Music has many benefits in daily life, such as alleviating stress and improving mood. Experts say that music can also influence thoughts, guiding people from negativity to positivity.
Shahram Heshmat, Associate Professor of Health Economics of Addiction at the University of Illinois Springfield, wrote in Psychology Today that music has a significant impact on people.
According to Heshmat, music possesses a unique power to evoke deep emotional responses, such as tears, relaxation, excitement, or goosebumps. Listening to a favorite song can alter one’s mood and trigger old memories.
Emotions are often accompanied by evaluations of events, which tell us how important these events are in relation to our goals. For example, feelings of joy indicate success, while fear warns of danger.
Likewise, people’s thought processes are systematically influenced by music. Uplifting music can immediately shift someone’s emotions from sadness to a more hopeful feeling. On the other hand, hearing sad music may evoke thoughts of calmness or melancholy.
Evidence shows that individuals who listen to happy music have a more positive self-evaluation compared to those who listen to sad music. This change in self-perception is even more pronounced for people with low self-esteem.
Furthermore, empowering music strongly impacts the content of thoughts. For instance, energetic, victorious, and powerful music can make individuals feel empowered and less fearful.
Heshmat mentioned that listening to music during exercise may have positive effects on psychological and physiological changes, with the potential to enhance strength. When your favorite song distracts your attention, you are more likely to forget the pain or fatigue induced by exercise.
Moreover, a lack of enjoyment is often seen as a barrier to exercise, but music may help transform this negative emotion into a more positive mindset.
Heshmat stated that the exact mechanism by which music influences thoughts is not yet clear. One possibility is that empowering music has the potential to evoke strong visual imagery, such as natural scenes or feelings of accomplishment. Another possibility is that listeners may develop empathy and identification with songs that express positive self-views.
In summary, listening to empowering music can be an effective strategy to boost self-confidence and trigger positive thoughts conducive to mental health. In daily life, such music may motivate people and reduce interference from negative thoughts when focusing on tasks.
In addition to the aforementioned benefits, listening to music can also help people concentrate.
Previously, Srini Pillay, a psychiatrist and brain researcher at Harvard University, stated that listening to music while working can help individuals concentrate better, even those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Pillay mentioned that “listening to favorite music (or songs)” has the greatest effect on enhancing attention.