As an Ayurvedic physician with over 20 years of medical practice, I never expected one of my patients to praise me for advice on boosting his mood rather than treating his digestive issues. But that pleasant surprise taught me the powerful psychiatric benefits of a simple prescription we overlook – listening to uplifting, beloved music.
It began when Anushrava( name changed), a longtime patient I was treating for chronic amoebiasis, called me for an online consultation clearly in a funk. “Sorry doc for ringing late,” he muttered, “I woke up in a foul mood again. I don’t know why this keeps happening.”
At that moment, I saw an opportunity to help Anushrava holistically. “While I’m tending to your stomach bugs, perhaps I can also give some ‘food for thought’ about nourishing your mindset too,” I offered. I told him that the next time he found his mood tank running low to try this.
“Take 5 minutes and deeply listen to a favorite uplifting song. Absorb every lyrical phrase, instrumental riff, and emotional nuance. Immerse yourself fully rather than playing it in the background.”
I explained emerging research on how beloved music engages the brain’s reward circuits, releasing mood-lifting dopamine and opioids. “It’s a quick, healthy way to recalibrate any negative feelings,” I assured him. “Think of it as a mini mental health break.”
Anushrava agreed to give it a try. And to my pleasant surprise, he called the next month – right on time for his follow-up appointment.
An Instant Morning Mood Flip
“Doc, playing those tunes was magical!” Anushrava exclaimed. “I put on Otis Redding’s ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay’ and it gave me chill bumps – instantly snapped me out of feeling grumpy and irritable! Then I listened to ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by Beatles and ‘ Chaiyya Chaiyya ‘ by A R Rahaman — couldn’t help but smile ear to ear. It completely turned my mood around in minutes!”
He excitedly described creating morning playlists of his most beloved nostalgic songs discovered in childhood that still move him today. “I’m already spreading the word about your 5-minute music remedy to family and friends. You gave me medicine for my mind!” Anushrava said.
His experience struck me as the perfect encapsulation of why laying aside a few minutes for a neuroscientific music break could be as vital as our other daily wellness rituals. I set out to understand the deeper science so more patients – and myself – could benefit.
Why We Physically Feel the Music
As I discovered, Anushrava’s profound mood shift from simply listening to favorite tunes aligned perfectly with cutting-edge neuroscience…
The Brain’s Chemical Party
Multiple studies confirm that listening to pleasurable music triggers dopamine and opioid release from the brain’s reward and motivation circuitry – our endogenous system that reinforces survival-promoting behaviors like eating, bonding, and reproduction. Neurochemicals flood neural pathways making us feel more joyful, rewarded, relaxed, and connected.
This explains the literal rush of bliss you experience hearing a beloved song! The anticipation also fires early dopamine, priming us for pleasure before the first note. Understanding this brain chemical party happening inside helps us consciously harness music’s power.
Resonance Across Brain Regions
Neuroimaging reveals that feel-good tunes synchronize communication across diverse regions that process sound, memory, emotion, creativity, and rhythmic coordination. Hearing favorite music especially activates the hippocampal and parahippocampal networks where personal memories and associations are encoded. That song transporting you back to your special days fires a much more complex neural concert!
Auditory-Motor Synchronization
When you involuntarily tap your toes, drum the steering wheel, or dance to irresistible music, that’s auditory-motor circuitry syncing up. Processing rhythm fine-tunes neuronal connections spanning sound interpretation, memory, and movement areas that govern balance, coordination, and spatial awareness over a lifetime.
So dancing indeed has additional benefits beyond cardio for brain fitness too!
Visual Pattern Activation
Interestingly, even imagining listening to beloved songs lights up emotional and auditory processing regions, releases dopamine, and activates associated visual patterns. Volunteers continuously picturing playing their favorite song showed altered electrical brainwave activity resembling hearing it!
So even just reflecting on special music can elevate your mood.
