How to Improve Your Well-Being with Music (feat. Barry Goldstein)

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Hi, I'm Susan Drumm and welcome to the enlightened Executive where your personal evolution sparks your leadership evolution. Each episode we feature groundbreaking techniques and strategies to help you get the edge in personal and leadership effectiveness. This episode is brought to you by Meritage Leadership. At Meritage, we empower teams and strengthen leaders to achieve high performance. Go to Meritage Leadership to learn more. Today we are focusing on something very close to my heart, the healing power of music. And I'm honored to introduce Barry Goldstein, an expert in this field. Barry's musical experience spans many decades and genres, including co producing a Grammy award winning number. He believes strongly in the healing aspects of music and is a translator of the sacred sound and inspirational song. In addition, Barry has created music for the father of biohacking, Dave Asprey. New York Times best selling authors, Dr. Joe Dispenza, Dr. Daniel Amman, Neil Donald Walsh and Anita Moorjani, all incredible leaders and books. And I've read all of their books too, so I'm so excited. Particularly I've listened to Joe Dispena's Meditation and I know you have a big hand in creating some of those soundtracks. Barry's also has a best selling book, the Secret Language of the Heart and it's become a go to manual for utilizing music beyond art and entertainment. You can find Barry's music all over the world, including in hospitals, hospices, cancer and wellness centers. And I am excited to talk about the healing power of music. So welcome Barry.

Thank you, Susan. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to talk to you as well.

Well, we have so much in common as it relates to music and I can't wait to hear about how you incorporate it into your work. First of all, I just love how you describe music. You call it the universal language of love. Tell me more about that.

Well, music weaves through really all languages and very much throughout the world. And I think it's one of the things that ties us together. The blueprint of music, so to speak, on a deeper level is really to form a deeper connection inwardly, but also outwardly as well, and weaves through many custards religiously, but also through different rituals that we through different cultures. And I view it as, you know, each one of us is like a thread in this tapestry and music is really what holds that tapestry together. It's a common denominator that takes us through the soundtrack of our lives.

Yes. How did you come to learn about the healing power of music?

Well, you know, I always say if you would have told me that 30 years ago that I would be composing this type of music and, you know, putting people to sleep with my music every night. I probably would have laughed at you because initially it didn't start out that way for me. You know, I was a rock musician and as you said, I co produced a Grammy award winning track with Les Paul, the guy who invented the electric guitar. So this was not like a planned path per se. And you know, at the beginning my biggest goal was to be doing this professionally and to be a successful musician and then a music producer. And that came about. And what happened in the process of that though it became a job as opposed to legacy or a mission, it started to really become a 9 to 5 job. And I started to fall out of love with music unexpectedly after moving into this professional arena. And so I became my own experiment really of how I could utilize music to combat my own stress, my own anxieties and sleeping challenges. And I decided instead of composing a four or five minute music piece or a pop song that took 50 to 100 hours, what would happen if I just let music flow through me? And looking into the research behind Connecting with the Heart and what I found was that most of our hearts at a relaxed state beat between 60 to 70 beats per minute. So I said what would happen if I targeted my heart rate and set my metronome for 60 beats per minute? Would that form a reconnection with my heart? And I started taking these hour long journeys. And what I noticed was I was moving into a very deep and meditative state when I can move out of the thinking mind and like composing the music and letting the the music compose me or decompose my stress. It was very powerful. And that's really what started on my healing journey. When it was successful for me, I started sharing with other people and that's when we began to get testimonials and endorsements from everything from sleeping challenges to working with friends whose parents had dementia and dentist office and you know, while chemo treatments. And that really opened up my curiosity for the science behind this, which led to me writing a book about this.

Yes. So obviously when I heard about your work and your love of music to heal, I had to talk to you immediately. Also given the fact that Joe Dispenza wrote the foreword in your book and I'm such a student of his and think he's doing some amazing work in the world.

Yes.

And I've been listening to your music. I didn't even realize that through some of the meditation pieces. How do you determine what type of music to use to actually heal and open up people's hearts. And we're going to transition this into leadership soon. But first we kind of look at how does music impact us and how does it impact the brain?

