The Power of Healing... And Music?

"Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without." -Confucius

Like many people in this world, I turn to music to help me feel and express my emotions. My preferred streaming app, Spotify, has a yearly rewind and I frequently find myself as the person with the most listening minutes among my friends because music means that much to me in my day to day life. Songs can illicit certain responses from us depending on the content of the lyrics and the beat or vibe of the music behind those words. When you're feeling down you may seek out your rainy days playlist, or when you're cleaning you may try to find some of your favorites to sing along to, ensuring to keep yourself motivated on the tasks at hand. What if song is more beneficial than matching the environment being created? What if music could help a person manage their pain? Their anxiety? What if it was eventually found to slow down the aging process? How much dedication would you put towards it? Let's take a look at the power of music...

Anxiety is a beast I have become very familiar with in my life. The pressure I put on myself in my school years came to a head when during an open period in the fall of my sophmore year I was realizing I had WAY too much on my plate. I had to sit on the dark theater stage with my arms up, hands interlocked behind my head, in an attempt to regain control of my breathing; I thought I was having a heart attack. I thought my throat was closing and as I was wondering if this was how I would go, a freak heart attack at 16 years old. I started humming to distract myself from panicking, ANYTHING to focus my attention somewhere else.. and after a minute I realized I could swallow again. My breathing became closer to normal and it was at that time when my friend came out to figure out what I was doing sitting in the pitch black, something I would not normally do as there were too many weird (read paranormal if you believe) things that would happen on that stage. It was a scary experience, but over the years I have come to put a name to what I experienced that day on that stage, and with many other experiences like it since, I have come up with my own personal toolbox of resources to use when I can feel/am experiencing another anixety attack coming on.

For an example on how music affects anxiety in a clinical setting, check out the study posted in 2021 by Huang and team- Their conclusion found that neutral and happy music can have a postive effect on state anxiety (a situation specific anxiety) when compared to a blank stimulus. The participants where shown a series of photos to induce anxiety and then they either listened to a control, happy, or neutral sound. The self reported feelings of anxiety levels in the happy and neutral groups after music intervention dropped even lower than they were before the experiment was started, whereas the control groups stayed slightly elevated after the experiment. Results like these can mean varying things to people because, like I have mentioned many times through my blog posts, everyone is different and will respond differently to treatments for their conditions. For someone like me, personally finding alternative remedies (like music therapy) to my ailments that do not feature pharmacuticals until absolutely necessary is very important. Others may like to start with those and if that doesn't help they will seek out alternatives; whatever path you take is okay as long as you are making informed and guided choices for yourself!

Not only is the power of music beneficial to those afflicted with anixety issues, it can also help with athletic performance. We have talked about the emotional side of choosing music, but a study done by Christopher G. Ballmann found that if people selected the music they wanted to listen to while training instead of a blank stimulus (aka no music) participants were able to maintain exercise at a higher intensity. It is important to note that music choice is a personal one though, so unless a group is in total agreement (showing up to a zumba class for example) it is better to use this approach based on an individual basis! I know for me personally, it is a bad gym day if I forget my headphones. I have even left the gym parking lot without going in because I didn't have them, only because I know that I will not have the type of workout I was planning on without them. For me it is worth the journey back home to retrieve them, or the more likely case, to charge them.

Some people have even found the power of music to help them manage their chronic pain. In the case report "I got my brain back" by Mercadillo and Garza-Villarreal they followed a woman who has had chronic pain for over 20 years and fell back on music to help her when she cut her pain medication cold turkey (which should be noted as NOT recommended, you definitely need to talk to your team of trained professionals/doctors before even considering cutting medications at all). Like many of us who use music theraputically, she has had to invest a lot of time and trial and error to figure out her practice and what is beneficial for her. Chronic pain may be one of the hardest, if not the hardest, thing people who suffer from it have learned to deal with, so for some to find alternative medicines, like sounds and music, to help them manage their pain level is phenomenal!

For the outro of this piece it should be said that in my research for this blog post I found conflicting results about music and its benefits, which makes sense since it is such a personal connection; some may just not have that relationship with it (for example my aunt HATES music so this alternative medicine would not be beneficial for her at all, more than likely). Take it with a grain of salt and if you experience any of the above situations, consider researching the magic of music! Have you ever used music to get you through a difficult time or experience? Have you ever used it to keep yourself motivated or on task? If not, I urge you to try it out, experiment with genres and see if you notice any difference in the way you feel!

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Ballmann C. G. (2021). The Influence of Music Preference on Exercise Responses and Performance: A Review. Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology, 6(2), 33. https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk6020033

Huang, B., Hao, X., Long, S., Ding, R., Wang, J., Liu, Y., Guo, S., Lu, J., He, M., & Yao, D. (2021). The Benefits of Music Listening for Induced State Anxiety: Behavioral and Physiological Evidence. Brain sciences, 11(10), 1332. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11101332

Mercadillo, R. E., & Garza-Villarreal, E. A. (2023). Case Report: "I got my brain back" A patient's experience with music-induced analgesia for chronic pain. Frontiers in psychology, 14, 1141829. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1141829