Added Wellness Benefits of Music for Mind-Body Health
This astonishing neuroscience demonstrates why we instantly feel better emotionally when we listen to a favorite upbeat song. However, researchers have also identified extended wellness benefits that music imparts by lowering stress, enhancing immunity, improving memory, and supporting healthy aging over time. The more we make uplifting music a daily ritual, the greater the dividends to body, mind, and soul.
Stress and Anxiety Relief
Listening to personally enjoyable music measurably reduces cortisol, the key stress biomarker. Regularly carving out mini music breaks trains the nervous system to return more quickly to calmer baseline functioning after heightened pressure or distress. Lower chronic stress contributes directly to reduced risk for numerous health conditions.
Immune System Boost
Playing favorite tunes increases antibody immunoglobulin A, boosting resilience against infection. Combining singing, music-making, and listening may have even stronger immune benefits! Regulated, healthy immune function also lowers inflammation linked to autoimmune and heart disease.
Cognitive Decline Protection
Elderly adults with higher musical engagement show increased cognitive reserve, concentration, information processing, and memory – indicating music helps stave off age-related neural decline. Playing those nostalgic tunes provides mental workoutouts plus joy!
Cardiovascular Support
Soothing music aids relaxation, supports healthy blood pressure, and reduces arrhythmia recurrences and myocardial oxygen demand – perfect self-care for managing heart issues. Regular musical immersion may also benefit stroke recovery.
Neuropathic Pain Relief
Listening to preferred music distracts the brain from nociceptive signals, reduces discomfort by up to 21%, and enables 20-25% opioid medication decrease. Make those playlists analgesics! Interestingly, specific neural pathways process the pleasure evoked by music distinctly from relieving negative effects. So favorite songs uniquely lift mood beyond just masking pain.
Motivation and Endurance Boost
Uplifting music with personal meaning directly fuels dopamine’s incentive salience circuitry that promotes drive and determination. Empowering songs help us psyche up for challenging situations and persevere longer through physical exertion or mental focus. Use your favorite playlist to get energized!
Curating Your Musical Medicine Cabinet
The compelling research compelled me to give Anushrava evidence-based guidance on intentionally curating his own “music medicine cabinet” for enhancing positivity and resilience.
I encouraged him to cultivate a personalized soundtrack of beloved songs across his life that hold positive associations and still spark joy, nostalgia, inspiration, or a sense of purpose. Like your go-to comfort foods or treasured photos that lift your spirits, favorite tunes become emotional touchstones we can revisit to shift energy or perspective.
I also recommended keeping his collection current by adding new meaning-rich songs over time that support mental health – just as you update your physical medicine cabinet. Seek out fresh tracks with psychologically empowering themes, uplifting vocals, rousing instrumentation, and a triumphantly affirmative spirit. New musical “power-ups” offer vital renewal.
Finally, I advised making his favorite playlists easily accessible across devices, storing some offline, and sharing with loved ones open to musical medicine. Soon Anushrava was convening listening parties with friends to mutually support wellbeing!
Take a Music Break For Daily Wellness
In closing, I now urge all patients – and myself – to remember our favorite feel-good songs as tools for emotional first aid and everyday mind-body nourishment.
Carve out 5 minutes (or more) each day to truly absorb treasured music as a ritual of self-care and celebration akin to meditating, moving your body, emitting gratitude, or communing with nature.
Use uplifting tunes to punctuate tasks requiring concentration or motivation. Let rhythmic movement and vocalization amplify music’s stress-busting and immune-enhancing effects. Share songs that spread joy.
And especially call upon this musical magic when you need renewal – feeling overwhelmed; sensing your positivity, energy, or purpose flagging; or battling physical discomfort or cravings that undermine well-being. Those opening chords provide a personalized pathway back to your center.
Now press play and let the healing waters of a song transport you to a more easeful state. What beloved tune is calling to you today? I’m off to soak in the fab four myself…Here comes the sun (and the Son) indeed!
