Henry Wadworth Longfellow wrote “music is the universal language of mankind.” This truth resonates with me; music has been constant in my life. My parents played classical, folk, and pop music. My mother lifted our spirits with songs from Broadway musicals. We loved Pops in the Park concerts. Our family attended a fabulous Beatles concert! My husband and I enjoyed Elton John, James Taylor, and many other concerts. Some of you have similar memories, right?
But did you know research shows music helps us thrive, including physical health, positive emotions, and relationships? Imaging studies found “intense pleasure in response to music can lead to dopamine release.” Dopamine affects pleasure, rewards, and motivation. Confucius wrote, “music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot live without.” Cognitive scientist Adam M. Croom analyzed music’s impact on health with a tool that evaluates positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment (PERMA). He discovered listening to music triggers “brain regions related to attention, semantic processing, memory, motor functions, and…enhances emotional and cognitive functioning.” Music is healthy! Remarkably, “music listening during the early post-stroke stage can enhance cognitive recovery and prevent negative mood.” Croom noted, “music also effects changes in heart rate.” Through increased positive emotions, listening to music reduces substances that contribute to damaging inflammation. Roland Majla reported research showing “music lowers anxiety, increasing mood and quality of life.” Scientific evidence of benefits birthed music therapy. Andrea Lein, PhD. explains, music therapy “promotes emotional, cognitive, and physical health through structured interventions delivered by credentialed professionals…using targeted techniques, like improvisation, songwriting, and guided listening.” Music therapy helps with depression, autism spectrum disorder, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, chronic pain, and trauma. A friend’s daughter developed aphasia after a stroke; music therapy helped restore her speech.
Music can generate positive emotions. It can soothe us. Author Bryce W. Anderson wrote “I’ve found that no matter what life throws at me, music softens the blow.” Lullabies comfort babies. Adults find solace in songs like You’ve Got a Friend by James Taylor or Let it Be by the Beatles. Music expresses joy. Jason Mraz said, “Music is a weapon in the war against unhappiness.” What a Wonderful World, by Louis Armstrong, evokes a grateful smile. Remember Pharrell Williams’ song, Happy? Music energizes and motivates. Rock and roll kept me moving in exercise classes. Construction crews blast music that keeps them working. Berthold Auerbach said, “Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Music heals wounds medicine cannot touch. For me, playing beautiful, complex, highly emotive Chopin melodies on the piano helped me cope with my parents’ divorce. Music also enhances spiritual faith. Holiday songs, cantors at Jewish temples, church hymns, and inspirational radio stations are all uplifting. Johann Sebatian Bach wrote, “the aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” The acronym PERMA includes finding meaning as essential to life satisfaction. With an eternal perspective, we flourish. Edward Bulwer Lytton wrote, “music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies.”
Musical engagement can strengthen social connections. Playing in a band or orchestra or singing in a chorus creates a positive emotional bond. Croom elaborates, “individuals in close relationships with others cope better with stress and illness,” and with “are likely to live longer than individuals that do not.” Croom reported, “actively listening to soothing music can increase a listener’s level of oxytocin,” also called the cuddle hormone. This key neuropeptide in human bonding increases during close physical touch. Music connects people through love songs. Romantic tunes say what tongue-tied lovers cannot. Thousands of songs express longing, love, passion, and heartbreak, consistent with human experiences. Most couples have a special song they danced and romanced to. Paul McCartney wrote “you’d think that people would’ve had enough of silly love songs. But I look around me and I see it isn’t so. Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs. And what’s wrong with that, I’d like to know?”
Here are suggestions to benefit from music’s healing powers. Cultivate a personal playlist with goals like increasing peace, energy, positive emotions, or spiritual inspiration. Sing, play an instrument, listen to music, or attend a concert and immerse yourself in the experience, yielding to a state of deep absorption and happiness. Plato wrote, “music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.”
