The Transformative Power of Music

Thinking Aloud

Music helps us heal, empowers us to reflect, and pushes us to connect and collaborate with one another. Perhaps, music’s most powerful characteristic, is its ability to transform.

The poet Walt Whitman wrote ‘Music is always around me, unceasing, beginning, yet long untaught I did not hear.’ We need music for every mood and occasion. It connects us to something deeper within ourselves. It transports us to sweet and sad moments in our lives; comforting us through moments of celebration, action, mourning, and everything in between.

Moving Together

Explore Religica Podcasts and Blogs on the Transformative Power of Music and Dance:

Kenzie Grubitz Simpson

Click on Kenzie Grubitz Simpson’s photo above to read her Religica Blog, entitled “Dance as an Attitude Toward Life and Death”

To access more of Religica’s digital content, we invite you to visit the Religica Blog and Religica Podcast pages.

Engaging with the Transformative Power of Music

After spending time with the blog, podcast, and links we’ve offered, we now invite you to contribute your own thoughts, links, and ideas. Consider the following prompts as a place to begin the conversation in the Discussion Forum.

Reflect:

In Mack Wilburg’s “The Power of Music Will Transform our World” podcast, Wilburg speaks of a letter sent to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from a young, emotionally vulnerable man who found hope and inspiration in their music.

Think of a time in your life when you, whether consciously or unconsciously, used music as a therapeutic tool. What songs did you listen to? What melodies did you sing? How did music provide you with hope, with inspiration, and help guide you through a difficult moment?

Engage:

In Kenzie Grubitz Simpson’s Blog, “Dance as an Attitude Toward Life and Death,” Grubitz Simpson examines how dance has historically operated as a beautiful and creative tool for community building.

Allow yourself five minutes to write down your thoughts in response to these questions:

  • What capacity do dance, music, and the arts have to build community?
  • What is the value of engaging in forms of creative expression with others?