The Power of Music and the Mind-Body

Why is music so powerful for healing? Well, there are lots of reasons. One of the biggies is the power of memories that music can instantaneously recall. How many times have you been riding in your car or just listening to the radio "mindlessly" and suddenly a song from the past or a piece of music of any kind fro the past comes on? You are flooded with images, thoughts and yes, feelings that were long ago associated with this piece of music. Now because I am a professional musician I have a pretty big reservoir of past music to associate. There are pop tunes from my "courting years" as well as symphonies, operas, piano sonatas and lots more that just send me, like a time machine, to different periods of my life. Do I like this??? Yes! I love it. It's a way to have an ongoing photo album/movie/soundtrack from my entire life and I enjoy it a lot! How about you??

St. Patrick's Day Super Special

Top o' the mornin' to ya! Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and I'm thinking green today. I don't know about you, but I love my Irish name of "Cash" and even though it is my married name, I gladly claim a strong Irish/English/Scottish heritage. The folk music of these countries melts my heart and alternately makes my spirits dance in an almost magical way! There is quite a bit of research suggesting that the part of the world our ancestor's are from, has some powerful influence on the type of music we respond to.

To celebrate St. Paddys Day, I want to offer all of my readers, clients and patients a super special St. Paddy's Sale. Follow this link for a special offer:

http://www.healingmusicenterprises.com/listmailings/StPatricksDay.htm

What does Irish Music do for you?

When I used to play the piano on an Alzheimer's unit, as part of my research study on "The Therapeutic Effects of Music on Alzheimer's Patients," one thing I vividly remember is that all the patients seemed to love the old Irish songs, "Too-ra loo-ra loo-ra," "When Irish Eyes are Smiling," "I'll Take Yo Home Again Kathleen" and "It's a long, long way to Tipperrary." Somehow they all seemed to know these songs and sang them with great verve and gusto. Why is this? No one knows for sure, but it would seem that when music is associated with a positive life experience or time period in one's life, certain pairings happen in the brain so that whenever that music played, memories of great pleasure or just the release of pleasure hormones, like endorphins or dopamine surge through the brain. It's a pretty wonderful phenomenon and Irish music in our society does it for a lot of people.