By Susan Magsamen, Time | The other morning, I woke up with Dobie Gray singing “Drift Away” swirling around in my head, and tears in my eyes. “Day after day I’m more confused, yet I look for the light in the pouring rain…Oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul, I want to get lost in your Rock ‘n’ Roll and drift away.”
I stumbled upon the song on YouTube and started to listen along, playing it through a couple of times. Almost instantly, the words and music shifted something in me. Just before, I was feeling a sense of melancholy, but as the song came on, I felt my spirits lift, transporting me from sadness towards a more hopeful feeling. It’s a song that I have loved since I was a teenager, and maybe it was the unexpected tenderness of the singer’s voice, or the longing I felt just sitting underneath words, but I was moved.
As a translational researcher at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, studying how the arts help us to heal, learn and flourish, I’ve read thousands of studies that offer foundational findings about how music and sound impact many parts of our brains and bodies. This day, I was comforted once again by the power of music to support my mental wellbeing. The simple act of listening to a favorite song can alter your mood, triggering long-ago memories. And when we remember to use this knowledge for prevention, wellness practices and interventions, it can significantly enhance your daily life.
The song “Drift Away,” unleashed a cascade of neurobiological responses, initiating increased blood flow to different regions of my brain including the limbic system and igniting a flood of emotions and memories. It also activated my reward system, and I started to feel better. Music has an immediate effect on us. It soothes us, inspires us, makes us happy, guides and directs us, validates our feelings and connects us to our deeply human needs and nature. The structure, rhythms, melodies, syntax, genres, lyrics of songs, a particular instrument, or even the voice of the singer speak to us in the language of humanity.
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Read the rest of this very informative article here:
https://time.com/6275519/how-music-affects-your-brain/
Susan Magsamen is the Founder and Director of the International Arts + Mind Lab Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at Johns Hopkins University. She is the co-author with Ivy Ross of Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us
How Music Affects Your Brain
