Sunday

Are you feeling stressed by the pandemic? You could try Sufi meditation to music. Sufism is a form of Islamic mysticism that emphasises introspection and spiritual connection but the meditation can work whether you are of other faiths, or none. When the pandemic began the Sufi music group Zendeh Delan decided to create Sufi-inspired music to aid meditation and broaden its appeal. The result is an album fusing Persian with western orchestral instruments and it is now being used in hospitals and clinics. We talk to musician Omid Asgari about what he calls "the music of the soul" and to clinical psychologist Dr Saloumeh Bozorgzadeh about how she uses it in her practice. As the United States mourns the victims of the shooting at Indianapolis, Emily talks to Jennifer Hubbard, mother of six year old Catherine, who was one of twenty children and six adult staff members who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012. It is one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history. Jennifer tells Emil