Christian Music Therapy

When people hear of addiction, they usually think of drugs and alcohol, but music is also something that can be addictive. Numerous studies have revealed the strong link between music and addiction, with both being equally powerful influences on mental and physical health. Music can be both a cause and an effect of addiction, as it can be used as a tool to help people cope with difficult times and manage their emotions, while simultaneously becoming a compulsive behavior they can’t seem to break away from. This article will explore the connection between music and addiction and how it can be a powerful force in both positive and negative ways.

Music can quickly evoke strong emotions. It can give us a sense of comfort, nostalgia, and escapism, not to mention a physical rush of feelings that can be experienced through its rhythm and beat. Many studies have found that music has a strong influence on our pleasure systems, producing dopamine in the brain, which can make us feel energized, encouraged, and empowered. It’s no wonder why many people find it difficult to tear themselves away from it. Music can be so powerfully associated with pleasurable feelings that it can become an addiction.

When someone begins to take music to an obsessive level, it can become a way to temporarily escape from reality and self-soothe. It can also be a way to cope with stress, loneliness, and depression. Those who suffer from addiction may find themselves constantly listening to music in order to avoid and numb their emotions. Unfortunately, this reliance on music can lead to further isolation, distraction, and possibly, depression.

Another way that music can lead to addiction is when people become fixated on a certain genre or artist and feel compelled to listen to them non-stop. This can lead to an unhealthy attachment and a preoccupation that is similar to addictions involving substances such as drugs and alcohol. People may feel an extreme need to listen to their favourite music in order to ground themselves, find solace, and feel “safe.”

Fortunately, music can also be used to help treat addiction and empower people who struggle with addiction. Receptiveness to music therapy, especially when used as a form of self-help, has been found to increase among people with addiction. Music can offer support, comfort, and a distraction from the temptations of substance abuse. It can also facilitate communication and serve as a medium for increasing positive emotions.

In conclusion, music and addiction have a powerful link. Music can help people cope with their emotions and can provide relief from difficult situations. However, becoming overly reliant on music can lead to an addictive pattern that can further worsen mental health problems. Music therapy may help to address this, by allowing those with addiction to safely process their feelings and use music to connect with their emotions through the support of a qualified professional.

By understanding the link between music and addiction, people may be better equipped to use music in healthy ways and be aware of the dangers of becoming too addicted. Music can be used in many positive ways and be enjoyed as an enjoyable and therapeutic activity.

How does it feel when you listen to a particular song, and it evokes some special memories in your head. Truthfully, there are some songs we listen to that makes us happy and hyped.

Till now, the effects of music on humans have not been fully understood. However, based on studies, when you listen to the music you like, the happy hormone, dopamine, is released by the brain, which gives you a positive mood.

Music makes us feel strong emotions like joy, fear and sadness. In fact, music has the capacity to motivate us to do certain things. Also, some researchers have proved that music can improve our health and wellness.

Here are some benefits of music on your health:

• Improves mood

When you are talking about the positive effects of music, mood improvement is usually not far-fetched. If you listen to the music you love, there is a good chance that you will feel happier and energized. Listening to your favorite music is one of the best ways to create and sustain happiness in your everyday life.

• Stress reduction

If you are stressed after a hard day’s work, one of the ways to de-stress is by listening to music. In this case, it is best to listen to music that has a slow tempo. Such music has been proved to reduce anxiety and stress in healthy individuals.

• Anxiety reduction

If you are someone who feels unnecessarily anxious, listening to music is one of the best ways to calm yourself. People who are receiving treatment in the rehab for chronic anxiety, will need music therapy at some point during their treatment.

• Enhances exercise

For people who exercise regularly, you would have noticed that music helps you push beyond your limits. Listening to music while exercising helps your physical and mental stimulation, and it helps your overall performance.

• Better memory retention

Studies have shown that the repetitive elements of melody and rhythm enables our brains to create patterns that improves our memory. This would be handy for students in high schools and colleges.  

