November Newsletter

This month, spend some time listening not only to the sound you make on your instrument, but also to your body and your mind. Find out how Dr. Lillios got into Deep Listening, learn some self-care tips, check out the benefits of meditation and use your leftover Halloween pumpkin to make soup!

Upcoming Events

Sunday, Nov. 13th, 6 pm

Healthy Potluck hosted by Dr. Leclair. Bring your favorite dish to share.  Check Facebook/email for directions.

Wednesday, Dec. 7th, 7 pm

Self-care/burnout session (joint event with OCMEA)

We will define self-care and strategies that can lead to short and long-term physical and psychological improvements. We will also discuss burnout, its phases, and how regular self-care can prevent it. Location TBA.

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Elainie Lillios, Associate Professor of Composition

By Sarah Puckett

How do you get something from nothing? Dr. Elainie Lillios finds that it’s precisely when you open yourself to the nothing that the possibilities for creativity become endless. It’s all around us—we just need to find a way to access it.

“Who teaches us how to listen?” Lillios asks. “For instance, your piano teacher says, ‘You made a mistake there.’ Is that teaching me how to listen or is that teaching me how to identify when I made a mistake? Is there a difference between those things?” The pursuit of learning how to listen is what drew Lillios to Pauline Oliveros’s Deep Listening®. The threefold philosophy and practice aims to cultivate awareness and conscious listening through meditation, physical activities, and listening in dreams.

The first step for Lillios was turning inward, developing awareness of self and realizing just how much noise we make as individuals. When she turned outward and connected with others in her practice, her creativity blossomed even more. Some of the physical improvisations which inspire participants to boogie unreservedly seemed strange at first. But soon the sense of community became a source of safety, encouraging Lillios to push herself farther, especially in sound improvisations. “What you’re doing is exploring and there is no mistake in that exploration,” she says. “If you make the response that your inner self wants to make, you cannot make a mistake. Whether that response is “caw,” or “screech,” or “beep,” or “bop,” there is no judgment on that.”

Reflecting on a Deep Listening® retreat she attended, Lillios says, “I remember thinking to myself, ‘I wonder what kind of music she [Oliveros] is going to play for us.’ But we didn’t listen to any music the entire weekend. We just listened. I could tune in to my own creativity in a way that I hadn’t done before.”

When Lillios is able to access her creative stores, the benefits extend even beyond the success of her compositions. She believes that being creative actually influences her sense of wellbeing. “My own sense of wellbeing is driven more by creativity than it is driven by academic knowledge or technical knowledge or technical ability,” she says. “I have the greatest sense of wellness when I feel that I’m being creative and that I’m able to share that creativity with my students.” According to Lillios, when we seek perfection, we often look in the wrong place. While we may look great on paper we might still lead an unbalanced life.

“When we talk about the idea of wellness we’re not just talking about one aspect of ourselves,” says Lillios. “We’re talking about physical, emotional, psychological, mental. For example, do I feel engaged with myself? Do I feel engaged with my activities, my work, my studies? Do I feel engaged with my community, with society, with culture? Do I have a place within the context of the whole?”

If Lillios engages in life through working creatively, practicing Deep Listening®, and connecting with students and community, then she feels truly well. “If I’m the greatest composer that ever lived and my students are unhappy in their own studies, to me that’s not wellness,” she says. “Wellness extends beyond me.”

For more information on Deep Listening®: www.deeplistening.org or search Deep Listening on Facebook.

Recipe: Curried Pumpkin Soup

From Drew Sevel
Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic
1 teaspoon canola oil
Lime juice to taste
2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
1 ½ cups pumpkin or the flesh of one 2-3 pound sugar pumpkin
2 teaspoons curry powder (or make your own by seasoning to taste with cumin, turmeric, coriander, nutmeg, and cardamom)
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ half-and-half (For a healthier version, use zero or reduced fat dairy)
Cilantro to garnish
Pepper to taste
Directions: Sautee onion and garlic in oil until onion is translucent. Add all remaining ingredients except half-and-half. Bring to a boil and simmer until pumpkin is tender. Blend with a food processer or mash pumpkin with a fork. Mix in half-and-half. Serve garnished with cilantro.

Overview of Mindfulness for Musicians Workshop

By Dan Frakes

Mindfulness is acting consciously and being aware of your body and thoughts; further, being aware in the moment without judgment.

How can mindfulness be beneficial to your practice?

