“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” – PLATO
It’s a Friday afternoon and the end of a long, stressful week, and as you’re driving toward your home, you hear a song on the radio, a song that transports you back in time when you were a teenager. You remembered where you were when you first listened to the music. Suddenly, the stress of the last few days seems to dissapate.
Music is fundamental to humans, and throughout history, sung or hummed, clapped or danced. Music is a universal language, and we don’t even need to know the lyrics – we can get immersed in the beat and rhythm of a song. Before we are born, we know the difference between music and noise, repetition and rhythm, tunes and tones, and this may have started with the first beats we heard – the beating of our mother’s heart.
Are there songs that resonate with you? Pay attention to the music that “moves you” and add it to your daily life.
If listening to music isn’t enough, play an instrument. If you have minimal experience playing an instrument, challenge yourself to learn to play something, or take music lessons.
There are numerous benefits to the brain when you play instruments.
In an article by Sally Sapega, Playing an Instrument: Better for Your Brain Than Just Listening, on Penn Medicine News, she mentions, “Playing an instrument may be one of the best ways to keep the brain healthy. ‘It engages every major part of the central nervous system, said John Dani, Ph.D, Chair of Neuroscience at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, tapping into both the right and left sides of the brain.”
It doesn’t take scientific research for us to realize the importance of music in our lives.
TRY THIS:
Take 30 minutes and pay attention to the music you hear in your life. Do you listen to music while commuting, working, exercising? What type of music to you like to play?
Are you a musician or do you have a desire to learn to play an instrument? What type of instrument?
If you are in the beginning stages of learning, give yourself the gift of 10 minutes (yes, start slow) a day to practice.
My guitar teacher mentioned if you promise yourself just 10 minutes, you won’t feel frustrated at lack of time because 10 minutes can fit into any busy life. And, chances are, you will play longer than 10 minutes!
Take time every day to listen to or play music – when you do this, your stress and overwhelm will melt away!
Happy escaping!
(Reference: Sally Sepega, Playing an Instrument: Better for Your Brain Than Just Listening, Penn Medicine News, January 30, 2017, https://www.penmedicine.org/news/news-blog/2017/january/playing-an-instrument-better-for-your-brain-than-just-listening)
