The strangest experiments have been done involving music’s impact on plant life. Various studies have even studied how specific genres of music effect plants. Yup, it sounds crazy. Plants don’t have ears (that we know of) so how in the world could music affect them? Good question. The answer to that, my friend, is a whole ‘nother Oprah, if you know what I mean!

According to these experiments, plants responded well to classical music better than they did to no music at all, and they responded poorly to rock music. The most evident explanation is that slow moving air has a positive effect on plants; no movement of air is bad for plants; and fast moving bursts of air have a negative effect on them.

Enough About Plants – What About Humans?

The question at hand, though, is not music’s ability to change the well-being of plants—how does music affect the human mind and body? THAT is the question!

It is unlikely that rock music has the detrimental effect on us that it did with the plants. Human beings have more than one sense that will respond to stimuli.

For example, our sense of touch is affected by the feeling of loud music. Such stimulus can have a positive effect in the same sense that being touched by another person can. (Hugs and massages are well-known and successful therapy techniques for the mind and body.)

Secondly, and most obviously, our sense of hearing is impacted by sound. It’s hard to put a finger on why certain frequencies (low range bass, middle range, and high range treble) are pleasing in different ways to different people.

It’s also complicated to understand why different people enjoy different genres. For example, why do younger people like certain music older generations do not? Why do people of opposite genders often tend to like different music? The stereotype issue is not worth getting into at this juncture but is worth noting, generally.

So other than touch and our ears physiological response to sound, the question remains: why else does music affect our health? The answer to this question is profound and goes to the heart of the matter.

Music affects our health through our mind and spirit. Our mind can be energized by certain beats. Perhaps our brains subconsciously synchronize our heart rates with certain tempos? (Tempo is the speed of music, basically.) That’s one viable theory.

The mood of the lyrics to a song has an obvious influence on our moods and mindsets. Perhaps resonation, both figuratively and literally is why music affects our health. Resonation is sympathetic vibration in sound theory. When an object, room, or even a string (on an instrument such as a guitar) has the tendency to vibrate at a certain frequency, if said frequency is in the air the object, room, or string will notably vibrate in unison.

Perhaps resonation happens on a mental and spiritual level as well, in a more figurative sense. Perhaps it is the sympathetic nature of music, the love and other plethora of emotions that are expressed, absorbed and released via music that causes it to resonate with us.

Regardless of the technical explanation, music has been proven both through clinical research and personal observation to have a positive impact on your health and well-being. At the end of the day, music—like love, life, and God—is yet another inexplicable but easily accessible miracle of our profound existence. With that said, stop over-thinking it. Just press play.

Your health is a valuable gift. That’s why we here at IBD Insurance want to provide you the very best in health insurance through BCBSNC.

Tags: Holistic Health //