Music Therapy: 5 Benefits Of Songs On Mood.
Thanks to neuroscience, we know more and more about the beneficial effect of music on the brain. Music helps, for example, to reduce anxiety and improve the mood of hospitalized patients. But did you know that your favorite songs can also serve as music therapy? For those who doubt it, we have listed 5 benefits of songs on morale.
1- Songs provoke a wave of emotions.
If we love listening to music and songs so much, it's because they appeal not only to our ears but also to our brain. Neuroscience has shown that the brain is hypersensitive to voice and all the emotions that songs provoke.
According to specialists in this field, the song is the most emotional form of expression for the human brain and causes a stronger emotional surge than instrumental music.
Indeed, songs combine a melody and a voice full of emotions and lyrics that make sense. All of this forms a powerful cocktail to which our brain is particularly sensitive.
In relationships with others, our brain seeks to know the emotional state of others. A song delivers this information and that is probably why it can be so moving. This ability to trigger an emotion is the first of the 5 benefits of songs on mood.
2- Songs bring us back to childhood.
Of course, the songs that have accompanied our childhood and adolescence remain engraved in our memory and act on us like Proust's madeleines. Music therapists also use songs that marked a generation to reactivate the memory of patients with Alzheimer's disease.
However, even more recent titles can make us relive our childhood because some songs have the power to comfort and console us as our mother used to do.
The songs we listen to on repeat are the adult equivalent of lullabies that our parents used to sing to us. That is why the second of the 5 benefits of songs on morale lies in their regressive and comforting effect.
3- Songs put words to our pains.
The consoling power of songs proves valuable in certain circumstances of life, for example when experiencing heartbreak or mourning. Sad songs help us embrace this emotion rather than deny it. That's why we paradoxically listen to sad songs when we are already sad ourselves, and not to happy and catchy tunes.
These songs allow us to put words to our pain, to bring out our buried emotions and thus heal our wounds. This is another of the 5 benefits of songs and one of the most useful when our morale is low.
4- It is possible to identify with a song.
It also happens that a particular song speaks to us, that we recognize ourselves in it at a moment in our life. When the lyrics sung by others interact with our personal story, we can identify with the song and appropriate its message. This power of identification is the fourth of the 5 benefits of songs on morale.
Even more surprisingly, according to neuroscience, songs can act as a subliminal message and speak to our unconscious! But in any case, songs help us feel better and cope with the trials of existence.
5- Songs are an addictive (and safe) pleasure.
To conclude this list of the 5 benefits of songs on mood, we must of course talk about the universal pleasure of listening to music. Listening to a song that we love is a form of addiction, to the point that we can listen to it on repeat without getting tired! If you wonder why a melody stays in your head and makes you addicted, know that it is nothing abnormal. Songs activate the reward circuit that produces dopamine. They act on the same neural circuits as chocolate, but without the calories! In summary, a good song is an addictive pleasure and listening to it constantly has the power to reassure us, like all familiar things.
