I take a break from playing the moonlight sonata on my piano and sit down with my headphones to listen to Beethoven. The notes from the piece “Moonlight Sonata”, which is my favorite after Chopin’s “Nocturne Op 9 No 2”, they welcome me. The notes welcome me to a place familiar to me, a place that feels more like me than myself.  Soon enough I lose myself in the music coursing through my headphones and travel through a place so known yet unknown. A place I travel to every time with my favourite accompaniment, classical music.

(Moonlight Sonata 3rd Movement Playing)

The emotions I didn’t even know were there but it turns out they were there are surfacing, pulling me from a state of lying to myself unconsciously and bringing me to a state of true acceptance. It’s not just the goosebumps that are rising from my skin, along with those goosebumps rise everything I’ve hidden from myself and the strength to face my weaknesses and embrace them as a whole. Just some minutes ago, I only knew the rage coursing through me because of not being able to play the notes right but now, I get where the rage was coming from. I understand the sadness, impatience, and insecurities that I didn’t even know were there deep inside. And I get the courage and the inspiration to face them all and strive to learn more, to become a better pianist every day than what I am today.

(Debussy – Clair de Lune Playing)

Isn’t it wonderful how music can both expose us to our deepest feelings as well as help us face them? The calming notes playing through my soul help heal me, they take away the impatience and the rage from this immature soul and teach me a better lesson. They teach me that with learning, all that’s needed is patience and work. Nothing’s going to better itself at once, it’s time and practice that bring you to betterment. I’m transported, from a state of rage to a state of calm. And here itself, I’ve become better than how I was a few seconds ago.

(Satie- Gymnopedie No. 1 Playing)

Turns out the process of learning is just like the process of healing. Slow and beautiful. It’s just our minds that play games on us and make us think otherwise. It’s just our minds that make us think that the processes are hurtful and hard but no. The processes are beautiful. Beautiful the way they make us learn more. Beautiful the way that by the end of the processes, we’ve become a person wiser than before.

(Liszt – La Campanella Playing)

Why do I love classical music so much you ask? Why should I not, I say. Classical Music strips my facade and helps me find the true me beneath. Classical helps me learn, helps me heal. It helps me express my emotions in a healthy way. And it is a way that makes me a better version of myself every day. I find and face the emotions I didn’t even know I had buried unconsciously. I find the remains of the dreams I had buried with fear of the world and I pull them up again because this time I’m not going to let my dreams down. With classical music, I heal. With classical music, I learn. And with classical music, everything seems possible and the energy I need for my dreams is all mine.