As I read through the posts on this site its good to realise where I have or have not been getting my Oxytocin from. I think that one of the things I miss most about being with a partner is to be able to be in bed and touch someone. I have always loved the cuddle in the morning and it comes up in conversatoins with other singles.

As I read I realise that the other way I have got a good fix over the years is through community singing and chanting. I was never a singer until years ago when I went to a weekend workshop that promised that I could "discover my natural voice".

Well, it worked. The teacher talked about the "sense of connection with the divine" and I truely felt the best I had for years. After attending a few more workshops I have been involved in community singing and even managed to initiate a weekend voice festival in this little town that I live in. The culminating event we cram about 400 voices into the hall and have a "Big Sing". Its a huge buzz . People come away from the weekend with a huge sense of wellbing with smiles all over their faces.

Now I understand that its just another way that what gives us all the warm fuzzy feeling is the heightened Oxytocin levels that come about through singing in groups. I thoroughly recommend it.

Many religious groups use singing or chanting as a natural way to bring them to a sense of bliss. I used to live next to a group of Hari Krishnas. They could get right into singing their Bajhans and would feel a bliss which they attributed to their faith. Recently I went to see a guy called Swami Nityananda who is the son of the very famous Swami Muktananda. This is a Hindu based sect who will chant for up to 6 hours per day as part of their spiritual path. They preach sexual abstinance and perhaps the chanting is just another way of what one might obtain through non orgasmic love making.

The devotees travel all over the world following their master and seem very fulfilled and happy. I know some of their followers and they seem very peaceful. They talk very lovingly of how they have found peace since they met their master, and I wonder if its not the effect of the chanting.

I remember a story I was told about an order of monks who used to chant every day until some authority decided it should not be done. After it was stopped, the health of the these monks dropped considerably and after some time it was decide that it was better for them to chant again. I would say thats Oxytocin had a lot to do with that. Studies made on hormone levels of people who do sing together in groups has shown an increase in the level of the big O. Funnily enough, they also found that when they performance together for an audience, it went up even further.

In my own life at the moment I have a lack of motivation and I realise that part of that can be the lack of community singing. Our choir director left town a few years ago and despite much effort we have not managed to find a replacement. We have a community chanting group that meets fortnightly and I look forward to it every time the date comes around. I need more singing and I feel the need for a good cuddle partner!