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It’s Monday morning.
Your car makes the slow crawl down the congested highway. You’re running late. Even though you know that the clock on your car dashboard is five minutes fast, the visual reminder heightens your anxiety. You have a meeting in 20 minutes.
Your stress hormones are surging. Your heart rate is climbing.
And to top it all off, you didn’t have time to get a coffee.
This scenario is becoming more and more common in our fast and frenetic lives. (And now, in 2022, a time of “work-from-home”, we cram five Zoom meetings into an hour while simultaneously doing chores and managing our lives).
We’ve found ourselves with too much to do, too many places to be, and too many people to please. In these moments, we try to clear our mind, breathe, maybe invoke some “positive thinking” – all to no avail. Today it isn’t working. Today, it’s just too much.
So, when time is short and our tempers even shorter, how can we care for ourselves?
Advice from a former music therapist? Stop, pause, and press play.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator sep_color=”” uncode_shortcode_id=”243029″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”147156″]
Music is part of being human
We respond to music on a deep and fundamental level, below our level of consciousness. It can affect our bodies and brains in profound ways without us needing to do much more than sit and listen.
We all have the ability and capacity to respond to music (despite what your grade school music teacher may have implied). This is because music is a human invention – made by humans, for humans. There are even some anthropologists who suggest that humans may have been singing before they ever spoke a word.
Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author, wrote a fascinating book Musicophillia: Tales of Music and the Brain. In it, he shares case studies of his patients with a focus on the intersection of music and psychological and physiological ailments. He writes that “music is part of being human.”
And that isn’t just a nice, poetic thought.
In this book Human Universals, Donald Brown includes music as one of the cultural universals – meaning that, although the sounds, instruments and melodies may change across the world, music has been independently developed in every known human culture.
Music and the brain
Researchers who study how music affects the brain are learning that:
- Music can increase our dopamine levels;
- Music is intimately tied to our emotional memory (ever have the experience of being transported back-in-time when you hear a particular song?);
- And music may have an effect on our breathing rate and heart rate.
As a former music therapist, I had the wonderful experience of bringing music to my clients. These are people who faced extreme obstacles to their physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being. I experienced first-hand the benefits of using music as an intentional tool for health and wellness.
Below are my suggestions for incorporating music into your repertoire of self-care strategies.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_separator sep_color=”” uncode_shortcode_id=”714082″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”180928″]
We respond to music on a deep and fundamental level, below our level of consciousness. It can affect our bodies and brains in profound ways without us needing to do much more than sit and listen.
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Five Strategies for Using Music for Self-Care
Boost Your Mood with an SOS playlist
As mentioned above, music is a powerful memory stimulant and can evoke strong emotions. Use this to your advantage by creating a playlist of songs that have a significant and positive association. You can use this “SOS” playlist for times when you need a boost.
For you, that playlist might include the greatest hits when you were in high school. Or maybe you’re a “Today’s Top 10” kind of person. If you use Spotify, check out the MOOD playlist website. This tool automatically generates a playlist based on your mood and music preference.
Slow Your Pace with a Calming Tempo
Conversely, try creating a calming playlist of songs for when you need to slow down. Try to find songs with a bpm (beats per minute) between 60-80 – the average resting heart rate.
There are websites, such as this one, which can help you identify the bpm of a song as you curate your list.
Use Music to Process Difficult Emotions
In our lives and work, we encounter heavy stuff: whether that be through working with folks who encounter overwhelming challenges; hearing a second-hand account of a traumatic event; or even just reading about something that deeply affects us on the news (which seems to be happening more and more these days).
I used music for my own self-care when I was working in palliative care. This was wonderfully rewarding work. It also left my tank empty. At the end of the day, I was often left with unresolved questions and emotions that needed processing. I’ll confess that I am a musical theatre nerd. “Bring Him Home” from Les Misérables (the anniversary version only. Sorry, Hugh Jackman) was, undoubtedly, my top played song during this time.
