Music to Soothe the Stressed-out Yogi

 

Don’t let the cover art fool you.  This series of CDs is my favorite tool for deep relaxation—whether it be for my dog, my meditation practice, or my students’ Savasana.  For those of you who don’t know, one of my passions (besides yoga) is anything related to dogs, especially if it might help my reactive girl Tasha.  So a few years ago, I flew to Ohio and attended a dog training seminar on tools to help anxious and reactive dogs.

One tool they mentioned was music, specifically the CDs in the photo above. I was skeptical at first, but the trainer used a video to prove her point. It showed a dog literally climbing off the walls, as its exhausted owner tried not to cry.  When the trainer popped the CD in the stereo, the transformation in the animal was nothing short of astounding.  It stopped jumping, barking, and running in circles to lie on the floor and listen.   Proof enough for me.

I had my chance to try it a few days later. My girl was in major freak-out mode over the mailman who, according to Tasha, is an ax-murdering psychopath just waiting for an opportunity to break into her house.  I turned on the music and waited. Tasha stopped barking, walked up to the stereo speaker, lay down and sighed.

Intrigued, I did some research.  I won’t bore you with all of the details, but if you’re interested, you can read about it here. Turns out, canines and humans have something in common. We’re both soothed by music that is:

• Classical (as opposed to pop or heavy metal)
• Simple in arrangement
• Played by a single instrument (in this case piano)
• Slow in tempo (50 – 60 beats per minute)

I wondered if my yoga students would love it as much as Tasha did, so I snuck it into the studio’s CD collection.  After they got done snickering about the dog on the cover, my students started asking me where they could buy it.  I now carry it at the studio, and it outsells even the yoga mats.

There are several CD’s in this series, so you can experiment to find the one you like best.  My personal favorite is Volume 1.  Not surprisingly, it’s also the volume the researchers found to be the most profoundly relaxing for their canine test subjects.

I hope you try one of these CD’s and you find it as deeply peace-invoking as Tasha and I do.  Let me know what you think!

Namaste.

Tracy Weber

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, and check out Tracy Weber’s author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  MURDER STRIKES A POSE is available now from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Whole Life Yoga, and other retailers!

Question, Strange-flavored Beer

It occurs to me that I am not the only author who has written more than one series. (Really, Mary Monica? How amazing!) What I mean is, the focus of my current series is needlework. But I also wrote a series featuring a fifteenth-century nun living in northern Oxfordshire, and another featuring a police detective whose wealthy wife raised Arabian horses. I hardly ever get to use that acquired expertise in my current series. It also occurs to me that many non-authors have expertise or have done studies in areas that they never get to use in their current occupations. How about some of you reading this tell us in the commentary what serious interest(s) you have that you never, or no longer, get to display?

I would like a set of my running characters in my Betsy Devonshire series to have a dog. They are Jill and Lars Larson, who have a toddler daughter, Emma Beth, and will soon have a new addition, Erik Lars. I would like to ask my readers to invent the dog. Is she (he) a purebred – what breed? Is he (she) a mutt? How did they acquire the animal? A chance wanderer? Humane Society? Rescue? Breeder? What is his (her) name? This isn’t exactly a contest, but the one I like best will turn up in the book, either Blackwork (in progress) or Buttons and Bones (being researched). Write to me via e-mail, you’ll find my address at my web site, Monica-Ferris.com.

I had company last night, a beer tasting party. It ran late, so I didn’t get to write a post for this morning. I will only say that The Four Firkins beer, ale and wine shop continues to amaze. Last night we had some interesting stout and a barleywine that would have been better if the brewmaster had a lighter hand with the hops. But we also had the Duchesse de Bourgogne, a very fruity wine with no hops at all. It tasted like new wine. There was Linderman’s Lambic, made of an ancient recipe. Antique beers didn't have yeast that came in packages. The makers of beer (and wine - and bread, too) would start the process, then put it out in the air to capture wild yeasts floating by. Often the result was not happy. So with Lambics they would add fruit and brew it again. This was a Kreik or cherry beer. It is made without hops. It tasted very much like an inexpensive cherry soda or a cherry cough syrup, not at all like beer. But then there was Lefman’s Lambic Kreik, also without hops and flavored with cherries. It tastes strongly of cherries but is not too sweet, and with complex undertones. Again it does not taste like a beer – well, it’s called an ale – at all! I thought it was fabulous!

I love my work.