The Music of Our Lives

By Ryhaan Shah

Most of us enjoy listening to music. For those of you who play an instrument, you probably still enjoy making music by strumming your guitar or playing the piano. Music offers significant, non-medication benefits for us as we grow older. It stimulates mental activity and processing, awakens preserved memories, and helps us alleviate anxiety, depression, and restlessness.
It also encourages physical movement, whether it’s dancing or rhythm for exercise workouts, and can be used as a powerful medium for emotional expression and social connection.
Most of us have a soundtrack to our lives, and listening to the music from our youth most likely brings back happy memories of a first love, parties, friendships, and dancing. A familiar song can take us back to a particular time and place and spark personal memories of happy, youthful years.
It is said that such music-oriented memories help us lower stress hormones like cortisol and increase others like dopamine, which can help us alleviate stress levels, anxiety, and even feelings of loneliness and isolation.
When music is used as group therapy, it prevents the common issue of elderly isolation by fostering communication, even for individuals with limited verbal ability, since rhythm stimulates the brain’s motor centers. Activities like chair dancing, tapping, or hand drumming help improve mobility, coordination, and speech recovery following conditions like a stroke.
It is not surprising that music is used as therapy for those who show symptoms of dementia. At one care home in Strabane in the UK, staff have been using “silent discos” to help residents with dementia reconnect with some of their musical memories.
Unlike a traditional disco, the music is played through wireless headphones, allowing each resident to enjoy songs chosen especially for them. Staff report that the impact of the music is extraordinary since it appears to reach places that dementia cannot take away.
Hayley Phillips, who has worked at the home for 26 years, told BBC Radio, “You can actually see that wee bit of personality that can be lost after a dementia diagnosis coming back when they put the headphones on. We see the music bring back that spark in them.”
Elaine Kelly, another staff member, says the residents come to life when they listen to their chosen music. “The music brings them back to a sense of safety and security. In that moment, nothing is worrying them. It’s like the dementia is gone, and they are free. It’s really beautiful to see that. Dementia robs people of so much, but it can’t touch music – it stays within them forever.”
A professionally led music therapy session would include sing-along sessions using hand-held percussion instruments or rhythmic tapping, relaxation to targeted tempos to reduce stress and tension, and talking about life events tied to specific songs.
And what goes best with music other than dancing? Dancing is a wonderful, low-impact way for us to stay active, improve balance, and boost our mood. Dancing – even if seated – gets our blood pumping safely without stressing our joints, and it releases feel-good chemicals that lower stress and lift our mood. Doing it as a group offers the added benefit of meeting new people and sharing happy moments with friends.
Music bypasses logic to touch our deepest core and helps us articulate complex feelings of grief or joy when words fail. Most of us would agree that this universal art form transcends the limitations of spoken language to instantly connect with our emotions.
Here in Guyana, with our diverse cultures and forms of musical expression, we are well aware of this. We all know the Caribbean beats of soca, chutney, and reggae, which exist alongside Bollywood hits, African and Amerindian rhythms, and, newer to our song list, the Spanish sounds that are becoming more mainstream.
There is little doubt as to the healing power of music, and even casual listening to favourite songs can be beneficial. My father, who lived to age 98, enjoyed listening to old Bollywood hits sung by Mohamed Rafi. It reminded him of his youth, of happy times with his family, and sparked storytelling of those days, all of which were good for his health and well-being.
The American writer Mark Twain, well-known for his wit and wisdom, put it well when he said, “Dance like nobody’s watching, sing like no one is listening.”
Music promotes our physical, emotional, and mental health. Whether through listening, singing, playing instruments, composing, or interacting with music as a group, music therapy can help us achieve healing, improve our quality of life, and build resilience against illness.