The Transformative Power of Music: Enhancing Life, Health, and Intelligence

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The Transformative Power of Music: Enhancing Life, Health, and Intelligence

Emotional Resonance and Health Benefits of Music

Music is in everyone’s life. People encounter music in a variety of places on a daily basis. For example, music can be found in elevators, malls, schools, and cars. It is also used in television commercials to gain the audience’s attention and in movies and television shows to appeal to the emotional state of viewers. Both the young and the elderly spend time listening to their favorite music. Whether that be pop music, jazz music, rock music, rap, country music, classical music, or even the blues, all music brings joy and excitement to people.

Music has been in existence for thousands of years and can be found in cultures around the world. It allows people to express themselves in different forms and to communicate feelings without the use of words. Music bonds people together, whether that be with a lullaby between a mother and her child or a concert with friends. Music brings much entertainment, but could it also improve a person overall? Research says that the answer is yes. Music can better a person’s life, health, and even intelligence.

People like to listen to different types of music at different times. For example, while doing homework, one may desire to listen to relaxing classical music. However, while at the gym, one may want to hear music with a faster tempo, like rap. Tone and rhythm are responsible for the changes in our emotions. Music with a slow tempo tends to make a person’s heart slow down with it, and humans relate slow-paced music to sadness.

Music with a fast tempo makes people feel energized and happy. When listening to music, several parts of the brain are activated. These parts of the brain are associated with planning, attention, memory, and movement. Music changes our brain chemistry as well. There is a release of a hormone called serotonin and a neurotransmitter called dopamine in the brain. Also, with upbeat music, the hormone norepinephrine is released, causing feelings of exhilaration. Emotions play a huge role in our quality of life.

Music motivates and encourages people. Powerful music can change a person’s state of mind and overall mood. Songs with inspirational messages can help people change their lives by uplifting them and making them see the world more positively. Music can heal both the body and the soul by allowing the expression of feelings that are hard to say in words. For those struggling to find motivation, focusing on good music or a favorite song can make even the most mundane task more bearable and fight against fatigue and boredom. Music can inspire a person to keep going, to reach his or her goals, and to move on from the negativity in order to think positively.

Music’s Therapeutic Potential and Cognitive Enhancements

Because music makes such a large impact on people’s feelings and emotional well-being, music therapy has become a widely used practice. “Music therapy is a type of expressive arts therapy that uses music to improve and maintain the physical, psychological, and social well-being of individuals.” Music therapy helps patients feel more positive, confident, and hopeful. It allows patients to be able to express how they feel through song. Not only does music therapy improve how a person feels on the inside, it has been shown to improve a person’s fine motor skills. For example, the music therapist may hand a patient a drum, maraca, or tambourine. The therapist will then ask him or her to keep a steady beat and even play a rhythm. An activity such as this improves fine motor skills and emotions while the patient creates beats or rhythms and expresses himself or herself through music.

In addition, music therapy has been shown to improve the symptoms associated with several disorders. For example, children and adults with autism, a brain disorder that negatively affects communication and social skills, have demonstrated improvement in verbal and nonverbal skills and increased developmental processes through music therapy. Strategies used during music therapy have also been found to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and cerebral palsy. Music therapy is effective with children and adults with disabilities due to its multisensory experiences. All systems are engaged during music therapy, including the tactile, kinesthetic, auditory, and visual systems. Because of this, music therapy appeals to their sensory strengths and their needs while improving social interactions and those developmental deficits that adults and children with disabilities may experience.

The Cognitive Advantages of Music: From Learning to Intelligence

Memory and music have a strong correlation. For example, patients with dementia experience a decline in memory and thinking skills that are so severe that everyday activities are a struggle. They have trouble remembering things like their family, address, and recent conversations. Music can help greatly with this. Hearing certain songs reminds patients of their childhood and can help them relate certain songs back to a single moment in their lives. By adding music to daily activities, people with dementia can more easily perform daily routines that they normally struggle to remember.

A recent study of over 330 subjects with dementia showed that music therapy produces improvements to social behaviors, decreases behaviors such as wandering and restlessness, reduces agitation, and improves cognitive abilities. Music and memory are also linked to learning during our younger years. Elementary-age students learn needed skills through music. Teachers use the ABC song to teach the alphabet, the state song for memorizing the 50 states, and the multiplication rap for learning multiplication facts. A person may memorize this song once, but he or she will still remember it years later. Research has shown increased verbal intelligence in children who use music to learn. It enhances the child’s ability to comprehend words and define their meaning. It is amazing what music and our minds can do when they are put together.

