Response to "How do we nurture ourselves?"

By Jennifer Greene, graduate student in Music Therapy, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA USA. (Email: jagreene3@juno.com):

After reading Dorit Amir's "How do we nurture ourselves?" essay, I am inspired to consider my own relationship with music and the ways it has comforted and guided me at various times in my life. As a performing musician since childhood, I have embraced music as my foundation, my strength, and my constant. Over the years when I have explored other forms of expression, I have found that none compares to the depth and familiarity of the expression I find in making music. With its sometimes gentle trickles and other times raging rapids, my music has evolved throughout each new bend in this winding river of life. And so have I.

Three months ago I began my graduate training to become a music therapist. These new steps in my journey have been large and I am realizing an increased need for self-care that I have not known before. Or possibly the need has always been there and I am now learning to more clearly recognize it. I am experiencing a refreshed perspective on some well-known sentiments:  in order to care for others you must first care for yourself; to have compassion for others you must first have compassion for yourself; and to help others achieve their potential you must first be willing to explore your own. At times this can be a challenging if not mammoth task for the one who is client, therapist, or human.

Amir beautifully describes creating and maintaining internal balance, calm, and peace amid an unpredictable external environment. Self-care is a necessary part of preservation. I am finding it especially critical as I learn to adapt my work within my new [clinical] setting of music [therapy]. Amir's essay reminds us to create a space for ourselves and to "touch and rediscover [our] own beaut[ies]." For this I am grateful.