I am pleased to share the following great review we received from the New York Journal of Books. This will post on their site on January 1st.
The idea that music soothes the beast is not a new concept; nor is the idea that music impacts human emotion. Mothers sing rhythmic songs to their newborn babies, babies are rocked back and forth creating a hypnotic rhythmic pattern. Babies rock themselves in their cribs to create that same rhythmic pattern. Many experts and laypersons in today’s society suggest mothers play music for their unborn children. Native Americans use music in their healing processes. Restaurants, stores, and elevators use music to entice the listener.
And in Your Playlist Can Change Your Life: Ten Proven Ways Your Favorite Music Can Revolutionize Your Health, Memory, Organization, Alertness and More music as a method of healing and enhancing moods is custom made for you.
Dr. Mindlin, Mr. DuRousseau, and Dr. Cardillo, three internationally renowned brain scientists, have taken the idea that music does have a positive effect on one’s life and provide a guide for how to create your own playlist to bring about life changes. The credentials of these three authors are impressive and speak volumes about their intent.
Their book is not a scholarly work nor is it just a how-to book. Your Playlist Can Change Your Life gets the reader-learner directly involved in the processes of choosing and then using music to enhance your life.
A few chapter titles will illustrate the range of instruction: How to Use Music to Make Your Mind Flow, How to Use Music to Alleviate Anxiety, How Music Can Sharpen Your Memory, and How to Use Your Brain’s Own Music. Each chapter contains useful tips and music suggestions.
A statement by the authors says it all: “The fact that music connects us to the vibrant power of our body’s cell-by-cell creation and to the vibrational power of all things in the universe, as well as to the universe itself, makes its influence on us—and on all life—worthy of our attention.”
Dr. Mindlin, Mr. DuRousseau, and Dr. Cardillo make Your Playlist Can Change Your Life worthy of your attention.
Mindlin, Galina & others. Your Playlist Can Change Your Life: 10 Proven Ways Your Favorite Music Can Revolutionize Your Health, Memory, Organization, Alertness, and More.
Sourcebooks. Jan. 2012. c.240p. ISBN 9781402260247. pap. $14.99. SELF-HELP
This distinctive book comes from the coordinated efforts of Mindlin (psychiatry, Columbia Univ.), Don DuRousseau (executive director, PEAK Neurotraining Solutions), and Joseph Cardillo (Be Like Water: Practical Wisdom from the Martial Arts), who propose that readers can use music to relieve anxiety, increase alertness, feel happier, and sharpen memory. The process involves picking songs you like, taking note of how the songs work, and then using them to create a particular mood or spirit. The authors provide numerous exercises, personal examples, and sample playlists for specific moods (e.g., getting rid of the blahs, relaxing before tests, and revving up lunch breaks). Although many readers have already found that playing “Johnny B. Goode” can transform washing the kitchen floor into dancing at a night club, this title lends a psychologist’s perspective to a common behavior—well worth the purchase.
