Music is my Medicine
Where does your mind go when you listen to music? What do you use it for? How does it make you feel?
Much like any other hobby, music can be the gateway to an escape from reality. A break from the monotonous sounds of our day to day lives. It’s transformed over years and years creating fusions and funks and remixes, true amalgamations of cultures. An endless range of styles with something for everyone and for every moment. And it’s still going! Constantly changing with artists creating new sounds to move with the times. Morphing into its own language, it speaks to us in ways that sometimes words just can’t, helping us connect with others and emotions.
A lot of the time what we choose to listen to is directly linked to how we feel in that moment. Are we blasting break up songs to encourage our hearts to start moving on, are we in our feels with soulful jazz taking us to a faraway land, or are we just in need of a dance party to release the work-induced frustrations.
Listening to music is its own kind of therapy. It can literally take you out of a negative headspace and place you straight into a positive one. When feelings of overwhelm, sadness, or anger are on the brink of taking over, music can be one of the methods to bring you back from the edge. It’s like giving your brain a distraction and reset to prevent it from dwelling on those negative feelings. When you find that one or few songs whose lyrics exactly describe the emotional state you are in, or whose beats just get your body moving, listening to them is sometimes the best way to process those feelings and drive through to the other end.
No matter what, no matter where, it always makes me feel better. I’ve always listened to music casually but lately, I’ve noticed my actual need for it a lot more. When I’m having a bad day at work, or I’m feeling anxious, music is what I need to get me powering through. During stressful times, turning to vices is easy to do and sometimes I find driving energy towards productive activities to be difficult on even a normal day, let alone on the bad days. But one thing I know is that filling the silence with music helps me alleviate the anxiousness and brings me back to centre.
How we react to the environment we are in can impact our moods. And just as we say ‘don’t let … affect you’ to try and prevent things from putting us in a negative mood, we have to equally encourage ourselves to be in a positive mood. And that means doing things that induce happiness and peace. There’s a reason why places of relaxation aren’t silent. There is almost always some soft instrumental music or nature-sounds being played in the background. It’s known to calm the nerves and relax your mind and in turn, your body. Never underestimate the power of music to change your entire mood, energy, and vibration.
Now I could give you a list of songs that do the trick for me and say they’ll do the trick for you too. But I’m not going to do that. Tastes in music are unique, what works for me may not work for you. But one thing I am banking on is that we all have a few specific songs that will break us away from a spiral. So if music is your medicine, use it, blast those tunes, sing-along and dance your heart out! I’m always on the hunt to find new additions to my playlist as well so let me know what your go-to’s are!