Singing, Joy and a Global Pandemic
/The focus of our Sing Happy Mail-out is using our voices for joy. In this month’s blog post we address the challenging intersection of singing, joy and a global pandemic.
A square of chocolate, a song I love playing on the radio, my thickest socks and a steaming mug of peppermint tea. To me, a hallmark of my own happiness is experiencing regular sparks of positive emotion such as delight, exhilaration, joy and contentment.
In our current uncertainty where much is out of our control, seeking, creating and enjoying joyful, happy moments seems more important than ever. But one major deficit is company - we are used to spending good times surrounded by those we love. Now having friends round for a cup of tea, learning a new song in a choir rehearsal, or a birthday brunch with family feel a million miles away.
This all puts ‘joy’ in a strange position within our current pandemic world of isolation and withdrawal. On watching the news, there is a seemingly never-ending supply of sadness, doom and gloom, with many of us processing these stories alone or in small households. In the U.K. we are in the midst of our third national lockdown with worryingly high hospital admissions and COVID-19 deaths, and despite hopeful vaccination numbers for our older population, there is still no definite end in sight, nor do we expect there to be an easy or quick transition back to some kind of normality. Life has changed (for some more than others) and the way we work, share joy and live will probably always be a little different.
It has got me thinking about how, in the midst of disaster, we can witness, observe and honour challenges without becoming caught in the riptide. Picture a waterfall. As mindfulness master Jon Kabat-Zinn describes, our thoughts are like the waterfall, cascading without control over the edge of the ridge. Awareness is where we can step back, perhaps from a lower river bank or from the safety of a boat in the river below, and observe, to be aware of the water without it overwhelming us. This is the difference between thinking and awareness, and between our acceptance that there are struggles in the world but that we don’t need to fight or solve them at every turn. In order to keep our heads above the water, we need to lift ourselves (and those around us) through connection and joyful moments.
Does it feel at odds to be purposefully chasing joy when so many around us (or even we ourselves) are suffering so deeply? Perhaps, at first. But then we come to see that light and darkness can exist independently, so getting sucked in by more darkness won’t cure problems. In fact, when we can bring light, joy, love, positivity to a situation, we are better able to offer support to ourselves and those around us, to keep moving through the most challenging moments, to find a more even ground.
Together, apart.
One form of physical gathering that is more or less impossible at the moment is the choir. And our choirs, and other singing groups, are usually the source of much of my joy. So it has been by necessity that we have adapted and continued to sing together online, and we have done so with a smile. Not because the world is pure happiness or without problems or challenges, but because we must find - and share - the light wherever we can find it. Because however difficult our personal circumstances, not everything is bad. There is always some good, if we look for it, and singing does a marvellous job of reframing our mood detectors to seek joy, love, happiness or other positive emotions, and reassures us it’s not only OK but essential to do so.
Can we experience many micro-moments of joy day-to-day that bring us a little more contentment? I think so. One way I have enjoyed experiencing joy is through singing. No, singing online is not the same as being in a room filled with glorious, live harmony. My initial resistance to singing online led to personal disappointment, frustration and despondency back in March 2020, where I was missing life as we had known it so much that I wasn’t yet able to accept an alternative way in to joy.
We like to theme our zoom sessions and encourage fancy dress amongst our members to make the session more visually engaging. This session was Broadway themed! (Click to enlarge)
When I started a new, playful relationship with singing in a world of Covid-19 by pushing the boundaries and reconnecting with the essence of raising our voices together, I was able to expand my horizons and restore some joy to my singing and group facilitation, too. Now I relish the challenge of making a Zoom choir call as interactive, engaging and connected as possible. There are new skills, wisdom and experiences to be collected, even if we did not ask for them.
I love the moments of laughter in a Zoom game, the new form of intimacy in a breakout room chat, the unique joy of watching familiar faces moving within a small frame of their living room (and the pets that appear - the unexpected benefit of video conferencing!). Yes, I really, really miss the relaxed greetings, the loud and silly warm-ups done in close proximity, the sound of multiple voices laughing and singing in the same room. Those things will bring me joy again in the future. But for now, I will take the new joys, the variations on a theme, the continuously evolving best possible option B.
- Emily
