In the second part of this episode of Dr Laura: Where Work Meets Life™ – Dr. Laura invites Jennifer Buchanan, author of “Wellness, Wellplayed”, back to the show to discuss wellness through music. Jennifer discusses how music plays a key role in impacting our mood, memory, and productivity, and she shares stories about witnessing the power of music therapy in action.
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EPISODE NOTES:
Music has an incredible impact on our moods: Jennifer talks about how it can motivate us out of a slump and increase our serotonin levels. She details the positive effects of music on every stage of our lives. One of the physical areas in which music therapy has a demonstrable impact is in neuro rehab. Jennifer explains how challenges in fine or gross motor movement after a brain injury can be positively influenced by elements of music.
“So music has this incredible capacity to act like a drug on our system and … the hormones and neurotransmitters that affect us. You hear about the words dopamine, for example, and that feel-good oxytocin, which is that social bonding hormone that can be released in our system, and serotonin, which is the one you don’t want to get too low because you start feeling low and there’s this nice window of where serotonin needs to reside. And what we have found through the research and evidence is that music has this incredible capacity to be able to change those hormone levels in our system, especially when we use [music] regularly.” – Jennifer Buchanan
