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Angie Ostio

How can music help with mental illness?




The daily busy life of an individual can be stressful with crucial and trivial matters. Music can help individuals with mental illnesses and those without them. Music can be exceptionally beautiful, and vulnerable, and can change frequently based on our mood. One can use music to achieve mental wellness and to improve the quality of one’s life. You can listen to music to amplify your emotions and release them.


A helpful way to utilize music can be by the "iso principle". This is where you match music to your current energy or mood, and then slowly change the songs to a more elevated tempo to help you shift your mood. You can find the motivation to get up and exercise by listening to upbeat dance music. Listening to music can help you move around and complete daily tasks that you may have been putting aside. Music can also be used to quiet the mind or for studying.


One can aid themselves by singing. Singing can help express your emotions and lighten your mood. Singing can be an amazing intervention if you have a good connection to your voice or just enjoy singing. Attending concerts where you connect with others can also help lessen stress. There are physical benefits of singing, for example, lung function, improvement of memory, a boost of confidence, and enhanced mood. When you sing endorphins are released which gives you a positive mindset.


Music therapy can be a way to help with mental illness. This can happen between a music therapist and a patient. Music therapists use singing, instruments, songwriting, movement, music listening, and guided imagery with music to improve health and well-being. Learning or playing an instrument can help you deal with mental illness because learning to play an instrument engages your entire brain which helps with distraction, pain reduction, and brain cognition. Although learning how to play an instrument and read music takes time, patience, and practice, it all comes down to taking care of your mental health.


Some individuals may not be avid listeners of music, but you may can. Music is often used as a coping strategy for anxiety or stress. Music can serve as a distraction from the real world in circumstances we all face. Listening to music can make individuals sad or happy, but music is beautiful in every way. It speaks to everyone, in one way or another.


In my personal case when I am listening to music, I feel ambedo; a momentary trance of emotional clarity. I feel important, focused, creative, and alive. It brings me to life. It brings nostalgia, and melancholy and is a comfort to the human spirit. It is something that I can't wait to do and look forward to. Something I never get tired of. It invokes images in my thoughts, and it brings people together. It can run chills up your spine and make your skin tingle. Music is hauntingly mysterious, it can be some sort of an enigma, or it can be crystal clear. Music carries me throughout the day, giving me perseverance and grit. An experience of music is when you anxiously anticipate the next second and the next and the next waiting for that tune.


Citations

"10 Surprising Psychological Benefits Of Music". Verywell Mind, 2022, https://www.verywellmind.com/surprising-psychological-benefits-of-music-4126866. Accessed 15 Oct 2022.

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