In.answer to the question – How To Feel Better – Here are 7 compelling reasons to listen to quiet music – plus a short personal story.
Several years ago, when my mother-ín-law, Olga was 85, she underwent a heart valve operation that went very wrong.
Instead of being up and awake the next day, Olga lay in what appeared to be a deep coma. My husband Nick, and I visited his mother every day hoping to once again see her bright eyes wide open and her eager face smiling.
But day after day, the answer was the same when we entered intensive care. ¨No change.¨ We saw the sad looks on the doctors´ and nurses faces and knew that they did not expect her to wake up.
It was Christmas time. And being a singer who loves Christmas music, I was in the seasonal music mode, both as a listener and as a performer. One day, as I sat by Olga´s bedside, next to the bleeping and blinking monitors that measured her vital signs, I began to very quietly sing some Christmas songs close to her ear.
HOW TO FEEL BETTER & THE HEALING POWER OF MUSIC
I believe strongly in the healing power of music. It was the main reason that I started singing as a little girl. So I sang to Olga with a lot of emotion and joy (though with little volume) hoping to reach into her psyche and help pull her out again. At first there was no reaction from Olga. But several curious nurses drifted over to her bedside to see what would happen. And sure enough, they began to notice changes occurring on the monitors. Olga´s body seemed to be responding to the music.(Doctors who conducted a recent study (2009) done at the University Hospital in Liege, Belgium, found to their surprise that some vegetative patients (not those who had been oxygen-starved) were able to respond to questions asked in specific ways. Read more here. )
The nurses in intensive care encouraged me to sing to Olga as often as I could. And over several days, we continued to be heartened by the changes we saw on the monitors as I sang. When I was not there, the nurses agreed to play music from a small cassette player we left at the bedside.
On Christmas Day, when Nick and I walked into that sad, intense room – there was Olga, sitting up in a chair surveying her surroundings. After 11 days in a coma, her eyes looked pretty unfocussed, but she was conscious and awake! It took about 6 months for Olga to fully recover from her ordeal – but she made a remarkable recovery. And today, at 92, she is still in good health and living happily on her own.
RECOVERY- OFTEN A MYSTERY
I would not claim that it was the music that brought her consciousness back to the surface. My husband, who was a well-known medical journalist, convinced the doctors to try other unusual remedies, as well. But I do know that her body definitely responded to the sounds of music. And it may have played a part in helping to repair her brain.
Music has a powerful effect on our bodies. We can learn about how to feel better through reading what science is discovering. Recent scientific studies are showing that music definitely creates changes in our bodies. What those changes will mean to us over the long-term is yet to be ascertained. But I believe that in the future we will use music much more readily for life-improvement.
Find links to studies & other information at the end of this article. And here are several books and music that I highly recommend for you!.
7 compelling reasons to listen to quiet music for those who are wondering how to feel better:
1. You must stay still – Here is the easiest benefit. The simple act of sitting or lying down while you listen to quiet music, slows you down, and reduces muscular tension.
2. Music can have a good effect on your heart – Listening to music that gives you pleasure can improve blood flow and scientists say that it may promote vascular health.
3. When are you quiet, words have great power – If the music is a guided meditation – the words can take you far away from your usual worries. Your mind relaxes and you will likely feel fresher and more focussed afterwards.
4. Quiet music has been shown to slow down your brain waves – It is this Alfa state (slower brain waves) that leads to more abundant creative energy.
5. Pain control and headache control – In music therapy, quiet music is used to help combat frequent or recurring pain and migraine headaches.
6. Sleep Aid – Many people turn to quiet guided meditations at night when they wake up and cannot return to sleep.
7. Anxiety reduction – Stefan Koelsch, a senior research fellow in neurocognition of music and language at the University of Sussex, states that “Physiologically, it’s perfectly plausible that music would affect not only psychiatric conditions but also endocrine, autonomic and autoimmune disorders,” he says. “I can’t say music is a pill to abolish disease, but my vision is that we can come up with things to help. So many pills have horrible side-effects, both physiological and psychological, but music has none.”
8. A bonus benefit – The pure pleasure of feeling those good emotions coursing through the body.
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Barbara Lewis is a singer, songwriter, teacher & writer who has a long-standing interest in finding ways to living a healthier, happier life. Some of her original music explores these themes. Barbara´s latest composition, a serenity-enhancing guided meditation called, ¨Your Inner Voice¨ – is available FREE on her Web site when you subscribe to her newsletter, ¨Keys To Well Being.¨
LINKS TO RELATED INFORMATION AND STUDIES:
1. Doctor Beat
2. A Key For Unlocking Memories
3. Vegetative Patients Show Awareness
4. This is Your Brain On Music
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