Change Your Brain Every Day - What Is Autobiographical Music? With Barry Goldstein

Episode Date: June 2, 2021

Dr Daniel and Tana Amen chat with award winning producer Barry Goldstein about how music can connect people generationally and how we create new memories with different melodies.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com. Welcome back. We are here with our friend Barry Goldstein. Barry and I have a new album, Your Brain Is Always Listening. We'll talk more about it in this episode. But we promised we'd actually start by talking about self-confidence. And I was working with one of my professional athletes this week, and that was her goal. And I created this framework of, like with brain health, brain health is three things, brain envy, got to care about it, avoid things that hurt it, do things that help it. And we began to put together a new framework for self-confidence.

And one, you have to want it. Two, avoid things that hurt it, make the list of what hurts it and three have a regular practice to increase self-confidence so i don't know why it works i mean i know this is true i want to get barry's input on the center the science behind this but clearly music can affect not only your confidence but it can also affect you in the opposite way. So, I mean, think about when you put 70s music on, right? Certain 70s music, it affects me in a very negative way. Cat Stevens.

I get punished for Cat Stevens. Yeah. It's nothing to do with Cat Stevens personally. It's just bad memories. I know. When it comes to the clinic. I know it's going to be bad. But likewise, I know when I was, this is true of a lot of people I know who are athletes.

When I was training for my black belt test, I was, you know, I was a little intimidated by it, but there's certain music that puts you in a state that gives you that, like, yeah, like I'm a warrior. I can do this, that, that feeling that you get. So I know a lot of people feel that way. So what's the science behind that? Well, I mean, music connects us to autobiographical memories. So in our heads, you know, we're keeping record of all the music that we like, that we don't like. And as soon as we hear a piece of music, like you said,

Cat Stevens for you, you go the other way around. You know, for me, like I have my happy song that is like the Jackson five, the love you save. Whenever I put it on, you know, it actually puts me in a happy mood. Right. But we have the ability as well to create new autobiographical memories with music. And this is really where it comes into play of knowing how a piece of music makes you feel. So when I was composing for this particular album, for Your Brain Is Always Listening,

I wanted to get a piece of music on there that made people connect to feeling appreciated. And Daniel and I, you and I talked about this, that we really created the intention. We wanted to help people tap into that state. And so I started, first of all, I wanted to get myself in a thankful state before the compositional process, because it's my belief that everything goes in to the composition. Just as when you're writing a book, you can feel the author's

authenticity when you read specific words that they wrote. How is that, right? That you can actually feel their emotion in that line. I believe that goes into the music as well and is part of the recipe. But when I was creating Thankful, which is music for appreciation, Denise, my wife, who is a naturopathic medical doctor, I didn't tell her what the song was about.

And she came into the room and she just sat down in the corner and she said, wow, I really need this. Whatever you're playing, this music right now is just bringing me into the state of appreciation. And I was like, so interesting. I guess I landed on this one because that's what this piece is about. And so for her, in that moment, that piece of music that she was listening to, the power to create a new autobiographical memory for

her. So now she's connected to that piece of music, moving her to a state of appreciation. And so when you find a piece of music that you love, move beyond it just being a random experience and saying, wow, that's awesome. I feel great from this piece of music. But asking ourself the next question, how can I incorporate this into my day so that instead of a random experience, it becomes a transformational experience. And that's really where my interest lies. And I know that is where your interest lies as well. I want people to move to a state of transformation where after they listen to a piece of our

music, they're moving into a state where they're better than they were before they listened to it. And so, you know, it's an improvement. It's a step up in their energy that they can now plug in to their day. And that's where we can take this. That's conscious living as opposed to unconscious living. And I actually called my clinic, do you know this?

It was called, it was actually called the Center for Effective Living. But I want us to have conscious lives rather than unconscious lives. And just putting on this album or any of our albums helps you do that it helps you direct your energy to what you like rather than what you don't like or rather what's random or what's even worse is what is used to manipulate your mind. Like the news.