>helps you identify the reason for problems in your playing so you can solve them efficiently and without harshly criticizing yourself

>frees the body to perform without being bogged down in analytical thought

meditationformusicians.com is a useful resource offering various listening and practice exercises.

Observations after doing a meditation exercise from meditationformusicians.com:

>could hear body: became aware of body tensions

>identified tension in areas of body not even considered before

>found it difficult to NOT respond to unexpected sounds

Other ideas for exercises included playing one note for five minutes several times a day or using free improvisation to tune in to your body.

Simply Self-Care

By Drew Sevel

It’s that time in the semester when responsibilities start to pile up. Although it is important to keep commitments, your ability to do so will be much greater if you take some time to be committed to yourself.

What is self-care? It is engaging in valued activities to promote balance in your life, foster feelings of satisfaction, establish balance, and restore health, leading to long-term benefits. Here are some tips to help you stay vitalized.

1. Adopt the right attitude: taking care of yourself is not selfish! Addressing personal needs will promote better professional, musical, and academic functioning.

2. Relaxation doesn’t have to be passive. Identify an area of your life you would like to improve (emotional, relational, spiritual, physical, intellectual) and set goals.

3. Be flexible! Try out a variety of activities that keep you mentally and physically fresh so that nurturing yourself doesn’t become a chore.

October Newsletter

Welcome to the October online edition of the Well-Tempered Musician. This month, read about Dr. Jacqueline Leclair's take on awareness, check out a book at the new Wellness Library, try some tips to combat stagefright and bake falafel.

Upcoming event:

Melissa Falb, president of the BGSU Mindfulness Club and PhD candidate in Psychology, will give a talk at the end of October. Stay tuned for dates and times. She will discuss acceptance and commitment therapy, which is loosely based on concepts of Buddhism and mindfulness. According to Falb, if we can accept our anxiety and listen to it in the right way, it can actually be a useful tool. Then, commitment means making the decision to move forward with things that give our life meaning despite any anxiety we may have. This is particularly relevant and liberating for us as musicians, since we may have to perform whether we feel confident or not.

Seasonal Tips: Preparing for Performance

By Drew Sevel

With recitals and gigs in full swing for the remainder of the year, here are a few suggestions that may improve your performance.

Performance Day Meal:

-Avoid large meals two to four hours before your performance. Less work digesting means more energy available for your performance.

-An ideal pre-performance meal is high in complex carbohydrates, with a small amount of protein, and low in sugar and fat.

Get to know the space: Get used to the acoustics of the room and consider how you will enter and exit stage.

-Visualizing yourself in the performance situation beforehand can increase confidence in the moment.

Relaxation techniques for combating nerves:

-Progressive muscle relaxation: Deeply inhale through your nose. Slowly exhale for 5 seconds while continuously contracting one muscle or muscle group. Repeat 2 or 3 times for each group. Start with toes and work your way up. Be careful not to tense enough to cause pain.

-Mindful breathing: While sitting, close your eyes and allow a breath to enter through your nose (do not force). When the breath stops, mentally say “one.” Allow the breath to exit and mentally say “two.” Focus on your breath and count to ten.

Meet a Professor: Dr. Jacqueline Leclair, oboe

By Sarah Puckett

What did you eat for breakfast? Did you fight with your roommate this morning? How aware of your lifestyle are you? Dr. Jacqueline Leclair believes the path to wellness lies in answering these questions. “If we don’t know we’re out of tune, how are we going to fix it?” she says. “The first step is to be aware.”

                Awareness should not be limited to the sounds coming out of our instruments. Over the years, Leclair has learned to pay attention to everything, from how her body feels after eating a bag of potato chips to the yoga her friends practice to the kinds of restaurants her fellow wellness-minded musicians choose to go to. She cautions: “Everything goes with you on stage. You don’t just take the good practice on stage; you don’t just take the good food you eat on stage.”

                The importance of diet in particular became clear for Leclair when she was 24 and got a kitten. “I fed him the worst possible food—worse than bad—so he was six months old and already he was fat and had a bad attitude and would just lie around grumpy.” She didn’t realize the cheap dry cat food was to blame. But she read a book, The New Natural Cat, which explains feline nutrition. “I started making my cat’s food for him with raw meat and vegetables and he became super-kitty. I thought, ‘Gee, what am I eating?’”

