How are you doing? January can be a little gray. Even as Christmas brings up complex emotions, the end of most twinkling lights can have its own effect.

We may not have met before, but you’ve been on my mind (and in my prayers). Part of my story is that for twenty years God has led me to create soul care resources for you. A special emphasis is music. Do you like music? I create song prayers. (Songs which are prayers). Yes, I create these inspired and motivated by servicewomen and women veterans like you. Others definitely can and do use the song prayers, but the reason they exist was a vision from God to serve you by facilitating care of your soul through song prayers, books, social media posts and reflections on Substack. In this post I would like to invite you to the spiritual practice of listening
daily to song prayers as a type of contemplative prayer which serves as an evidence-based CAM (Complementary Alternative Medicine). The outcome in research was increased resilience which underlies improved emotional well-being.

When I started creating these song prayer albums for you in 2006, I thought they were mostly to have a spiritual effect. They are founded on Christian spirituality which uses music as a means of becoming present to God’s presence. Looking to attune to God in a way you feel no pressure to talk at Him, but are interested in letting Him wash over you or where He interacts with you in some way. However, as I spent hour after hour listening to the songs as I developed them and then again after they were complete, I noticed that I was changing. I was oh-so- gradually healing from the inside out. Honestly, I was completely unaware of some of the inner wounds I carried until God first exposed and then healed these. I was living my norm, coping in the ways I had figured out to cope, which I did not know was coping.

Others who were listening to the albums let me know that regular, reflective listening was causing positive transformations in them as well. They felt better. They functioned healthier. I decided to do doctoral research to find out more concretely what was happening. In 2022 four women veterans participated in a qualitative study where they committed to listen daily for at least twenty consecutive minutes over a minimum of twenty-eight consecutive days to a playlist of song prayers, which I customized for each of them. The women who volunteered happened to be from different branches in the military and each in a different decade of life from her thirties to sixties. Their years of service varied along a continuum from the 1980’s to the 2022.

Study data was collected five ways. The women completed a survey on the current state of their spiritual and emotional well-being to initiate their participation in the study. I conducted a one-on-one video interview with each and supplied her with a playlist. She then picked her start date and listened for 28 consecutive days for a block of at least 20 minutes per day. Before she listened daily, I asked her to keep a log of where her subjective emotional well-being was on a scale of one to ten. After she listened she was to check in with herself again and note how she felt on a scale of one to ten where ten was the highest. She also was to make a written or audio note if she had noticed anything in the listening that day? Had any song or lyric stood out? Did she sense God’s nearness in any way. Did she note any changes in herself? After she completed her 28 days of listening daily (and there was no condemnation if she missed a day—just tack
another on at the end), we did another video interview together. The interviews were transcribed, all the measures of subjective well-being were collected and anything the women wanted to share from their daily experiences was noted.

The data was compelling. All participants experienced transformation that was solely
positive. Repetitive listening resulted in changed ways of thinking, which built the participants’ resilience in ways conducive to their personal circumstances. Each participant used exact lyrics from at least one of the song prayers on their playlists to describe an extraordinary interaction with God. Every daily entry regarding subjective well-being made by the participants before and
after daily listening either increased or remained stable. No negative effects arose from participating in the study.

Participants received greater knowledge of God, such as His love, His promises, His actions, and how He sees people. They grew more familiar with the abundance of His care, which bolstered their confidence in Him. As a result of the study, participants reported that they
can and do rely on Him more. The outcome they experienced resulted in what they reported as increased resilience in everyday activities and adversity. Participants also had personal and intimate experiences of God that they described as extraordinary and beyond what they had previously known. The knowledge of God imparted through these experiences deepened their relationship with and reliance on Him, sometimes beyond what words could express, resulting in strengthened resilience.

While participants’ inner changes were significant, they were not immediate. Transformations initiated at some point during listening period or directly following it. The changes in outlook were gradual and often outside awareness until they were asked to self-reflect
on their experiences.

Practical effects on resilience were broad. For instance, the combination of God’s expected and extraordinary interactions from offering song prayers caused participants to cope better. The ability to thrive increased due to changes in their thinking. There was decreased
anxiety, greater clarity of thinking, an increased sense of emotional well-being, elimination of burnout, enhancement in the ability to be productive in more satisfying ways, as well as increased compassion, and the ability to forgive, alongside decreased frustration with people. Understanding of their life’s meaning and purpose was reshaped. Views of fellow human beings were reformed. Participants found hope for their circumstances, strength to persevere, lightening of burdens, and sometimes God-inspired direction.

Three out of the four participants received from God what they needed before they realized their need. In other words, there were gaps in their emotional well-being that they had not yet perceived, yet through listening to the song prayers regularly, they received the remedy
for these needs, which had a substantial effect on their everyday well-being going forward.

The results of the qualitative study indicated that interaction between God and people in response to song prayers is consistent with biblical narratives and accounts throughout history to the current day. (You can read the details in the study itself.) Additionally, participants’ experiences aligned with research results in medicine, neuroscience, biology, and psychology, which suggests that the growth, nurturing, and sustaining of resilience is supported by spirituality (including spiritual practices) and music listening. Thus, participants’ experiences were not an exception but could be expected. Life is reframed through the expanding view and enhanced
understanding of additional components of resilience such as identity, a sense of belonging, purpose, and meaning through the lens of relationship with God. You can read more about the research in my award-winning book, Soul Care-Song Prayers: A Spiritual Practice TowardResilience and Well-Being.

For now, I’m inviting you to try the spiritual practice of daily listening to song prayers for yourself. I want to let you know where to find the music and about guided journals I’ve been creating for each album to go accompany you on a thirty day listening focus. You are also
invited to reach out with questions.

There are now 27 albums of over 250 original song prayers. Each album has a nuanced theme with lyrics addressing slightly different life circumstances and emotional states. Visit my website https://www.elizabethfulgaro.com/songs-overview for a list of the various albums to
date. Connect with the one or ones which just feels right for you now, by clicking on the links to various streaming services. Watch the videos on the website to learn more and stay tuned as I share in additional posts about the ease and benefit of this spiritual practice. So far Companion Journals have been published for Restore, Courage, Ascend in Worship and Walk on Water.

I hope we can stay connected.

You are in my heart and prayers always,
~Dr. Elizabeth

Dr. Elizabeth Fulgaro holds a Doctor of Ministry with a concentration in spiritual formation and direction, a Master of Practical Theology from The King’s University and a B.A. from California State University, Sacramento, where she was named Top Graduating Senior. A Fulbright-Hays scholar, Fulgaro is fluent in German. Her doctoral research demonstrated that daily listening to song prayers increases well-being and resilience.  She is an award-winning author of nine books. 
She is a songwriter and recording artist with over 250 song prayers on 27 albums and 1.6 million YouTube subscribers. CEO and Founder of the non-profit Eagles Nest Foundation, a special emphasis of her work is providing soul care resources to military and veteran communities. She is the 2024 Women Veterans Alliance Patriotic Supporter Award recipient. She has been a personal finance professional for 45 years and holds certifications in financial planning, counseling, coaching and behavioral finance. She served as a CFPB financial coach for veterans.
Dr. Fulgaro and her husband, John, married forty-four years, have three adult children. She enjoys needlepointing and long country walks.
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Website: https://www.elizabethfulgaro.com