Listening to music is regularly encouraged and used as a positive coping skill. However, is music as great of an influence as it is made out to be? Music absolutely can transform a person's mood, but not always in the positive ways that we might think.
In fact, Joanne Loewy, an associate professor and director of the Louis Armstrong Center for Music & Medicine says some music "can actually induce a stressful response," and promote rumination or other unhelpful mental states. A study published in 2015 states that "some uses of music may have negative effects on mental health."
So what is going on? Why does some music have negative effects while some has positive effects? Daniel Levitin, a professor who researches the cognitive neuroscience of music at McGill University, explains that rhythm and other characteristics of songs we listen to can modulate our heart rates and the activity of our brain’s neural networks.
Additionally, the study from 2015 identifies "that some listening strategies may be more successful than others in achieving affect regulation." The effects may not only have to do with what you are listening to, but how you are listening to it.
The study discusses two particular strategies used while listening to music that can have an effect. Discharge, defined as "using music to express negative emotions," was related to an increase in negative effects on mental health. Diversion, defined as "using music to distract from negative emotions, was not associated with these negative effects. However, there are many more positive and negative strategies not identified in the study.
I think this is a concept we can apply to many, many other activities as well. If you go about your day doing lots of positive activities, but with a negative mindset, those positive activities are not going to be near so helpful. So next time you put your favorite playlist on, be aware of your thought process while listening.
In short, be mindful of your mind!
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