Leclair recommends building awareness and effective practice techniques by considering all aspects of yourself when you’re in the practice room. “Negative attitudes and fear and stop you dead in your tracks,” says Leclair. “That’s bad technique. A weak emotional approach to practicing is poor technique. We need a good emotional approach, a good psychological approach and a good physical approach.” According to Leclair, what we need to work on personally is right there in the music we create, if we really listen. She says, “Music is like a mirror; it reflects back on you. Our daily practice reveals ourselves to ourselves.”

                The good news is that as students of music, we are poised to improve. Just by choosing a career in music, we are surrounded by friends and colleagues who, in order to gain awareness and become better players, really think about their general health and wellness. “It’s a very happy unforeseen condition of being a performing musician—we bring our whole selves to it because we’re looking for long careers,” Leclair says. “It’s this happy, very beneficial part of our world.”

Healthy Recipe: Baked Falafel

From Drew Sevel

Ingredients:
15oz can chickpeas or equivalent dried chickpeas soaked overnight
½ onion, chopped
2 ½ teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
dash red pepper flakes
olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix together all ingredients except olive oil in a large bowl. Transfer mixture into food processor or blender. Don’t have either? The mixture can be mashed together with a fork, just make sure it isn’t too chunky. Form into balls 2-3 inches in diameter, gently press down to form a patty. Brush each falafel with olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until bottom of falafel begins to brown. Flip each falafel and bake for an additional 8-12 minutes. Let cool and serve on top of a salad or inside pita bread.

Musician Wellness Library October Titles

The Wellness Library (located in the Curriculum Lab) is officially up and running. Currently these books are available:

Fit As A Fiddle: The Musician’s Guide to Playing Healthy
                William J. Dawson

Body Learning: An Introduction to the Alexander Technique
                Michael J. Gelb

How to Learn the Alexander Technique: A Manual for Students
                Barbara Conable

Indirect Procedures: A Musician’s Guide to the Alexander Technique
                Pedro De Alcantara

The Musician’s Body: A Maintenance Manual for Peak Performers
                Jaume Rosset I Llobet and George Odam

Awareness Heals: The Feldenkrais Method for Dynamic Health
                Steven Shafarman

The Musician as Athlete: Alternative Approaches to Healthy Performance
                Dorothy Bishop

Playing (less) Hurt: An Injury Prevention Guide for Musicians
                Janet Horvath

The Athletic Musician: A Guide to Playing Without Pain
                Barbara Paull and Christine Herrison

What Every Musician Needs to Know about the Body: The Practical Application of Body Mapping to Making Music
                Barbara Conable

MWG Minutes, 8/30/2011

Officers:
Jim Lang, Treasurer
Sarah Puckett, Newsletter
Drew Sevel, President
Agenda:

1. Welcome and general information about the organization (See our mission statement).
2. Budget:
1. SBC has allocated us $700 to host fall and spring workshops and clinics.
2. We are obligated to raise 25% of that amount
3. Dues: $10 yearly membership dues will be a way to raise money to match our SBC obligations
1. Dues will include free access to all meetings and workshops we host and access to a blackboard resource page
3. Up-Coming Events
1. 9/25/11: We will be hosting a 2 hour workshop on basic principles of Body Mapping and the Alexander Technique. For this, we have invited Donna Doellinger, an Alexander Technique and Body Mapping instructor from Columbus, Oh. Following the workshop, she will also provide 30-minute private lessons for $25.
2. Mindfulness speaker: We are in the process of organizing a session on mindfulness and how it can enhance practice, performance and education practices of musicians as well as wellness outside of the profession.
3. Burnout/Self-Care session: We are also working to organize a co-sponsored event with OCMEA that will discuss burnout and delineate important self-care strategies that can lead to life-long, healthy careers.
4. Healthy potlucks: Be on the look-out for information about potlucks hosted by the MWG.
5. If there are any topics of interest to you that you would like the MWG to address, please send suggestions to lsevel@bgsu.edu!
4. Newsletter:
1. The Well-Tempered Musician covers a variety of topics in each issue
1. Past issues have included: faculty profiles, seasonal tips, book reviews, healthy recipes and therapy spotlights
2. We are always welcome to new writers or article ideas. Please send inquiries to sarahwpuck@gmail.com

September Newsletter

Welcome to the online edition of The Well-Tempered Musician, the newsletter for the BGSU Musician Wellness Group. Look for us in print around the CMA. In this month's back-to-school issue, Drew, the group's president, offers tips for adopting a healthy practice routine. The September issue also features 

ideas for recreation in the Bowling Green community--check out some of the parks the BG area has to offer while the nice weather lasts!

