Sesame Street knows about Musical Empathy

The relationship between feelings and music is obvious to even the smallest child. Children respond to music with their whole bodies. They'll express their feelings with much more than just their faces. They can naturally make their whole body look sad or happy or excited. It's wonderful to see.

If you have children in your life, expose them to as much music as possible. Don't just have the radio playing on your favourite station and don't just play them children's music either. Give them a taste of everything from country to classical and don't forget to include the folk music of your ancestors. Give them musical roots and musical wings.

Play sad music and happy music, dancing music and thinking music, and share the memories that music triggers.

Sesame Street is the coolest show and has the coolest music. Here's a clip of a violinist showing Big Bird how music shows feelings.

Here's another cool clip of hunky Mark Ruffalo on Sesame Street explaining to a Muppet what empathy is.

Put them together and you've got Musical Empathy.

What kind of music is good for your heart?

A study done to test if listening to music helps cardiac patients came to two conclusions that I think are quite obvious. (It's nice to have one's ideas backed up by science, right?)

• First of all, the study found that music helps us to feel better, and it's not just an emotional response, it's also physical.
• In addition, it was shown that the kind of music that works will be different for different people. 

Here's a link to an article (September 1st, 2013 in the Telegraph) about the study, and here's the conclusion:

"Listening to favourite music alone and in addition to regular exercise training improves endothelial function and therefore may be an adjunct method in the rehabilitation of patients with coronary artery disease. There is no 'ideal' music for everybody and patients should choose music which increases positive emotions and makes them happy or relaxed."

What kind of music increases positive emotions for you?
What kind of music makes you happy?
What kind of music relaxes you?

The answers to those questions can help you to keep your heart healthy and strong.

Listen to music that's good for your heart!