Very soon, this Thursday, Yellow Day arrives or, in Spanish, the happiest day of the year. And it is that on June 20 It is, according to meteorologists, the day with the most hours of daylight of the year. It is clear that the arrival of good weather, summer vacations or the large number of outdoor activities that can be done contribute a lot to the mood improving substantially.
It’s great that happiness prevails in the Yellow Day or throughout the summer season, but more important is that we maintain it the rest of the year. And music or ‘happy’ sounds can greatly help us achieve the sweet goal. Multiple neurological studies carried out to date prove this.
What a song should be like to make you happier
For example, recent research carried out by Jacob Jolij, a cognitive neuroscience researcher, reveals that certain songs can make us happier. What’s more, his ambitious study ends with a ranking of the best ten songs, according to several scientific parameters, which just by listening to them can lead us to the most absolute happiness.
The tempo (these ten pieces of music have a minimum of 150 BPM), whether they have been composed in a minor or major key or the optimism of their lyrics are the main factors in determining which songs can make us feel happier. The ‘top 1’ on their list, which perfectly meets all these requirements, is Queen’s legendary single ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’.
Power of music It is incontestable. Furthermore, there is no shortage of powerful scientific explanations to associate it directly or indirectly with the desire for happiness. “Musical listening is the result of brain perception. The movement of the strings of a guitar, for example, causes variations in atmospheric pressure that the eardrum detects and the auditory sensory cells transform them into bioelectric impulses that the auditory nerve transports to the brain. the auditory cortex where it is finally interpreted as ‘musical notes’, explains Jordi A. Jauset to ‘Sport’.
The doctor in Communication and other multidisciplinary degrees concludes his conscientious argument: “Once there, that nervous information goes to other cortical and subcortical areas related to motor, emotional and cognitive processes. The result would be the musical perception or experience that we each experience. of us”.
So when we feel chills When listening to the voice of a singer or a song that we love, “the brain nucleus of pleasure (accumbens) and dopamine levels increase. This increase in this neurotransmitter is what is correlated with the pleasurable experience experienced with certain songs “explains Jordi.
The power of music therapy
The force of music on personal well-being is so great that even since Ancient Greece its use with therapeutic purposes has generated incredible results. And music therapists, with the discipline much more refined since then, what they do is use the patient’s responses and connections with music to encourage positive changes in mood.
Among its many benefits, music therapy stimulates communication skills, independence, self-confidence, creativity or concentration and attention.
These are the sounds of happiness
Beyond music, it is also important to give place to the many sounds, some very simple, that also unconsciously bring us closer to happiness. And you don’t have to go far to find them because, for example, nature itself provides us with many of them.
The sounds of nature They have more impact than you think on your emotional well-being. For example, the wind through the trees or the singing of birds at dawn are two situations that generate calm and, above all, connect with life and happiness. Although the most effective of all, according to scientists, is the sound of sea waves breaking on the beach. A joy for our ears.
The crunch of a bag of chips
That the simple sounds of nature generate pleasure is no surprise, but you may have never realized how happy other, much more ordinary and everyday sounds can make you, such as, for example, the sound produced when opening a bag of chips. According to psychologists, this sound triggers an unconscious sensation of pleasure and, above all, the anticipation of something that everyone likes.
Another one that will surely go unnoticed by you is the sound of a door that opens. And it can connect with happiness for several reasons: it can be associated with the arrival of a family member or friend or, simply, the symbolism that it represents after a long and hard day of work. The laughter of your friends, your mother’s voice… The list of everyday sounds that contribute ‘a grain of sand’ to your happiness is as long as ‘noises’ that can generate pleasure.