***Our next event will be a workshop featuring Body Mapping and Alexander Technique on September 24^th. Details to follow. Join our Facebook group by searching BGSU Musician Wellness Group or add yourself to our mailing list for schedule updates.***

Feature:                             

Get active off campus 

By Sarah Puckett

Hot Yoga with Joe, 29101 Hufford Rd, Perrysburg

20 minutes from BG, Joe offers Bikram yoga classes (a set of specific yoga poses in 104 degrees of heat) as well as massage and hot kettlebells. $5 for first class, $15 per class after that.

http://hotyogawithjoe.com/

Slippery Elm Bike Trail, Sand Ridge Rd

13.5 miles long and set on a former railroad bed, this trail winds past scenic views of corn fields and stables into the town of North Baltimore.

http://www.ohiobikeways.net/slippery.htm

BG Community Center, 1245 W Newton Rd

Cardio, yoga, Zumba and Pilates classes, as well as square dance and drop-in volleyball.

http://www.bgohio.org/departments/parks-and-recreation/programs/fitness-yoga-dance

Portage Quarry Recreation Club, 12701 S Dixie Highway, Portage

Scuba diving, something called hydro bikes, not to mention a twisty water slide. $5 for entry.

http://www.portagequarry.com/

Hiryuu School of Martial Arts, 437 S Main St

Beginner-friendly classes for adults that foster a high level of concentration and physical health.
http://www.hiryuuschoolofmartialarts.com/

State Parks

Mary Jane Thurston State Park, 15 minutes away

Maumee Bay State Park, 35 minutes away

Catawba Island State Park, 1 hour 15 minutes away

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/parks/tabid/726/Default.aspx

Healthy Recipe

From Jessica Heller Knopf

Zucchini Tomato Salad

Serves 4

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium zucchini, cut in a ½ inch dice

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

¾ cup corn kernels, thawed OR 1 ear of corn, kernels removed

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp honey

2 Tbsp chopped fresh herbs, or 1 tsp dried (suggestion: basil, parsley, oregano)

½ tsp pepper

¾ tsp salt

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Add zucchini and cook, stirring occasionally until tender, about 5 minutes.  Put in a bowl, along with tomatoes and corn.

Whisk all dressing ingredients together.  Add enough to the salad to thoroughly coat the vegetables (there may be extra left that can be used as a salad dressing).  Refrigerate or serve at room temperature.

Musician as Athlete: Tips for resuming healthy practice to start the year off right

By Drew Sevel

    •       Warm-Up Away from Your Instrument

Warm-up is essential before stretching and

playing to ensure easeful movement and to

prevent excess tension and injury. Gently and

slowly explore the motion of your neck,

shoulders, arms, hands, hips and legs. Try slowly

raising your arms above your head and down to

your sides, then experiment with different

directions.

    •       Stretching

After a gentle warm-up, stretching increases your ease with your body and therefore with your instrument. Great stretching tips are in Paull and Harrison’s The Athletic Musician.

    •       Warm-Up on Your Instrument

Before getting to work, take a few moments to focus on one or two fundamentals. Treat practice as physical exercise (because it is). The same way an athlete wouldn’t start sprinting at full speed right after waking up, you shouldn’t start playing the hardest passages in your music right after getting to the practice room.

    •       While Practicing

Aim for variety and analysis. Avoid mindless repetition. Rather, critically analyze your playing and experiment with small changes that may help you reach goals. Alternate between vigorous, technical passages and those with less bravado to prevent excessive fatigue.

    •       Know When to Stop

Taking breaks is an easy way to prevent serious injury. When you start feeling tired, tense, sore or hurt, put your instrument down, step away from the piano or music stand and take at least a twenty second break to loosen up, do a couple warm-up movements, or take a walk. A good rule of thumb is one twenty second (minimum) break for every twenty minutes of playing. This also improves mental focus.

    •       Warm-Down and Stretch

Gentle and slow movements to wrap up your practice session are equally as vital as warming up. Engage in some warm-up exercises before post-playing stretching to allow your next practice session to be healthy and free of tension.

