Music is a whole-brain food. It can nourish an ageless mind, one that is flexible and growing. People who enjoy listening to music have direct access to all the major ingredients for keeping their brains fit. By its very nature, music has a powerful effect on the brain, body, and spirit. Music that you choose to listen to can play a role in helping you develop a consistent lifestyle that supports brain health and overall well-being.
Researchers are finding that more than medications, specific lifestyle choices can make a real difference in optimizing brain functions and minimizing the risk of dementia.
Music can stimulate both hemispheres of the brain when people are guided to listen with close attention and focus on complex music of many kinds. Learning to do this introduces novelty and challenges the brain, stimulating the growth of new neurons.
Music also affects our brains from the limbic system outward to the neocortex. It can help us eat and sleep better. In a May 2013 article in Scientific American, Let's Get Physical: The Psychology of Effective Workout Music, it is referred to as "a type of legal performance-enhancing drug" enhancing the effect of exercise. It plays many other roles in keeping the brain awake and alive.
Join Joshua and Lynne and discover your own recipe for brain fitness that can work for you consistently and evolve with changes in your life over time.
About Lynne and Joshua Berrett:
Joshua Berrett, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus of Music, musicologist, jazz and classical music studies author, and violinist in area music groups. His retirement career's purpose is to teach an appreciation of many types of music and their tangible benefits to people's brain health and lives through lifelong learning classes in person, by phone, and online. He relishes helping students of all ages expand their horizons and improve their well-being through music. He has recently been appointed to the Lifelong Learning Committee of the American Society on Aging.
Lynne Berrett, MA, LCSW, is a life coach and a co-leader of the MentorCoach Alliance for Positive Psychology. She is a certified Total Brain Health coach. She has taught writing and literature in higher education, been a special counselor for at-risk college students, and a psychotherapist in private practice for adults and couples for over 30 years. She is deeply interested in literature, music, and dance's role in improving people's brains and lives, especially as they age. Their blog, The Ageless Mind Project, reflects Lynne's training in Positive Psychology as well as their joint contact with current neuroscience researchers about lifestyles that support brain fitness.
Get in touch with Lynne and Joshua Berrett:
Visit the Berretts’ Website: https://www.agelessmindproject.org/
Download the Berretts’ Handout: https://revolutionizeretirement.com/barrett
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