Music: like drugs for your brain?

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Lately, as I have said, I have been enjoying a lot of Swing Music to help me get through the shorter, sometimes gloomy days of winter.  Hence, I have been spending a lot of time with this guy…

Benny-Goodman

For the uninitiated this is Benny Goodman, and he is the “King of Swing!”  😉

This winter I have discovered that the music he and others from his era have produced helps me to feel invigorated.  When I need to get things done, then I set my Pandora service to the “Benny Goodman” station I have created and let it play in the background.   Soon I will  find my toes tapping, and I’m out of my chair getting things done about the house.

I thought perhaps it was my imagination, this feeling I get from listening to Swing Music, but then I found this little video this morning.

I was stunned!  I had no idea that music could so profoundly effect the brain, and further, that it could be addictive!

Not so long ago, I read an article about a man named Henry who had lived in a nursing home for about ten years.  He had become totally unresponsive to the world around him.  However, when a caregiver started playing his favorite music for him he became lucid and began to interact with those around him.   It was amazing to see him perk up, and the effects of the music lasted for some time afterwards!

You may see Henry’s video here, and I highly recommend that you do, because it is so surprising and uplifting!

You may also read more about music stimulation research HERE.

As well, according to Elena Mannes, in her book The Scientific Power of Music: Pioneering Discoveries in the New Science of Song, it seems we all have a proclivity for melody and rhythm.  It also seems that on hearing music we like, our brain wants more!

To paraphrase the above studies:

Just listening to music causes our brain release dopamine, which stimulates our neurons, and thus produces a feeling of well-being, and because our brain likes it when we feel good it therefore makes us want more.  This is what happens when you use cocaine, by the way, though music’s dopamine production is not so intense.  Nevertheless, your brain is set up to take in the sounds of music and reward your neurons with pleasure induced by the natural chemical dopamine.

I will be looking for Elena Mannes book in the library.  I noted in the preview on Amazon, that she has done extensive research on the subject and has an extensive bibliography to show for it.  Her work is in parts quite technical, but I believe it will be an interesting read.

Does music have an effect you?

Disclaimer:  I have no affiliation with,  nor do I receive any monetary benefits from Amazon, Pandora Music, or the author Elena Mannes.   I just happen to enjoy and appreciate them!

NOTE:  The Daily Post posed the topic “Musical” on 1/26/13 and I had recently written this on the 21st.  I hope this is not cheating to link it to the topic!  If it is, then I am sure someone in the crowd will soundly tell me off!  😉  http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/daily-prompt-music/

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Update on Frellnick |'<

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NOTICE:    If you are easily offended please be advised this post is rated “M” for mature goose themes (last photo).

Separating Frellnick was a good move.  Insomuch as he is definitely healing, yes it is working!  This morning I was able to sequester Polly in the backyard with him; that was also a good move.

Clicking on the first photo in the series will open the images in a slide show.

Frellnick is definitely feeling better, and Polly has accepted him as her mate.    Tonight they will honeymoon in the Goose Chalet, while Georgie and little Dorrit will be making their quarters in the barn.  😉

The evil twin…

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Lately Georgie has been at odds with the world.  He bites the dogs, challenges Bob and sometimes me, and beats up Polly in the nighttime so badly that I’ve had to separate the boys from the girls for sleeping!

Yesterday, while I was busy writing and posting about our weather, Georgie was making mischief.  It was nearly a fatal incident for Frellnick.

I was looking for the promised snow, and just happened to look out the dinning room window to see this!

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Poor Frellnick!

Getting stuck like this can seriously injure a bird.  Getting stuck and lying in wet, slimy mud when the temperatures are dropping to freezing can kill you.

Getting on my muck boots and overcoat, I grabbed the utility shears and went out to rescue him.  Frellnick was cold and trembling by the time I got to him.  He had the netting twisted about both legs, one wing and his neck!  His chest feathers were completely soaked down to the skin and he was simply shivering!

