I’d love to tell you about my favourite new wellbeing practice. It only takes a few minutes a day, and I’ve found it easy to stick with because it is uplifting and fun. I can even do it while washing up or out for a walk.
First though – what is this wellbeing practice? It is based on a centuries old form of Celtic Mouth Music, which I’ve adapted a little to make it easier to learn. I call it ‘Easy Style Lilting’, where lilting is a way of singing traditional Irish and Scottish tunes like jigs and reels. What makes this easy is both the style of singing and the style of learning.
Combining music and psychology, the free course is called ‘The Joy of Singing Jigs’ and applies the growth mindset to the process of learning this valuable, life-enhancing musical skill.
Click here for ‘The Joy of Singing Jigs’ free course
Did you know that singing has proven wellbeing benefits that include improving mood and mental health, cognitive function, lung performance and immune system functioning? If a tablet were shown to have similar impacts, many might be taking it. Yet there’s all kinds of obstacles in the way of singing regularly, which is where applying the growth mindset and psychology of change make such a difference. We look at what helps us make the shift from ‘I didn’t think I could’ to ‘now I know I can’. Applying this to easy style lilting illustrates transformative principles useful in many other areas too.
Here’s a short video introducing the course:
If you like this, and want to explore further, our six-week course ‘Celtic Mouth Music and the Growth Mindset’ teaches introduces another dozen tunes, plus goes deeper in applying insights and practices from the psychology of change. We look not just at easy style lilting, but also at how to grow our ability to enjoy music and support the process of positive change. We start on Tuesday June 24th – you can find out more by clicking the link below.
Click for ‘Celtic Mouth Music and the Growth Mindset’ course
To have a listen to one of the tunes I teach in the free course, here’s a beautiful animated lilting lyric video:
I’ve released this as our first single on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming platforms under the artist name ‘The Joy of Singing Jigs’. I’ve developed easy style lilting versions of a host of other great jigs and reels that are easy to sing along to that I’ll be releasing under this artist name over the next few months – please do subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow on streaming channels if you’d like to listen out for them.
A note about AI and Thrutopian Wellbeing
As I sing for enjoyment and wellbeing more than for performance, I’ve used Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated vocals to demonstrate the tunes I want to teach. I’ve been amazed at what has become possible in just the last year with this. At the same time, I’m also aware of the real risks rapid development of AI brings. Stephen Hawking famously said “the rise of powerful AI will be either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity. We do not yet know which”.
It is difficult to understate the impact AI will have on our lives, our society and our world. As I witness, and participate, in this history-changing time, I watch with both awe and alarm. Thrutopian Wellbeing is about taking on the project of supporting and protecting our wellbeing to help us make it through this period of challenge in the best possible way. For me, the best possible way would include music for sure, which is why I’m so keen on Project Joy of Singing Jigs. I also see the growth mindset as a key resilience factor supporting our creative finding of ways through. Yet to make it through, we need to acknowledge and address the risks. Two steps in this direction are:
- my article Five Shifts for Thrutopian Wellbeing introduces the thrutopian story pattern and raises the issue of how we respond to ‘radical uncertainty’.
- I’ve signed up to Control AI, a website and newsletter which I’m finding to be a vital resource for keeping me informed. I recommend this.