Music is a part of my everyday life, as well as for my family and friends. It’s been really rare for me to meet people who don’t listen to music regularly, or who don’t have a favourite song or artist. With that being said, music can always be paired with an action or emotion – people often listen to songs when they’re happy, sad, angry, going to the gym or going on long journeys. I think that often music is neglected when it comes to actually helping to resolve peoples’ negative emotions. Here are some ways that I think people forget that music is a creative form of self-care:
- Music helps to deal with mental illness
The American Psychiatry Association found that music therapy helps people with stress-related outcomes as well as helps to address mental health and substance use disorders. Often certain songs can hold sentimental value to people, which can help to alleviate the symptoms that come with mental illnesses, such as depression and anxiety. Listening to your favourite song is more therapeutic than you think! Whether it’s sad, happy, loud or even instrumental, it is scientifically proven to be useful. Artists who have also struggled with mental illnesses such as 6lack, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilis or Kanye West are some that have songs describing their struggles, which can be comforting for others to listen to if they’re feeling the same.
- Music as a form of catharsis
As well as relieving symptoms of mental illness, music can help to help relieve really any other strong emotions someone may be feeling. Often, when people are feeling angry or upset, listening to songs that convey those feelings can help to release those emotions, which can prevent people from harming or being mean to others. To express feelings of rage, some artists such as Linkin Park, Rico Nasty or Playboi Carti share loud and aggressive feelings in their music.
- Music can be used for manifestation
Songs can often have powerful messages which can help people to have a positive and hopeful outlook on life. Songs such as “Cozy” by Beyonce use the lyric “comfortable in my skin, cosy with who I am” to help people feel confident within themselves if they are dealing with insecurities. As well as this, Jhene Aiko’s song “Trigger Protection Mantra” which is a six-minute song that uses crystal singing bowls accompanied with the lyrics “calm down… protect your energy” which helps to soothe and relax, as well as sending the positive message to keep calm and not let other peoples’ energies affect your own positivity.
- Music is beneficial for studying
Often people can find music to be distracting when doing work, but people often neglect how useful certain types of music can be when trying to focus. Classical music is an example of this, as it’s been claimed to have an effect on enhancing certain areas of the brain that are concerned with dopamine and learning, which is beneficial for focusing especially when stressed. Alternatively, listening to instrumentals or piano versions of your favourite songs helps you to not be distracted by the artist’s voice, which then helps you to put more focus on your work whilst enjoying your favourite songs. Music can help with mental blocks one might be facing when studying, which helps to alleviate feelings of stress and confusion.
- Music brings out peoples’ creative side
In the age of digital streaming, people can create playlists on apps such as Spotify and YouTube which can help to capture different feelings – whether it be a playlist for primary school nostalgia, certain emotions or scenarios such as walking through the park on a warm summer’s day. Because of digital streaming, I’ve also seen people create playlists for their comfort books or movies on digital streaming apps, which I find to be a form of self-care as this helps people to feel like they’re a part of their favourite book or movie, which can help to create positive emotions, as well as creating feels of nostalgia for when they first read the book or watched the movie they made a playlist about.
The broad nature of music shows how useful it is in ways that people often forget about. Music can just be listened to for the sake of just wanting to listen to music, but I believe it’s also important to recognise its many benefits and how it’s an amazing thing to incorporate into peoples’ self-care routines.