Page 7 - Inspire Health July/August 2015
P. 7
oundtrack of healthy mind• feedYOUR SOUL
Feelingsmusic and moods Acupressure
By Michael Kabel Feeling stressed? Who has time and money to
visit a spa every time that happens? Be your
own therapist by using the thumb of one hand
to gently massage the tissue between your other
hand’s thumb and forefinger. Stimulating this
area helps release muscle tension.
Add an essential oil for aromatherapy.
You probably use music in your exercise
routines already — for example, playing
upbeat and surging electronic dance
music on the treadmill or keeping gentle
New Age going through your daily yoga.
It’s common knowledge that music can Music and Memory
control and amplify our existing moods. Music is one of the most powerful
In fact, civilizations around the world
have used music to arouse emotions and means of conjuring memories. For
feelings for thousands of years. example, most people have a song that
brings them back to senior year of high
How Your Brain school or to a particularly pleasant summer
Understands Music vacation.This is partly because the brain’s
emotion, language and memory centers
The brain understands music in all play a part in processing the brain’s
much the same way that it understands response to certain kinds of music.We
a story. Appreciating, or “liking,” music remember music playing on emotionally
depends a great deal on predicting what powerful occasions and music powerfully
will happen next in the melody or song evokes memories because music overlaps
structure. Like a story with suspense, both sections of our minds.
the brain responds to the unpredictable. Music and Mood Management
And because it understands the music
is not threatening, the brain’s frontal No brain is identical to any other
lobe responds to the changes in beat or and appreciating music is naturally a
timing with pleasurable impulses. purely subjective experience. Also, as the
brain changes with age, its responses to
Another similar theory holds that the musical stimuli can change as well, perhaps
brain appreciates music because music is so explaining why the musical “geniuses”
closely tied to emotion. Scientists supporting we adored as teenagers fail to hold our
this idea believe we use music to feel certain esteem as we get older.
emotions in a kind of make-believe that
the music both creates and reinforces. In A recent study by Penn State University
this sense, we use music to literally create a showed that most people listen to music
soundtrack for our feelings the way movie while doing something else — chores,
directors use music to underscore the studying, driving, or exercising.The choice
emotion of a scene. of music is largely determined by the task
at hand. Ultimately, we seek the music that
helps us accomplish what we want to do.
July § August 2015 INSPIRE HEALTH 7
Feelingsmusic and moods Acupressure
By Michael Kabel Feeling stressed? Who has time and money to
visit a spa every time that happens? Be your
own therapist by using the thumb of one hand
to gently massage the tissue between your other
hand’s thumb and forefinger. Stimulating this
area helps release muscle tension.
Add an essential oil for aromatherapy.
You probably use music in your exercise
routines already — for example, playing
upbeat and surging electronic dance
music on the treadmill or keeping gentle
New Age going through your daily yoga.
It’s common knowledge that music can Music and Memory
control and amplify our existing moods. Music is one of the most powerful
In fact, civilizations around the world
have used music to arouse emotions and means of conjuring memories. For
feelings for thousands of years. example, most people have a song that
brings them back to senior year of high
How Your Brain school or to a particularly pleasant summer
Understands Music vacation.This is partly because the brain’s
emotion, language and memory centers
The brain understands music in all play a part in processing the brain’s
much the same way that it understands response to certain kinds of music.We
a story. Appreciating, or “liking,” music remember music playing on emotionally
depends a great deal on predicting what powerful occasions and music powerfully
will happen next in the melody or song evokes memories because music overlaps
structure. Like a story with suspense, both sections of our minds.
the brain responds to the unpredictable. Music and Mood Management
And because it understands the music
is not threatening, the brain’s frontal No brain is identical to any other
lobe responds to the changes in beat or and appreciating music is naturally a
timing with pleasurable impulses. purely subjective experience. Also, as the
brain changes with age, its responses to
Another similar theory holds that the musical stimuli can change as well, perhaps
brain appreciates music because music is so explaining why the musical “geniuses”
closely tied to emotion. Scientists supporting we adored as teenagers fail to hold our
this idea believe we use music to feel certain esteem as we get older.
emotions in a kind of make-believe that
the music both creates and reinforces. In A recent study by Penn State University
this sense, we use music to literally create a showed that most people listen to music
soundtrack for our feelings the way movie while doing something else — chores,
directors use music to underscore the studying, driving, or exercising.The choice
emotion of a scene. of music is largely determined by the task
at hand. Ultimately, we seek the music that
helps us accomplish what we want to do.
July § August 2015 INSPIRE HEALTH 7
