The Healing Powers of Music

By Maddie Howard on February 27, 2017

I held my head high in an attempt to stop the tears I felt welling up behind my eyes. Staring blankly at the florescent lights on the ceiling, I felt the room close in on me.

In the background, I heard my parents’ muffled voices sharing their concerns while the doctor droned back a scripted and seemingly apathetic response. It was as if my mind had elected to put on headphones, masking my ability to absorb the doctor’s advice or even process my feelings about the nauseating news I had just received.

Only one question was racing through my mind: How am I going to do this?

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On a brisk November day in 2014, a visit to a specialist changed my life forever. I found out that I have a severe spinal deformity called Scoliosis; it required me to have major back surgery, and the recovery would take three months or longer. In the scheme of a lifetime, three months or so could be considered a minor blip, but to a 15-year-old girl who was just beginning to figure out how to fit in, it was the end of the world.

My head spun with thoughts of losing friends, falling behind in school, and how my body would look after I had two cold metal rods screwed into my spine.

I had the support of my family and my faith in God to lean on, but I still felt lost and depressed. So as many distressed and anxious teenagers have done before me, I turned to music for additional inspiration in coping with my looming surgery. The song that spoke to me the most is “Swim” by Jack’s Mannequin, which adopts the analogy of swimming to represent persevering through difficult times.

“You’ve gotta swim / Swim for your life” reminded me that I needed to go through surgery to mitigate the potentially serious complications of untreated Scoliosis. During those long months of recovery, when I didn’t think my life would ever return to “normal, ” and I felt like the world was passing me by, I knew I had no choice but to “Swim for brighter days despite the absence of sun.”

And finally, “You gotta swim / Through nights that won’t end / Swim for your families / Your lovers your sisters / And brothers and friends” helped me realize that not only am I recovering for myself, but the people I loved were counting on me to make a full recovery as well.

Perhaps no one understood the healing and restorative power of music better than Andrew McMahon, the singer/songwriter behind Jack’s Mannequin.

“One of the biggest experiences that helped McMahon evolve in both music and life was a personal battle — McMahon is 10 years in remission after discovering he had Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia in 2005 at age 22,” Emily Krauser wrote in an article on ET.

McMahon drew from his personal experiences in the hospital to create an album that would inspire other people going through the healing process to stay strong. The song inspires fans to take action and overcome their battles, and the captivating lyrics are universal and take on a personal meaning for whoever cares to listen.

Without music, I don’t think I would have had the same positive outlook on my surgery that I have today. Music has a mysterious healing quality that I don’t believe we will ever fully understand.

Perhaps Jack’s Mannequin said it best when dealing with obstacles in life: “Swim for the music that saves you / When you’re not so sure you’ll survive.”

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