Looking for Some Medicine for Your Soul? Try Music!

“Music can heal the wounds which medicine cannot touch.” - Debasish Mridha, MD, Neurologist and Author

Pause to consider the role that music plays in your life.  It is well known that music has great power as both an emotional modulator as well as an emotion creator, and I certainly tap into each of those attributes regularly.  Additionally, music has played a vital role in connecting people across time and geography, and it still does.  Its impact for many, as it has been for me, is both powerful and life-long.

It therefore brought me great joy to recently review my Spotify “Wrapped 2022” with our 3 children.  This is an end of the year summary of my listening habits on the music app and includes, among other things, hours of listening, number of different songs and artists, as well as number of different genres listened to.  It also creates a “Your Top Songs 2022” playlist of the 100 most listened to songs and even characterized my  “listening personality.”   What I found most intriguing, however, was my most listened to song of the year."

One of the features I particularly enjoy on this app is something called “Discover Weekly,” which uses a sophisticated program to find songs which are similar to those I enjoy listening to, but that have not shown up on my playlist.  Though this feature I have discovered music I never would have even known existed, and some of those songs have become all-time favorites and have taken on deep meaning for me. 

That was the case for this year, when my most listed to song was Fljótavík*, an Icelandic instrumental tune that without this app and its “Discover Weekly” feature I likely would never have even known existed.  From the first time I heard it, something was stirred within me, and the music was obviously touching some deepfelt emotions that I wasn’t able to put words to – something that needed to be spoken to, and perhaps healed.  It was like an application of “Soul salve.”  Even after numerous listens, it still does …

So for this week, in the spirit of PeerARTx, I share this song with you (link above or below), knowing that statistically few if any of you have ever heard it before.  As you take 4 minutes to listen, pay attention to what emotions it might stir in you, what images come to you, and perhaps what memories appear.  It is my hope that it might serve as some “Soul medicine” for you as well.

Then take a moment to consider what might be your “top song” for 2022, and in particular one that spoke to something deep inside you.  Take some time this week to listen to that song again, considering what its message might be for you.  And if you are so moved, share this song with others, including your PeerRx partner.  Afterall, connecting through music is yet one more way that we can share this journey together, and one more reason to do so. 

*Fljótavík - (Icelandic pronunciation: ​[ˈfljouːtaˌviːk]) is a majestic wide bay in the Westfjords region of Iceland that is part of a large nature preserve.