by Roland Majla | June, 2021 | Music, Roland Majla
We humans, have developed over time a taste for sweet things, an eye for sweet things and a smell of sweet things, but we also developed an ear to sweet-sounding things. Now, what is sweet and to whom is a subjective question, and I don’t want to discuss that here, instead, I’d like to put an emphasis here on the positive effects of melodies and harmonies. Maksim Gorkim once said, “When work is pleasure, life is joy!” I would like to make an adjustment here and change the word “work” with the word “music”. I believe music and the melodies can act as antidepressants, and there are numerous studies that testify this, here I would like to present a few ideas how our “invisible” friend music can help people to cope better under pressure and “renew” our emotional power when feeling down. Music and cancer patients The enjoyment of music, as explained by psychologists helps individuals to gain insight into the higher thought processes, it is a certain area of the cerebral cortex which is responsible for thinking, judging, imagining and creating. Cancer or the big “C” on the other hand is one of the most undesired illnesses, it comes with pain, lethargy, apathy and we know many times brings us one step closer to death. Supportive music has been shown to be beneficial for cancer patients who are undertaking chemotherapy, as it is known that chemotherapy is unpleasant, patients usually suffer from fatigue, feeling sick, losing hair, losing appetite. Supportive music can help patients to prepare for treatment, to feel motivated and energized. (Burns et al., 2018)...
by Roland Majla | April, 2021 | Music, Roland Majla
When people say music makes you feel better, they are right. For those who do not think this way (although I hardly believe that), I recommend you give it a try. I remember when sometime in 1990 right after the fall of the Soviet Union we had the chance to – legally – listen to music from the west and one of the very first songs I heard on the radio was “The Show Must Go On” by Queen. I have fallen in love with that song, even though I had no idea what the song was about, what the lyrics are about because I was just a small child with no English knowledge at all. However, the music was suspenseful and energetic, and it carried me away with it. Wellbeing and music The academic literature on positive emotions and wellbeing in general up until the 1980s has not produced more than 800 articles annually. (Myers & Diener, 1995) However, with the advent of Positive Psychology in the 1990’s this, fortunately, has changed for the better. A new field has emerged in the field of Psychology that reminded Cicero’s quote “There’s no fool who is happy, and no wise man who is not”. The positive effect of music is, fortunately, gaining momentum, there is now clear evidence that music lowers anxiety, increasing mood and quality of life and it helps with coping during stressful times. (Daykin et al., 2018) An interesting study also shows the beneficial effect of music on refugees and asylum seekers, that for instance activities involving music such as singing and dancing positively affected people’s ability for...
by Stuart Dickson | May, 2018 | Music
In March my partner and I attended a conference for the network company we are involved in. After lunch we had a musical team building session. In 45 minutes, a room full of 3500 delegates came together in a hilarious, energising musical team building exercise. The after lunch slump We have attended the annual conference a few times. It is a fantastic, well-organised event that has motivational speakers, exciting business changes and recognition for those who have achieved various milestones within their business. However, no matter how uplifting the event, the inevitable after lunch crash makes an appearance. You try to fight it but the yawning starts as you try to stay focussed – we’ve all been there! So when the leader of the team building exercise came on stage, he had his work cut out to grab our attention and get our buy in for what was to come. This was not a problem and he had our engagement within seconds. I remember thinking “this is different for this event”. It was very clear that we were about to experience the energiser of all energisers. Grabbing our attention The team leader was able to grab our attention with a simple clapping exercise, breaking down the auditorium in to smaller but still large groups. The clapping in your group was done on his signal, with the objective being in time. Of course this did not happen and the feedback was delivered, sometimes to individuals with an appropriate level of humour, which had us all laughing from the outset. After a few minutes of bringing us together with various clapping...
