Change Your Brain Every Day - The Symphony Of Your Life – Part 3 of an Interview with Barry Goldstein
Episode Date: May 18, 2017In part 3 of a discussion on music with Grammy Award winning producer Barry Goldstein, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen focus on the healing power of music. This episode will give insight into how musica...l nourishment can change the lives of stroke victims, people who struggle with Aphasia, and even those with Alzheimer’s Disease. You will also learn about autobiographical songs, and how to take a “5 minute musical vacation” to travel the world.
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Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast.
I'm Dr. Daniel Amen.
And I'm Tana Amen.
Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression,
memory loss, ADHD, and addictions.
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visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast.
Welcome back. We are here with Barry Goldstein, author of The Secret Language of the Heart,
phenomenal book that actually gave a wonderful endorsement to also the creator and
co-producer with me of the brain warriors way music album that charted as number two on the
new age billboard list i do i am so proud of it and proud that it has gotten out to the world in a big way um because music heals
and that's what we're going to talk about in this podcast music is healer and you know and i'm
sitting here and i've written about it and i've read your book and i've thought about it a lot
but but i you know i just think of the your brain really plays the symphony of your life. And I have all sorts
of ways to change the brain, right? We have something called hyperbaric oxygen,
another thing called transcranial magnetic stimulation, audiovisual stimulators.
And it's a huge part of neuroscience now brain stimulation brain stimulation and i'm
like well you can do that with music you can change your state almost immediately with music
and so let's just talk about healing the brain with the sound and healing the brain with what you listen to.
And you mentioned something before we came on the air about even to go so far as stroke patients.
Yes.
Like that's really fascinating.
So, yeah, within stroke patients, a lot of times the motor coordinations are not effective in terms of movement.
So there's what's called temp,
and it basically is creating movement
where you teach them how to play on a piano-specific scale.
So it's actual musical performance
that is basically done with patience.
Now, of course, they're not being trained to be concert pianists,
but they're using that to improve motor skills. Interesting. And they're finding that's been very effective
in terms of that. In addition, when we're talking about stroke, aphasia as well,
in terms of affects our speech, our linguistics. And so we can reteach with music,
linguistics as well by teaching, it's called melodic intonation.
So it's the ability to relearn music through specific songs.
Like you might not be able to talk, but you can sing happy birthday.
That's so fascinating, really.
You can't.
Dianisa's mom actually had a stroke, and she was able to still sing.
So they're reteaching people who have aphasia how to speak again using intonation therapy so for people who don't know aphasia is
just it's a language disorder that's right um so if you damage for most people it's the left front
side that's right of the brain is they then either lose language or have a lot of trouble with it
that's but music will actually trigger a different part of the brain.
That's right.
That's fascinating.
And music has the ability to create neuroplasticity,
so there's pathways that music can open
that you normally wouldn't get to, like language,
by teaching someone to speak without music.
Music can actually, it's a different route to the brain
where it reorganizes the neural networks and
has the ability to reconnect and reteach language. And there's some really beautiful videos on that
of people who have gone through these methods. If you go to YouTube and you type in music and
aphasia, you'll see how people retaught themselves to speak again through music.
Also with Alzheimer's, talk about your experience there.
Well, with Alzheimer's, it's really experience there. Well, with Alzheimer's,
it's really been amazing. And it's where you have to thank technology in a way, because we have the ability to create these playlists and walk around with them. In the 50s, we had jukeboxes
that we played our favorite songs on. But now we have iPods and iPads and even little MP3 players that can hold our favorite music.
And with Alzheimer's, they have found that, again, preferred music can actually work with
re-invoking autobiographical memories.
Oh, wow.
Please don't tell me I have to play Cat Stevens.
Well, some things we don't want to-
You mean if I get demented?
Right.
Let's not have you get demented, but-
We're working on that.
Right.
So for instance, if I went to see my dad and he had Alzheimer's and I said,
Dad, do you remember Hanukkah in 1975?
Wasn't that awesome?
And he might not be able to remember that.
But if I played dreidel, dreidel, dreidel.
Wow.
Right on his MP3.
He has a chance to remember.
So hence why I don't like,
it's not, let me be very clear,
I don't have anything against Cat Stevens.
70s music, it's the memories.
It's the memories it invokes.
So music, and that's something we haven't talked about,
is when I listen to a certain song,
it connects to that time in my life
and it may connect to someone
i've lost and then make me really sad right so a whole genre of music is makes me anxious right
and that's the thing it's not going to be the same for each person and sometimes it takes us
by surprise when we hear a song that we don't like because it triggers negative memories and
it happens fast right so you don't want to put those songs in your playlist if they create-
So know the person.
Yeah. Know the person. Each person's completely different. It's just, you might like broccoli.
Right.
I like to compare music to food because I think of it as musical nourishment. You're going to
bring into your body what is good for you and what you react well to. So you might love broccoli,
but I might be allergic to it.
So yes, we know broccoli contains all these wonderful vitamins, but it's not for me.
So with that, we need to kind of become our own experts.
And you guys have talked about it quite a bit throughout this.
For me, it really does start with one song.
So if you can find that one song that makes you happy,
that's an unbelievable start. Because I had a person who came to me and said,
I have extreme anxiety. What music would you suggest? And I looked at her and I said,
what song do you listen to that when you hear it, you can't help but being happy?