Depression is a popular mental health problem which induces changes in mood and loss of pleasure and interest. There are various proficient means of treating depression, one of which is music therapy.

Music therapy is an intervention that requires frequent meetings with a professional music therapist. During such meetings, the depressed individual is aided to improve his or her mood via emotional expression.

Since the beginning of time, music has been proficient in providing healing to the body and soul. People who find it herculean to express themselves in words, have been provided solace with music therapy.

It would interest you to know that the Greek Philosophers utilized music for therapeutic purposes. People who had depression were encouraged to listen to dulcimer hymns in order to improve their mood.

During music therapy, depressed people are always encouraged to either listen to, or create music. Undertaking any of these acts helps the depressed persons to express themselves in nonverbal means.

The mix of rhythm, harmony and melody stimulates the senses of the individual and induces calmness by reducing their heart and breath rate, alongside other bodily functions. When music therapy is combined with talk therapy, it is a good way of boosting the levels of the happy hormone, dopamine.

The type of music used during music therapy is most times, tailored to the needs of the individual. Usually, you will see instances where there are many combinations of music.

Music therapy can either be active or passive. For active music therapy, the individual and the therapist work on composing music with the voice and instrument.

Through this means, the individual is motivated to share feelings and thoughts that would form the composition. This helps to give the individual insight into his or her issues.

For passive music therapy, the individual listens to music while drawing, meditating or doing any reflective activity. Then, the individual and the therapist discuss the emotions, memories or feelings that the music evoked.

Having read all music therapy does for depression, if you are depressed, it is best to talk to your health provider for help. You could also suggest music therapy as your means of treatment if it is challenging for you to verbalize how you feel.  

Music is a profound source of entertainment and based on research, it can make you healthy. Music is also a good source of contentment and pleasure. Music positively influences your feelings, behaviors and thoughts, and this should not be astonishing.

If you are someone who always get motivated when listening to their favorite songs, then it easy to understand the power which comes with music, to positively affect moods, and even cause an action.

Music has psychological effects which has a wide range alongside being powerful. In the promotion of emotional health, music is a therapy which helps to enhance emotional health. It also helps patients to handle stress and enhance psychological well-being.

Some studies have also opined that, music helps to give understanding and perception into various aspects of your personality.

• Improvement of your cognitive performance: Studies have shown that when music is played in the background, and the listener is focused on other tasks, it can enhance cognitive tasks in older adults. So, if you want to boost your mental performance when you are working, you can switch on your music, and you will be glad you did.

In this case, it is best to opt for instrumental tracks and not those which have complex lyrics that might distract you.

• Stress reduction: Listening to meditative music helps to soothe your mind, and causes you to relax. This effect of music is backed up by research. When you listen to music, it is a proficient way to handle stress. Listening to music has an influence on the human stress response, especially the autonomic nervous system. People who listened to music recover faster from stress.

• Eat less: One of the most astonishing benefits of music is, it is one of the best tools to lose weight. According to trusted research, listening to music and dim light helps to achieve your goals, and it creates a relaxed atmosphere.

• Memory improvement: Students who are more inclined musically tend to show better performance when listening to neutral music. This happens because this model of music presents less distraction, and it can be easily ignored.

