We want to share our music with you so you can share it with your students, and are suggesting the intentional use of relaxing, peaceful and calming music to benefit your students, providing them valuable life-skills that can be useful into adulthood.

 

Music, as a tool, can be used to help reduce:

 

• Stress

• Anxiety

• Agitation

• Depression 

 

And used to Increase & Strengthen:

 

• Learning & Memory

• Verbal Intelligence

• Mood Elevation

• Environment Conducive to Healing

• Sleep

• Overall Wellbeing

• Resilience

 

The MMA supports the introduction to music that may assist with these goals. 

 

Use this CD as you wish. Below are our suggestions for use of this CD:

 

• During art class.

• As “entry music” into the classroom

• During detention hours

• For the last 4 minutes of class while students are seated and encouraged to focus their breath

• Meditation

• Yoga

 

You are welcome to stream our first compilation album A Better Life: An Introduction to the Mindful Music Association (representing 26 different relaxing music artists) on the home page.

If you would like a physical copy of our CD to use at your school, please email us and we'll send one out to you free of charge. If the listener connects with just one of the compositions they can easily locate more music by that artist, and then have helped someone learn to start creating the process of calming and creating more peace in their life.

 

We hope that in the future, a member of MMA can come to your school to discuss the importance of mindfulness in everyday life.

 

Why Listen to A Better Life?

 

Our young generation is one of the most stressed, anxious, depressed, medicated and suicidal generations ever. We offer music that has peaceful, calming qualities. Young people might not know about these types of music or how it can be used to self-calm. If introduced to them and offered a suggestion to take 5 or 10 minutes once or twice a day, listen, and focus on their breathing they might discover that this practice can help with anxiety and stress. 

  

Some schools are substituting traditional detention with meditation or yoga instruction (We support this trend!) and this collection of music would be a perfect fit for that. In addition, we believe that introducing students to some reflective, peaceful music might demonstrate a way to lower the stress levels. 

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More Data on the Benefits of Listening to Music

 

Music Strengthens Learning and Memory

Listening to music can also help you learn and recall information more efficiently, researchers say. Though it depends on the degree to which you like the music and whether or not you play an instrument. A study showed that musicians actually learned better with neutral music but tested better with music that they liked; whereas non-musicians learned better with positive music but tested better with neutral music. Therefore, the degree of performance differentiates between learning and memory for musicians and non-musicians. 

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Music Increases Verbal Intelligence

A study showed that 90% of children between the ages of 4 and 6 had significantly increased verbal intelligence after only a month of taking music lessons, where they learned about rhythm, pitch, melody, and voice. The results suggest that the music training had a “transfer effect” that increased the children’s ability to comprehend words, and even more, explain their meaning. (Link to Study)

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Another study showed similar results in musically trained adult women and children that outperformed a group with no music training on verbal memory tests. 

 

Music creates an environment conducive to healing​

Music used to create an atmosphere of peace, calm, and relaxation can be a major factor in creating a place where healing can take place. The success of a company like The CARE Channel  available in hospitals nation-wide demonstrates that hospitals believe it to be true.

 

Mood Elevation

This might seem obvious, but the natural chemical response is pretty incredible to think about. If you are ever in need of an emotional boost, let it be known that it only takes 15 minutes of listening to your favorite tunes to get a natural high. This is because your brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that leads to increased feelings of happiness, excitement, and joy, when you listen to music you like. 

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Music Improves Sleep

Over 30% of Americans suffer from insomnia. A study showed that listening to classical or relaxing music within an hour of going to bed significantly improves sleep, compared to listening to an audiobook or doing nothing before bed. Since we know music can directly influence our hormones, it only makes sense to throw on some music of choice before bed when in need of a good night’s sleep. 

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Music Can Help to Reduce Depression

Music has a direct effect on our hormones; it can even be considered a natural antidepressant. This is because preferred music causes the release of serotonin and dopamine (neurotransmitters) in the brain which leads to increased feelings of happiness and well-being. It also releases norepinephrine, which is a hormone that invokes feelings of euphoria.

More than 350 million people suffer from depression around the world, and 90% of them also experience insomnia. The above research also found that symptoms of depression only decreased in the group that listened to classical or relaxing music before going to bed.

Another study demonstrated that certain types of music can be beneficial to patients with depressive symptoms. Interestingly, while classical and relaxing music increased positive moods, techno and heavy metal brought people down even more.

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Music Decreases Stress While Increasing Overall Health

Music has a direct effect on our hormones. If you listen to music you enjoy, it decreases levels of the hormone cortisol in your body, counteracting the effects of chronic stress. Stress causes 60% of all illnesses and diseases, so lower levels of stress mean higher chances of overall well-being.

One study even showed that a group of people playing various percussion instruments and singing had boosted immune systems compared to the people who were passively listening; while both groups’ health was positively affected by music, the group playing instruments and/or singing had better results. 

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Stress taxes our immune system.  Less stress, better immune system response, better general health. Music reduces stress. 

 

These aren't the only benefits of listening to music, there are so many more. These would include decreases in pain thresholds, the relaxing nature it provides to patients before and after surgery, increasing memory pathways for patients with Alzheimer’s, the improvement of recovery time for patients who suffered a stroke, the ability to keep your brain healthy in old age, to name a few. Music really does serve as a therapy for all, whether as medicine in a hospital a heartache on a rainy day, or a well needed peaceful break from your day.

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