The Power of Music: Part Two of Music Therapy for Depression
Music power can be experienced by any age. My husband used to teach grades sevens and eights. They have their own taste in music but each year they read together and studied 'The Phantom of the Opera'. Once they became familiar with the story they listened to the music. This opera style music had a powerful effect on each one. To climax this experience he took them to downtown Toronto to see a live performance of 'The Phantom of the Opera'. These normally restless, sometimes poorly behaved, usually noisy young people became calm, mannerly and quiet as soon as the curtain rose and stayed that way until long after it came down. Music power, there is no denying it.
Music is personal and different for each of us. You may like country and western while I like broadway musicals. Listening to your country and western will not have the same music power, the same therapeutic benefits for me that broadways musicals have.
I enjoy classical music, not all of it. But some of it. I listen to a classical music station when I drive. Other kinds of music agitate me when I'm driving.
I love "The Phantom of the Opera". It can just about cover all of my moods: joy, sorrow, fear, anger, love, hate. I can lose myself in this kind of music. It transports me.
That is a true depression getaway, to be transported!
Some of my favourite broadway musicals are Camelot, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, Hello Dolly, Funny Girl, A Chorus Line.... Listening to these is another great depression getaway for me. The stories grab my heart, the music woos me, the words touch my imagination and I am transported into a different time and place. Music power works.
Calgary music therapist Jennifer Buchanan says if there is a typical time in your day you feel stressed, try listening to calming music that puts you in a better place, just before that time.
“But what can be really beneficial for our health is to have a play list that is defined that is actually labeled by the emotional state you hope to achieve.”
“I like to say that music finds the healthiest parts of us and then it can make those parts a little bit bigger. on days when maybe we don’t feel there’s a lot of healthy parts to us.”
Music can transport each of us if we let it. Now it is only truly therapeutic for us if we like it and so you must get in touch with the kind of music that you truly enjoy! Start a list.
Jason Crigler says that music saved his life and helped him recover from a stroke. "Jason has far surpassed the expectation of doctors. Now he writes songs about the music that helped transport him from a hospital bed, to a return to the stage."
If I am really sick with depression and lying in bed with the door closed, one of the best ways to let music minister to me is with a mp3 player. Just me and the music coming straight into my ears with my earphones. I imagine that the music is medicine for my sick head! Like any medicine though, it only works if you take it.
The kind of music that we have just talked about is the kind of music where I can lose myself (and my depression for awhile). Then there is the kind of music where I can find myself, the self I often lose when I am depressed. Can you even guess what that might be? I will tell you next time!
WHAT ABOUT YOU? How are you feeling today? Are you ready for some music power? Could you name some of our favourite music right now? Would you like to make a favourites list and record it onto your phone or mp3 device?
There is hope for depression.
Don't give up!
