Press Play on Healing: The Mental Health Benefits of Music

In our fast-paced, often overwhelming world, finding moments of peace can feel like a challenge. However, one of the most effective tools for mental wellness may already be part of your daily life: music. Have you noticed how a favorite song can instantly shift your mood? Whether it’s a calming playlist after a stressful day or a song that lifts your spirits when you’re feeling low, music has a unique way of reaching us when we need it most. In this post, I’ll explore why music is so beneficial for mental health as it can ease stress, boost mood, and even help manage anxiety, depression, and trauma.

Music and the Brain

We’ve learned that music can influence the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary bodily functions such as heart rate or breathing (Eck, 2024). In fact, some may find that listening to calm music can reduce their heart rate, breathing rate, or blood pressure. Music helps the brain shift into a calmer state, improving focus or reducing anxious thoughts. Further, music lights up parts of the brain such as the hippocampus and amygdala, which can connect the emotions we feel from music with our memory, and the limbic system, which regulates emotions and pleasure (Eck, 2024). Finally, listening to music allows our body to release dopamine, a mood-enhancing chemical in the brain. Dopamine is often associated with feelings of pleasure and plays a role with reward and motivation (Harvard Health, 2021). Therefore, when we listen to music, our bodies experience increased pleasure.

Listening To and Creating Music

Music is deeply ingrained in our daily lives. Whether you hear your favorite tune in the store while grocery shopping, play a relaxing soundtrack to go to sleep, play an instrument, or rock out in the car on the way home from work, music is all around us. Engaging with music is one of the best forms of self-care, and it can be both active and passive. The easiest form of engagement is listening, whether with intentional focus or playing in the background. In the context of music therapy, the iso principle is a technique that uses music to help someone shift their mood from their current feelings to their desired state. Individuals using this technique can listen to music with a tempo and mood which matches their current emotional state. Gradually, the music can be transitioned to reflect the emotional state that the individual wants to be in (Kubicek, 2022). Music can also be incorporated into guided imagery, and therapeutic discussions can be led surrounding playlist creation.

While listening to music is often most accessible, active music-making can also have a significant impact on our mental health. I grew up playing flute in both band and orchestra, and I also took piano lessons. At a young age it could be difficult to get myself to practice, but I came to find that I always felt better after practicing for a few minutes. As I grew older, practicing became less of a chore and something I would look forward to. On days when I felt most anxious, I found that playing flute or piano was a good way to let out my emotion and channel my feelings into the song I was playing. While I grew up surrounded by music, the good news is that you don’t need to have musical talent to feel its effects. How many times have you sung off-key in your car, or in your house when nobody was around? Research has shown that singing can improve happiness and wellbeing, and people tend to feel more positively after engaging in singing when compared to simply listening to music (Launay & Pearce, 2015). Not only does music making have the potential to be fun, but it also provides distraction and expression. Thanks to the powerful effects of music, it has the ability to decrease anxiety and depression, help shift mood, and can even decrease our perception of pain. While listening to music might be a daily occurrence for you, I’d challenge you to find moments to sing and produce music. Even if it sounds bad, nobody has to hear you, and you might just feel a little bit better.