Your Sound of the Summer – Music to Help you Retune in June « Executive and Life Coaching Courses and Information

This month you want to breathe deeply and maybe even a bit deeper than usual. Summer is almost here – thank goodness! So how can you best use this time to relax, enjoy yourself and recharge your batteries?

We are here to support and encourage you to pay close attention to the well-being of yourself and those around you. June sounds like a perfect month for your mind, body and spirit to get a break.

For some, retuning in June means going away for holidays, changing environment and spending time with family and friends. For others it will be time alone reading a favorite book or going for a long walk along the beach.

Have you got an idea how you can retune this month?

Your sound of the Summer – music to help you retune in June

One thing we all seem to enjoy more in Summer is music. Music brings positive energy and can instantly put us in a good mood. Music can stimulate and energize but also help calm us down and provoke reflective thoughts and relaxation.

Every Summer there seems to be at least one perfect Summer tune. What is your sound of this Summer? What is your favourite song?

Benefits on health

Music feels good but that’s not all. Studies published in April this year help understand what chemical processes occur in the brain in response to various tunes. Does it mean that listening to the music could promote health?

The research was conducted by Daniel Levitin, a psychologist who studies the neuroscience of music at McGill University in Montreal. He focused on the patients who were to undergo an operation. Some of them were given medication to reduce their level of anxiety and others listened to music instead.

The patients who listened to music before the operation experienced less anxiety and the level of chemicals released in their brains in response to stress was lower than people who took drugs.

Levitin emphasises that this is only one study. More research has to be done to confirm the results. However there is a potential for music to become powerful medicine in a future if it’s healing qualities are positively confirmed.

What we know for sure right now is that music has an effect on our brain. It changes the chemistry. Levitin saw the positive influence of music on our immune system and a higher number of cells that fight germs and bacteria.

There’s this unifying force that comes from the music, and we don’t get that from other thingsLevitin

Other researchers also discovered similarities among music listeners and published their findings in the European Journal of Neuroscience. Their study confirmed that if considered from the perspective of the brain, music could be a common ground.

17 participants of the study who listened to the music seemed to have similar brain responses. Their brain activity patterns confirmed that humans perceive music in the same way. Regardless of how different we may seem to each other, the way we react to music makes us very alike. Music unites.

It’s not our natural tendency to thrust ourselves into a crowd of 20,000 people, but for a Muse concert or a Radiohead concert we’ll do itLevitin

There is a high possibility that in a future music will become a form of a medical treatment. More research has to be done to confirm those healing qualities but based on what we already know today, we can use music as part of our relaxation and de-stressing routine every day. There are positive benefits that we know of already.

Does it have to be a song? Not really. We don’t have to play music using any available devices. There are natural sounds around us that can easily serve the same purpose. We can enjoy the sound of birds singing or children’s laughter.

Music is all around us and maybe even in us. What will you do to hear it?

Interested in more research on music? Read on!
Author : Joanna Sobczak