When was the last time you listened to music? How did you feel?
Music impacts our mood, performance, memory, and general well-being.
We listen to music for different reasons. It may be to:
- Exercise
- Relax
- Sooth a baby
- Work better, faster, or more intently
- Feel inspired
- Block out distractions
- Dance
- Concentrate on a task
- Enhance a particular mood
- Heal
- Encourage imagination
- Stay awake even if we are tired and sleepy
How Does Music Impact Our Mood?
From our own experiences we can conclude that music makes us feel different emotions such as happiness, fear, love, or sadness.
In Ancient Greece, people with irritable moods were recommended to listen to the calming music of the flute. Dulcimer music was prescribed to alleviate depression.
Music had magical and mystical meaning for primitive human beings during rituals.
Moreover, scientific studies have shown that there is a relationship between music and mood.
Our brain tends to release a chemical called dopamine that regulates emotional responses, whenever we listen to a song we like.
On the other hand, listening to sad music when we’re sad can trigger feelings of relief and catharsis. Sad music taps into our painful and negative emotions.
As a result, we let our feelings come to the surface, become aware, and process them more productively.
Music can have the following benefits on our mood:
- Create a positive mood
- Relieve stress
- Ease anxiety
- Decrease depressed mood
- Boost energy
- Improve sleep
- Boost self-confidence
How Do Different Rhythms Change our Mood
Some unique characteristics of uplifting or happy music are
- major keys
- faster tempo
- bright timbres
- regular rhythms
- consonant harmonies
This kind of music is more likely to make you happy, than slower and irregular melodies.
Research shows that you are likely to have a positive mood when you listen to pop and classical music.
Gym classes usually use pop music to maintain interest and energy flow.
Yoga classes encourage relaxation and meditation by using slow sound vibrations.
How to Be Happy by Listening to Music
There is no doubt that feeling happiness through music is possible.
Here are some practical tips on how to be happy through music:
1 – Decrease Anxiety by Listening to Music During Meditation
Anxiety can prevent you from living a fulfilling and happy life.
What’s more, meditation is a good way of dealing with anxiety.
Therefore, you can ease your feelings of anxiety by listening to soft rock or classical music during your meditation sessions.
2 – Listen to Upbeat Music when You Wake up
Listening to music in the morning can uplift your mood.
It energizes you and gives you the power that you need to go through the day.
Hip-hop and hard rock songs are very good because they tend to bring out the confidence in you.
3 – Listen to Music When You are Feeling Sad
According to scientific studies, listening to sad music is healthy and can be considered pleasurable.
Sad music can help you process negative emotions and deal with your feelings of sadness instead of ignoring them.
4 – Listen to Music While Exercising
The benefits of exercising cannot be overemphasized.
Apart from stimulating feel good hormones in the brain, exercises also ease stress and feelings of depression.
With that said, including music into your workout routine can help increase energy and ease fatigue so that you can reap the full benefits of exercising.
Pop and rap music is recommended for warm ups and jogging, respectively.
5 – Listen to Music When Working
The work environment can be at times very stressful.
In addition, it could be that you are working at a 9 to 5 job that you dislike.
With that said, listening to music you like tends to release dopamine, which can help you focus on the task at hand even if you dislike it.
So, remember to energize yourself by listening to music that stimulates your brain.
Your personal preferences will determine what music will make you happy.
Start experimenting with some music to see which one will make you happy right now.
What music do you listen the most? Let me know in the comments below.
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I love listening to music! My favorite time is on the weekend mornings when my husband and I are cooking breakfast! Great start to the day!
great tips here, I always listen to happy music to get my kids going in the morning!
Music does make us happy from inside out! And for this very reason I like to start my day with a bit of music! 🙂
For me music has always had a very soothing effect on my mind. And since I listen to different types of music I can move away anytime from the mundane and thereafter feel refreshed.
I personally enjoy listening to music while I am driving, it helps pass the time. I also like playing it while working out because it helps keep my energy up and pushes me to go longer.
Absolutely! “Music is food for the soul”. It definitely can make you happy!
I don’t listen to music too much, and now I can see that it’s a mistake! Hope your text will help me to be a little bit happier! 🙂
I listen to music daily! It truly helps me get through the day. I mostly listen to it while jogging to help dull the pain.
