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When you’re feeling run down, or when you’re having a hard time getting out of bed and out the door for another day, music can help. Putting some thought into the music that fills your ears can help you feel energized, motivated, and focused - to help you feel recharged.
Use this tool to build your own RECHARGE playlist. Your download includes a one-page pdf (5-minute read) with tips for choosing music to help you build your playlist, as well as links to a starter playlist on YouTube and Spotify. The starter playlist includes 35 songs across many genres. Use it as it is, or as a starting point for building a playlist with songs you like and that are meaningful to you. Spend as much time as you like listening to music and building your playlist.
Research in music therapy and related fields shows that listening to music activates the limbic system in our brains, stimulating the release of feel-good neurochemicals including dopamine and serotonin. Carefully chosen music can also help us get our bodies moving and our hearts and souls connecting with other people.
General science book about music and the brain:
This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel Levitin
Selected research articles:
Antioch, I., Furuta, T., Uchikawa, R., Okumura, M., Otogoto, J., Kondo, E., Sogawa, N., Ciobica, A., & Tomida, M. (2020). Favorite Music Mediates Pain-related Responses in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Skin Pain Thresholds. Journal of pain research, 13, 2729–2737. https://doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S276274
Fuentes, S. N., Pastor, R., Escrig, M. A., Elipe, M. M., & Pastor, M. C. (2021). Emotion elicitation during music listening: Subjective self‐reports, facial expression, and autonomic reactivity. Psychophysiology, 1. https://doi-org.ezproxy.smwc.edu/10.1111/psyp.13884
Moraes, M. M., Rabelo, P. C. R., Pinto, V. A., Wanner, S. P., Soares, D. D., Pires, W., & Szawka, R. E. (2018). Auditory stimulation by exposure to melodic music increases dopamine and serotonin activities in rat forebrain areas linked to reward and motor control. Neuroscience Letters, 673, 73–78. https://doi-org.ezproxy.smwc.edu/10.1016/j.neulet.2018.02.058
Omigie, D. (2015). Dopamine and epistemic curiosity in music listening. Cognitive Neuroscience, 6(4), 222–224. https://doi-org.ezproxy.smwc.edu/10.1080/17588928.2015.1051013