Yeah, well, I think when we start talking about healing, for me it's like, well, let's start off by making that a little bit more simple and redefining healing. So I think that most people have had situations in their life where music has affected them in very powerful ways. But most of the time that's random is happening to them and, or they view it that it's happening to them and they're not necessarily guiding that experience. And we'll talk more about that later. But for me, if we define that experience as of healing, as when we're able to release a block of some kind. So for instance, you hear a song on the radio, you're going through a really bad breakup, and you hear a song that inspires you in some way to actually move that energy or allow you to release some of the grief you're holding and open up new energy. Would you call that a healing of giving you the ability to release a block that you're holding in one song? And most people would answer, yes. So something affects you emotionally and you're able to move a block and you're able to end up at a better place than where you started. And that for me is part of the definition. Where am I now, where do I want to go and what piece of music can take me there? Then we kind of redefine healing and it doesn't seem as it's difficult sometimes using that word, especially in corporate environments. You know, we, we all have preconceptions of what healing is and a lot of us think of that in the physical body, but healing occurs in the mental as well. When we're able to move out of our thoughts that sometimes we can be held prisoner in and we can open up and free our mind. That's definitely healing. When we're able to feel a little lighter emotionally, that's definitely healing. And of course, music can do that physically as well. Not just affecting us emotionally in what we call our heart, but our physical heart as well. We can target those specific states where it's objectively we're able to measure how music affects us physically. And of course, if we look at our health as a four piece section, it would be physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. And we can also have healing and spiritually as well when we feel a deeper connection with Something beyond ourselves, not just for religious beliefs, but do we feel connected as well? Healing can occur in all four of these, and that's why I try to simplify it. Anytime you can release a block and end up in a higher state than where you started out, I refer to that as healing.

Well, let's talk a little bit about the science behind the physical healing piece, because I think that that what the studies show, what you've noticed in the work that you've done, obviously your music's in hospitals and cancer centers, as you mentioned. What is the physical aspect? And then we'll move into more the mental and emotional pieces. I love that framework, by the way.

Yeah. And I mean, there's so many, Susan. Now, everything from studies of utilizing preferred music with Alzheimer's patients, music that is familiar to someone who is called preferred music, where they're asking the relatives or close ones of an Alzheimer's patient what music they used to enjoy before the Alzheimer's, and they create playlists, which I know that you're an expert in terms of playlists as well. And this is where it gets powerful because you're able to navigate people's experiences by specific songs that they preferred before that disease affected them. So that's one way music can affect and actually create neuroplasticity with Alzheimer's patients. It's also being used with Parkinson's patients to create more rhythm so it can improve their gait. With Parkinson's patients, very often their basal ganglia, which is part of their rhythm center and their motor control, are affected. In heart patients as well, we're able to use relaxing music to actually create changes in post operative stress as well. And as a kind of bridge in between that physical, mental, emotional. What's being discussed greatly now is heart and brain coherence. So when we're targeting, moving our heart to more smoother and orderly heart rhythms, targeting that heart at about 60 beats per minute, and this is called entrainment, when our rhythm of our internal heartbeat can match or synchronize or entrain to an external rhythm being the music, and move into these smooth, orderly rhythms. And then the heart is actually sending out this information to the other systems in our body, to our endocrine systems, to our lymphatic systems, to our digestive systems, and they're able to generally optimize their states as well through the heart, sending out the temple or conducting the rest of the physical body. And that's when we move to these orderly states. The studies are showing that we can increase our Heart rate variability, which is a prime indicator overall heart health and also our overall health as well. So we can increase our heart rate variability. And when we're moving to those smooth, orderly rhythms, there's new studies that are showing that our brain is adapting to that as well. And our brain begins to produce more alpha brainwaves. There's kind of bridge between our high focus energy that we use during the day and our more creative states and our meditative states. And that is a subject of interest and is called neurocardiology. We're studying the relationship of the heart and the brain. So you see, there's a lot of ways that music's affecting us physically. And even chanting. Now there are studies behind chanting that are showing that the chanting of OM can create neuro hemodynamic correlations and limbic deactivation. So that means that it's activating the more peaceful parts of our brain. And there are FMRI studies that are showing that. And the Kirtan Kriya, which is the Sa T nama and we do mudras with that. The Alzheimer's organization just did a very large study showing how that can increase memory, it can reduce anxiety and agitated behaviors in Alzheimer's patients and can even increase telomeres, which are how we measure longevity as well in patients. Lots of ways science catches up to spirituality. Things that we've known for thousands of years, we're now able to show through FMRI and brain mapping and EKGs and a lot of different ways we show objective findings medically.

Exactly. And this whole concept that music can increase neuroplasticity is the concept that I really wanted to run with in the leaders playlist and where we find the intersection. Because the healing I wanted to do was in emotional and mental wounds or traumas in some cases. But the emotional and mental wounds that get in the way of leadership and executive performance. That you could actually use music to do that, because I found it worked for me. And I started experimenting with leaders that I coached and it worked for them. And that's sort of the origin of that. I think it's important to start with the physical side so that we can see there are actually a lot of research now going on about the effects of music on our entire body and our brains and our hearts. But we can take that because we're not. That's not in isolation, and move it into the mental and emotional side of things. Let's talk a little bit about that piece. The mental, emotional aspects of music and how it can actually heal a Blockage. Do you have any sense for. How does that happen?