This is awesome!!! And yes every time i have low energy or bad mood, music comes to the rescue. Great post.
I never get through a day without listening to music – it’s an important part of my life. This post is a great explanation of why!
I love to listen to music when I’m trying to get housework done quickly or in the morning when I’m walking. I also play music after school when I’m grading papers. I really think that it helps me focus.
I have music going almost all day long. It’s different depending on the time of day and what we are doing. But there’s always something playing!
Music always makes me happy. After a long and stressful day at work, the first thing I do is to put my music and be free.
Music definitely does help boost my mood! It is so great! I love how there are so many different styles of music, so you can pick and choose depending on what you are doing or feeling.
driving around in my car and working out are how I love to listen to music! We also love to have dance parties.
I love listening to music while working. It helps me really focused on the task at hand.
Music is everything! Especially when stuck in traffic which tends to be when I listen to music the most! Definitely makes the drive better!
music is food to my soul where would we humans be without music and it is amazing thanks for bringing out all the good things about the music well written jerry godinho
I totally agree with your post. Music uplifts my mood. I especially love listening to thunderstorms at night to help me go to sleep.
It really is amazing how powerful music can be! I always put on some music at the end of the day when it’s time to clean up and it makes it so much more fun!
I notice that specific music gives me different moods. I love certain music for creativity and different music for learning. It is so interesting that music has been in humans lives for thousands of years!
There is just something about music that is calming to me. I can have the worst back pain and turn on music and in no time at all, I’m relaxing. I agree 100% that music can make a person happy.
I love how in depth you went into explaining why music is so good for us! I’ve always known that it makes me feel better when I throw some tunes on and now I understand why! Great post, thank you for sharing it with us!
I actually listen to music to heal. If am I feeling low I definitely use music to heal and it works!
I totally agree that music can really help make people feel happy! I know I love it to help get me motivated!!!
Music is a huge part of my life and I listen to it all of the time! Regardless of what I’m doing or where I am, music can always be counted on to help.
Listening to music is part of my daily routine. Every morning when I am cooking, eating and while doing household chores. It makes me feel so relax.
I love this! Music plays such an impact in my life. By the way, the girls stay away from me, because when I put the music on high, that means I am about to be in cleaning mode!
I like to listen to music while I do chores. I also like to sing along to the radio in my car. Music helps me take my mind off tedious things and uplifts my mood
I totally have my playlists of music to help me relieve anxiety or make me happy and grateful. However, I just can’t listen to music that makes me sad. It just makes me tap into a place I don’t want to go. I avoid it.
This is a 100% yes from me. whenever I feel a little down or sad music always pics me up for sure xx
There’s nothing like getting in the right mood. We love listening to music as a family.
Yes,music can change the mood.I love listening to good music.It really changes my mood and keeps me happy.
Music is such a great mood booster. I love listening to it when I’m cleaning the house or just need some inspiration.
I listen to music almost daily and often sing along. People think it’s funny 🙂
Whenever I feel down I always listen some good tracks and trust me it lift my mood up. Thanks for those tracks. Music can heal everything
Thanks for explaining how hip hop music can help you stay confident when you wake up in the morning. My wife is never in a good mood when she has to wake up for work, and it seems like her morning stress is affecting her productivity at work. Maybe listening to music would allow her to start her day off with more energy and joy.
Thanks for mentioning that you can listen to music in the morning to help invigorate yourself and improve your mood. My sister has recently mentioned that getting out of bed has become difficult for her due to her lack of motivation, and she would like to find a way to spend her morning in a positive way before she starts attending college. Maybe watching some music videos in the morning could put her in a good mood during the day.
Darrien, Starting her day with some upbeat music will be very helpful to get her mood up in the morning and hopefully it will set the mood for the rest of the day.
It helps a lot when you bring up how uplifting music can help put people in a better mood and can promote happiness. My brother has been having trouble finding the motivation he needs to go to work ever since he moved to a city he is unfamiliar with, and I’d like to visit him in order to cheer him up. Maybe taking him to a place that has upbeat music can help cheer him up.
That sounds like a great idea!
Music is a huge part of my life and I listen to it all of the time, when I’m happy, when I’m sad. Music really makes me find myself again, helps me to know how beautiful life is. Sometimes this friend also helps me to remember the pain I’m used to holding and also ease the pain.