Harping back to Happiness by Paula Brainyon

My name is Paula Braynion, and I’ve been playing the harmonica for just over 2 years. I’d like to share the reason I started playing the harmonica, and how it has helped me. I’ll also look at the wider power of music to help people and how it fits into my role of working with people with learning disabilities and mental health issues. I run a not-for-profit social enterprise called Future Directions that supports adults with learning difficulties and/or mental health issues. When the pandemic hit in early 2020 it was incredibly difficult for those of us working in social care and other key workers. None of us had encountered anything HARPING BACK like it before. All of us had to continue to work and keep the people we support safe. I felt TO HAPPINESS personally responsible for nearly 1000 staff and 400 people we support. Everyone was By Paula Braynion scared, especially in the early days when high rates of people were dying. During lockdown, life became a strange mix of going to work, dealing with all this and then at weekends in between work calls having nothing to do or nowhere to go except for walking the dog. It was one of the hardest professional times of my life. At weekends I booked some online Zoom experiences to escape the constant pressure of trying to make the right decisions to keep people safe. In one of the Zoom sessions, I could hear a harmonica playing, and it reminded me how I always loved the harmonica, so I thought why not take it up. I ordered a harmonica, joined online forums, and found a tutor who’s been teaching me for the past two years. In the early days, it was particularly painful for my husband’s ears, so he helpfully suggested turning our summer house into a harmonica hut. This means I have my den and space where I can get away and practice. Learning the harmonica has been a godsend to my mental health and has enabled me to keep going during the pandemic: Playing the harmonica is a form of mindfulness for me: when I practice, I have to focus purely on playing and the music. During that time, I am truly in the moment and there is no space for worry or stress. Music has been proven to lift the mood and be an important valve for releasing emotion. What does that better than playing the blues? As I practice and learn new things, I get a sense of achievement which, again, has been shown to lift the mood and promote selfesteem. It has connected me to a wider harmonica community, enabling

me to grow a network of friends sharing the experience of learning together. Having the harmonica has created a physical and mental space for me to get away from work and get lost in music. It has been invaluable helping me to be resilient and cope with everything during the last two years. Yet I shouldn’t be surprised, as scientists have proven that humans are hardwired to respond to music. Some studies show that music lifts the mood and has been useful for those who have depression. It can stimulate and help repair neural pathways for people who have had strokes, and it helps people with Alzheimer’s to reconnect to lost memories through hearing songs that connect to past events in their lives. Music has been shown to give our brains a total workout, reduce anxiety, reduce blood pressure and improve mental health. The latter is particularly important in my line of work, but music has wider benefits. We support some people who are non-verbal but do communicate in other ways e.g. through body language, sign language etc. For these people, music can be incredibly powerful in bridging the communication gap and connecting to people who are verbal through sharing and experiencing music together. Music is a fabulous medium for non-verbal people to express themselves and their emotions. In Future Directions we recognise the importance and power of music so much that we employ a music man, who, amongst his many talents, plays the harmonica (but not as well as me!). Kevin enables many of the people we support who are non-verbal to enjoy the shared experience of making music. During lockdown, Kevin and his team set up Funtime Friday, which is still going every fortnight on Facebook, where we share 40 minutes of playing, dancing, singing, and enjoying music. This also enables people we support to feel connected to the wider community and for friends and family who couldn’t see them during lockdown to take part together online, again showing the power of music to connect to people and lift moods. Going forward, we at Future Directions will continue to offer people we support more opportunities to experience the power of making music. On a personal level, I can’t imagine life without playing and learning the harmonica. It is a wonderful journey that I am getting so much from. In the words of Elton John: “Music has healing powers. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a little while.”