Thursday, August 21, 2008

One way practicing helps


I came across an article by Cathy Malchiodi in Psychology Today about Kelly Lambert's book Lifting Depression that gives a little bit of insight as to why practicing (or even just playing) an instrument helps when things inside your head are not going so well. Malchiodi's article concerns arts and crafts: making things with the movements of the hands, and their relationship to the brain's frontal cortex. I imagine that the "effort-driven rewards" that result from the hand and finger movements involved in playing an instrument to make music, give the brain's frontal cortex a whole lot of positive stimulation.

1 comment:

j said...

Interesting article. Practicing/playing an instrument-great application.