The quick answer is most definitely YES. The more in-depth answer is, that music can not only change your mood, it can change the way you perceive the world. It can heal your pain and also help on memory loss. Studies has shown that people who suffers from dementia and listen to music from their childhood, actually remember and connect back to that time.
Music can help with stress relief and when taught to children, they will create a musical skillset that will stay with them forever.
What Benefits Do Music Have?
Here is a list of the areas where music will be beneficial to you:
- CHANGE YOUR ABILITY TO PERCEIVE TIME
- TAP INTO PRIMAL FEAR
- REDUCE SEIZURES
- MAKE YOU A BETTER COMMUNICATOR
- MAKE YOU STRONGER
- BOOST YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM
- ASSIST IN REPAIRING BRAIN DAMAGE
- MAKE YOU SMARTER
- EVOKE MEMORIES
- HELP PARKINSON’S PATIENTS
As you can see music has many great benefits when listened to on a regular basis. But of course, it does require the right type of music to gain these benefits over a longer period of time. This will be specified in the next chapter, but for now I want to go into slightly more details about these benefits.
Music can make you stronger.
But how? Music is changing your state and your emotions and your change in emotion will change your action. That is why when people work out, they most likely will listen to some music with a pumping beat, quite loud and energetic in order to pump up your state of mind to actually do the work required to gain muscles.
Imagine you come into the gym and you listen to a soft, gentle playlist – most likely you will feel like going to the sauna or the steam bath instead of on the treadmill.
On the other hand, when you go into a clothing shop, they probably would play a softer choice or some R&B music to create a more romantic feeling in your body.
The reason for this, is because our heart actually beats faster when listening to music with a higher beat. If the store manager put on a song with a high energetic beat, people would stay for a shorter amount of time inside the shop. They would walk faster, look at the cloth faster and generally go more quickly through the items, which is not desirable for a store manager, but on the other hand super great in a gym where people are wanting to get fit, run, do their exercises and generally feel pumped and energized.
Music Can Evoke Memories:
We are actually born with more Neurons than we need in our brain. By the age of 8 our brain does a huge drop of neurons, removing any neurons perceived as unnecessary, which is why it’s easier to teach language and music to younger children.
By that age we have already listened to quite a lot of music and therefore the type of music your parents listen to, becomes a part of you. When we grow elderly and our memory gets affected, studies has shown that by playing that same music, as we heard back in our childhood, we start connecting and remembering those times again. It is really incredible, that after all those years the human brain still remembers, through music and specific songs.
We tie emotions and situations/events together with a specific song and when we hear that particular song again, those exact same emotions comes floating back to us again, hence the memory that comes back too.
Tap into primal fear:
Music can evoke the emotion of fear too. Just think of the last thriller you saw in the cinema. If you see a thriller without sound it wouldn’t create the same emotions inside of the person watching the film and the movie wouldn’t get their message across. That is why movies use sound effects and different tones, rythms and songs when creating a scene of something scary.
How Does the Music Affect Me?
The Beat:
The beat is the base of any music. It creates the tempo of the song through counting bpm (beats per minute). As an example, if we have 60 bpm you would have a new beat every second. Normally you would have an instrument like the drum or a base, to create this beat in any song. The beat creates a mood. A faster beat becomes more energetic and happier, a slower beat becomes more sad or romantic. The beat in a music is what can change the heartbeat of the listener and that person becomes in harmony with the beat of the music.
The Rhythm:
The rhythm is what connects the beats in a song. You can say that Rhythm is what you hear in between the actual hit of the drum. There is always a rhythm in a song, but not necessarily a beat. Think of an acoustic song where you only have the singer and a guitar. There is no actual beat, but there most definitely is a rhythm or it wouldn’t be a song but a monolog instead.
The rhythm in a song creates the mood and the interpretation can change drastically. That is why a slow-beat-song both can be Sad and Romantic, depending on the rhythm in the song.
The Tone:
The tone is super important when we talk about the mood of the music. The same way that tonality is a big part of how we communicate in our everyday life. Some examples of tone in music are: airy, comic, funny, heavy, intimate, Romantic, ironic, light, playful, sad, serious and threatening. We both have to consider the tone of the instruments and the tone of voice (if there is one). The tone of the voice can change a whole song and the mood of the song and the listener.
How To Change My Mood With Music?
Suffering From Anxiety?
Are you feeling tired, exhausted, Anxious, sad, depressive or angry? Then one of the fastest ways to change your mood is to put on your favorite song. Music is one of the best ways to tap into your emotions and let go of your thoughts and just react and listen to the flow, the lyrics and the sounds in the music.
Studies have shown that pure sound effects can heal people who suffers a lot from anxiety. There is so many amazing soundtracks on YouTube but here is one that I really like to listen to when I feel that feeling in my stomach and I just need to tune into myself and let go of whatever is uncomfortable in my stomach area.
Feeling Tired & Exhausted?
Other times you might just feel tired and out of motivation to stand up and do whatever it is you had planned to do. We all have those days when we just prefer to stay in bed and not go anywhere. When I feel like that I put on one of these songs and start dancing around at home in a silly way to just get my blood pumping a bit around in my body. This normally wakes me up and feel more fresh and happy to start my day.
This is a trick you can perform at any time of the day. Normally tiredness can come because you do the same thing for too long time, so here I would advise you to change environment. Get up take a quick walk outside, put on some music and fool around, do 10 push ups or something that just let you change your state in a quick and easy way. Music is a very quick and nice way to feel a boost of energy.
Want To Create A Romantic Mood?
If you are searching to create a romantic and intimate mood at home, then putting on music is a great way to do that, together with dimmering the lights, maybe even light a few candle lights in the background as well and you have now created an amazing atmosphere at home.
Sometimes doing this with your significant other at home, can be so much more significant instead of going out in a restaurant.
Music really does enrich our lives incredibly. It is almost like an instant fix of endorphins and really can change our mood and state of mind in an instant. Use it when you feel sad, frustrated, anxious and just tired of everything in general. Or if you want to create a romantic evening at home.
Listening to music connect you to your feelings and emotions and that is why listening to music will change your mood regarding what you listen to.
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