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Most recently published stories in Beat.
Redneck Zen
I am not someone prone to meditation or truly introspective thinking. I fear that if I simply sat quietly in a room and tried to meditate I would simply just fall asleep.
Matthew DonnellonPublished 3 years ago in BeatZen Playlist
Music is a form of escapism. It has a way of transporting its listeners to different states through the use of lyricism and beat. Which is why we all should be mindful to the music we choose to consume. What we listen to can play a hand in how we view and take in the world around us.
Zen Playlist
The playlist that’s my go to when I’m feeling like I need to center myself and calm down or escape reality for a bit is called my “Chillax” playlist. I listen to this when I’m in all sorts of different moods. Whether I just got out of a rough shift at work and don’t feel like dancing and singing, or I just woke up and don’t know what I feel like listening to yet. I could be mad at my husband or annoyed with my 5 year old and I just can’t go wrong with this playlist.
Katlynn LajeanPublished 3 years ago in BeatMusical Catharsis
Pain sunk its teeth into me like a rabid dog. It leaked out of me like crude oil, marring everything. Corrosive and excoriating. Napalm on virgin forest. A thousand incendiary bombs. Roaring unhappiness metastasizing like a malignant tumour. A haemorrhaging blood vessel. It was an anguish against which I had not been inoculated, and one that I was feebly trying to understand. I was 19, addled and aching. This was one of those contemptibly soppy adolescent moments, in which everything feels grand and towering and electrifying and consequential; every syllable of conversation imbued with cosmic importance. At some ungodly hour of the night, assailed by adolescent melancholia and emotional aches, my friend Joe tenderly pulled me into his chest. Scruffy puffs of jet black hair tumbled artfully over his face. Strawberry blushes shyly crept onto my cheeks as he held me. Two souls tethered for a moment. Two humble terrestrial creatures unified against the fickle and capricious world. His embrace mellowed me. Hot tears rippled down my plump porcelain cheeks like the tributaries of a river. He held me. The inky harbour sighed below us. We were stationary in his car at a charming Sydney spot. His soulful bambi eyes looked wistfully into the inky jet black of the night, and the sticky, salty wind licked my cheeks like a giddy Labrador. Joe was singularly kind, wide-grinned and supremely gentle. It was at this moment of emotional weariness and emotional maelstrom – the apogee of my stress – that I first listened to Go Farther in Lightness. The music that complimented this moment could not have more apt if it had been curated for a soppy Richard Linklater film. Go Farther in Lightness is an achingly beautiful and affecting album by Gang of Youths. It is an album punctuated by moments of bleeding sadness, roaring excitement and unfettered glee. It is a masterful rendering of the vicissitudes of life, in all its turbulence and swooning pleasures. The prevailing themes of love, lust, estrangement, intimacy and tumult are artfully and deftly weaved into this album. Cascading, thumping, dizzying emotion prevails. It is musical alchemy, a stirring album that is indelibly impressed into my mind. Go Farther in Lightness still hits me like a freight train, even though I am not a blubbering nineteen year-old anymore. It conveys me back to the intimate moment I shared with my friend. It reminds me of the fiery love I felt for him, and of music’s capacity to ameliorate pain, to mellow and to illuminate. It’s enrapturing, and continues to buoy me at times of head-spinning stress. The lurid cameo I presented was intended to elucidate why this album is meaningful to me, and how music can connect us to our emotions and transmute them into something beautiful and artful. Go Farther in Lightness is not mellow or especially sunny and cheerful. In fact, much of the album howls with sadness. In my humble view, its therapeutic value is in its sobering and, ultimately, life-affirming rendering of raw human experience. Elegiac and wistful moments of fiery emotion are bookended by crescendos of sublime and soaring pleasure and enchanting beauty. It provides a sort of musical catharsis by connecting the listener to his suffering, and then transmuting it into something supremely beautiful. For the hot-blooded, brooding twenty-something person, this album is a deliverance from the pacey, wearying and cluttered world. For the jaded and dispirited – for waning spirits - it is a not-so-gentle but frank and firm reminder that life is messy and turbulent, and an injunction to live it more wholeheartedly. It is energising and soulful, and the perfect companion for musing.
Rory ParkerPublished 3 years ago in Beat- Third Place in Zen Playlist Challenge
In a Tizzy? Well, I’ve Got Some Tunes to Soothe You: Americana Edition
Pardon me, but I think it's a little unusual (rude) to leave Americana out of the conversation when we're talking about "zen" or soothing music. Personally, it's my go-to genre when I need any kind of comforting or encouragement. Whenever I find myself in a rut, I'll play one of my favorite Americana tunes and like magic, I find my way back to center with a renewed sense of purpose and steadfast motivation.
Dream SilasPublished 3 years ago in Beat Brew Your Soul
Brew your soul, the same way it sounds. Music is life and is like blood pumping through. The language of music is complex yet simple. Rather it’s the intrinsic rap lyrics that leaves you studying the dictionary or jazz music with no words but the colorful notes.
Michael J. HarrisPublished 3 years ago in BeatMake You Feel
If you've been on the scene for a minute, then you know social media has been buzzing and raving about topics like 'manifestation', 'astrology', 'energy/tarot readings', and 'meditation'. A revolution has been going on in favor of people becoming more attuned to emotional intelligence and the concept of taking breaks and truly taking care of one's self. For this particular playlist, I curated about 37 songs that you can bump to when meditating, when you want to chill and catch a vibe all on your own, while having a good read, or when you want to mentally go to another dimension:
Musical Therapy to Reach Zen
We are all unique. We’re vastly different from our parents and siblings — our own kin. Various genetic and environmental factors come into play when shaping us which leads all of us to different interests and different ways to cope with the human condition. Music is a powerful gift that can revive our human spirit to help us through the hardships of life and bring us to Zen.
Nostalgia, Meet Zen
Track 1: The first kiss between my parents witnessed by my cognitive self was at a Neil Diamond concert. As an 8th grader, was the bottom tier of fashion, wearing a knock-off Panama Jack light blue long-sleeve t-shirt from Ventures with “jeans” in the flimsiest sense of the word, in that they were made with denim but missing a zipper and button, flared along the waist with full-on ruffles, and a built in belt, to ensure I was never invited to a sleepover.
chris miskec-rhymes-with-whiskeyPublished 3 years ago in BeatTo All The Songs I've Loved Before
I don’t believe I fit the definition of Zen. I hear the word Zen and picture someone swaying in the breeze while listening to the gentle clacking of wooden wind chimes.
Paula ShabloPublished 3 years ago in BeatBack to Center
When the intrusive thoughts enter, whether they're sad or anxious, a knee-jerk reaction is to want to get rid of them immediately. But just like our body needs time to heal, so does our mind. I think that's where music comes in. Instead of running from the thoughts, we can recognize they are there, slowly replace them with new ones and coax our mind back to center.
Alexis PulmanoPublished 3 years ago in BeatBreathe it all in
Often, we choose songs that seep into our hearts and speak their words for us, but seldom do we choose music for our lungs. My Zen has always been those moments that make you breath, and sometimes if you’re lucky they come attached to a song. Recently more than ever the impact of breathing on our health (body and mind) has been taking off. From reduced inflammation, to calming anxiety, breathing is not only our life force but medication and it’s something I try to do daily.