A wellbeing journey with Víkingur Ólafsson
I recently watched the Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson performing live from his new home in Reykjavík. In that video, Víkingur played three pieces by Bach, Rameau and Debussy, but also talked about the power of music to take us on a journey, to transport us to another place, and to stabilize emotional turmoil especially during times of crisis. Unfortunately, that video is no longer available on YouTube, so I’m sharing today other videos with Víkingur Ólafsson on the piano.
The power of music to stabilize emotional turmoil during a crisis
As both a musicophile and a Psychiatrist, I am in total agreement with Víkingur Ólafsson. In fact, I have previously written about music as a therapeutic instrument. In fact, many research studies provide evidence in support of the beneficial role of music (classical, as well as some other types of music) on physical as well as psychological symptoms. For example, a systematic review indicated that listening to music might have a beneficial effect on physiological parameters (such as blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate), anxiety, and pain in people with coronary heart disease. Another systematic review concluded that music interventions might have beneficial effects on anxiety, pain, fatigue, and quality of life in patients with cancer.
We can often see the health benefits of listening to music in the context of music therapy. This is an umbrella term for evidence-based interventions that use music in a therapeutic context. There are two types of music therapy: receptive (listening to music), and active or expressive music therapy (playing or creating music). Music therapy has been evaluated in a number of different physical and mental conditions, including dementia, and the results are positive.
The ‘Mozart Effect’
The ‘Mozart Effect’ refers to the positive effect that classical music has on cognitive skills. Researchers found that listening to the Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448 by Mozart improved spatial reasoning skills (part of the widely used Stanford-Binet IQ test). It is rather unclear whether this effect is specific to this particular piece of music or applies to classical music in general. Music composed by Yanni (‘Acroyali/Standing In Motion’) was also found to have a similar effect. It may be that the positive effect on cognitive abilities is mediated by musical patterns shared by Mozart’s and Yanni’s compositions.
Interestingly, whilst listening to BBC Radio 3 Private Passions last Sunday, I heard the former Master of the Rolls John Dyson discussing the therapeutic power of music. He specifically mentioned an incident when he only managed to communicate with his mother, who was at that point suffering with advanced dementia, when he sang a song from her childhood in Bulgaria. He also discussed how music helped him cope with chronic fatigue and depression.
A musical journey with Víkingur Ólafsson
Recently, I have been listening quite a lot to Víkingur Ólafsson ‘s music. It seems I am far from the only one. His latest album ‘Debussy • Rameau’ was released earlier this year and has been a chart-topper across the world. It has topped the classical music charts in the UK, the US and Germany, and has even reached No 11 in the German pop charts.
A few weeks ago, on the 9th of April, the Icelandic musician featured on Front Row, a radio program on BBC Radio 4 about arts, literature, film, media and music. Víkingur will be Front Row’s ‘Artist-in-Residence’ for the duration of the lockdown, delivering weekly live performances on the grand piano of the currently empty Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík. Every week he will also be offering a short masterclass on the piece he will be playing. On that day, Víkingur performed his own transcription of Sigvaldi Kaldalóns’ Ave Maria. Kaldalóns was an Icelandic doctor and a composer who wrote music in the first half of the 20th century. Víkingur dedicated this performance as a prayer to all the people suffering and to the health workers fighting against COVID-19.
Front Row is broadcasted each weekday evening (between 7.15 pm and 7.45 pm), but is also available on BBC Sounds.
Whilst visiting the BBC Radio 4 website to listen to Víkingur Ólafsson ’s subsequent performance on the 17th of April, several links caught my attention. I soon found myself listening to the Icelandic pianist playing Rameau whilst reading articles about wellbeing and then listening to related audio clips and podcasts. I realized I had embarked on a musical and wellbeing journey that took me from Iceland all the way to Antarctica and even to Ancient Greece.
