Things You Probably Should Know about the Power of Music

An article about music might seem a bit off-topic for a blog based on slowing down and focusing on the important things in life. However, for me, music is a part of the important things in life!

All of our histories are highlighted by music in some way. Even if you don’t listen to music, and never have, I’m guessing you’ve been exposed to music via advertising, the radio, while browsing the aisles of your local shopping outlets, while dining at a restaurant, and countless other venues.

My history has been fairly rich with the presence of music. As a child, I grew up listening to my dad play guitar and piano, and compose his own music as well. My brothers and I all learned to play the piano. I was a member of a few choirs, and I chose to be in musicals for extra-curricular activities. I also took ballet lessons for a number of years - we were taught to allow the music to move through us, in order to transport our grace and fluidity to the next level.

As I grew older, and reached high school age, my friends and I devoured music on the radio, made mix-tapes, then CD mixes, and drove from the suburbs to downtown Chicago to see our favorite bands play in crowded, smokey venues. In my moody teenage bedroom, I would immerse myself in musical baths of my choice, depending on what mood I wanted to elicit. Its power over me was immense.

I was never without music. I had a Walkman, then a Discman, then an iPod, and now I can get music anytime on my smartphone. Music has always ornamented my life, highlighting certain moments, making some more memorable than others. Music, to me, is almost synonymous with memory. In fact, to process music, the brain uses the same processing technique as emotion and memory. 

Trying to remember how to play piano, Dad’s house, 2016

I listen to music less often now, but when I do, I still feel its effects, perhaps just as potently as I did when I was young. 

We humans have always sought music and art to express ourselves. By playing music, we celebrate life, we honor the future, and we mourn what has been lost. Music invokes memories from the past, transports us to different times and places, and makes us feel incredible joy. According to neurologist Oliver Sacks, “Music imprints itself on the brain deeper than any other human experience.”

Music is so influential that it has purportedly brought up birth weights in premature infants, elicited positive effects on plant growth, and aided in the recovery of patients suffering from brain damages. Music has also been documented in boosting performance in sports, improving literacy scores, and helping patients recover from heart attacks. 

Music is clearly exceptionally powerful. 

However, in addition to boosting our mental and physical health on many levels, music can also bring about negative outcomes, such as profound sadness, over-stimulation, hearing loss, memory triggering, emotional flooding, and distress. For example, studies have shown that music can create false memories, confusion, and anxiety in dementia patients who are hoping to recall their lost selves. Music’s adverse effects can multiply and snowball into potentially serious psychological and physical distress, depending on preexisting conditions.

Warped Tour, 1999

As a teenager and through my early 20s, I often used music as a way to escape instead of face reality. Music had a way of altering my mindset, causing me to view both the world and my place in it much differently. The music I chose to listen to, coupled with the circumstances surrounding my consumption of the music, may have had a role in some of the choices I made at the time.

Music has a way of putting us under a spell and forcing us to move against our wills. This can be clearly seen in the very young and also very old. Studies on older infants and toddlers show that when little kiddos hear music, they start to wiggle around and “dance,” as though moved by an unseen force. This also happens to the elderly, as seen in dementia patients, showing that music can make people say or do things that have no relation to reality.

Advertisers have been using music’s powerful effects to their advantage for decades. The familiarity of a song can have powerful sway over consumer behavior. Marketing and advertising firms (and other institutions that use music to rouse an audience) are very successful in eliciting a desired emotional response, and they are very aware of the type of music that might create it. For example, they know that certain major or minor key tunes can manipulate emotion:

“Different melodies, chords, or key changes in songs can elicit responses. For example, strings playing short and sharp notes in a major key were found to elicit feelings of happiness and excitement in 87% of respondents. Meanwhile, a shift from major to minor keys provoked a sense of sadness or melancholy in 83%, and 90% found acoustic guitar sounds to be caring, calm and sophisticated.”

From “Science of Sound: How music makes advertising more memorable”

Part of living mindfully is being a mindful about what we expose ourselves to. In addition to being aware of the effects of “too much” in terms of our digital lives, our possessions, our schedules, and our mental loads, we should also be aware of music’s powerful effects.

Music can wield incredible power over our minds, bodies, and emotions. To quote Stan Lee from Spider Man: “With great power comes great responsibility.” This power can do wonderful, beautiful things. Music has the wonderful ability of accentuating and enlivening our days, providing richness to our earthly experience, and ornamenting our realities, but we need to be aware that music’s power does not always work in our favor, and can actually bring about negative effects.