Yeah, I mean, well, we use music, you know, all the time to shift our emotions. And so you can actually utilize music to reprogram those deep wounds as well. And, you know, we. By using different playlists and different types of music, we can create new memories as well. We have autobiographical memories, and studies have shown that, you know, the music defines different areas of our life, and we can remember those areas. Those are areas where we're holding trauma. You know, when you hear a song that reminds you of that breakup or a death in the family, whatever. So I think the first. The first part is that you have to identify what your triggers are and what your wounds are.

And I still, by the way, remember it was Careless Whisper that reminded me of my. I know I'm dating myself here, my eighth grade crush.

Not really.

And if I hear that song, it'll still take me back to that dance hall, you know?

Right.

It's amazing. Think about the music that you hear, and it takes you right back to the time and place.

Right. So let's use that. Let's use that as an example. So you were saying that that reminded you of a breakup, right?

Yes.

Right.

My first crush. My first.

Right. So we.

Boyfriend.

Right. So if. Was that a good feeling for you or a bad feeling for you? When you.

It was a bad feeling. Was a lonely feeling.

Yeah. If we wanted to. We know we're not going to be playing Careless Whisper for you. If you're looking to create something new and bring some new love into your life, whether it's a new business plan or it's a new way to create in your life, you're going to want to reprogram that memory for you. So we would start by saying, okay, well, what are the traits you're looking for in bringing in a new love in your life or a romance into your life? And then look for songs that would represent that. Maybe it's a song like Rise up because of all the experience or relationships that you've conquered and now you're ready for love. You know, it's really delving deeper in. So when you start to listen to those songs, you're starting to get excited about bringing someone new into your life based on those specific songs. And anything can really be reprogrammed. And we can create new memories and more positive ways to uplift, lift ourselves, whether it's in new love or new aspects of business and creating new mission statements or new goals. So I think it's always identifying. I Call it Aira. And I talk about it in my book. It's identifying, releasing, and then attuning. So if you can identify what your block is and what's being triggered, that's holding you back, then you can work with releasing it and then you can bring in new energy or attune. Right. As we say higher vibrations, per se.

Yes.

And that does mean delving into yourself.

This is so uncanny because I'm listening to you going, oh my God, this is like exactly what I wrote about it. I never knew you prior to writing that, which was my, you know, I'm just writing out of my experience and then the experience of the leaders I coach. So everything you say is what has been my experience. And first it was to identify. I called it the old playlist. Right. Getting. Getting in your way that it's a pattern that you want to release that you notice is like, why does this keep happening to me? Like, well, you've got a playlist going on and you're broadcasting something out into the world, whether you know it or not, that's getting returned back to you. Because like attracts like.

Right?

So it's not that I wanted to carry my old playlist of I'm treated unfairly around and to meet me, you would never know that. And yet these experiences showed up. So how do I then interrupt the pattern, which was the anchor song of the old playlist, to catch it before you go down this eight lane highway to hell and then create a new neural pathway that allows you to build up so that it's is equally in size as the eight lane highway to hell and it makes that transition easier to get on. And based on that, what is the new state I want to be feeling what music best represents that state or actually gives me that state. And how can I listen to that to be in that state so that I understand and can easily choose now between those two neural states, the old playlist and the new playlist. And so everything you said is like, matches up perfectly with that. It's blowing my mind right now, honestly.

Awesome. I think, Susan, it relates. If something was going on in your company and you were losing money, wouldn't you want to look at where you're losing money or where it's going in your company? You look at the different sections and you might even bring an expert in to take a look at that to say, you're spending too much money here. Right. Or you're. You're not spending enough money in your marketing. And it's the same thing energetically and that's why I say taking inventory of things is exactly what we do. And our emotions are energy as well. If we don't know where we're spending energy in our lives, how can we heal it? And very often when we're being triggered by things that are from our past, we spend a lot of energy. So if you think of it like a battery and every emotion has a charge in your life, if you have a knee jerk reaction to something and you're getting very angry with something, it's probably something that's triggered from your past that you really don't have a lot of awareness around. If someone told you as a child you're better to be heard than to speak, and you know, at work, then all of a sudden you're trying to voice yourself and you don't feel acknowledged or appreciated in your job, you end up having a knee jerk reaction and spending more energy than you need to. Once you identify what it is and spending too much energy, that's where music can really come in and help navigate that energy. That red flag comes up and instead of you overreacting, you say, hmm, you know, I think this is one of my issues that are being triggered. You know what, I'm going to plug in my playlist that I have for anxiety, or I'm going to play in my motivational playlist of the songs that move me so it doesn't snowball into a day that ends up going out of control. And that's where we start to lose our mission and our legacy, you know, and things that drive us as entrepreneurs outside of just being a job. Most of us as entrepreneurs, we became entrepreneurs because we're mission and legacy driven. And if you don't have enough energy to keep that energy going, that's how I look at it, is I want to have enough energy to focus on my mission and my legacy. And even things like utilizing music for sleep are so important in that executive and entrepreneurial climate that we don't necessarily look at.

