When was the last time you sang?
Singing is good for you, so they say.
Even if, like me, singing is not one of your gifts.
It boosts those things called endorphins that increase the feel-good factor in us. On top of that, there is apparently a part of our ear that responds to the sound of singing. This, again, leads to a rise in a feeling of pleasure.
As I say, I am not at all sure my singing could ever be counted a pleasure to listen to, but the experts reassure me that it is not the precision or the purity of the singing that counts, it is the trying. And I am, if nothing else, a trier.
The science behind singing
Because singing lifts our spirits, it is also good for our mental health. But in addition to that there are claims that singing lowers stress levels, since it decreases muscle tension as well as the stress hormone, cortisol, in our blood stream.
The Alzheimer’s Society has even established a Singing for the Brain service because singing oxygenates the blood stream, allowing more oxygen to reach the brain, improving alertness, concentration and memory.
Perhaps singing should be prescribed by doctors?
Solidarity in song
If you sing along with others, there are even more benefits. Singing unites people. It creates an affinity, broadening and deepening friendship.
I suppose that is something every football fan knows instinctively. There is nothing that can beat the sense of solidarity (or the resulting volume) of supporters standing together watching their team play and egging them on through song.
So, yes, sing along to the radio or to your favourite playlist and feel your mood lift as you do.
But join together with others if you really want to feel amazingly great. Therein lies a problem.
Choirs are not able to meet yet. Football matches are happening and new guidelines point to larger crowds again, but not accompanied by the accumulated decibels of song that can send shivers down the spine of the opposition.
And if you talk to those who go to church, these last months have led to what can only be described as a mourning of the lack of communal singing.
A good sing-song would soothe us all
People miss singing and, even more so, they miss singing together. I confess – I get that.
For centuries – millennia, even – people have sung of their heartache and their joys. They have sung of difficult times and of the most ecstatic. At the very highest points and the very lowest, they have sung these things together. For these last 14 months that has been denied to us all.
Something as simple as singing might help us to feel better again – better about ourselves, others and life
In the face of all that is going on in the world right now, this might seem a really trivial thing to be thinking of – but remember all those benefits of singing? I think we are all in need of them because there are so many people feeling down and weary and “meh”.
It is perfectly possible that something as simple as singing might help us to feel better again – better about ourselves, others and life.
And if you think I am over-egging things, I remember a study which concluded that those who sing are not only happier, but live longer with a better quality of life.
You don’t have to be good at singing for it to make you feel good
If you are a person of faith who sings, then you hit the jackpot. You are likely to be even happier and live even longer. Throw prayer in there and the odds get even better.
And perhaps that goes some way to explaining why so many people of faith cannot wait to hit the high notes and to be allowed to sing, as part of a congregation, in church again. Not because they can all tunefully reach those high notes but because there is something about singing that makes people as individuals feel good.
It draws people and God together in a way that is life-enrichening and deep, important and, in many senses, primordially basic. Christians cannot wait to raise the roof.
But all of us need to sing our hearts out. So reach for that hairbrush, drown out the noise of the shower and gie it laldy.
The Very Rev Susan Brown is minister of Dornoch Cathedral and the former moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
