6. Music, music therapy and mental health
Publication 6
Music, music therapy and mental health
After a long day, what is better than listening to music and relaxing?
Music can create a safe and quiet environment as a calming and relaxing response. Personally, I often crave the opportunity during the day to listen to relaxing music and escape from a routine, fatigue and let the melody take me on a journey.
There is strong evidence that exposure to music can improve our health and well-being. Music-based interventions, approaches and practices such as group music composition (singing or playing musical instruments), listening to music and music therapy have been shown to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.
It is important to note that the type of music is very important in terms of its benefits and how it affects our mood. Researchers are looking at music genres in terms of mental health individually (rap, classical, pop, etc.). How each genre affects us may be a topic for a future article. This approach wraps up the way relaxing music can affect us (independent relaxing music, soft pop, nature sounds and soft notes).
Music therapy is a therapeutic method based on the natural mood-boosting properties of music to help people enhance their mental health and overall wellbeing.
Music therapy is a goal-directed intervention that may include:
🎶The creation of music.
🎶Songwriting.
🎶Singing.
🎶Songwriting.
🎶Listening to music.
🎶Talking about music.
Music therapy can be passive (listening to music) or active-participatory. For this reason, music therapy can meet the needs of those who wish to socialize and those who do not. Music therapy does not require a talent for music and in many countries, it is applied to children and adolescents.
Engagement with music can:
📌Activate areas of the brain that affect things like memory, emotions, movement, sensory feedback and decision making.
📌Meet social needs.
📌Reduce heart rate and blood pressure.
📌To bring about relaxation of muscle tension.
📌Relieve stress and encourage feelings of calm.
📌Enhance motor skills and improve communication especially for children and young adults with developmental and/or learning difficulties.
 |
| Taking some time to listen to relaxing music can go a long way in helping your mental health. |
There are many ways to incorporate music therapy into your life and benefit from it. You can either pursue more or less social options or you can choose to isolate yourself, it depends on the needs of each person and what they need at their current stage of life.
Some relaxation practices with music:
💭Try giving yourself 15-20minutes before you go to sleep to relax by listening to music. You can look for music options for relaxation and if you don't want to listen to songs you can look for nature sounds such as: The sound of rain, fire in a fireplace, animal sounds and waves.
💭You can join pages and groups made up of people with common musical tastes. Socializing can lead you to learn new tastes, meet new people and share your opinions.
💭It's never too late to learn a musical instrument. It is up to us to decide to learn to play a musical instrument, sing or write music and songs.
Select ambience or song or a few songs to make a relaxation playlist.
Find a quiet place to relax without interruptions.
Get comfortable.
If you feel like it, close your eyes.
Sanfilippo, K.R.M., Stewart, L. & Glover, V. How music may support perinatal mental health: an overview. Arch Womens Mental Health 24, 831-839 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-021-01178-5
Aigen KS. the study of music therapy: current issues and concepts. routledge & CRC Press. new york; 2013. doi:10.4324/9781315882703
Jasemi M, Aazami S, Zabihi RE. The effects of music therapy on anxiety and depression of cancer patients. indian J Palliat Care. 2016;22(4):455-458. doi:10.4103/0973-1075.191823.
https://www.verywellmind.com/benefits-of-music-therapy-89829
Comments
Post a Comment