"Fix You": Your stories on the power of song to heal

Music soothes the baby. Music cheers up an angry child. Music reminds a couple of their love. Music makes you want to laugh, cry, dance, cheer, fight or love. Music can save you.

—Shanyn Silinski, Manitoba rancher, author and mother.

Can music heal you? 

We dare anyone to be a sceptic after watching YOUNG@HEART perform Coldplay's "Fix You". 

All week long CBC Manitoba has asked the question, and all week long the stories have poured in. You have said a resounding "Yes, music has the power to heal."

Here are some of the stories and songs you sent in. And more stories are welcome!  Leave your story in the comments section.

Shanyn Silinski is a Manitoba rancher, author and mother.

Music makes you want to laugh, cry, dance, cheer, fight or love. Music can save you.

 When my dear friend Kelly killed himself I could not listen to "The Dance" without my heart breaking.  It was so hard to hear the song that he so believed the lyrics of. It took me over 15 years to be able to listen to that song and understand  it could be a celebration as well as a mourning song. I still cry when I hear it. 

I can't say one song at one time saved my life, but I can say that music is an important part of my life support system. 



Vi Stoesz is a recreation co-ordinator at Victoria Hospital.

I have worked over the years with music and older adults in various settings and the seniors seemed to be so connected to the songs from their past. 

I am thinking of a particular woman who would always request the same song every week even though her tears would start running as soon as we started to sing the song. She would request "In the Garden". When we would get to the part "And He walks with me and He talks with me", the tears would start to flow. 

I wonder if the healing power of song can also help us come to terms with something from the past, either positive or negative. I believe this really helped her in some way deal with it.



Dan Gordon lives and works in Winnipeg.

After the sudden death of my 27 year old sister, these lines from a Flaming Lips song, "Waitin' for a Superman" spoke to me.

"Tell everybody waiting for Superman
That they should hold on as best they can
He hasn't dropped them, forgot them, or anything
It's just too heavy for Superman to lift."



Beth Martens has been diagnosed with cancer twice in the past 13 years.  She was only 29 when she got the sobering news that she had stage 4 Hodgkin's lymphoma. 

At that point, in 1999, she was was already using Kirtan (devotional chanting) as part of her Yoga practice.  "Music was a force of healing for me", says Martin, "a powerful force that "gets us out of the thinking mind, and into the feeling heart".

13 years later, Beth has fully incorporated her music into her work life as well, as an instructor of Yoga and Kirtan. 




What's your story?  We'd love to hear about a song that has had the power to heal in your life.