Deep Reflections

Well, there’s nothing like that song that just transports you to meditative mecca. The world is a busy place, so many things vying for your attention, a mental over drain, so naturally we find ourselves retreating to the recluses of headphones, where our ears become gateways to an escape and a refocus, provided by yours truly, the sweet sound of music.

I have many a songs that seem to have that calming effect. Sometimes, it’s the more upbeat songs, the ones you would listen to when you want to get the party started, be it as their high energy would confuse you to think your Zen is the opposite of what you have achieved, call me weird, but sometimes those are my go-to when I want peace. But there’s been this little gem I have found, and listening to it has brought me inner peace on another level.

It’s actually one song, so I know, not much of a playlist. But you can find it on YouTube, and it repeats itself for over an hour, so you definitely will get a lot of use out of it. It’s called Reflections, by Toshifumi Hinata. A classical piece, no words. A dramatic and tone setting opening with piano keys thundering down, then the melodic violin screeches. The beat bounces up down, and it honestly feels like a story unfolding. My mind falls at peace to this sound, and in a most delightful way my thoughts become quieter. It’s almost as if my mind opens up, I feel waves of sensation as if the combined toll of an orchestra unleashing befalls me. I am in a receptive place.

Its quite romantic almost, but that love that came fraught with danger and pitfalls. The violin makes it sound sad, and depressing, but that poetic kind. But as it progresses, the energy becomes more positive, like life, it moves in waves, having its's ups and downs. You find yourself thinking about the beauty around you, the tempo commands introspection, appropriate as the piece is most deservingly called Reflections. It kind of feel like witnessing a life time in just some very few quick moments, your head sways side to side to each crescendo, it feels like getting carried by an ocean ebb. I love listening to it as I take a drive, the power of this composition so much, that it actually alters the outside environment, to me anyway. I look it all not just as little old me, but the greater picture. Life becomes this show, and I am the spectator. The leaves rustling in the wind, the man walking his dog, the woman crossing the road. You realise life is this action movie, with all parts interconnected. Dependent and independent of you, a perfect strike of balance, it will happen with you there as you perceive it, or without you there. It’s truly what you make of it, or what you don’t.

There’s one version, where there’s rain fall sound effects in the background. I would recommend listening to this version by a fireplace with a hot cup of cocoa of whatever you have, in a comfortable chair with your eyes closed and head tilted back. So relaxed you will feel, that you might think your just melting away. If it’s raining, even better, imagine the little water nails biting on the glass, can anything set a more tranquil mood?

To me this song ended up having an almost spiritual quality, so much emotion expressed not though words, but by music. The way it takes you on a little journey of your own creation in your own mind is something I haven't quite found in any other piece. Anytime I want to calm my thoughts lately and reach a place of deeper enlightening I find that listening to Reflections by Toshifumi Hinata is where I see myself.