Music has a unique connection with our emotions, and studies have found it to be a tremendously effective tool for managing stress. Music can be used as a healing tool not only to decrease stress, but also promote healing and enhance ones overall emotional wellbeing. Music is a powerful tool to switch off our stress reaction, which, in turn, enhances our emotional well-being. Listening to music can switch the stress response off , and help your mind and emotions bounce back faster from stress than without music.
Studies show that listening to music may affect your anxiety, blood pressure, and stress hormones. Simply listening to music may decrease your blood pressure, decrease the level of stress hormone cortisol, and reduce heart rate. Studies have found that listening to music helps your nervous system relax, as well as reduce your levels of cortisol, which both help to decrease stress. Not only can music soothe your nervous system through your hormones, it may help reduce stress through its effect on your biological processes.
As it affects us through its relaxing effects on our minds and bodies, in turn, it helps relieve stress too. Simple tests showed that music certainly helps in decreasing and controlling stress levels. Listening to music is a wonderful thing to help lower stress and improve performance, or it can at least assist you to do so.
One explanation could be that listening to music can reduce psychological stress/anxiety only when there is a relatively minor stressor present. Future studies are needed to examine this hypothesis, which is that music listening might only reduce psychological processes related to stress and anxiety in the presence of a mild stressor. Taken together, these findings appear to suggest that listening to pre-stress music may be less effective at reducing biopsychological stress reactions, and may instead increase or contribute to the stress reaction.
Most importantly, the present study indicates that musical interventions may be effective for reducing stress. The present meta-analytic review provides high-level evidence that music interventions may be effective for reducing stress, and provides a rationale to expand the use of music interventions to alleviate stress, both in the health and mental health professions. In light of the latest studies on music therapy and stress reduction, it seems obvious that music may have an important role to play in treating individuals suffering from stress-related disorders. Furthermore, the dramatic effects music can have, and the variability in the response to music by individuals, should highlight the need for an educated music therapist who is well-versed in the field in order to provide a more positive and successful experience in using music for stress reduction treatments and relaxation exercises.
Music therapy techniques can effectively be used to instruct an individual regarding their bodily responses to stress. Music therapy may be effective in helping the individual to learn to recognise feelings and behaviors associated with stress, and express those emotions in a positive, appropriate manner. When stress cannot be expressed through language alone, the physical and mental act of making music, explains Tim Ringgold, allows you to release those feelings from the body and the mind.
Given that music listening may activate brain regions associated with experiencing emotions (intense ones) [8, 34-36] , music listening may also modulate levels of anxiety caused by experiencing stress. Knight and Rickard , who used the stressors from our lab studies, found an anxiety-reducing effect of music played before stress. Previous studies have found reduced perceived levels of psychological stress, increased capacity for cope, or altered levels of perceived relaxation following listening to music within a stressor setting [7, 33] .
Another explanation of the positive effects of musical interventions on psychological stress-related outcomes could be that listening to music provides distractions from thoughts or feelings that are increasing with stress (Bernatzky, Presch, Anderson, & Panksepp, 2011 ; Chanda & Levitin, 2013 ). A related explanation for the positive effect of music interventions on psychological stress-related outcomes concerns the positive influence that listening to enjoyable music has on affective valence, which may be explained by the extent to which one feels attracted to a particular item or event (Jancke, 2008 ; Juslin & Vastfjall, 2008 ). Listening specifically to classical music may lead to improved memory and learning, which is useful when one begins feeling stressed.
Jazz and classical are the best genres to relieve stress and boost your brain function. While some music might not be considered therapy, certain genres or particular songs may be helpful for stress reduction in your life. Stress can be reduced and relaxation maximised through music, especially if it is classical. Music provides an excellent background to your life, and you may find an increased sense of pleasure in whatever you are doing, as well as reduced stress in your day.
One of the biggest benefits of music as a stress reliever is that it can be used as you are doing your normal activities, so it does not actually take any time out of your busy schedule. Not only does music allow you to distract yourself from your body consciousness, which is aches and pains that come with working out, but it also has health benefits. Playing music while drifting is a way of countering the effects of stress, taking your mind away from whatever is stressing you.
Playing music as you are writing a check may help to distract you from financial stresses that you might feel, making it more pleasant to do. Including music while going about your day is a good way to decrease stress, or to better prepare yourself to deal with stress if it comes your way. Just as listening to music or sounds eases tension and helps you to relax, you can also create music on your own or with others.
They point out that music is something almost everyone can access, making it a simple tool for stress relief. Music can be a hugely beneficial stress relief tool to a broad range of audiences because it is free or inexpensive, and it is easily accessible via a vast range of digital outlets.