4 Habits for Energy, Productivity, & Happiness That Changed My Life (Science-Backed)
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- ~4 min
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- 29 Jul 2024
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- 0:58:09
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- 128.0K
KEYPOINTS
- 01
Old favourite songs can reset your mood
Mel's first music hack is 'neural nostalgia': we tend to have more memories tied to older songs than newer ones, and hearing a song from high school, college or an early chapter of life brings back how you felt then. Researchers call this music-evoked autobiographical memory. You don't have to try to remember anything. The song takes you there.
- 02
Why it works: strong emotion records strong memories
Music activates the limbic system, which handles memory and emotion. Mel points out that the same recording system that stores trauma also stores your best moments. High emotion, plus hearing a song over and over that summer, locks the memory in. That's why you remember your graduation day but not the Thursday before it.
- 03
You don't have to want it to work
Put on a sad friend's favourite song and they may be annoyed at first, but by the end of the song they usually feel better. Mel's point is that you don't need to be in the mood. You just press play.
- 04
Build mood playlists before you need them
Make a few playlists in advance, even empty ones, and add songs as they come up: a hype playlist, a pick-me-up playlist, a high school favourites playlist. Mel notes that streaming services already sell playlists by mood because they know this works.
- 05
Hack two: 'walk-on music' before a performance
Like athletes running out to their entrance songs, listen to 'familiar energetic music', meaning upbeat songs you already like, before a test, an interview, writing or paying bills. Mel cites a roughly six-year NYU Tandon study using wearables. As she describes it, energetic music raised brain arousal more than coffee or stimulating scents, by increasing activity in the beta band linked to peak thinking.
- 06
Nostalgia songs and hype songs do different jobs
Mel separates the two. Nostalgic music, like the yacht-rock 'Piña Colada' song her parents played, moves you from one emotional state to another. Energetic music, like her current Lizzo and Dua Lipa picks, primes your energy. You can use the hype kind on your commute so you don't drag yourself into the office. Any genre works, from EDM to country, as long as it gets you going.
- 07
Hack three: binaural beats for focus, relaxation or sleep
Each ear gets a slightly different tone, and your brain mixes them into a third humming sound that isn't actually playing, an 'auditory illusion.' Mel explains that brain waves tend to sync to that frequency (called entrainment), so different tracks are designed for focus, stress relief or sleep.
- 08
How to use binaural beats
Headphones are essential, because each ear needs its own tone. Start somewhere quiet and undisturbed, keep the volume comfortable, and listen for 15 to 30 minutes, longer for relaxation or sleep. Try them both before and during focused work, use them daily so your brain adapts faster, and choose quality recordings from reputable sources.
- 09
Hack four: solfeggio frequencies, or 'angel music'
Mel describes certain high, pure tones as making people feel calm, get goosebumps or tear up. Listen for 10 minutes, an hour or all day in the background. She presents claims about healing as early and exciting. Treat them as a calming practice, not a medical treatment.
EXAMPLES
- 01
The motor home road trip
In eighth grade, Mel's family drove across the country to national parks with only three 8-track tapes: Neil Diamond, America and Hooked on Classics. Hearing Hooked on Classics puts her back on I-90 toward the Corn Palace, playing gin rummy in the back with her mom and brother.
- 02
Taylor Swift with her daughters
Mel saw Taylor Swift in concert with her adult daughters, whose childhood soundtrack her music had been. Kendall had picked up a guitar around age seven to learn the songs. Even listening to the set list on errands beforehand flooded Mel with a decade and a half of carpool memories.
- 03
U2 at Gillette Stadium, 2017
Joshua Tree came out in March 1987, the spring of Mel's freshman year, and she played it 'until the needle broke.' At the 2017 tour show, under a 200-foot-wide 8K screen, the sky cleared just before the band came on, and the crowd felt like the world's biggest college reunion.
- 04
The snow-crunch trigger
Mel was once in a car that rolled in the snow. Decades later, the crunch of snow underfoot puts her back in the car. It's the negative version of the same memory system behind neural nostalgia.
- 05
The YMCA dish party
After big dinners, Mel starts a disco playlist that opens with YMCA. Guests start wiggling toward the kitchen with their plates, and the cleanup turns into a party.
- 06
Malachi on Britain's Got Talent
Mel's first experience of 'angel music' was a viral clip of 13-year-old Malachi singing very high, pure notes. Simon Cowell called it the best voice he'd ever heard and gave him the golden buzzer.
OTHER RELEVANT
- 01
Before a big exam, put headphones on early
Mel suggests putting on a hype song as you walk into the test centre or the office, to block out other people's anxious energy and walk in 'like a boxer in a ring.'
- 02
Binaural beats in surgery
Mel cites a Danish study in which cataract surgery patients listening to a relaxation binaural-beats playlist through headphones relaxed during the procedure.
- 03
Keep the sound-healing research in proportion
The RMIT study in Melbourne that Mel mentions used high-frequency sound waves in the lab to nudge stem cells toward becoming bone cells. That's interesting cell science, not proof that listening to music heals the body.
- 04
Background music at home
One of Mel's producers, Amy, plays 'healing frequency' tracks in the background when her family is home and says they get along better. It's a personal experiment, not a study, but it costs nothing to try.