Have you ever been ambushed by the sheer synchronicity of something playing on the radio that is an exact reflection of your thoughts and feelings at the time? Well, I have, and if you are as addicted to the car radio as I am, the same must have happened to you to, on several occasions. Songs often seem to be saying the things we want to say, and much better too.
Its not just the words and content of songs that have the power to soothe and reassure, or inspire and energize. We can be lifted by the mere snatch of a tune heard as we pass a street or shop – provided the tune resonates with deeper memories we have stored in us. Music is more closely linked to mood and feeling than perhaps any other direct sensory input, and the surprising thing is that it does not have to be ‘politically correct’ music like classical piano, or any of the zillion CDs that are sold as aids to meditation. Just listening to something we like seems to be the key to benefiting most from music.
In fact, valuable strategies to make music work for you, and how music relieves stress are available today, bringing us more insight into what we already know. Even patients whose brains have been impaired by accidents or illness have shown a revival of brain activity when a favorite tune has been played to them. Effects of music on memory were studied in a special experiment and the findings became popular as 'The Mozart Effect' because compositions by Mozart seemed to be improving students’ academic performance. While the ‘Mozart Effect’ has not been significantly reproduced, it is clear that music remains a very important element in our efforts to restore and revitalize the brain and repair the effects of stress.
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