Judith Lasater’s Living Your Yoga

Review by Sarah Puckett

    We tend to think of yoga in terms of what happens on the mat. In a lot of westernized yoga classes and DVDs, it’s basically just stretching. But for Judith Lasater, the practice of yoga is much more than poses.

    With chapter titles like Control, Compassion, and Patience, Lasater spends hardly any time discussing forward bends and lotus poses. Instead, she dissects passages from the Bhagavad-gita and the Yoga Sutra, relating them to concepts westerners can understand.

    Her chapter called Attachment and Aversion is especially pertinent for musicians. As students, we are constantly criticized for practicing our musical craft the wrong way. It becomes far too easy to develop an attachment to the notion of right or an aversion to the idea of wrong. When this happens, Lasater says, we become subject to physiological and emotional reactions that are out of control, and we lose touch with the reality of things in the present moment.

    Picture you’re in the middle of a performance and it’s going horribly. Because you’re so averted to the idea of humiliation in front of your teachers and peers, your muscles tense and it becomes difficult to play. On the other hand, if the performance is going well, you might be so attached to the idea of recognition and having a “good” performance that you become distracted from the music and ruin the performance anyway.

    Lasater writes: “The sad thing about being caught up in attachment or aversion is that it interferes with the ability to experience things as they are…Learning to live in the moment, complete with your preferences and recognizing attachment and aversion, is like a soothing balm on a sunburn.”

    She goes on to give practice exercises that work on mindfulness in everyday life, not just during yoga class. Living Your Yoga is pleasant and easy to read, though I find it a little heavy on anecdotes of her kids, since those are harder for me to relate to. Still, for performing musicians, learning mindfulness in the present moment is crucial, and this book is a great and easy way to start.

April Newsletter

Tips for Better Sleep

By Katie Pakizer

Sleep Deprivation: General Info

·       The average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep

·       Sleep loss can impair the ability to perform tasks involving memory, learning, and logical reasoning

·       Sleep deprivation can inhibit weight loss

·       More than 100,000 auto crashes every year are fatigue-related

Try to avoid:

·       Alcohol or caffeine in the late afternoon or evening

·       Disturbing noise in the sleep environment

·       Exercise three hours before bed

·       Using the bed for anything but sleep or sex

·       Exposure to bright light before bed

If you can’t fall asleep, don’t force yourself to stay in bed! This will only cause more anxiety. Get up and do some kind of relaxing activity until you feel sleepy like listening to soothing music, reading, or knitting. See also: sleepfoundation.com

Meet a Professor: Jeff Halsey, double bass 

By Sarah Puckett

It’s happened to us all before: you hit a wall practicing and you can’t figure out how to conquer a piece. The technique’s all wrong and the notes aren’t coming. You start to get stiff—things just feel wrong in your body. What do you do? For jazz bass professor Jeff Halsey, it’s all about community.

“The jazz musician knows right up front it’s about all of us, together,” he says. “And I really think it affects brain chemistry.” Something about trusting the group sets him free. “I tell you when I perform there’s an elation that happens. ‘Cause we jump off the cliff every time we play. And somehow when we play we create a safety net for each other.” Somehow, that safety net sets his fingers free so when he’s on stage Wednesdays at 149, his giant, heavy bass seems light and effortless to play.

It wasn’t always so easy, though. When Halsey was a student, it was all about standing out from the competition (maybe things haven’t changed so much). “You’re focusing on all this hot technique trying to become the next big lion or lioness,” he says. But people wouldn’t think about how it felt to play. “We would get pain,” he says. “I remember playing and having repetitive stress pain, but I was always trained as a kid, ‘that’s pain and you’ll just deal with it.’”

This lack of body awareness worked for Halsey when he was younger. At least the consequences weren’t so apparent then. How he treated his body in the practice room or what he put in his mouth for fuel didn’t matter so much. A typical meal on tour, he says, would consist of a Hostess Sno Ball, a Diet Coke, “some sort of meat stick” and a cigarette.

Then, a few years ago, a visit to the doctor made Halsey aware of just how important his body was. “I was sort of shocked into improving my health,” he says. “For one year I went on a very strict diet regime. I got interested in Indian food because it’s so flavorful without having all the fats and things that aren’t good for your health, and I dropped two pounds a week for a year.” He lost a total of 120 pounds and made exercise a daily part of his life.

Now he notices when his exercise routine is off or he eats too much red meat. “You don’t have as much energy, everything’s not running on all cylinders.” All the physical health aspects have to be there, because, he says, “Your body is your vessel; it’s what allows you to communicate.”