7 tips for staying happy and healthy during a lockdown
Dr Beth Healey is a medical doctor who spent nine months in Antarctica at the Concordia Station in Antarctica (also known as ‘White Mars’) with the European Space Agency. Whilst there, she researched the effects of physical and psychological isolation on crew members. Based on her experience and her research, she recommends the following seven tips for staying happy and healthy during a lockdown:
- Take it one day at a time
- Set some goals
- Have things in the diary to look forward to
- Seek out a private space
- Be aware that stress affects everyone differently
- Keep to a routine
- Step back and re-evaluate
I personally think that we can all benefit from keeping these tips in mind and adhering to them as much as possible. But, we don’t necessarily have to spend months in Antarctica or self-isolate during a global pandemic in order to apply and benefit from these tips. In my opinion, these are tips that can significantly contribute to our mental wellbeing irrespectively of our whereabouts and other external circumstances.
Tip: Keep to a routine
I have previously written about the 10 key areas (or pillars) of our daily life; I described how small changes/improvements in each of these 10 key areas (or pillars) could maximize one’s wellbeing and contribute to a happier and healthier life. Amongst the tips I shared, I wrote about the importance of having routines and a structure to one’s days, weeks, and life. Routines and structure are important because they provide a sense of security and familiarity, as well as order, direction and meaning. They also help provide a sense of achievement (purpose) as well as enjoyment (pleasure). All these are essential ingredients for a happy and balanced life.
Tip: Have things in the diary to look forward to
I specifically talked about the importance of having pleasurable activities in our lives, activities to look forward to. Pleasurable activities (i.e. hobbies) not only add to the routine and structure in our life, but most of all, as the name suggests, they provide enjoyment and pleasure. A lot of such activities, however, are not only pleasurable, but they can also be therapeutic. Research has shown that they can be beneficial for our mental health and wellbeing, and there are forms of therapy utilizing some of these activities (i.e. art therapy, music therapy, bibliotherapy etc).
How having a purpose can help us
Whilst reading the seven tips for staying happy and healthy during a lockdown, my gaze fell on the link to an article titled ‘How having a purpose can help us’. Even though this article is focused on the month of January and the New Year’s Resolutions, I think that it makes for an interesting read any time of the year, and perhaps even more during this crisis.
According to the authors, ‘a purpose instills us with energy, gives us a sense of direction, encourages engagement with the world around us and creates a clearer sense of self. Having a purpose provides us with a focus and a sense of achievement as we work towards our target’. Discussing the benefits of purpose, they add that ‘studies have shown that when people feel like they are contributing to a higher purpose, they often have a healthier and happier outlook. They can also prove more resilient to stress’.
Tip: Set some goals
I totally agree. In fact, I have previously written that occupational and/or educational activities are essential for our wellbeing. Such activities give purpose to our lives, and significantly add to the routine I’ve previously mentioned. Purposeful activities can also foster our sense of self-worth and increase our self-esteem by helping us gain a sense of achievement and mastery. The same applies to several other activities that could be also classified as purposeful, such as learning a foreign language or a musical instrument. Under the current circumstances, these activities may give a significant purpose to our lives, provide a sense of achievement and add to the disrupted routine, especially for those who are no longer working.
Coming back to the article ‘How having a purpose can help us’, the authors conclude that ‘a purpose doesn’t have to be about self-advancement. Volunteering for a charity or campaigning for a cause we believe in can give us purpose, as well as helping to boost our self-worth, happiness and sense of fulfillment’.
How Aristotle’s ideas on self-knowledge, responsibility and love can help us forge a more meaningful life
On the same webpage as the article ‘How having a purpose can help us’, there’s a 3-minute audio clip about Aristotle, happiness and eudaemonia. It was first broadcasted two years ago, but of course Aristotelian ideas about wellbeing and happiness are timeless. In this clip, presenter Tom Sutcliffe’s guest is Edith Hall, Professor in the Classics Department and Centre for Hellenic Studies at King’s College London. Hall tells us that happiness is not a state (‘you cannot get or catch eudemonia, but you can do it.’). Sutcliffe then reflects that, according to Aristotle, eudemonia is an acquired skill; you can practice it and get better at it.
