Many of us have experienced a great sense of peace, connectivity, and motivation after listening to our favorite tracks. Music has the power to take us to a higher place and help us experience a world that speaks not only to our head and heart, but also to our very soul.
Here’s how rhythm, melody, and the divine sound of the human voice combine to lift us into greater versions of ourselves.
Music Improves Our Intuition | Benefits of Music
“When we’re listening to music, the most advanced areas of the brain tie in to the most ancient.” – Valorie Salimpoor, neuroscientist at Montreal’s McGill University
Intuition has been shown to be a science of patterns. Specifically, it’s human’s ability to use the neural connections that are present in both the heart and the brain to piece together ideas about life situations. These neural connections are formed from our experiences and memories, and they help us to understand how a situation will unfold. They also guide us towards the best course of action to take to move forward successfully.
As it turns out, music’s ability to touch our heart and activate key centers in our brain also appears to stimulate these neural connections. This assists us in ‘upping’ our intuitive game by properly predicting patterns, especially when we encounter new situations that also contain certain elements from our past.
Music Lights Up Our Creativity | Benefits of Music
“Artistic creativity, it’s magical – but it’s not magic.” – Dr. Charles Limb
During musical innovation, the self-expressive area of our brains light up – but that’s not all. Its sister in innovation, the self-regulation center, slows way down as well. In this way music trains different parts of our brain to work in cahoots with each other in order to optimize our creative capacity and allow our inventive nature to shine through.
Our creative imagination also kicks into high gear when we listen to music during our workouts. It seems that the right beat will lessen our focus on any pain or discomfort we might be feeling, and allow us to exercise more efficiently over longer periods of time.
Music Advances Our Thinking | Benefits of Music
Music lessons have a surprisingly uplifting effect on people’s lifelong emotional and cognitive intelligence levels. Even if we’re far from being a maestro, just taking musical instruction as a kid means we’ll be much better at problem solving, keeping control over our emotions, and engaging our memory as an adult. In addition, those who practice an instrument in their youth are faster at recognizing the speech patterns of others, which helps make them great listeners.
Music also reduces the time it takes to recover from stressful events.
Take a listen to Mindlab’s ’10 Most Relaxing Songs on Earth’ to experience the most scientifically-soothing sounds on the planet.
This means that we’re better able to overcome the “foggy” thinking that sometimes happens during high-anxiety situations, and instead respond in a clear-headed, solution-oriented way. Rhythm’s capacity to unlock the higher levels of brainwave functioning also makes it an excellent healing therapy for those seeking to overcome issues with depression, concentration, and focus.
This is how music raises us up to reach our highest human potential.