I think the analogy is if you're trying to cross an ocean in a boat, but you've got these little holes and you think that they're no big deal, but they're bringing in water and you're having to either bail them out or deal with them. And it's really good to look at and make a list of what are you tolerating in your life and why? Because that is that energy drain. And it may be you have to have a courageous conversation and you're uncomfortable to have that or it feels like it's too much energy. And yet. And day in, day out, that water keeps seeping through the tiny little hole over time. Is it. Or is it actually time? And. And you can even use music to heal that pattern such that you can speak courageously and feel heard by shifting that old patterning. Because the same thing, this all stems from what occurred way back when, not necessarily on what's occurring today, but it's a pattern that was developed long ago in childhood.

Yeah. And I mean, I think we have a lot of tools to bring us back into balance in this day and age. Meditation. And there's so much great work out there, but if you don't inventory or journal, like, what's taking you back out again? So if, if you move into this peaceful state every day, I invite you to take on a 30 day challenge of every day. See what took you out of that space. You know, if you start your day with a beautiful intention, start writing down what took you out. And over the 30 days, you should see some common trends that are moving you out of being more centered and being more in your power and your passion and your purpose, because ultimately that's what it is. And then when you see what those patterns are, then you can begin to become what I call the DJ of your life. You can start scheduling in music in specific parts of your day, and you can be armed, you know, with specific playlists. You can never stay in that space too long, and that's really important. You know, we all experience stress, we all experience anxiety, but how long are you staying there and how much energy are you spending? And that's where music becomes a power tool to get us out.

Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. You know, you sent me some music for attracting love into my life. And since it's Valentine's Day, on the day we're taping this, it's so perfect. I actually meditated on that this morning and while playing it, and I felt just incredibly peaceful, a deep sense of love for myself and for those around me. How are you able to do that using music? Now, possibly it was me setting an intention there, but I also believe. How is your music able to do that? Your music does that, or people like the likes of Joe Dispenza wouldn't be using you in their meditations to help create those transcendent moments.

Well, I think there's a lot of ingredients that go into a recipe for healing music. And I can talk a little bit about the. Some of those ingredients from my personal point of view. And one of those is intention, because music's a carrier of information. So before I go in to create a piece of music that I think is going to be loving, I have to be in a loving state in order to compose it. And it has to feel loving to me initially. So I have to be the receiver of my own music, and it has to work on me first. That's the first criteria. So it's intention and emotion. And then there's also compositional expertise and certain areas where I know as a composer that this is the perfect chord to put a cello in that will open up the heart and make you feel that even more. So it's having the. The expertise, and that comes from years of, of, of composing. There are specific frequencies that I use, and it's all based on what moves me. I don't have a set way that I compose every piece. And then if I feel that in the moment when I listen back, then I know that it's going to resonate with someone there on some level. And music's a highly personal thing, so no matter what technology we're using in it. Susan, My feeling is that if you don't resonate with the music and the compositional aspects, it's probably not going to be healing for you. That is not just something that happens to you, it's also something that happens in you. And that's part of what I'm teaching now in my courses is listening on a deeper level that goes beyond your ears. How does it feel in your body?

Well, what's one thing you would recommend that entrepreneurs or executives do tomorrow that would help them along the journey? As we look at enlightenment as, as a leader, what's one thing they could do?

I'm going to just expand a little bit about musical nourishment. And so this is definitely one thing that they can do. And I was discussing, like, nourishing yourself through food. What would happen if we nourished ourselves three times a day through music? Start your day off utilizing music, whether it's a piece of music that's going to relax you or inspire you based on your schedule. Where am I now? Where do I want to go? And what piece of music will take me there? So morning, afternoon, and evening, three pieces of music to create your own initial music program. And then you can, of course, expand it from there.

I love it. I can't wait to have our listeners try this out. Where can people learn more about you and your work, Barry?

The best place to find out more about me is barrygoldsteinmusic.com and I also have another page called the soundoftransformation.com that has a lot of my workshops, all my platforms, and a lot of the sound tools that I offer people.

Excellent. Well, thank you so much for coming on and having this amazing conversation. So thank you.

My pleasure. And I hope we do it again.

Yes. Well, if you like this episode, you're not going to want to miss my interview with Deb Crow, who discusses heart centered leadership and how to thrive on helping people become successful and fulfilled. Let's all lead the way. Hope you enjoyed today's episode and I'd like to point you to the next important step. Hit the subscribe button to get notified when we release new content. I'll see you on the next episode of the Enlightened Executive.