Music and Happiness

A Warm Welcome to Music and Happiness

  • DO YOU ENJOY MUSIC?
  • DO YOU WANT TO INCREASE YOUR HQ (HAPPINESS QUOTIENT)?
  • ARE YOU INTERESTED IN LEARNING HOW MUSIC CAN BE A SOURCE OF STRENGTH AND RESILIENCE AS WELL AS PLEASURE?
  • DO YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO GO THROUGH LIFE WITH INCREASED ZEST AND ENTHUSIASM?
  • DO YOU WANT TO STACK THE CARDS IN YOUR FAVOR AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE AS YOU GROW OLDER?

YOU HAVE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE.

AT MUSIC AND HAPPINESS.COM YOU WILL READ ABOUT MUSIC AND LISTEN TO AUDIOS AND DISCOVER THE TRUE SECRET FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. WE BRING YOU INFORMATION, ENTERTAINMENT, AND ENLIGHTENMENT.

Learn More About Us Here

Music and Happiness

Congratulations!

The fact that you have found us means you are a proactive person who is looking for ways to enrich your life. You probably enjoy music as a listener, perhaps also as a player, perhaps even as a composer. This is a place where you can learn a great deal about all kinds of music. You can also learn about the exciting link between music and the science of well-being.

Why is music so important to humans? Some say speech started as singing. Some say music is in our very DNA. Music has the power to give us access to our deepest self, to our highest sense of purpose, and to transcendent beauty beyond our individual life.

Music is a democratic art, available to everyone. Even tone-deaf people can love music. Even deaf people can hear the sound of music in the reverberations under their feet.

Try to imagine humanity without music!

There are so many questions about music to explore. For instance, how do different kinds of music affect us, and why? Can we use music to change our moods in more than temporary ways? Perhaps you have questions you would like us to research.


The connection we are making here between music and happiness comes from our interest in the developing science of Positive Psychology, the study of what helps people be at their best. We believe music can play a central role in eliciting positive feelings, stimulating new thinking, and keeping you active, especially as you grow older. All of these have been correlated with greater health and life satisfaction.

Some of the personal qualities-- or character strengths-- which contribute most to happiness are curiosity, zest, the ability to feel gratitude, optimistic future-mindedness, the nurturance of loving relationships, and the feeling of flow. While character strengths tend to be basic parts of our personalities—what comes naturally to us--they can also be cultivated in conscious ways.

We find that music can contribute a great deal to this process. With or without lyrics, it can offer your mind, heart and body continuously rich experiences. It can tap into your ageless sense of self and your vibrant childhood sense of wonder to keep you feeling vital, whatever your chronological age.

Music is also a wonderful experience to share with others. We strongly encourage you not to cut yourself off from others with headphones all the time, but to listen to music with family, friends, and groups you belong to. It’s time we bring music back as a communal activity, not just something to hear in a concert hall or stadium. That’s not to say you can’t also gain great benefit from listening to music alone, provided you do so with the larger goals in mind that we are proposing.

As you read our posts, we believe you will soon find yourself feeling different in very positive, even unexpected ways. You will start hearing with sharper ears and experience yourself as more alive. With our guidance, you will learn to expand your ability to be playful, to access positive energy, to savor experiences, to feel hope, and to enjoy interpersonal relationships more—while listening to the wonderful music that embodies these strengths.

We always appreciate your comments and feedback.

Josh and Lynne Berrett
 

Welcome to Music and Happiness

Music and Happiness

How To Use This Blog

On this site we bring you crucial information about the fascinating relationship between the art of music and the science of happiness.

Did you know that you can easily increase your happiness through listening to and playing or singing to music in a mindful way? As you can guess, happiness is vital to human well-being over the life span.

Mindful means learning to listen with open ears, willing to learn something new. Josh writes posts for you about music he finds “great” for a whole variety of reasons. His tastes are wide-ranging and he has over forty years of experience teaching appreciation of world music from the inside out. Music, in brief, is his passion.

Reading these posts and listening to the music he recommends will give you new insights, stimulating your mind and lifting your spirits. Even your body will respond with pleasure to what you hear and think and feel. This becomes especially important as you grow older. Music is a painless way of maintaining a more youthful mind and spirit and body.

Lynne writes posts, or adds to Josh’s, suggesting activities and mental exercises which Positive Psychology, the new science of happiness and optimal human functioning, recommends to increase your sense of well being even under difficult circumstances. We now know that your brain can continue to develop however old you are, provided you give it the right kind of stimulation. Here we offer cutting edge information about ways to do just that.

Following brain and happiness research are Lynne’s passions.

If you follow our posts on this blog, you will find ideas for applying music combined with positive psychology in your daily life. If you have special requests, contact us and we will try to honor them in our posts. Check out our newsletter-with-a-difference (hint: you can listen to it).

We also offer in-person workshops and classes where you can join us to play with music, because we strongly believe that music is most powerful when you can listen closely with greater understanding; move to it in whatever way your body naturally responds; sing or hum along as instinctively as breathing; use it to support guided visualizations; even do something you find creative as you listen. The vitality you will carry away from these experiences will enhance the rest of your life.

We haven’t even begun to describe the many ways our approach to music can enrich you. Please join us in this journey to happiness by contacting us and subscribing to our newsletter.
 

How to Use the Music and Happiness Blog

Music and Happiness

Who We Are

We are Josh and Lynne Berrett, a husband and wife team married since 1965. We are also proud parents and grandparents. Music and Happiness is the brain child of our Third Age.

Josh Berrett: I am a musicologist and musician. The violin is my primary instrument. I have taught music appreciation, history, and theory for over 40 years, both in the classroom and over the internet. I’ve also published numerous articles and books about music. My most recent books are The Musical World of J.J. Johnson, The Louis Armstrong Companion, and Louis Armstrong and Paul Whiteman: Two Kings of Jazz.

I enjoy meeting people of all ages and backgrounds in my work as a college professor, media lecturer, performer, and group leader in the United States and countries ranging from Italy to Israel to my native South Africa.

I am passionate about communicating the role music can play in empowering people and enhancing many aspects of their lives in a wide variety of ways.
 


Lynne Berrett: I am a life coach, psychotherapist, and writer. I have a particular interest in the important role that creativity, in the broadest sense of the word, can play in healthy aging.

I have training both in literature and Gestalt therapy. I have over 40 years experience working with writers and other people who are creative in some way, shape, or form. From this I have developed a strong conviction that the Third Age of our lives can be immeasurably enriched by exploring the relationship between different Arts and human resourcefulness. The study of Positive Psychology has taught me about tools, activities, and mindsets that can be used to benefit people asthey grow older.

I am a member of the leadership team for the MentorCoach Alliance for Positive Psychology. I write several other blogs on coaching.

You can find links to them from this site.
 

Learn More About Us here