And when communication is open, there is the potential for that magic that happens when Halsey loses himself in the music with a group. With those young lions and lionesses, communication gets shut off, both within their own bodies and with other musicians. If all you care about is showing off technique, according to Halsey, you miss the point. But if you remember that you’re using your body to create music, great things are possible. “If you serve the music,” he says, “the music will serve you.”

Breathing Exercises to Reduce Stress and Develop Body Awareness

By Drew Sevel

One:

·       Sit or stand straight.

·       Inhale through your nose. Fill the lower section of your lungs.

·       Notice how your chest raises and your lower ribs expand.

·       Hold your breath for a few seconds.

·       Exhale slowly, allowing your abdomen to relax.

Two:

·       Sit or stand straight.

·       Inhale a complete natural breath, as described in the previous exercise.

·       Hold this breath for several seconds.

·       Exhale a little of the air with force through a small opening in your lips.

·       Stop exhaling for a moment, then blow out more air.

·       Repeat until you have exhaled all the air.

Fast healthy dinner on a school night: Sweet potato with curry yogurt

From Sara Courson

1 large sweet potato

¼ c plain yogurt

½ tsp curry powder

¼ tsp cayenne or ancho chile powder (optional—spicy)

Diced cucumber, garnish

Microwave sweet potato 1.5 minutes, pierce with fork 3 to 5 times, then microwave another 1.5 minutes or until tender. Stir together yogurt, curry powder, cayenne or ancho chile powder and cucumber. Serve over potato.

Did you know?

Sweet potatoes are one of the most nutritious vegetables according to the Center for Public Interest. Not only do they contain hardly any fat or sodium but they are also high in vitamins E, A and C and they provide a good source of fiber (especially when eaten with the skin). Sweet potatoes may help promote healthy digestion, maintain a healthy immune system, and lower the risk of colon cancer. For more info on this orange tuber, see www.sweetpotato.org

Therapy Spotlight: Massage and Reiki

By Dan Frakes

Adapted from a presentation given by Dr. Christina Laberge, Reiki Master Teacher, at the Wellness Group Meeting on March 28^th

Massage

Not-so-obvious benefits:

-stress reduction

-shorter healing time for injuries

-reduction of muscular tension (tension in the shoulders is extremely common, and can lead to tension in arms, forearms, hands, jaw, tongue, and head)

-overall sense of well-being

-release of impinged nerves which can cause pain, numbness and/or tingling

-increased flexibility

-increased awareness of areas of muscular tension

-sinus drainage

-release of muscular toxins like lactic acid that accumulate, causing fatigue

-reduction of headaches

Reiki: What is it?

Reiki is a form of therapy that considers four different kinds of health: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.  It utilizes the same type of energy involved in acupuncture, but instead of needles, the therapist transmits the energy directly through his or her hands.  Reiki can help acute and chronic physical conditions, and is most often used in conjunction with other forms of therapy.

To learn more, visit www.reiki.org or if you’re interested in booking an appointment, go to Dr. Laberge’s website at www.wellspringbodyworks.com

March Newsletter

Welcome to the first issue of The Well-Tempered Musician, the newsletter of the College of Musical Arts Wellness Group at Bowling Green State University. Also look for us in print around the CMA.

This month: combat winter blues, mix a tasty, healthy snack in less than 5 minutes, find out how Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz  conquers stage fright with a sense of inner well-being, and more.

Winter Weather Wellness Tips

By Bri Michalko

o         Eat a balanced diet

o         Look for things that are in season like oranges which are full of vitamin C.

o         Stay hydrated

o         We tend to forget to drink enough water in the winter months because we don’t sweat as often.  However, cold temperatures suck moisture from our bodies (hence the need for chapstick and hand cream in the winter).

o         Say hello to the sun

o         Many people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder which causes depression and anxiety in the winter months.  Take a break from practicing to get a few minutes of sunshine, which helps boost energy and dissipate symptoms.

o         Kill germs

o         WASH YOUR HANDS. ALL THE TIME.

o         Bundle up and warm up

o         If you haven’t noticed, Bowling Green can get pretty cold. Don’t try to use your hands to play or your voice to sing until the blood starts flowing.

o         Exercise

o         Hit the gym or venture outdoors.  Walking outside in the winter burns 50% more calories than in the summer because your body has to work harder to warm up.

