Monday, September 2, 2013

How Music Heals

There are at least three ways. Music helps us...

1. Keep calm. Listening to favorite music lowered anziety among IU patients by about one third, according to a recent Ohio State University study. And no, any old music won't do - it had to be familiar and comforting, according to researchers.

For example, the Beatles song that played at our wedding:



Or the one that played in my head a year before, when I was deciding to propose to Dena:



2. Eat less. When Hardee's gave one of its restaurants a fine-dining makeover - including soft lighting and jazz - diners ate about 18 perent less and reported enjoying their food more, according to a Cornell study.

Maybe one of Dena's favorite songs "Feeling Good" by Michael Buble will do the same for you:


3. Improve focus. Uplifting concertos from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons can boost mental alertness, according to research from Northumbria University in the United Kingdom. When young adults were given a task that required intense concentration, they did better while listening to the uplifting "Spring" concerto versus the slower and more somber "Autumn" one.

So break out your check book, open a window, and cue it up!

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