And she looked at me and I can see her kind of doing what you're doing. Her eyes were smiling. Right, you know instantly.
She was hearing it in her head already.
I was too.
And she was shifting from the anxiety.
What was the song?
It was Green Sleeves.
Interesting.
And so I said, okay.
What were you thinking?
You really want me to say it?
I do.
Pour some sugar on me.
There you go.
That might be your new happy song that comes from your brain warriors way creator pour some
sugar on me what can i say nickelback duff leopard that's my happy place there you go and you know i
talk about this in colleges when i go to talk to to college students about the power of music i said
whatever that song is remember remember, write it down
because that might be your lifeline in 50 years from now
if you're going through Alzheimer's.
Because that happy song really allows you to connect.
Autobiographical songs.
That's right.
We have to write that down.
That defines you.
Autobiographical songs.
So what songs when you were young,
what songs when you were in college.
You could actually develop a whole treatment system depending on what made you happy.
And in addition, you could develop an attack system to find those songs that trigger unhappy places for you. So depending on how devious you are,
right?
I mean, we're healers for the most part,
but music is powerful in a positive way,
but it can also be destructive in a negative way.
It could create dissonance
just like it can create harmony.
What's really awesome though
is there have been studies that have shown
that even thinking about that song has positive effects on your brain. It's just awesome though is there have been studies that have shown that even thinking about that
song has positive effects
on your brain. Your brain doesn't know the difference
between hearing it and actually
thinking about it. Because we can play it
in our head. You can play it in your head.
The second you said that, my brain went to
creating the song. Right.
In fact, do you know why people get stuck on
thoughts? They get the thought and they can't
let it go. I hear that all the time from my patients.
And I think their basal ganglia probably is overactive and it hooks onto a song.
And for me, I'm happy with the song getting stuck in my head.
But for many people, it's really irritating.
Yeah.
And I think we need to basically have tools that we can plug into our day. You know, so when we're experiencing that, I love like a midday break to, I call them
five minute musical vacations.
So I listen to a piece of music, I'll go on YouTube and I want to hear something I've
never heard, okay, from a different country.
Right.
I will go and type in beautiful music from the Orient.
Oh, interesting.
Right.
Or beautiful, beautiful, there you you go there's a new word uh beautiful music from spain and it's it's
so cool because you can take a five minute vacation and as soon as you hear that music
you feel like you've taken a trip and you come back to your environment you know if you're in
front of a computer all day feeling that you're refreshed that's funny because last we were stuck
in horrible traffic coming home
yesterday my daughter and i and um she was actually taking voice lessons and so we were coming back
from los angeles stuck in traffic and we um started listening to music kind of got bored with the same
old playlist after a couple of hours sure so i had her put enrique on and we were listening to his
all of his songs in spanish and she she looked at me and she said this makes me want a salsa I'm like see it so what you're saying is exactly true it
just puts you in a whole different kind of place right and when you're listening
to music that's a different language and you don't understand the words you
really have no choice but to listen more to the music because you're not
interpreting you know or analyzing the lyrics of the song so it takes your
brain in a different direction right when you're listening to lyrics as well.
So...
It was fun.
Take a five-minute vacation.
Didn't even think about that,
but that was a fun thing.
So you can go around the world.
You can go to Bali today
just by the playlist.
I need to go out of the country
on vacation.
It's not going to work.
It's the ongoing discussion
between us.
Oh, yes. Vacations. Where do you want to go italy i always want to go
daniel's gonna just create a playlist from yeah no and then he puts movie on like he'll watch
i've already been to scotland i'm like no it's close so many things we could talk about but we're here with barry goldstein he's the author of the secret
language of the heart uh available on amazon barnesandnoble.com anywhere you can get amazing
best-selling books also the creator and co-producer of the brain warriors way that we did together, music to help you sleep, music to help you focus,
music for motivation, creativity, relaxation.
We're so proud of it.
We're beginning to work on a new album.
We are.
Called Memory Rescue.
We're excited.
That we're really excited about because music can be healing.
We want you to use it that way in your life that we're really excited about because music can be healing.
We want you to use it that way in your life so that you become the DJ of your own life
and you create the symphony in your head
that makes your life, meaning, purpose, and happiness happen.
So much fun having you.
Thank you.
I just want to say one thing before we go.
For me, it's really important that people know the practical aspects of it as well.
And I think the reason why it's called the secret language of the heart is because my
belief is we all have, each one of us has something unique and beautiful that we're
here to share, a gift of some kind.
And when we're not spending our energy effectively because we have insomnia or because of physical challenges, we don't always have the time or we're in fear because we don't know what's
going on with our physical health.
We don't always have the energy to spend on the things that we are here to do or things
that are here to create.
And that's really what it's about, is about music being the vehicle so that you have more
energy, you have an increase
in your quality of life so you can focus on what you're here to do, what your purpose is.
I love that.
And that for me is really the important message as well today is that go out there, get more energy,
use a music program so that you really can share whatever it is that you would love to share.
I think that's fantastic.
And I think it's so appropriate and true.
So thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you both for having me.
Thank you for your amazing work and all that you're pioneering.
Thank you, my friend.
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