How Music Heals Mental Health
- Jul 4, 2025
- 3 min read
Music and mental health have been interconnected with each other since the birth of life. In ancient times, the kings and queens hired musicians and listened to music for the betterment of their mental health. The taste of music may vary from person to person, but music is enough to uplift your mood for the day.
You may have seen some instances in everyday life how music helps to elevate your mood. People often listen to music while performing exercises. Mothers often listen to music while cooking in the kitchen. Thus, music has such healing powers that it completely minimizes the workload and keeps the mind relaxed. You often listen to music while performing an assignment or a homework and you have definitely seen the outcomes, the assignment gets completed in no time. Music helps you forget all the hustles in the surroundings and to concentrate on only the work you are performing. Even my maths teacher told me that some people including him listen to music while solving a critical maths problem. This not only helps in concentration, but also minimizes the mental pressure while solving the maths problem and the problem gets solved in comparatively less time than normal.
Recently, my friend had a breakup with his girlfriend. His 5 years of relationship came to an end all of a sudden. Then, I noticed that he started listening to music after the breakup. I wondered how music could help him. I saw his mental health, which completely broke down, started to heal healing drastically. His mental health showed major improvement and he was able to focus on his career. Music gives emotional support, reduces stress and gives hope to survive. A 2015 study found that one key reason behind the phenomenon has to do with the ‘default mode network,’ which is a set of interconnecting brain networks involved in conscious awareness, self-reflection, and autobiographical memories and emotions. When we experience emotional pain such as going through a breakup, our default mode network can be thrown out of track. Listening to our preferred music can flip it back into gear – engendering a sense of familiarity and safety in the midst of a traumatizing period. A study published in PLOS ONE found that nostalgia, not necessarily sadness, is the most likely emotion one experiences when listening to a sad song. While it may be comforting to reminisce about happier times with an ex, constantly dwelling on the past can prevent someone from moving on and forming new romantic connections in the future.
I often see that when I score poor marks on exams, music helps to heal my mental health. It helps me not only to forget about the exam results but also motivates me for a new and fresh start. Motivational songs give you more energy than the energy drinks to start a fresh and new chapter of life. It is very much traumatizing when you work hard for an exam but fail to score good marks. Music will help you to move out of it and will heal your mental health. Research has shown that music is effective for stress relief because it lowers cortisol, a stress hormone. Music can release endorphins and dopamine; two hormones associated with pleasure.
Music can heal and improve the mental health of milch animals too. Music helps in release of oxytocin hormone which helps in milking. But like humans, milch animals also face anxiety, depression and mental health disorders. It has been found out that classical, soft rock, fast paced and tempo type of music helps to improve the mental health of milch animals. Recent studies have suggested that appropriately selected music can confer some health benefits, e.g., by increasing the level and activity of natural killer cells. Music tracks promote relaxation in milch animals.
Sources and References
https://patient.info/news-and-features/ could-you-benefit-from-music-therapy
Written by: Arka
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