Patients with chronic pain or those experiencing surgical procedures can experience an ease in pain through music. When a patient with chronic pain listens to music, a chemical in the brain is released called opioids. Opioids can decrease pain and decrease the need for excessive amounts of medication to relieve pain. With music as treatment, people who experience chronic pain have fewer medications, leading to fewer side effects such as addiction and stomach problems.

Listening to music while dealing with chronic pain can also cause a patient’s mind to think about the music instead of the pain that they are enduring. Similar effects have been found in patients before and after surgical procedures. For example, those patients who listened to music rather than taking the pre-op medication, Midazolam, were able to become drowsy and relieved from anxiety without the side effects of coughing and vomiting that Midazolam often produces. After surgery, music can create a relaxing environment to keep patients calm and speed up recovery.

Music’s Role in Pain Management and Weight Loss

For those interested in weight loss or in healthy weight management, music can be a key weight loss factor. As previously stated, listening to upbeat music makes one feel energized due to the release of certain hormones and neurotransmitters. In a recent study, researchers found that runners who listened to fast music or slow motivational music actually ran faster and burned more calories in a shorter amount of time than those who listened to soothing music or no music at all. Research has also shown that listening to soft music while eating leads people to eat fewer calories and to actually savor their meals more. Sleep habits affect weight management as well. A study showed that students who listened to lulling classical music for 45 minutes before going to bed slept better than students who did not. Restful nights contribute to a healthy weight.

Music can also improve anxiety, stress, and depression. Just like chronic pain, music can shift a person’s mind to something more pleasant. Music can be a distraction from the daily strains and difficulties of life. Stress, anxiety, and depression can cause a person’s heart rate and nervous system to change negatively. When a person is stressed, the body and the organs inside the body feel stressed as well. Stress makes the body and its organs have to work harder, leading to more serious issues like strokes and heart attacks.

Music can be soothing and calming in chaotic situations. A prime example of music and stress relief can be found during childbirth. It has been shown that music will cause the mother to feel more relaxed during childbirth, making her less likely to experience postpartum depression after her child is born. For those suffering from anxiety and depression, music can suppress the nervous system, causing the brain to release endorphins, raise dopamine levels, and block pain pathways. All of this leads to a heightened feeling of well-being.

The Universality of Music’s Impact: Enriching Lives

Music can change and improve a person’s brain. Research says that learning to play an instrument can raise a person’s Intellectual Quotient, or IQ. Musically trained children and adults actually outperformed others on verbal memory tests. This same research has shown that the brains of people who are not musically inclined are different than musicians’ brains in both shape and power. The corpus callosum that connects both sides of the brain is actually larger. When playing an instrument, the player has to read and comprehend the music and manipulate the fine motor skills to play it. Researchers have also noted increased reaction time in musicians. Other benefits of learning to play an instrument include enhanced attention, organization, and self-discipline skills. Through research, music has been linked to a person’s improved ability to process multiple senses at once when making decisions and drawing conclusions, which are needed life skills.

Music is as diverse as the people who listen to it. People will hear it in their homes, during their daily commute, on their elevator journey to the office, and in traveling to all places of the world. Any type of music can impact a person in a positive way. With its variety of genres, tones, rhythms, and tempos, any music can affect a person’s emotions. Music is a natural medication or therapy for some patients. Therefore, patients with anxiety, stress, depression, chronic pain, memory loss, dementia, and more can benefit from music therapy. Music strengthens memory skills, leads to superior multisensory skills, and can also increase mental alertness and reaction time. Music is one of the most amazing things that life has to offer. Intelligence, health, and a person’s life are bettered by the sound of music.

References:

Daily Mail. (2002). The science of sound: How music affects your mood and your mind.
Harvard Health. (2018). Music and health. Harvard Health Publishing.
Lifestyle. (2018). The psychology of music: How music affects your brain and mood.
Good Therapy. (2015). What is music therapy? GoodTherapy.
Time. (2018). Music therapy helps heal brain injuries. Time.
HuffPost. (2015). Music therapy improves developmental and social outcomes for children and adolescents.