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I’m not a music scientist, nor am I a licensed psychologist, so the opinions above are my own, highlighted by research I’ve done. I personally find the effects of music to be very fascinating. What about you? What is your personal history with music? I’d love to hear what you think about any of this, or if you can add to the discussion. Please leave a comment below or email me at ali.everthrive@gmail.com

Experiences, Not Things

My husband Josh and I greatly value vacationing together. Through shared appreciation for destinations different than the norm, we've grown closer to each other. We've tested our limits and affirmed our partnership by tackling and overcoming obstacles in places both familiar and strange. As a result of planning for travel and sharing adventures off the beaten path, we've also made a lot of amazing memories. 

Never once on our journeys did we purchase a souvenir. And, never once have we regretted it. In place of trinkets, we create memories that last much longer. In fact, we find so much happiness and importance in experiences that we rarely give each other traditional gifts.

As it turns out, considerable research has been done in support of our conclusions. What follows is five reasons why it is important for personal and relational growth to invest in experiences, not things. 

1. Experiences last longer in our memories than material items do. In contrast, memories - even the bad ones - become sweeter with time. These memories might fade, but the emotion and sentiment from the imprinted experience becomes a part of us. The result is a ripple effect: the experience expands our lives, builds on who we are, thereby making us more complete people. Our experiences not only become a part of us, they also connect us to others with whom we share experiences. We can try our hardest, but material things (even our mobile devices) cannot become part of us. We are the sum of our experiences, not our things. 

2. Since they enhance our character, experiences are a better personal investment than things. Enhancing character is something seldom added to our daily to-do lists, but character is important to think about, especially when you're building a personal relationship. Experiences help us to reinforce and model good character for one another. Experiences also give us defining moments - moments we can forever characterize ourselves by - making us into better people. 

3. Experiences are worth the wait. We plan for travel months in advance; as a result, we eagerly look forward to the moment of our departure, much like school children do when anticipating summer break. The work we do in planning - from booking the tickets and the rental car, to reserving rooms, tables, or activities - is totally worth it because it improves our experience. We might brave hours of airport waiting, security checks, and baggage hold-ups, but overcoming all of that will make the trip even more satisfying.

4. Conversely, I can't think of an instance where someone plans a trivial material purchase months in advance. Of course, we should carefully plan the serious purchase of a home, since things like homes will increase our quality of life for the long-term. But, would you really want to deal with a long-term hassle for a short-term product? Take a look at grocery store check-out lines on a holiday weekend, or crowds in Walmart on Black Friday: waiting in line to buy things brings a lot of discomfort, impatience, and anxiety. Personally, I would much rather wait in line for experiential purchase than a minor material purchases.   

5. More often than not, the material things we buy go out of style or become obsolete. When we purchase something new, we appreciate it and may think we love it. To us, the new thing is fresh and attractive, and mood-lifting endorphins flood our minds due to the act of purchasing. But, we get used to the once-new objects. We adapt, and the things become boring and forgetful. Think back to something you bought five or ten years ago. How many items that you bought during that time are still relevant to your life? Chances are that the items were forgotten, went out of style, or were replaced by a newer model. Memories can also be forgotten or replaced, but the originals still remain part of us. Like I mentioned in point #1, experiences shape us into who we are, and the ensuing memories become the building blocks of our individuality. If we invest in creating quality memories with one other, we will have happiness for the long term.  

Sometimes our experiences don’t seem so good at the time – like when Josh and I got the camper stuck in a volcanic sand trap while we were searching for a campsite in Iceland. We were really tired, hungry, and were starting to get short with each other, and then we got stuck in what we thought was an impossible situation. Miraculously, we were not only able to trial-and-error our way out of that hole, but we also endured another hour of hunting for a camping spot.  

In hindsight we are able to recall that evening with pride. We overcame several obstacles together, and are better for it. We saw how we both handled the stressful situation, and the result made us even more connected as a couple by increasing the respect we have for one another. Conquering tricky situations paves the way for potential opportunities to become better people, and becoming better people is the best gift of all.

Josh and I are definitely not the first to discover the benefits of seeking unique opportunities to make memories together. What we have discovered are the tangible benefits of seeking out experiences instead of material things.

Have you ever thought about allocating more resources towards creating experiences? I’d love to know how experiential gifts have improved your life. What you think about giving and receiving experiences instead of material gifts? 

Please comment below, or send me a message at ali.everthrive@gmail.com