Gregorian Chant is the official, traditional music of the Catholic Church and of the Catholic Liturgy (ironically, you'd be hard pressed to find any Catholic parish in which it is actually practiced, but that is a sad story for another time). Dr. Bissonnette-Pitre and the other members of her group provided a series of presentations, exercises and experiences to help the attendees better understand, appreciate and participate in chanted prayer. The specific context was the Catholic Mass, in and for which this method of sung prayer was developed (though it can be employed in other prayers, too).
Here is a short example from the youtubes:
Gregorian Chant refers both to a method of sung prayer (generally in Latin), as well as any of the 4000-or-so specific prayers that demonstrate the same. The practice appears to have started in the early Christian Church (and was derived from a similar practice in Judaism), where it grew for several centuries through oral tradition. "Oral tradition" means that it was passed on from person to person verbally, without being written down. Eventually, a method of transcribing the words and melodies developed, leading to things like:
But my purpose here is not to talk about or explain Gregorian Chant as much as it is to pass on an interesting principle expressed by Dr. Bissonnette-Pitre during her last presentation. Historically, chanted prayer was frequently recommended to those who were struggling with temptation, frustrations, sins, etc. The belief is that a person becomes more peaceful, virtuous and avoids vice to the degree that he is able to engage in positive practices like Gregorian Chant. Part of this had to do with the words of the chant, which are generally from the Bible and promote being virtuous, trusting God, etc. But it also had to do with the nature of the chanting, itself.
According to Dr. Bissonnette-Pitre (who is also a psychologist), various studies indicate that exposure to -- and especially participation in -- chant tends to reduce stress levels, slow and deepen breathing, slow the heart rate, reduce blood pressure, even lower the body temperature. It appears to have an overall-calming effect on most people, whereas some other kinds of music appear to have an agitating effect.
This seems to correspond to and complement other studies. Indeed, it appears that simply practicing periods of deep breathing has helped people with high blood pressure, anxiety difficulties, etc. Chant naturally incorporates this, and complements it with other meditative qualities. Together, it is foreseeable that these could have a generally-positive effect for many people, especially when dealing with a stressful event.
For example, suppose someone cuts me off in traffic, nearly causing an accident. At the time, I am very likely to have some kind of emotional response to the event (hopefully a proportional one), and it is possible that I'll still be a little rattled later, depending on the severity. Having no emotional response whatsoever, as well as having one that is excessive both indicate imbalances. Further, there are a couple obvious mistakes I could make in coping with this, or with any similar event. One might be to actively suppress it, pretend like it never happened, when it did, in fact, bother me. In such cases unresolved tensions might express themselves in other ways, such as how I treat others, or the development of vices, as we have discussed elsewhere.
Another error would be to habitually replay it in my mind, "practicing" it and the surrounding emotions. That is only going to upset me further, and is singularly unhealthy. We often recognize the problem with this, that we are doing something harmful, but in responding just make another error. We say, "stop thinking about X, stop thinking about X, stop thinking about X, I've got to stop thinking about X.... Why can't I stop thinking about X? Will someone please help me to stop thinking about X!" Of course, all we are doing is continuing to think about X, but now with an added layer of guilt, frustration and sense of helplessness that we can't get ourselves to stop thinking about X.
The issue isn't simply that we need to stop thinking about X, but that we need to replace it with something good, positive, healthy. This is what Gregorian Chant does for many people. It provides a calming, positive, meditative outlet that simultaneously makes it difficult-to-impossible to continue focusing on the negative... at least for the duration of the chant. We are simultaneously turning away from the agitation and toward something that is positive in and of itself.
This all might seem rather abstract, so consider a physical analogy. I teach self defense and, especially with beginners, we teach them that, when confronted by an attacker, their best action is almost always to run, and if they can't immediately run, fight to escape. The primary reason is one of survival -- it is generally easier to escape from someone rather than engage and defeat him. It is only if we can't escape, or if we must remain for some other reason (such as to protect someone else), that we engage a dangerous opponent, and even then we do so at much greater risk to ourselves. This is similar to the interior life. There are times to face and engage our demons, and sometimes we have no choice, but frequently the best way to survive the encounter is to render them irrelevant -- not by ignoring them or pretending they don't exist, and not by attempting to engage them directly, but by turning away from and replacing them with something positive.
This principle of both rejecting the bad and turning toward the good is present in many religions, in virtue-ethics moral philosophy, as well as Logic Based Therapy, which always suggests a positive, counter-acting virtuous habit to try to help the person move away from error and vice.
What are some positive things that you do to help cope with stress and frustrations?
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