Author: Contributor

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.