Drift Away

What is it about music that stirs my soul? Certain songs set me to move, to tap my feet, to dance to the music, to feel it with my very being, with my heart, my brain and my soul. It doesn't matter where I may be: sitting here at the computer, writing a business e-mail, at a restaurant. When the urge to move, even just mentally, occurs, it happens.

Scientific studies have shown music can equalize our brainwaves, affect blood pressure, heartbeat, respiration, pulse rate, body temperature, strengthening memory and generating a sense of well-being. The dentist plays music for a reason, as it helps disguise or balance out the sounds of equipment you'd rather not think about.

Music changes my perception of time and space. Listening to certain songs take me to specific moments and places in my life. Many of my memories are fixed to songs, processed in the right hemisphere of my brain, the different neurons responding based on what kind of music is playing. I go to that far away place within the caverns of my memories when reaching for my favorite music would cause the world to drift away.

Pieces of familiar music serve as a soundtrack for the movie that plays in my head, calling back memories of a person or place that is disappearing into the fog of time, snapping them back into the foreground of my mind, putting the past front and center in the present.