By: Fabiola Grosshan
Submitted: 2010-05-31 04:07:09 | Word Count: 373
Drum circles have become an increasingly popular activity in recent years, not just among individuals but amongst organizations and businesses as well. The emotional and physical health benefits of drumming are following the growing trend of drum circles in corporate team building events and traditional medical therapy programs. According to researchers like Dr. Michael Drake, drumming helps to accelerate physical healing and boosts your immune system as well as your overall sense of well being. Here are some of the ways in which drum circles help boost the health of individuals and groups.
Physical Workout and Therapy
Drumming is an excellent and safe way to give your upper body a good workout. Anyone, regardless of age or fitness level, can join in. Drumming invigorates the body and allows you to move your limbs and enjoy a creative, rhythmic exercise. Medical centers and hospitals are also using drumming as therapy, helping patients control nausea and reduce pain.
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Managing/Relieving Stress
For companies like Drum Café, which enjoys widespread popularity in the Canadian cities of Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto, team building is at the heart of their corporate drumming events. By helping employees relieve stress via a cohesive musical group activity, drumming works to foster friendlier and more enjoyable group dynamics.
The de-stressing qualities of drum circles are backed up by scientific studies showing that group drumming helps to decrease participants’ stress levels, which can be measured by the presence of the hormone cortisol. For this reason, drumming has had huge success as an ice breaker activity and as an opener during large conferences and business events. Some of the internationally renowned companies that employ team building drumming activities include Starbucks, Kaiser Permanente, Toyota and IBM.
Boosting Your Immune System
Studies by various researchers, including leading cancer researcher Dr. Barry Bittman, have also shown that drumming helps enhance one’s cellular immune system, stimulating the activity of cytokines and specialized white blood cells called natural killer cells. Natural killer cells specialize in finding and destroying cancer cells and infections, and cytokines help modulate one’s immune system.