Well, the social dilemma. Remember when we were looking at companies who manipulate our mind to make money for their advertisers. And we all need to be warriors and really guard against that yeah I know it's such a good point but even within your albums like I know um certain people are drawn to certain sounds it's so interesting to me because even within like I loved um um brain Warriors Way and the next one after that was um right right right. I love that. I love bright minds, but I find myself drawn to the drums and the bass and away from the other, like music that doesn't have heavy bass or drums. And it feels a little flighty to me.

I don't know if that makes sense at all. It, it, it doesn't feel, it just, I can't sort of grab onto it. And so what is it about certain sounds that make certain people react? Yeah. And well, you'll be glad to know too. So in your brain is always listening. The first two pieces, I really wanted to take people on a journey and it does have some drums and bass, you know, as you go on, because I feel that these kind of anchor you in and help you move energy, you know? So when those drums come on, it creates a movement that helps you move into releasing something like releasing anxiety. It helps you move into connecting to appreciation because the symbols swell

and the drums open up and your heart opens up with that. And in general, you know, like low frequencies, think about that. They're low, right? Bass as you go up, I think of it like building a house, right? You build on a foundation and the lower frequencies are the foundation of the music and connect us to being more grounded, you know? So the bass, you probably like that because it makes you feel like you have your footing and you grounded, and you're safe, you know, and you're nurtured. And within that you can actually have something

to hold on to. Yeah, I feel more energy. Yeah. And you know, the other way around as well, if you think of those higher frequencies, you know, they're, they're tend to be more ethereal. And, you know, the Native Americans talked about this as above, so below. so when we're kind of bringing ancient and modern together you know i like to cover a lot of the frequency spectrum in a piece where it's lows and highs but we can incorporate both into those higher energies connect us more to a sense of spirituality or a sense that there's something beyond us.

And the lower ones connect us more to the earth. Oh, that's so interesting. Combine them together. We have a more rounded experience. That's cool. I wonder if there's any connection to music our mothers listened to when she was pregnant with us, or music that our grandparents responded to positively or negatively that actually gets written in our genetic code.

I think musical skill, musical preference, probably there are genetic codes for those things and what we like and what we don't like. Yeah, I think a lot of a lot of it's passed down. I know that when, you know, I listen to anything that's like Frank Sinatra, because my dad loved Frank Sinatra, I immediately, you know, can feel my dad's energy. My mother, you know, loved Chopin and she also loved Tom Jones, you know. So when my mom passed, you know, talking about playlists and how people can create their own programs, I created a music program to help me move through grief because during the process of her passing, you know, I had to show up and be there for the family and, you know, I had to take care of a lot of things that a lot of people do when someone passes

and I wasn't able to fully grieve. And I realized that months later that I hadn't. And I said, I want to put together a playlist that honors my mom. So it was kind of very out there because it had beautiful classical music, but it also had Tom Jones on it, What's New Pussycat? And I just said, for this 10 minutes, I just really want to allow myself to do whatever needs to be done. And I started sobbing in that piece and releasing that grief, but also just felt a connection to her and felt really happy. You know, so it's a great way, we talked about healing, you know, what is healing? It gets into

a larger conversation. But for me, anytime we can release a block not just physically but mentally emotional spiritually when we can release something and become lighter we've experienced a healing of some kind and music you know utilizing these playlists and different types of music it's like nourishing ourselves just like we do with food i call it musical nourishment we have the ability to nourish ourselves with music well and music has been used in psychiatric circles for a long time as a specific form of therapy and that's what we think of is with our four albums that they're therapeutic uh interventions that have no side effects. I love that. When we come back,

we're going to talk about each of the pieces in our new album. Your brain is always listening. Stay with us. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe. So you'll always know when there's a new episode. And while you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you'll always know when there's a new episode. And while you're at it, feel free to give us a review or five-star rating as that helps others find the podcast. If you're interested in coming to Amen Clinics, use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.