Mental mudic5/17/2023 ![]() ![]() Here are their top 5 tips for how to use music to benefit your mental health in a practical way. “Music has been used therapeutically in lots of different ways but we can include it in our daily self-care to help us relax, exercise, let off steam and reflect! It’s a great tool for self-expression and recognising our own feelings too.” The Lily-Jo Project’s Top 5 Tips for Using Music to Lift Your Moodįront Row Music is a proud partner of The Lily-Jo Project, which is a platform devoted to eliminating the stigma of mental health through music and digital resources. Professional counsellor and founder of The Lily-Jo Project, Lily-Jo, explains how building music into our self-care routines can be very beneficial. ![]() When my father died I wrote a lot of songs and when my first child was born I wrote the longest song I have ever written.” I didn’t realise that’s what was happening at the time, I just gravitated to my guitar, but I realise now that it helped me to express emotions that were difficult to talk about. “Writing music has been an amazing outlet for me to process some huge life events. Founder of Front Row Music, Dave Fidler, expressed his own thankfulness for the role music has played in his mental health. We can all experience the benefits of music in our own struggles with mental health. Music therapy has also been proven to boost levels of oxytocin, a hormone that the brain produces that helps our ability to connect with others.įor these reasons, music has become a crucial part of some mental health therapies because of its ability to help treat people struggling with depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and even dementia. Whilst listening to music before a stressful event can’t stop your cortisol levels from rising when the event occurs, listening to music after a stressful event can help you recover faster. Listening to music, especially music combined with nature sounds, has been shown to lower levels of cortisol which is a stress hormone that can naturally lower anxiety and stress. When we listen to or play music, our brains release dopamine, also known as the happy hormone, that we associate with pleasure and reward as well as serotonin, which is our bodies’ natural mood stabiliser. Music triggers the release of neurochemicals that can help boost our mental health. Our minds are receptive to music and perhaps that means we enjoy its benefits in a whole host of different ways. Researchers have seen how, when looking at a person listening to music in an MRI scanner, the brain lights up in a very specific way. The research around how music impacts our minds tells us that music engages our brains in a way that nothing else does. So why exactly does music benefit our mental health? What does it do to our brains that is so beneficial? Music and Mental Health: The Science That feeling of togetherness has a great impact on people’s mental health and I think that will be something that continues to happen.” When asked about mental health and society, Front Row Music founder, Dave Fidler, said that “historically, music has been used to bring people together. All of these are examples of how our society has music woven into it making us human beings who have been using music to relate to one another for millennia. For instance, the first dance ritual at a wedding, or the way parents teach lullabies to their children to soothe them. Music has become a fundamental part of how we develop relationships and mark occasions. It also has the ability to strengthen our societal bonds with one another. Consider the power of protest songs, how one moment of music can change the world. Music also has the ability to create change in society. ![]() For instance at a football match or seeing a live band play. People might cry in church or a concert hall when they experience particularly beautiful music, or they might feel a sensation of community when they engage in music in public spaces. ![]() Even today, we often associate music with emotions. In ancient Greece, the Greek goddesses called the Muses were prayed to for healing and musical accomplishment. That music has also been connected to healing and spiritual growth. They are ancient flutes, carved from bone and are evidence that for almost as long as we have been gathering as human beings we have been creating music. In 2009, the oldest known musical instruments were discovered in Germany, relics from the palaeolithic era. To honour Mental Health Awareness Week in coordination with The Lily-Jo Project, this article explores the importance of music to our society and our mental health. At Front Row Music, we believe that music has the power to completely transform our lives, including our mental health. ![]()
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