Talking softly to him I began the process of gently unwinding the netting.  He was very calm through this process.  Hearing a hiss, I reassured him that I was trying to help.  I heard another hiss and realized that it was Georgie… hissing at me.   With neck stretched he was heading in for the kill.   I looked up and gruffly warned him away. . .

“You pinch me and your name will be changed to Dinner!”

He stood his ground, but did not deliver on his threat.  Finally freeing Frellnick, I turned him loose, then stood guard in case Georgie  decided to attack him again.

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I watched as he limped away to the front of the house and thought he was OK.

Poor Baby,

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He was unsuccessfully trying to clean off the mud.

Returning to the house I looked out again to check and saw him standing on one foot in the lee of the big oak out front.  He was being pelted by the returning enormous sleet; he looked miserable.  Taking pity on him I went back out.

I set up a corner for him in the barn with plenty of extra straw in his bed, some fresh water, and food.  I toweled him off as best I could and then promised to come back and check on him.  When I returned he was still there and resting in his bed.  I could see that he had eaten, but he had no interest in coming back out into the cold.  I couldn’t blame him!  Later at bedtime he was still sitting, but on seeing Georgie he got up!  He seemed a bit light on his injured left leg, but was standing on it.

7:00 AM:  It is morning, and time to let them out.  I will let you know how he is when I return.

~*~

8:00 AM:  Unfortunately, he is not much better and still prefers to stay in.   A goose’s leg is their weakest link.  The rest of their body is built like a tank, and you would think that their legs would be too, but they are not.  An injured leg that does not heal can mean death.  He is interested in his food and water, and can get up.    That is a good sign!   Today is sunny and clear with a predicted high of 48 degrees.  If it gets in the 40s soon enough I will fill the little goose pool with water and let him bathe.  He needs it!   I think Frellnick will be fine with a few days of bed-rest and spa treatments.

But what to do about Georgie?

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NOTE:  An injured bird will not show weakness.  They will act as if they are fine because to show you’re not well can mean death for them.  I’ve seen this  a couple of times in my chickens and intervened (the other’s will pick them to death).  I’m seeing this display in Frellnick. 

 

 

Rain, Rain, Go Away…

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It’s been raining for seven days straight.  It started with temperatures in the seventies and as the storm pushed through it was closely followed by temperatures in the thirties!  The air at ninety-seven percent humidity suddenly becoming so quickly chilled causes it to condense on the inside of the window panes.*  Like a cold drink in summer it collects and runs over the panes and down to the sill.  The windows were wiped four times day before yesterday, and still it collected.

The wind blew, the rain kept coming, and it has just stopped raining as I type.  The heavy clay has become a mire, slick, slimy and dangerous.  It has rained so much that the earth could no longer take it in.  The rain fell and then lay in an inch deep sheet covering the surface of everything on the ground, then flowing to the lowest places it sat and produced puddles and ponds where none should be.

There is more rain predicted, ‘freezing rain’, ‘chance rain’, and ‘possible snow’ as the day continues, and all of it under leaden skies.

We needed the rain after all those summer days of drought, but getting it all in one go is hard to take.  These endless gray days seem to seep inside you, make you sad, dull your senses…

I dream of spring and a sunny day.

Today the sky is throwing little frozen snowballs down to earth.

Some the size of peas

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They collect in the crevasses, and pretend they are snow…

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In the meantime,

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I keep the little lights on to chase away the dark that lurks in the corners,

and Benny Goodman is keeping me motivated not to just crawl under the covers and sleep the winter away.

Benny Goodman Sextet, with Peggy Lee singing

On The Sunny Side of the Street

😉

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*The inside humidity would not normally have been equal to the outside  humidity, but for the smoking dinner in the oven three nights ago, which set off the smoke detector, thus causing us to open the windows and doors to clear the air.  The smoke cleared, but the open house let the hot, wet air in.  With the house then closed the outside temperature plummeted forty degrees in less than two hours and this caused the inside condensation to occur.  We learned our first year here, that too much moisture allowed to sit on the sills will cause mold to grow there.
😐