EngAGE Vice President Nancy Goodhart reports:
Mindful Music Moments is a program combining mindfulness techniques with classical music and opera for daily delivery in schools over the morning announcements. Mindful Music Moments is licensed by each participating school. In return, the school receives training, daily recorded content, and prompt sheets so that the entire school can listen to a short prompt, then a 3 minute clip of music to start the day mindfully.
Program founder Stacy Sims, a mind-body educator and author, conducted a residency with EngAGE seniors several years ago and re-approached EngAGE in early 2016 with the idea to co-create a similar Mindful Music Moments program with seniors. Sims suggested that during the residency she would “meet with seniors (with translator if needed) to share Mindful Music Moments and to create a dialogue about how this could be experienced by them on a daily basis – would the prompts need to change? Should the music be longer? Should the music be more diverse? I see it both as an experience of mindfulness practices and a co-creation of how this could be shared more broadly to the EngAGE seniors (and other senior centers).”
With the assistance of EngAGE C.O.O. Maureen Kellen-Taylor, Regional Programs Director Sandra Vargas (who was present for the sessions), and myself, a schedule was created for Sims to work at several EngAGE communities.
The Experience:
Metro Compton
The Metro Compton residents who attended were highly engaged, as they are with many EngAGE programs. There seemed to be a sincere interest in the experience of meditation, mindfulness, listening, sharing stories, and learning about how energy moves in the body.
This group is the most interested in continuing to use Mindful Music Moments to help them manage pain, sleep, digestion, worry, stress, loneliness, and more. Highlights included:
- Two of the residents who had not slept through the night in years, were able to sleep soundly using the techniques they learned.
- One of the women who had not found her “tribe” at Metro Compton since she moved in last fall was able to express her sadness and loneliness, and appears to have found both a way to relieve stress through techniques and a new community who has heard her.
- The women had various challenges (arthritis, pain, dialysis fatigue), and all reported feeling better after applying the techniques.
Casa Bonita
At Casa Bonita, we had terrific engagement. Some of the residents had more pronounced memory challenges but most were able to stay tuned to the tasks at hand and learned to find their breath, pulse, and to attune to one another’s energy in a “hands on healing” type of exercise. Highlights included:
- By sharing about the things that stress or worry us, there was a heightened sense of connectedness between program leaders, volunteers, and residents.
- We found a way drop below language and cultural differences to that which is common to all of us: music, breath, pulse, compassion.
Metro Vermont
This property has many younger children in residence so we got to do two sessions with parents, grandparents, and children (although the parents/grandparents were not necessarily related to the children who attended). In two sessions, highlights included:
- High engagement with both adults and children.
- Beautiful moments with children (even a VERY active one) and seniors sharing grounding, healing energy with each other.
Metro Chinatown
We did an hour session for staff and residents, which was very well received by all. Highlights included:
- One of the women had just lost her son. We were able to process a bit of grief with her via breath, energy, and listening.
The Opportunity:
We learned that there is an opportunity to create a replicable and sustainable program for seniors, something that Mindful Music Moments is now committed to do. The fact that seniors may feel out of control of many things in their lives, particularly with their minds and bodies, will make this a great addition to programming since everyone can engage with their breath and pulse, and learn to control their neurobiological responses to stress.
Stacy Sims will provide EngAGE mp3 music files, prompt sheets, suggested activities, and additional recorded meditations at so that Sandra Vargas and her residents can continue to explore Mindful Music Moments over the summer months. Sims will check in periodically to make sure they feel supported and to learn from their experiences. Residents look forward to many more Mindful Music Moments!
See additional photos here.