Having previously read Hall’s book ‘Aristotle ’s Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life’, I have been familiar with her writings, as well as with the Greek philosopher’s ideas. Central to Aristotle’s thinking about happiness is the idea that happiness is not a given; we are not passive recipients of happiness (or unhappiness). On the contrary, happiness is not only dynamic but is also subject to our actions, which is where personal responsibility comes into play. As a general rule, I agree. However, there are notable exceptions. Sufferers with clinical depression (or other severe mental illness) are by no means responsible for their suffering and their illnesses (the same way that someone who’s had a heart attack is not responsible for that). However, we still have responsibility for our recovery from physical or mental illness (i.e. by following the doctor’s advice and actively engaging with treatment).
The best ways to de-stress your brain
In another short audio clip, the neuroscientist Dr Hannah Critchlow, discusses how calming techniques, such as mindfulness, can help build a better brain. This short clip is an extract from a slightly longer podcast on relaxation, which in turn is part of a series of five podcasts titled ‘How to have a better brain’.
I have previously written about the importance of meditation and mindfulness for our wellbeing. In fact, mindfulness strategies can be helpful to most of us and not only to those affected by mental (or even physical) illness. Mindfulness can help us become less reactive to stress, build resilience, cope better with health problems (including long-term physical illnesses) and reduce psychological distress. It can specifically help us become more self-aware, feel calmer and less stressed, feel more able to choose how to respond to our thoughts and feelings, cope with difficult or unhelpful thoughts, and be kinder towards ourselves. In the current climate, I believe that practicing mindfulness and meditating can help us cope not only with the uncertainty and the anxiety associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, but also with the potential loneliness due to self-isolation and social distancing.
Tip: Practice mindfulness
A large number of published studies confirm the strong association between mental health on the one hand, and mindfulness and meditation on the other. These studies also explain the reason for this. Neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, refers to the ability of the brain to change (both its structure and its function) throughout one’s life. This is commonly called rewiring and involves creating and strengthening brain pathways. Neuroscience research shows that mindfulness and meditation are effective ways to improve one’s mental health for this very reason; they contribute to the rewiring of the brain.
In ‘the best ways to de-stress your brain’, Dr Critchlow also discusses studies that show the effects of mindfulness on the brain. She says that mindfulness decreases the amount of gray matter in the amygdala, the area of the brain involved in the fear response, which potentially explains how mindfulness can decrease anxiety. It also increases the volume of the hippocampus, the area of the brain involved in learning and memory.
How to have a better brain
In this series of five podcasts, each lasting about 13 minutes, Sian Williams explores with experts (such as Dr Critchlow) the importance of 5 areas of daily life to brain health. These 5 areas are: physical exercise, relaxation, stimulation (mental exercise), sleep and diet. Despite the relatively short duration of each podcast, they discuss the links between these 5 areas and mental health, providing a scientific explanation, as well as practical easy-to-follow recommendations.
I often refer to the concept of the ‘aggregation of marginal gains’. Dave Brailsford, the cycling coach and manager of Team Sky, explains the marginal gains as ‘the 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do’. The doctrine of marginal gains is all about small incremental improvements in any process adding up to a significant improvement when they are all added together. Brailsford’s belief was that if you improved every area related to cycling by just 1 percent, then those small gains would add up to remarkable improvement.
I believe that the same approach can be applied to our mental health and wellbeing. In fact, I have previously written about the 10 key areas (or pillars) of our daily life. I described how small changes/improvements in each of these 10 key areas could maximize one’s wellbeing and contribute to a happier and healthier life. These areas include sleep, diet and exercise, as well as mindfulness, purposeful (i.e. learning) and pleasurable activities (i.e. music), and gratitude. These are all discussed in the five ‘How to have a better brain’ podcasts.
Further reading
For more recommendations for each of the 10 key areas (or pillars) of our daily life, check out my posts:
10 tips for better mental health & wellbeing (part 1)
10 tips for better mental health & wellbeing (part 2)
If you have enjoyed Víkingur Ólafsson ‘s music and would like to learn more Icelandic musicians, check out my post ‘A musical journey to Iceland‘.
Or, simply listen to Víkingur Ólafsson ‘s latest release ‘Debussy • Rameau’.
Keep well and stay safe!
Alex
(the London-based Traveling Psychiatrist)