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Healing through music and culture
At Playlist for Life, we encourage anyone creating a personal playlist to include within it a range of songs that remind us of our youth, identity and people that are important to us as it’s these tracks that help us reconnect with our ourselves and loved ones. In this guest blog, Ronald Amanze, who lives with dementia, shares how music from his heritage has helped him navigate changing circumstances in his life.
Ronald is a Trustee with Deepness Dementia Media and Arts4dementia and founder of the Box of Smiles project. Learn more on his blog and follow him on X (Twitter).
I have certainly become very emotional and sensitive to changes in my life. Every day I struggle with moments of anxiety, stress and confused thinking while navigating the constant challenge of stigma that unfortunately still surrounds dementia.
I also have a brain injury and blocked artery in my neck, which resulted in a stroke and so doctors say I need to remain active to stimulate blood and oxygen supply to my brain. The medication I take to help manage symptoms of dementia also gives me side effects.
“Music of my cultural heritage also helps me evaluate, live well and understand the changing circumstances of my life, while reaffirming who I am. With a smile.”
However, I have benefited from the many beautiful and wonderful people I have met during my dementia journey. I’ve learnt so much from my peers. I now believe I live well with dementia by encouraging myself to feel wonderful every day while remaining meaningfully active.
Music and remaining active have been such a valid and significant therapy in my life. It is astonishing how music and creativity rescues me. I have an overactive brain and believe that my dementia interrupts my sleep. Most nights I go to bed with music playing and I listen to music while writing my dementia diaries in the middle of the night.
Ronald’s personal playlist: Lovers Rock
For me music of cultural relevance, and by that, I mean the music that shaped the backdrop of my youth and teens tends to be more valid and enjoyable. Especially because it evokes my ability to reminisce.
When listening to music you can relate to, it feels like connecting with someone in your native language as it is universal and brings out a sense of comfort. Music also helps me to ward off stress and anxiety and it is music that is already familiar to me that is best for doing this. And it does not necessarily have to be music of my heritage that I listen to as I grew up loving a diverse range of genres, but as my parents are Jamaican, reggae and African music, particularly Lovers Rock, is very much in my DNA.
