How music helped my mental, emotional and spiritual health

This is my thesis Art is great for mental, emotional and spiritual health. I will go over every art I do over a few articles. I had to start with the one that launched my artistic adventures: Music

Wait, wait, wait… How did you start?

I was a full-on geek on the game frets on fire and Guitar hero. My parents would say that if I actually invested time in learning guitar instead of playing a video game, I would actually learn music. So when fortune dropped a guitar at my place (junkies who drop stuff at your place for a few bucks are the best…) And so started my music adventure. And to my surprise, I loved it. I was honestly surprised how much I loved it. It felt way more interesting, deep, challenging, full of pleasure & fun than guitar hero and my business studies at the time. I was 19.

And how this this ‘music’ thing help you?

A bit about myself before going into it. I used to be a shy, geeky, identity troubled, aggressive, etc. I had a difficulty connecting with people. I used to love just playing my video games (Guitar hero being one of them) where everything just seemed to easier to control. I could be in my world without the troubles of weird illogical people bothering me with nonsensical stories that didn’t matter and couldn’t understand my intellect (Yes I was that arrogant, it was a nice ego shell, some people have a sufferer shell). So when I started getting good in music, and people were enjoying my play. It was a complete surprise to me that people would want to thank me for playing with me, listening to me and wanting to hang out. I used to be a loner and here was this thing (music) which helped me connect with people in a new way.

But what is this ‘music’ thing?

Music is that is the language of emotion. Music can express all the range of possible emotions and states of minds. This is the reason why it is used in films, video games, commercials, etc. A good instrumental track can create a mood that reflects a certain state of mind. Think about your favorite scene in a movie right now, what’s is the music like? Have you tried to watch a horror movie without the music or audio? Have you tried putting different background musics to videos just to see the effects (This is one of my favorites recently https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfvpMPiaEiY)

Stop wasting my time, how did it help you?

So here I come about the internal impact of music: Practicing and performing music helped me connect with my feelings and emotions. This might sound like a simple premise but it changed my life. For people familiar with personnality models, I’m an INTP and enneagram 7 or in other words, a non linear logical guy with a brain going in a thousand directions. Connecting with my emotions meant connecting with a part of myself I never used before.

Why is this ‘emotion’ thing important?

Practicing different music styles meant connecting and accepting all ranges of emotions. Here is a non exhaustive list of music styles I played. Funk, blues, rock, jazz, salsa, bossa nova, salsa, soukous, rumba, hindustani classical music, reggae, drum’n bass, gnawa, cumbia, classical music, etc. You see what I’m doing here. All these styles are very different and express very different states of mind and emotions. And to play them honestly, it was imperative to understand from which state of mind the music comes from. The anger of rock, the hope/sadness of blues, the party energy from soukous, etc. To play them honestly, I had to feel them to be able to project them to an audience.Yes music helped me connect with my emotions, accept them and let them flow in my body and out of me. It’s weird to say but, I can feel anything and am okay with it. I know what wisdom my emotions bring me and value their input in whatever life situation I’m in, along with input from my rational brain.

You haven’t answered my question, why is this ‘music’ important?

I’m always torn whenever I hear people say that they only listen to music to relax or feel good or get energized, because it can be much more than that. Great songs can bring you on an emotional journey. From sadness to happiness, anger to peace, peace to anxiousness to determination, All possibilities exist. Most of the great knew it and used their music to heal the world and with just a few clicks on your internet browser you can have access to some of the greatest music ever made. In other words, connect with the world and their spirit.

Your opinion’s great but it’s just your opinion…

Watch this video: Benjamin Zander and the transformative power of classical music.

And watch this video: Bobby McFerrin and the power of pentatonic scale.

And this one: Alive inside, a story on music & memory

You’re not the boss of me! Tell me why I should watch them!

So why those three? The first one is to show what happens when one listens deeply to a song and “in the right way” Even though it is not always possible to understand the message of an instrumental song. If you or anyone opens their heart/feelings the song will speak for itself.

The second video was made at a conference with some neurosurgeons and brain people and what Bobby McFerrin (the don’t worry be happy singer… BTW he sang the whole song with his mouth… yes go check it out… once you realise it, it is appropriate to have your mind blownà concretely demonstrated is: all humans brains work the same and that the pentatonic scale seem to be hardcoded in the human brain and works on every human.

This video is inspiring me and makes me cry every time I watch it and this third video is the whole inspiration of this article. This is amazing. The video shows how a man with dementia starts recovering his memory by listening to music he used to listen to. (This is a simplification. I hope I don’t make serious mistakes) So our memories as humans are not binary like in a hard disk. It is a combination of emotional, mental other parts of the brain. So when some parts fail, music (and art in general) activates all parts of the brain. And so lost connections between neurons can be made again and well… This guy in the video becomes himself agains temporarily… (I always cry when watching this video… I’m okay admitting it…)

Conclusions

Well Music is important for long term memory apparently. From my experience, it was instrumental for me in getting in touch with my feelings and connecting to deeper realms of emotions which helped me reaching deeper levels of well-being in my life.

Check out these video’s about music and the effect of music on us/our soul/our health
Brush up on your spotify playlist to listen to pieces of music or genres you are not familiar with
Pick up that instrument again, the one that you dreamed of playing when you were a teenager
Join a choir
Start playing music (or any other art), by yourself or with a teacher.
Support your local artists, they give their life to their passion because they understand how important it is.
Bring your friends and family (and old family in particular) to experience art shows and help them build their long term mental/emotional/spiritual health.
Connect with me, like this article spread the word (this article, the videos or your own content in your own way)

I’ll let you go with a quote from Bob Marley: one good thing about music when it hits you feel no pain.