Have you ever put headphones on to purposely shut out everything and everyone around you? Ever had your inner and deepest thoughts and feelings described in such a meaningful and poetic way that you would never or have never been able to outwardly verbalise yourself? Ever attempted to escape your reality for at least a few minutes and instead imagined yourself getting completely lost within the narrative of a song?
A lot of us have. But why?
Pexels | Mihis Alex
The following article contains discussion about various mental health topics (such as depression and anxiety). and their impact on people. With the full intention of Mindless Mag being to create a safe space for everyone, please bare this factor in mind when continuing this article.
Music is important
Music provides every single one of us with the opportunity to forget about all of the current factors weighing down on us that we don’t want to deal with in actuality. Whether you’ve got anxiety about a presentation that’s looming, or you’re stressed about an exam that’s rapidly approaching, or maybe you’re just having a down day - we all have them, and that’s completely normal and okay -, implementing music into your life seems to heal whatever burden you’re facing if only for a moment by presenting itself as a plaster of sorts.
Music is scientific
There is science behind the reasoning for a musical artist being able to affect your mood and mentality through their craft. Numerous studies have verified that listening to music that we like releases higher levels of the hormone dopamine, which is a crucial neurotransmitter for humans’ emotional and cognitive functioning, therefore providing us with increased levels of happiness. This is why we repeat music that we like. It makes us feel happy, and therefore can improve mental health, or at the very least ease the struggle..
Music is calming
A clear example of music relaxing the body and mind is through meditation. Music is used during meditative sessions to calm and relax an individual, to provide someone with a moment of peace from their busy lives, and to balance time that they need to spend on themselves. Meditation can lead to benefits for both an individual’s emotional well-being and their overall health.
Music is distracting
Listening to songs is one of the best ways to change the target of your focus. Research has concluded that music serves as a temporary distraction and can lower an individual’s levels of depression and anxiety. With around 1 in 6 people reporting experiencing a common mental health problem (such as anxiety and depression) in any given week in England - according to Mind - music is one of the most accessible ways to temporarily alleviate said mental deviators without being physically invasive or expensive.
Music is unity
Not only does music heal you individually, but it also creates a sense of community. Feeling as though you are a part of something bigger, a family of fans, can help to combat any feelings of worthlessness and not belonging that someone could be trapped by. It creates a talking point, a safe space, a topic of conversation to help integrate yourself socially among people that are interested in and like the same music as you, therefore helping you create connections and build relationships that otherwise you may have bypassed.
That feeling of community is essential to the human experience. We learn and grow from interacting with others, and having similar interests with someone creates an immediate connection between people.
Music is a lifeline
There's so many instances of someone saying that a musical artist saved them, or helped them get through a rough time in their life. This is because today’s musical artists are open about their own struggles with mental health, and are willing not only their adoring fans, but everyone to inspire conversation about themselves and their own experiences with mental health.
Making it seem like you could talk about any mental health issues you’re currently facing to anyone is incredibly important, and is one of the first stages to actually doing something to try and help yourself, and through social media and interviews, singers are able to encourage those difficult discussion by making them not seem as uncomfortable or taboo as they may have done in the past by showing that they themselves have also taken those necessary steps.
To conclude, whilst music doesn't help your mental health in the same way that medication does, instead it provides a temporary distraction that removes the worries and mental parasites from within your mind, and instead allows you to connect to a piece of art that you might not be able to do similarity in any other context.
Music is vital to maintaining a healthy mentality.