when the magic starts to happen for me…

 

Lately I’ve been reading or listening to lots of stories about people who practice martial arts or tai chi or other disciplines and how they use breath control and imagination to override what they think they can do (or can’t do). They then become “extra” ordinary at what they do. This sounds like the good life to me.

 

I’ve tasted this good life from time to time and I want more of it. How about you?

 

Harpe Diem!