Adversity, Resilience and Music

I just spoke with a dynamic woman who founded and runs an organization called the Modern Widows Club (www.modernwidowsclub.com). The group’s mission is to “serve the empower widows to lean into life, build resilience and release their potential to make a positive difference in society.” She somehow heard about music therapy and intuitively thought there was something there to support her mission. And there is.

Resiliency is defined as the ability to adapt to stress and adversity. It is the capacity to incorporate negative fears, feelings and experiences with positive emotionality. And these traits are not inherited or gifted to certain people and not to others. They can be developed.

There are a number of traits that make up the composite of resiliency. They are optimism, attitude to life, emotional awareness, a sense of control, social support, a sense of humor, confidence in self, the ability to solve problems and the willingness to adapt and be flexible. 

So how does music fit in? Music can change one’s affect from intensity to calm, from depressed to elevated, from inert to motivated, from hopeless to hopeful. And it’s all just a playlist away.

Here’s an example. I don’t like to get up in the mornings- never have and I expect never will. To help move me from sluggish and tired to functional and dare I say happy, I created a playlist called ‘waking to a beautiful world.’ I have music on there that gently rocks me with rhythms (Jimmy Cliff’s ‘Beautiful world, beautiful people’), inspires me with words (Ben Harper’s ‘Better way’) and gets my mind moving faster (Krishna Das ‘Shri Guru Charanam). This last piece starts off slowly and accelerates. I start is as I disembark from the train and begin my walk to Berklee to begin classes. By the time I arrive, I am alert, ready for the day and have a smile on my face. 

The blues have a particular quality of matching your affective state of sadness or depression. It not only meets it, it lifts it. A playlist that begins with one or two blues tunes can then progress to songs with lighter affects. Your emotions have been recognized and validated in the music. They have served their purpose and you can now look to move on. 

There are many more sophisticated ways that a music therapist can help transform affect from being ineffectual to being able to ‘lean into life.’ Here is a list of songs that I use. Perhaps from this model, you can begin to see how you might customize playlists to work with and transform your affective states. 

Songs that make me laugh

Dean Martin- That’s amore

Nancy Sinatra- These boots are made for walking

Clark Terry- Mumbles

Ella Fitzgerald- Old MacDonald (yes, the children’s song)

Young @ Heart’s version of ‘Should I stay or should I go’

Louis Prima’s ‘I want to be like you’ from Jungle Book

Harry Belafonte- Jump in the line

Tower of Power- Don’t change horses 

Songs that bring me peace (and helped prepare me to be relaxed for surgeries)

Renee Fleming- Nacht und träume by Strauss

Renee Fleming- Abends will ich schlafen geh'n, from Hänsel und Gretel

Finzi’s Eclogue for piano and strings

Mozart’s serenade for winds, K. 361- Adagio

Tchaïkovski’s Sérénade Pour Cordes

Nakai- Comes the dawn

Korngold: Violin Concerto in D major 

Vaughan Williams: Symphony #3, "A Pastoral Symphony" - 1. Molto Moderato

Cavatina (The Deer Hunter)

Elgar: Symphony #1 In A Flat, Op. 55 - 3. Adagio

Vaughan Williams: 5 Variants Of Dives & Lazarus

Elgar: Variations On An Original Theme, Op. 36, "Enigma" - Var. 9, “Nimrod"

Mascagni: Cavelleria Rusticana - Intermezzo Sinfonico

Find the stillness- a Unitarian Universalist hymn

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto In A, K 622 - Adagio

Renee FLeming- Hallelujiah

Eva Cassidy- Dark eyed Molly

Duke Ellington- Sophisticated lady

Songs that make me feel optimism (or clarity about what’s important)

Peter, Paul and Mary- ‘Dont laught at me’

Louis Armstrong or Eva Cassidy- What a wonderful world

Eva Cassidy’s version of ‘Imagine’

Sting- ‘Fragile’ 

Young @ Heart’s versions of ‘Young at heart’ and ‘One’

Jimmy Cliff- ‘Wonderful world, beautiful people’

Bob Marley- Jah live

Michael Jackson- Man in the mirror

Ben Harper- Better way

YoYo Ma and Alison Kraus- Simple gifts

Cat Stevens- Peace train

Bob Marley- War

Ray Charles- Spirit of Christmas

Songs that get me moving

Michael Franti & Spearhead- The sound of sunshine

Talking Heads- Nothing but flowers

Benny Goodman- Sing, sing, sing

Robert Plant and Alison Kraus- Gone, gone, gone

Bonerama- Bayou Betty

Buckwheat Zydeco- Ma ‘Tit Fille

Elvis Presley- A little less conversation (JXL radio edit remix)

Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band- Olympia Brass Band

Cat Stevens- Can’t keep it in

Gloria Estafan- Mi tierra

Count Basie- Jumpin’ at the woodside

So how will you use music to enhance your mood? to transform a bad day to a good one? Music has power and you can wield it to your well-being. It’s just a track away!