Listening to music and practicing mindfulness can aid stroke recovery.
Researchers from the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and East Anglia recruited 72 participants who had suffered from a stroke and divided them into three groups. One group listened to music, another to audiobooks, and the final group to music as well as mindfulness exercises, for an hour every day over an eight-week period.
The mindfulness exercises were five minutes long and encouraged listeners to focus their attention on the music when their minds began to wander.
Researchers observed a positive effect all-around. At the end of the eight-week period, the majority of participants reported that the listening exercises were enjoyable. But those in the mindfulness group experienced the greatest benefits: they felt more relaxed, more focused, and better able to manage their emotions.
These results suggest that the combination of listening to music and practicing mindfulness can improve the lives of individuals recovering from stroke.
Source:
Baylan, S., Haig, C., et al. (2019, April 2). Measuring the effects of listening for leisure on outcome after stroke: A pilot randomized controlled trial of mindful music listening. International Journal of Stroke. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1747493019841250
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