Nerding out: limbic resonance, music, and magic
If you will, allow me the space to be fully Candi (translated: fully nerd) with you for this post. :)
If you didn’t know, I am a musician. Since the age of two I have been singing and, believe it or not, a few short years after that I started regularly making money with my voice. Music has always been an important part of my life and will continue to be, even if it isn’t something I do as a main career focus anymore. The power of music is a universally accepted force. Humans are drawn to and affected by music in fascinating, almost magical ways.
There is a scientific reason for this, even if we still like to think of it as mostly magic. If you read anything about neurology and the wiring of our brains, you’ll start to see how music is absorbed, processed and assimilated in our brains, which reads a lot like magic to me! I love diving into the intricacies of our makeup, and to me the brain is far and away the most resplendent bit of physiology in the universe. To give you just a glimpse at what makes the mind so, well… mind-blowing, here’s an excerpt from an article written by Psychologist Linda Graham:
“This highly evolved human brain is the most complex structure and the most dynamic process – noun and verb – in existence. 100 trillion cells in 3 pounds of firm tofu between our ears. Of which 100 billion neurons are gray matter that are the working clipboard of the brain. Each gray matter neuron is capable of connecting with – and communicating with – 7,000 - 10,000 other neurons. Those who have done the math have calculated that the number of synaptic connections – and thus neurochemical messages – possible in each human brain is 10 to the millionth power, numbering more than atoms in the universe [estimated at 10 to the 80th power].” (Read full article)
So, back to music. Why do we connect so deeply with music? Two words: limbic resonance. There’s no simple way to describe limbic resonance because, as captured above, there’s nothing simple about our brains. But to begin a conversation about limbic resonance, let’s first understand the limbic system. Our limbic system consists of the amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, basal ganglia, and cingulate gyrus. And no, I would not be able to point out 85% of these to you on a chart. That’s what Google is for.
Limbic resonance is the idea that our capacity for engaging deeply, sharing empathy and connecting in complex emotional states all arises from the limbic system. And it also makes space for music to elicit these kinds of emotional states. We probably all understand this in practice. It’s evident when the orchestra hits that huge crescendo and suddenly the Star Wars scene where we first heard it is playing in our minds in vivid detail. It shows up when our favorite singer gives the performance of a lifetime and we cannot help but cry. It is on full display as we recount our “breakup song,” or the “first dance song.” What’s even more interesting is how we often use music to help us focus or to increase productivity. But even that is centered in an emotional connection.
“Many people listen to music to help them concentrate or do better in a demanding cognitive task. In spite of this, it is suspected that many of the cognitive benefits people experience from music listening actually stem from its effects on emotions, because positive affect can improve cognitive performance. So even though you might not be selecting for music that induces the “chills” effect but just something to help you get stuff done, the way that music strums your emotions may still be at the root of why it helps.” (Read full article)
This is such a cursory look at a vastly complicated topic, but let’s pull back up for a moment. I tend to deal in big ideas, so let me lay out the big idea for this post: music, art, learning, habits— really everything— is about relationship. It’s about connecting. When it comes to our brains, Linda Graham tells us, “The right hemisphere decodes our relationship experience; the left hemisphere describes it.”
This idea is why I’m so passionate about thoughtful intention and strategic approach to not just how we go about our work, but how we go about our lives. The interconnectivity of all things is mirrored in the interconnectivity of the universe within our skulls. Music is a language I know well, so I automatically enjoy seeing it as a relational component to the greater story of my life. Music is about connecting on an emotional level and an anatomical level to create a relationship between my outward and inward experiences. And what gets me excited about this whole idea is that we can actually cultivate more of these kinds of experiences!
What might that look like for you? How can you be more intentional about the magic of your own limbic resonance? What practices do you have in place to create the space for deep connection and relational attachments in your life?
