Music and Healthy Aging

 

This month, in honor of Older Americans Month, I've been learning more about Healthy Aging.  The other day, I attended the AARP CO Virtual Healthy Living Conference and one of the presentations was about music and how beneficial music can be for our memory!

I remember seeing an example of music therapy in video on Facebook about a woman who had Alzheimers.  She'd been a ballerina and when she heard music from one of the scores that she'd danced to, it seemed to trigger her memory.

In the AARP conference, the presenters talked about the many ways that music can contribute to our brain health.  Learning how to play an instrument challenges our brains, which keeps them strong.  They also talked about music being used to trigger memories, as is the case with this ballerina.

One of the presenters played the piano and the other sang, "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. Then they asked those of us in the audience if the song triggered any memories.

For many people, it triggered memories of watching "The Sound of Music."  For me, it did trigger one of my earliest memories of a time when my mother sang me that song when I was crying about something. (Very appropriate memory seeing as it was Mother's Day weekend!)

In fact, one of the things I like to do to exercise my creativity with music, is to rewrite lyrics to well-known songs.  I decided to go ahead and rewrite the lyrics to "My Favorite Things" to be about being a mother to my grown up kids!  

I love how music triggers memories and when I was doing my 60-until-60 project, I created a 60-song playlist with songs that all the special people in my life picked out.  Now, whenever I hear a song from that list, I always think of the person with whom its associated and it brings me a happy feeling.

Whether playing music, listening to music, singing, or dancing, music really brings so much joy to our lives.  After attending the AARP conference, I have even more of an appreciation of music and how it helps our mental health, our memory, and our overall well-being.