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The psychological benefits of music

The psychological benefits of music

Image Credit: Unsplash

Music is universally accepted entertainment that can provide you with joy in times of happiness and comfort in sadness. It is a pleasure to our ears and medicine for our soul. All of us have some favorite tracks that are attached to a very fond memory. Every time that track comes up, boom! You get transported to that old happy time of yours!

Music is a regular fixture in the life of many. We have often come across many people who have a habit of keeping music on throughout the day. Do you desire to know the mystery as to why they do it?

It is often found that music has not only made its way to heart but has won over our mind too. Did you know there have been researches on the psychological benefits of music? These researchers have found that your favorite piano can work as a beautiful therapy too.

Learn to de-stress with music therapy

Music can affect your feelings, behaviors and thought process very deeply. Music therapy is one common approach that can address your psychological needs, as well as physical.

From listening to beautiful melodies to composing songs of your own, music therapy includes all these processes. Music therapy will also ask you to take up that forlorn guitar, that you put down years ago!

Surprising psychological benefits of music

A major stress buster

This does not appear as astonishment at all right? Music affects us in many ways. It is proven that by incorporating music in your daily life, the stress factor can come down drastically. A test report from 2013 suggests that people who listen to any form of music or sound recovered more quickly from stressful situations.

Wake yourself with your favorite track, or put on your headphones on your way to work. The tension of commuting itself will come down! Your workload and stress from the regular office work will come down with a beautiful track just before going to bed.

Music will boost your cognitive abilities.

By cognitive abilities, we mean boosting the skills of your brain, its capacity to function and intuition. Many researchers have found that playing music while working dramatically increases the working capacity of an individual. Playing music improves the speed of your work, and at the same time boosts your memory.

Music helps to keep you alert in tedious tasks. It will also slow down the cognitive degeneration of your brain, and keep your brain more active for a longer time. Have you ever heard about the Mozart effect? Many scientists are of the opinion that listening to Mozart while to do your tasks will boost your ability to do it better!

So next time you take up the mop to clean the house, take your headphones too. Choose something instrumental which are less distracting. Tracks having complex lyrics might end up taking all your time to decipher what is being said!

Tweak your memory capacity with music

The most common answer to why we forget things is stress. Stress disconcerts your brain, makes it relatively more challenging for you to concentrate on the things that you are working on. This makes it difficult even to learn new things or memorize a new mathematical formula.

As said earlier, music is a great stress buster. Music can make you as calm as you might feel during the process of meditation. This relaxation can boost your memory and help you to remember things for a long time. The psychological benefits of music can be seen when you try to learn that new language with some soothing instrumental playing in your ears.

The Vivaldi effect suggests that when you listen to “Spring”, it will upbeat both your attention and memory capacity! (When are you trying it then?)

It is a source of motivation

Do you know the secret behind all the gym centers playing music at the time of your exercise? Yes, it is to give you motivation for your daily workout. Many experiments have concluded that when people listen to upbeat and fast music, they tend to work out better.

Increasing the speed of music has been proven to boost your physical performance. But the unseen effect of this increased speed is taking place in your brain. Music increases the stimulation in your brain and makes your body more mobile. Your favorite instrumental will release your everyday work’s fatigue and push you to work harder!

Release your long-buried pain with music

No, we are not talking only about emotional pain, but also physical pan. Music’s psychological benefits have been proven magically to reduce pain by a process called neurologic music therapy. Music acts as a physical rehab.

Music is also your source of comfort when you are seeking refuge from emotional distress. Soft music can quickly heal your soul. Music distracts your brain from the negative happenings and diverts your thinking towards a more positive outlook. So next time you feel downcast because of a fight with a friend, grab your headphones and play some good music.

Music is your natural anti-depressant

Music, particularly from the genre of classical or jazz, is proven to have a positive effect on those suffering from depression. It is found to be a safe therapy and often cures severe neurological conditions, like Parkinson’s disease.

Are you someone who is not much into jazz or classics? You can also try some soft sounds of humming, or sound of waves crashing to the shore. Gentle whispering can create a sensation of calmness, while sounds of tapping (maybe on wood or glass surface) can infuse more relaxation.

Music is your natural anti-anxiety pill too

Have you observed that sometimes the soft crinkly sounds of newspaper or page-turning of a book can give you so much relaxation? This is because music is a natural therapy for anxiety.

Numerous tests suggest that stress indicators, like cortisol, reduce dramatically after listening to music. The soulful tracks help your nervous system to recover more quickly. So next time you feel anxious about the upcoming interview, you can look for your headphones real quick!

Music will kick insomnia out of the window

When you can’t sleep, listen to some soft instrumentals, or jazz. Insomnia is a buzzing problem in today’s youth (and sometimes even the elderly). Researchers have found that simple music, or listening to an audiobook just before your bedtime can improve tour sleep quality!

Music lowers the anti-sleep hormones, like cortisol and releases some sleep-friendly hormones like oxytocin or serotonin. Relaxing music helps your body to mimic a sleepy state, and has a soothing effect on the emotional part of your brain.

A little pre-bedtime music can boost your sleep efficiency too. If you are a restless sleeper, then music is an effective treatment for you. It will relax your mind, and remove all your troubles of falling asleep.

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Music is a medicine for mental illness

Some specific hormones create neurological disorders in the brain, which are either overworking or the opposite. Music is known to trigger some anti-hormones, that benefits the functioning of your brain.

Dopamine is a common chemical, which creates a sense of pleasure. It releases serotonin that boosts immunity. The hormone that helps us to foster a bond with others is oxytocin. Music helps trigger all these hormones and make go away all the mental disorders.

The instrumental tracks have been found to improve your quality of life as well as creating senses of social connectivity. This field is relatively new, and for a complete result, more researches are carried out every day.

Make yourself happier with music

If you ask any person, why they listen to music, the most common answer that you will get is because they get happier. Many researchers have found that listening to music uplifts the mood and people become much more self-aware. Festive music is a safe and effective way to treat mood disorders.

Music increases your capacity of endurance, and rhythmic beats inspire people most of the time! Since music acts to create motivation, it will ensure that you perform better in your work. Who doesn’t get happy with better tasks, right?

A trigger of absolute bliss

Today, all our social media platforms are flooded with people talking about the ‘trigger sound’ for their bliss. The psychological benefits of music can be very well understood by these trigger sounds.

This concept is more commonly termed as ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Median Response if you like to be a bit fancier!)

Sounds of gentle wind are one common trigger, which often leads to blissful sleep. Typing on a keyboard (imagine with acrylic nails!) can boost your concentration. Sound of newspaper crinkling or plastic creates a feeling of relaxation and helps you for a quick de-stress. Do you know why babies sleep so peacefully after a lullaby? It is a humming sound! This sound produces a feeling of happiness and helps a person sleep peacefully. Although some buzzing can be a bit irritating, several examinations have proved that buzzing can create a sense of relaxation in many people!

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