I think we all have a soundtrack of our lives. Actually, I think we have different soundtracks for different times in our lives. Music is just that powerful. I once enjoyed the music of the Creedence Clearwater Revival, but once my brother went to Vietnam, I didn't. Still can't listen without "those" memories.
Most of the time, we don't construct the soundtrack. It happens quite incidentally as the radio or whatever is playing when we experience an event. Then, the association sticks. I don't think there's any research on this, but previously, I've talked about the power of a scent in terms of bringing back memories. I've observed in myself and heard others tell of the power of music evoking memories in remarkably vivid ways.
The song, Weightless, by Marconi Union, resulted in a remarkable 65% reduction in anxiety and a 35% reduction in the study participants' usual resting heart rate and blood pressure. Union and his group created the song in collaboration with sound therapists to reduce the physical effects of anxiety. Their combinations of harmonies and rhythms reduce heart rate and blood pressure and lowered levels of stress hormone cortisol which is known to have a corrosive effect on your health. Once you dump a certain level of adrenaline, cortisol starts to flow. Both adrenaline and cortisol negatively impact the immune system.
A recent study out of both Harvard and Stanford Universities revealed that job-related stress alone cause more deaths than diabetes, the flu or Alzheimer's Disease.
1. We Can Fly by Rue du Soleil (Cafe Del Mar)
2. Canzonetta Suli'aria by Mozart
3. Someone Like You by Adele
4. Pure Shores by All Saints
5. Please Don't Go by Barcelona
6. Strawberry Swing by Coldplay
7. Watermark by Enya
8. Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix) by DJ Shah
9. Electra by Airstream
10. Weightless by Marconi Union
Add your own 10 "theme" songs or songs that bring you peace, relax you, put you in the "right" frame of mind and you'll have a tool chest of 20 songs for many of life's situations.
I had a colleague, a psychiatrist, who told me of a piece of classical music that helped him to cry when he needed to cry, but just could not. He would not share the name of the piece because he said, correctly, that each person has their own songs of joy, grief, sadness, love.
Help your children to tap into their "heart songs". Help them to appreciate how music can allow them experience their emotions in ways that words cannot even come close to expressing.
Just do the best you can, Claudia
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