Music according to research and study, is seen to be an effective therapy to solve health issues and also for relief. Music constitutes a major aspect of daily living for some particular set of people, as they cannot go a day without listening to music. People rely on music to help them through their daily routine, and also stay connected during probably a workout session.
Most often, there is a connection between music and the mood and temperament of a person. A certain song can spur some kinds of feeling within a person, which may be happiness, sadness, calmness or an energetic feeling.
Since it is approved that music has an impact on people, it should not be difficult to believe the therapeutic power of music. According to medical history, the organs of the body are believed to have medical tones and tendencies and as such they can help in the healing process of any concerned disease which may include autism, insomnia, dementia, depression etc.
For instance, taking a look at a disease of brain disorder known as Autism, this disease is associated with a wide range of communication and interaction problems. It is noticed that people who are faced with Autism have a high tendency to be susceptible to music. They have a high response to music and this may help in teaching of communication skills, and foster a healing and developmental procedure.
Also, there is an illness that continually evolves in the body if not taken care of and such illness is known as depression. Depression eats into the mind of a person; affects the way the person eats or sleep and also lowers the self-esteem of the affected individual.
Depressive disorders are more severe than normal emotional trauma and can easily interfere with an individual’s thinking process, behavior and attitude. It is a fact that music therapy can increase a patient’s responsiveness to antidepressant medications. Music therapy can lead to a huge reduction in abnormal heart rate, blood pressure, hypertension etc.
Similarly, insomnia which is a condition that involves high level of sleeplessness. It is the difficulty experienced in attaining quality sleep, and this in turn can lead to energy drainage and feelings of tiredness and depression.
In older adults, it is seen that music can encourage better quality sleep, and also induce sleep in younger ones alike. Also, music helps in limiting the time taken to sleep.

Music is known to be a powerful tool which people rely on for their daily activities. It is no surprise that music as a therapy is effective, and has solved quite a number of health and psychological issues. Although, the benefits of music therapy are quite much, it is in particular, a powerful tool in alleviating addiction problems.
While music therapy is a special kind of treatment used by trained personnel and specialists, people use to it to facilitate some energetic feelings, and foster a healing process. Many musicians have used music to express their thoughts and feelings about addiction and in the process motivating themselves.
It is important to note that not all music can indeed facilitate a recovery process, because music has the power to induce strong feelings such as listening to songs that promotes the use of drugs and other harmful substances. Music therapy does not happen this way. There are ways we can inculcate music into a recovery process.
Firstly, it is possible to meditate with music. Meditation has a way of helping people in recovery, but it is quite a difficult activity because it requires total and undivided concentration and as such music can influence the concentration needed, because it has a way of affecting the mood and consciousness of a person. Music can help calm the mind and act as a leverage for meditation when one is just about starting it.
Also, it is possible to formulate musical playlists that helps to induce relaxation and calmness. There are songs that can motivate and inspire one to engage in series of exercises. Creating playlists of songs is quite interesting, and can be done easily due to the availability of music applications.
Engaging in song writing is another way of facilitating recovery such that, keeping a form of diary of songs can allow one let out all thoughts and feelings that might be a burden. It could even be done in such a way only the addicted person can have access to the diary. So by keeping records of songs and poems, an addict is able to let go of unnecessary beliefs and views.
Furthermore, it is a fact that many people faced with addiction have used music therapy to help them recover from their addictions, and also achieve long term and permanent recovery. There is no skepticism that music is a powerful medium in the addiction recovery process.

I love music. It’s a big part of my daily life. My friends often say that my signature look isn’t complete without earbuds hanging from my ears. Reaching for my iPod Classic isn’t a decision, it’s a reflex. I once left the house without headphones and it was a big deal. With such a significant portion of my day spent doing low mental capacity tasks- driving, editing spreadsheets cooking, It’s either talk to myself and make my loved ones worried, or listen to music. So I find myself spending a lot of time thinking about what’s going into my ears!

I’m not as dogmatic as some, but I find that it’s important to keep a close eye- or maybe a close ear- on what you’re allowing yourself to listen to. Too often I’ve been distracted by a catchy beat, or a pretty voice, and failed to realize that the song stands for everything but Jesus! Sure I listen to non christian music- The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, even some Frank Sinatra to name a few- as I believe that God works through all words and sounds and songs, not just the ones that reference him directly. But I do try to avoid music that actively weakens the most important relationship in my life- my relationship with God.