For more seasonal health awareness, check out the CDC:  www. cdc.gov/family/holiday/

Therapy spotlight:

Alexander Technique

By Sarah Puckett

What is it?

Certified teachers help students become aware of their bodies and the actions they may unconsciously take that cause unnecessary tension. Rather than rely on external manipulation like massage or physical therapy, Alexander Technique emphasizes internal change, directing (never forcing) the body to use the appropriate amount of effort and to avoid strain. These principles were founded by F.M. Alexander (1869-1955), an actor who solved his chronic performance-related laryngitis by teaching himself how to use his body with ease.

What can I expect at a first lesson?

The teacher will ask you to demonstrate some everyday movements like sitting in a chair. Then they help you find a sense of effortlessness in these movements both by verbally explaining and by placing their hands on your body. Often a teacher will have you lie on a table for part of the lesson, where they can continue to guide you. You won’t need to remove any clothing (except maybe your shoes).

How expensive is it?

The website alexandertechnique.com quotes average prices as around the same as a massage; a teacher in Toledo charges $30/lesson for students (Nancy Crego, nancy@at-toledo.com).

Quick and Healthy Recipe

From Colleen O’Shea Jones

Chop an apple into bite size pieces. Sprinkle cinnamon, add walnuts, and put in microwave for one minute. Take apple mixture and fold into a bowl of Greek yogurt. Stir in honey if desired.

The Unexpected Benefits of Tea

By Hannah Reilly

Getting tired of your dependence on caffeine? Put the coffee down and have some tea! One cup of tea contains around half the amount of caffeine found in brewed coffee, and has many more health benefits.

Studies have shown that black, green, white, and oolong teas all contain antioxidants that may lower your risk of cancer and heart disease.

Decaffeinated herbal teas have more specific health benefits:

·     Peppermint or regular mint tea will aid your digestion.

·     Chamomile encourages the ever-elusive restful sleep!

·     Lemon tea not only smells great but can help you de-stress at the end of the day as well as promote healthy skin.

·     Rosemary teas can help relieve headaches (add a teaspoon of honey if you're not a fan of bitter teas!)

·     For a natural concentration boost, try ginkgo biloba tea, which promotes memory and mental alertness by improving your circulation.


For more information: www.learn-about-tea.com/herbal-tea-benefits.html, www.healthcastle.com/tea.shtml

Meet a Professor:

Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz, piano

By Sarah Puckett

For four years, Dr. Rosenkranz has not eaten Wendy’s. He’s also given up coffee in favor of tea, usually green. Why the lifestyle change? More and more he’s been finding that everything—what he puts in his body, how he thinks about spirituality, and the way he plays Rzewski—is connected.

“Music is supposed to embody your soul and your heart, and your body is what transmits that,” Rosenkranz says. When he doesn’t feel at his best physically, the music doesn’t feel as good. So he changed his diet and made exercise a priority. Some of the changes almost worked too well. “I don’t think my body can handle fast food anymore.”

A workshop he led last summer (and will resume in 2012) had students dancing across the floor in Bryan, improvising on three pianos and practicing yoga to connect movement with music. “Music is supposed to be like breathing, something that’s part of you,” says Rosenkranz. Making sound visual and kinesthetic through movement helps internalize that natural flow.

A sense of natural momentum, both in body and mind, are absolutely necessary to perform marathon hour-long pieces, like Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated, which was programmed on Rosenkranz’s recent solo recital. “I have to gauge my actions, he says. “If you’re tight at the beginning, you’re doomed.”

As important as physical stamina is mental focus. Playing in front of people can complicate that focus, because the audience is what makes us nervous. For Rosenkranz, this is when performing can be almost spiritual. “There’s a shelter inside music; if you can get inside the shelter, you can forget about the audience. Once you get into the music, you can ride it.”

This kind of mental clarity demands having good internal awareness. One of the first clues to who you are shows up in an unexpected place, according to Rosenkranz. “You can tell a lot about a person by how they walk,” he says. “Tony Arnold told me this—if people tend to focus on their brain, they’ll lead with their head; if someone is cocky or quasi-sexual, they might lead with their hips.” There’s no hiding; what happens internally, whether spiritual, psychological, or digestible, affects our bodies in how we move and carry ourselves. And making healthy choices for our bodies starts with thinking them. “Positive thinking is so damn important,” says Rosenkranz. “I think you can have anything you want if you just keep positive.”