Singing - A Catalyst For Healthy Living
Singing Promotes Positive Wellbeing
You’ve been waiting all day to receive a special phone call about a potential job promotion. You can barely sit still as you work, much less concentrate on the work you need to do. As the day draws to a close, you see that particular number flash on your phone. You hurriedly answer it with great expectation. After a couple minutes, you put down the phone and shout with excitement. You’ve just received the best job promotion offered at your company. You burst into joyous song, making up the melody and words as you jump around to tell co-workers. As you ride home in your car, you sing at the top of your lungs to any familiar song on the radio. In terms of overflowing emotion, you are sailing on Cloud 9.
While this may not be your everyday experience, I am positive you can relate to this story in some way. What I find so peculiar is that we have such an awesome tendency to sing whenever we experience something that empowers us. Just think about it: a high school basketball team has just won the conference championship. On the bus ride home, what do the basketball players do? Why they sing, of course! It could be a bellowing of “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen or a yelling of “Enter Sandman” by Metallica. Whatever the case, the common denominator is singing. As we can see, singing is almost an automatic reaction to heightened emotions. Singing is a catalyst to healthy living. Let’s unpack that some more.
Singing and Emotional Release
Singing is a visceral act, meaning that is has the ability to affect our bodies. It would not be a farce, then, to say with confidence that singing has a unique ability to stir emotions within us. As such, singing can be executed almost naturally when we release pent up emotion. Studies have shown that singing can reduce stress, decrease blood pressure, lower the heart rate, numb the propensity to feel pain, and elevate the immune system. Just viewing this list of benefits makes me wonder why people don’t sing more!
One of the reasons singing harbors these benefits is because it is a completely different yet exhilarating avenue for expression. When we speak, we make simple gestures of phonation (the vocal cords coming together to produce sound). When we sing, however, we institute the functions of rhythm, melody, harmony, and crescendo. Because more physical abilities are being unlocked, more emotion is able to travel out from within us. A dynamic monologue can be moving, but a powerful song can bring you to tears. When we engage in dialogue, we tend to think in this manner: “Yeah, I completely agree” or “Yeah, I know where you are coming from” or “Yeah, I can sympathize with that”. But when we engage in singing, we tend to think in this manner: “Wow, I can completely connect with this person” or “Wow, I can really feel the emotion pouring out from this person”. Singing allows emotional connection with others on a deeper level.
Singing and Community
As we connect with ourselves and with others through singing, we begin to experience the true capabilities of singing. This release of emotion may make us want to sing for joy or sing in sorrow, but whatever the case, we feel better physically and emotionally. While it may sound crazy to say that we would feel better after singing in sorrow, pay attention the next time it happens to you. Your thoughts become clearer, your focus becomes stronger, your intentions become steadfast - all signs of physical and emotional improvement. Bearing this in mind, it makes perfect sense to sing at any stage or crossroad in life.
Singing also acts as developer of community. Choral presentations, musical theater productions, church choirs, gender ensembles - they are all communities centered around the art of singing. It is a well known fact that community is a vital part of healthy living, and what better way to commune than through the already beneficial act of singing! This practice is quite common within the elderly community because it acts as an organic stimulant towards better health. Dr. Gene Cohen, a late American psychiatrist, exclaimed in The Gerontoligist that singing among the elderly resulted in fewer medical appointments, less need for medication, and even a decreased tendency towards depression. This applies not only to the elderly but also to the youthful because the organic stimulant of singing is not bound by age - all the more reason to get up and sing!
Closing Thoughts
My previous arguments all tie in to the fact that singing is a catalyst to healthy living. Don’t forgo your unique ability to express yourself through the avenue of singing. It is an anchor for the soul in times of joy and hardship, pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow. Release your emotions by singing and enjoy all the exciting health benefits along the way. Add some community and laughter to the mix and you have a potent medicine that not even doctors can prescribe. I implore you: sing and sing often, my friends!
Thomas Griffin is a full time college student pursuing degrees in Business Management, Project Management and Computer Information Systems. He serves as a worship pastor in a local community church in his college hometown. He has developed a passion for helping others learn how to sing better. He has also developed a passion for studying, understanding and teaching proper vocal technique and relating vocal technique to health in general. Feel free to visit Thomas’s website at http://foreversinging.com
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Wow, this is something to definitely think about, looks like I’m going to start singing more hehe.
I share the same thoughts about singing and listening to music.But you know what, whenever I hear some songs,it starts reminding me of some time of my life,probably when I was listening to this song.Or some incidences that relate with that song.And each song brings you near those moments.Unfortunately with me,it takes me to my past.
But when I start singing some songs I love, I just feel being in present.
May be thats the difference between listening and singing.
people are stupid