Guarding my mind isn’t easy. The radio is almost always a dud; with all the more secular stations I’ve had to invest in a bluetooth adaptor for my phone. It’s also made more or less difficult by the time of year- the winter holidays are the easiest, full of Christmas carols and inoffensive Christmas related songs. The summer is definitely my least favorite time- all those beachy summertime hits blaring about “tonight” and drugs and what not. I struggle to find good god-fearing podcasts but there are a few gems out there waiting to be found. Explore your options, find what works for you, and more importantly, what brings you closer to God.

I never have to wonder if what I’m listening to is bringing me closer to God because I only listen to what brings me closer to God. Invest the time in your playlists and your discography, surround yourself with music that’s filled to the brim with God’s love and peace and majesty.

One of my fondest memories of growing up was our yearly church choir. I attended a small church, and the leaders decided against a regular church choir, opting for a small worship team instead. Twice during the year, however, all the musically inclined in the congregation would stay after morning service and practice for our biannual Christmas and Easter choir. We sang classics- The Messiah, Christmas carols- and more modern pieces, and once a year, on the holidays themselves (or nearest Sunday) after singing a few hymns with the rest of the congregation, the choir would filter up to the front of the church and Mr. Jenning, our choir director would start us off.

I remember those moments as being magical. My church had singing every Sunday- the reason we didn’t have a more regular choir was because the leadership felt that a choir would give people the expectation that they didn’t have to sing- but singing in choir was always special. I think it was a deeper acknowledgement by our pastor of the importance and magic of music, and the deep, deep christian tradition found within the notes.

Music has always been an important part of religion. From the chants of catholic monks, to the hard rock worship services of megachurches, music has been inseparable from christianity. Some of the greatest pieces of music have been inspired by our faith. The first two lines of Mozart’s requiem translate as “Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them. You are praised, God, in Zion, and homage will be paid to You in Jerusalem.” The kyrie
reads “Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us.” It’s impossible to disassociate church and music and that is as it should be.

I believe that music- and choir especially- is the closest we can get to heaven in this life. There’s nothing as inspiring and as close to the wonder of god as being in sync with a hundred other people creating something that would be impossible to create alone. Music, and choir, is in my opinion the best proof of the existence of a kind and loving god. Within music, we find his love, and his grace, and his serenity and forgiveness and joy. Music and christianity are
inextricably linked, and singing in church is the greatest gift God has given his children.

Has there ever been a time where Music has been there for you? Often we find ourselves in situations where it doesn’t feel like we can talk to anyone. Maybe we believe we’ve let our loved ones down, or that if we confess to our elders that maybe we will be judged. Whatever is holding you back, I often find myself in plights exactly like these, where I have something weighing on my shoulders and I can’t think past my own insecurities to give it to God. In those
situations, however, I find myself turning to music therapy.

In my opinion, music therapy is an often overlooked and highly useful tool to combat feelings of inadequacy, and tackle whatever is standing in the way of your relationship with God. The World Federation of Music Therapists defines Music Therapy as “the professional use of music and its elements as an intervention in medical, educational, and everyday environments with individuals, groups, families, or communities who seek to optimize their quality of life and improve their physical, social, communicative, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health and wellbeing.” I find it to be so much more!

At the suggestion of my Christian therapist and elders, I now turn to music when I’m low. I’ve always been incredibly influenced and drawn by music, and it’s held a special place in my heart and life. When I need to feel closer to someone, I listen to music they’ve made, or music that reminds of them. When I’m feeling alone, I know to turn on sadder music, because it’s nice to feel like someone knows what I’m going through. And when I need to feel closer, I have a very special playlist, one that reminds of his power, and his love, and my unending eternal gratitude for this life he has given me: I listen to Choral music.

Whatever struggles you’re going through, I pray that you will read these words and plug in some headphones. My relationship with God has been strengthened through music therapy. Find your mix, your playlist- sign up for a streaming service and the music of the world is at your fingertips! Let God commune with you through music, and watch your relationship with him bloom into a symphony.