I am not French and know very little about the French Revolution. However, the experience of listening to this song felt like talking with someone who completely understood everything I was feeling.
I recognize that this suggestion can sound trite. I know that frontline workers need more than a song or two to help them stay well in the face of human suffering.
However, small acts and micro-strategies do add up. When I didn’t have access to supervision after a session, music helped me to process through these difficult feelings. It also prevented me from unleashing this heavy baggage onto my partner when I got home (for which I am sure he was grateful).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_separator sep_color=”” uncode_shortcode_id=”177349″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”128919″]
I know that frontline workers need more than a song or two to help them stay well in the face of human suffering.
However, small acts and micro-strategies do add up. When I didn’t have access to supervision after a session, music helped me to process through these difficult feelings.
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Have a Transition Anthem
How do you transition from work to home? If you have taken a TEND training in the past, you have probably heard our presenters touch on how important this strategy can be (You can find more information on transition rituals in this article).
If you’ve struggled to implement a transition ritual that works for you, try incorporating a song. Music can serve as an aural cue that your work is done. (A helpful analogy is the school bell that lets students know that class is over.)
Make Some Music
If you’re the kind of person who truly believes that you couldn’t “carry a tune in a bucket”, I (and the entire profession of music therapy) am here to tell you that you don’t need to be a musician to play music. Remember that music is a fundamental component of being human.
If music is something that you enjoy and you are interested in becoming a better singer, pianist, or trumpeter, take heart in knowing that these are just skills. Skills that can be learned.
Need more incentive? It has been well-documented that participating in music has positive impacts on our mood, self-esteem, cognitive functioning, memory, focus – so much so that musicians even have bigger brains.
“But wait!” you cry, “I’m too old to learn music!”
It’s never too late to learn. Here’s a quote from a study that was featured in National Geographic:
Jennifer Bugos, an assistant professor of music education at the University of South Florida, Tampa, studied the impact of individual piano instruction on adults between the ages of 60 and 85. After six months, those who had received piano lessons showed more robust gains in memory, verbal fluency, the speed at which they processed information, planning ability, and other cognitive functions, compared with those who had not received lessons.
Even at 85 years old, people are benefiting from learning and playing music. So, join that community choir, dust off those piano keys, or pick up that out-of-tune guitar and make some music.
You might just feel a bit better.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator sep_color=”” uncode_shortcode_id=”603316″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”115389″]
Resources to Learn More
Read Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks, MD, a wonderful introduction to the power of music
Learn more about music therapy practice from The Canadian Music Therapist Association
Check in on the latest research on the brain and music from The Neurologic Music Therapy Foundation, headed by Dr. Michael H. Thaut and Dr. Corene P. Hurt-Thaut
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Brown, D. E. (1991). Human universals. Temple University Press.
Cole, D. (2014, January 3). Your aging brain will be in better shape if you’ve taken music lessons. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/140103-music-lessons-brain-aging-cognitive-neuroscience
Harvard Health Publishing: Harvard Medical School. (2021, March 20). Tuning in: How music may affect your heart. https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/tuning-in-how-music-may-affect-your-heart
Jenkins, T. (2014 October, 21). Why does music evoke memories? BBC. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140417-why-does-music-evoke-memories
Mithen, S. (2007). The singing Neanderthals: The origins of music, language, mind, and body. Harvard University Press.
Royal Conservatory of Music. (2014). The benefits of music education: An overview of current neuroscience research. Retrieved January 24, 2022 from https://files.rcmusic.com//sites/default/files/files/RCM_MusicEducationBenefits.pdf
Sacks, O. (2007). Musicophilia: Tales of music and the brain. Knopf.
Suguna S., & Deepik,a K. (2017). The effects of music on pulse rate and blood pressure in healthy young adults. International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 5(12), 5268-5272. http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20175438[/vc_column_text][vc_separator sep_color=”” uncode_shortcode_id=”129216″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”177166″]This article was originally published online in 2018 and was updated January 2022.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]