Music and Human Flourishing: A Pathway to Fulfillment
Human Flourishing is a state in which a person’s life is good all round. Where an individual feel fulfilled and contented with what life is offering them. Conceptions of what constitutes flourishing will vary from person to person, as everyone will have different views of what makes them flourish. Regardless, I believe that most would concur that human flourishing requires happiness and life satisfaction, being healthy, both mentally and physically, having life purpose, having a good character and virtue and good relationships with family, and friends. In human flourishing essay I want to present the idea of music as the way how anyone can “flourish” himself.
Music has the ability to evoke strong positive emotions and to elevate the mood of an individual. Attending a live musical performance, be it a concert, a recital or an opera can potentially decrease the release of cortisol and other stress hormones. This is due to the fact that our brain releases endorphins and dopamine during live performances, these are the chemicals which are associated with happiness. Therefore, the stress and pain an individual is going through, will reduce with the powerful effects music has in their bodies. Koelsch and Siebel believe that this is presumably due to its capability to engage perceptual, emotional and cognitive processes that will interfere with the insight of noise taken in a concert venue. Attending live performances and enjoying music with thousands of others will make you feel connected with these individuals which will be beneficial to your mental outlook and longevity.
Listening to your favourite band or singer live, will bring you back in time when you first heard these tunes which could potentially help to relive joy, innocence, desire, guilt, disappointment, anger, frustration and sadness from that period of time. Professor Thomas Beaudoin, says that it is “an opportunity to revisit something inside of you and think where you are with that (emotion) now”.
Music to some extent is associated with emotions. The lyrics and the sound of a song can trigger negative and positive feelings, this fact has been exploited several times in the music industry. These feelings of love, hate, fear, etc. in listeners are caused through the physical traits of sound such as loud, dissonance, chromatic, diatonic or harsh sounding sounds. The pitch is an important factor in sound design. A high pitch sound conveys more urgency that an equivalent low pitch sound.
To conclude what is human flourishing essay, human flourishing is an idea that has been misjudged as living cheerfully. People listen, sing, dance and play during their daily lives, this helps to relief the pain and sorrow they might be experiencing as well as helping them connect with other people who share similar interests or face similar problems. Music has the ability to renew, to provide a resource for cultivating well-being and to regulate emotions. It helps our identity, relationships and community to flourish.
