How Music helps Mental Health

Post #6

Have you ever started dancing around your living room with music blaring, or driving down the road, and your favourite song comes on, so you crank your stereo and start singing to the lyrics?

Music is said to enhance intelligence and focus, but it can also improve your mental health. Our mental health is important for our overall well-being, influencing how we think, feel, and interact with others. If we are struggling mentally, it can affect every avenue of our life. Our quality of life, resilience to stress, and physical health, are challenged making it difficult for personal fulfillment and stability. Music can change your mood, relax, and boost your energy. It can help you express your feelings and mend a broken heart.

Sharing music with others, whether through playlists on Spotify or live in-person concerts, helps with feelings of loneliness and builds connections. There are also several YouTube videos, Instagram posts, and Tik Tok videos that exhibit how music can connect you with your audience, and help you express your feelings.

Benefits of Music on Mental Health -Improve Focus -Lifts your mood -Boosts confidence -To relax -To express and channel anger or negative emotion -Therapeutic benefits -Can support mindfulness

Music can lower stress levels, reduce anxiety, and promote relaxation. An upbeat song or your favorite tune, can boost your mood and promote feelings of happiness which can help to combat depression. Listening to music encourages you to concentrate on the rhythms, melodies, harmonies, and beats of the music, which can help you stay present and in the moment.

Using music to express and channel anger or negative emotions can be a powerful coping tool. Genres like rock and metal, often express themes of anger and frustration. This can be a good outlet for feelings. For me, playing an instrument was cathartic. I would channel my anger into my violin, playing faster and more challenging tunes, that would bring up my feelings.

Music offers a range of therapeutic benefits that can positively impact mental, emotional, and physical health. Research has shown that playing an instrument can enhance cognitive function and memory.

In Psychology Today, they wrote “Music therapy can help people manage physical pain and has proven effective in treating a variety of health conditions, including cardiac complications, cancer, diabetes, and dementia. It can help:

• Lower heart rate and blood pressure
• Reduce stress
• Improve sleep
• Boost memory and cognitive function.

Music can also have powerful effects on a person’s psychological health. It can influence anyone’s mood, causing a range of effects from providing comfort to soothing physical pain to boosting energy. Studies have shown that music therapy can be particularly helpful for people who have an autism spectrum disorder or depression” (Psychology Today, 2024).

Music can encourage mindfulness, helping individuals to stay present and grounded. Calming music can support deep breathing and relaxation, which are key components of the practice of mindfulness. Music can also be used as a way to guide your thoughts when you are meditating.

In our house, we go by the ‘Dance It Out’ Method. The “Dance It Out” method from the famous Drama, Grey’s Anatomy emphasizes using dance as a form of emotional release and self-expression. It shows how movement and music can be therapeutic while offering a fun and engaging way to cope with emotions and improve mental health at the end of a long day. It is also a way to connect with others while dancing in your house, street, or in your car.

Sometimes you just have to ‘Dance It Out”