Music and mentality
Music is the decoration of life that fills the spaces between our ears. It can be entertaining, focus inducing or even pain reducing. The frequencies, tones, and words all can have an effect on our health and mentality. For instance in this present moment I am listening to a station called lofi. I have found this station to be excellent for relaxing, focusing, and overall wellness, which is why I am listening to it at the present to be able to write. There are no words just a melody that is rich with all that umami flavor that allows me to focus on what I am doing. It is my usual go to for anything chill. But that is music for you, each different genre let’s you explore new experiences and adapts to give you motivation, inspiration, relaxation or comfort.
Music has some really amazing benefits. Like the book Rhino Success states, “We become the product of three things: the people we associate with, the books we read, and the media we listen to.” So what is your music doing for you? If you listen to negative, demeaning, materialistic music do you find yourself swayed in a negative, demeaning, materialistic manner? Do you start to crave the g6 and “big booty bitches?” What kind of language does your music have, is it full of vulgarities and demoralizing things? I am not saying that these things are wrong, but they are affecting your mentality. Next time you listen to a song listen to the lyrics. Do the lyrics ask questions about why did you leave me, and self doubt? Do they make your happiness dependent on another person? Does your music boost you up? Or are you left in a pitfall of sad things, depressing language, or negativity?
It’s important to understand that music does affect you so wouldn’t you rather have music that lifts you up rather than answers to societies standards? Wouldn’t you rather be a rhino charging forward into success then a sheep who follows others tastes and opinions and sticks with the “trend.”
Some of the benefits of music are:
It can improve cognitive performance. Background music can help you focus, as I am showing you first hand. When you listen to instrumental tracks in the background it leads to improvements in processing speed. Awesome right!
It can reduce stress. Think about when you get a massage, they are playing some sedative, relaxing music right? Well imagine listening to this instead of amping yourself up when you are already stressed out with some aggressive rock or hiphop. Sure listening to hard core metal can help get out the anger, but relaxing music works on the autonomic nervous system. Meaning you recover faster and relax.
It can help you eat less. Add a nice relaxing atmosphere and you will feel more comfortable and are more likely to consume your food more slowly. By slowing down your mastication and creating awareness when you chew you feel more full faster. That reduces how much you eat!
It can improve your memory. When you listen to your favorite music or music that elicits a positive emotion that allows you feelings of positivity. This helps with rewiring those neural pathways when you are studying. Positivity creates a relaxed state that allows the reception of new material. When you are stressed your mind blocks out foreign information because it is being overrode by the sympathetic nervous system thus going in one ear and out the other. There is no retention when you are stressed.
It can help with pain management. Again this works on relaxing the mind and creating feelings of comfort, positivity or relaxation or all. When you are able to engage the autonomic nervous system you gain a better sense of awareness and relaxation.
It can improve motivation which can improve endurance and performance. Fast paced music motivates people to work harder. The tempo should be relevant to whomever is using the music. It has been known to increase performance by 10%. The faster the pace, the more intense the work done.
It can improve your mood and reduce symptoms of depression.Have you ever listened to a sad song and felt more sad or depressed? The same goes for if you listen to music that is upbeat and uplifting, you tend to feel more upbeat yourself.
With all these benefits to music you would think that music today would be geared up to make rockstars out of everyone. Meaning that by engaging with music that is not only positive and fast paced we wouldn’t have as many sad, depressed, angry people. But again listen to the words of the songs, hear the underlying message. If you can’t pick up on it I bet your brain surely is and it might be sending you the wrong message. It may be the reason you go spend all your money drinking the most boujee drink rather than invest in a 401k. Not a lot of music about 401ks or saving money. Hmmm… does music then appeal to the consumer driven cow?
A study was done once on plants. Jazz and classical music was played then heavy rock metal was played. The plants with the jazz and classical they thrived and grew faster, promoting new growth and cell production whereas heavy rock caused stress to the plants and over stimulated them. Frequencies are all around us, even Albert Einstein stated that frequencies are the future of medicine. So if this is the case then why are we not more careful or aware of the noises around us, the words, the music, the energies. Just a thought. So I recommend you change it up for 2 weeks. Listen to music that is more uplifting, more energizing or just helps you focus. Try it and then come back to this and let me know how it affects you.
Today was a 9!