10 Ways Music Improves Our Mental Health

Music is present everywhere. Whether you hear it when you go shopping, listen to it when you are driving or when you are learning, or put in on when exercising, music is often on in the background, and can greatly benefit your mental health. Let’s see how listening to music can help you improve your well-being and your state of mind.

Music Helps You Focus

Whether you have an assignment or you just want to read something, it is easy to become distracted. Fortunately, there are a lot of playlists with songs that help you focus on your tasks. The best type of music, in this case, is instrumental. If there are no lyrics to concentrate on, your mind will focus on the task at hand and can improve your concentration. Orchestra pieces consisting mostly of strings or piano arrangements with a calm, relaxing sound are usually best to improve focus.

Music Can Help You Express Your Feelings

We all have tough moments in our lives. It is said that when you are sad, you pay more attention to the lyrics of songs, and it is common to find yourself in the lyrics. You can start analyzing the lyrics of your favorite songs and use them to better express your feelings.

Not only does listening to music help express your feelings, but composing and playing music does as well. Artists often write songs that represent an event or moment in their life, or express a certain feeling they have or had. For example, if you are feeling sad because, let’s say, you have lost a love one, putting that sadness into a piece of music (an original or a work by someone else) can be a great way to express those feeling of sorrow and can create something beautiful. Or, let’s say you just got a big promotion and are feeling excited. Channel that energy into the next piece of music you play and you will likely find it to be more fun and exciting.

Music Increases Your Level of Creativity

When you start analyzing the lyrics of songs, you can also start creating your own songs. The ideas might pop into your mind, but maybe you do not feel comfortable writing lyrics.

Let your creativity unleash while you write a broad description of the song and the feelings you want to transmit. Get help from friends and family to help you create some great lyrics.

Music Helps You Relax

We all know how busy life can be. There is always something you need to do or something that needs to be taken care of. You might feel overwhelmed sometimes, but music can help you relax. Just find your favorite genre and listen to it whenever you feel you need a break. You will see that the chaos will slowly disappear and you will feel your body and your mind more relaxed.

Music Improves Your Mood

There are a lot of studies which have proven the effectiveness of music in mental disorders like autism, dementia or depression.

If you observe that you often have deep feelings of sadness or hopelessness, music can help you. Of course, if you happen to have depression, music is not enough for a cure, but studies have shown that music therapy improves the responsiveness to medication, so listening to more music may help improve your mood and overall happiness.

Music Can Relieve Your Anxiety

We all have our favorite songs that we listen to over and over again. That means that the lyrics or the melodic line or both help you feel better. You can often use your favorite music to turn sadness into happiness.

Whenever you feel anxious about an exam or an important event in your life, you can listen to your favorite songs to help you calm down and focus.

Music Can Help You Develop

We all enjoy listening to music or singing the lyrics of the songs we love. If that’s the case, it is likely also that you are a musician or would like to be a musician. And so, you want to start learning to play an instrument. Whether is the piano, the guitar, or the flute, playing an instrument has many positive benefits on your mental health such as increased creativity, improved coordination, and better management skills.

Music Can Increase Your Level of Motivation

We all have those mundane tasks that need to be done. Fortunately, there are certain genres of music that will help you push through these seemingly boring tasks. If you listen to music with a consistent beat, your heartbeat and breathing will become regulated, causing you to concentrate more on your tasks, thus increasing your level of motivation.

Music Can Boost Your Confidence

There are moments in our lives when we feel down. We feel that we cannot finish what we have started. A lack of confidence in yourself can lead to feelings of anxiety and frustrations tend to appear.

Listening to music with an upbeat tempo and positive lyrics can help you feel more confident and push forward. You will be amazed by what the combination of a good beat and a powerful message can do.

Music Can Help You Stay Active

Being active is a key aspect which contributes to good mental and physical health, and there are a lot of songs which give you energy and a great boost to start the day and carry out your activities. You can listen to these songs while you are doing some exercises to boost your activity level. Exercising also helps you relieve stress, and if you combine exercise with listening to music, your wellbeing is sure to improve.

Conclusion

Music has lots and lots of benefits on your mental health. It can increase your level of motivation, confidence, and creativity. It also helps you stay active or relax when needed.

Find a suitable genre for every situation and start listening to more music!