At some point in the day, we all listen to music. Whether it be on the radio, on our phones or we are creating it ourselves, we are surrounded by it. But does the type of music you listen to mean anything? It can mean multiple things, it will affect your emotions are for the day and it can also affect your personality.
There have been multiple studies for both of these answers and they are fun to read about. I’ll post some of the links at the bottom if you are interested in going more in depth. The easiest answer is that if you listen to happy songs, you become happy and if you listen to sad songs you become sad. It also changes your perception of the world around you as well. In studies with people listening to happy songs, they were able to recognize more faces that were happy than sad. Along with that, they pointed some slightly sad faces as being more happy. When they switched the music to sad, the opposite result happened from above. They clung onto that sad emotion and recognized more people as being sad.
These studies show that we can change our mood just by listening to different songs depending on what emotion we want to feel. It makes you wonder, why more people don’t come out with happier songs to try and cheer up the population more. The same study also discussed that listening to music without lyrics helps with focusing. If you are trying to study, make sure to music on with no words.
Now, if you feel you did bad on a test if you listen to positive music, you can change your perception on the outlook of future ones. In a study with participants who were told they did poorly at work, the group that listened to happy music had a positive feeling towards future tasks, compared to the ones that left in silence. Just by making sure you turn some happy music on after a bad performance review, you can stop yourself from get sad about it and looking in a more positive direction. For anyone that struggles to stay positive, should definitely start adding happy, upbeat music into their daily lives to help them.
The next interesting thing that music can do to our brains is change our personality. The type of music we listen to does have a say in what our personalities are like. Listening to country or western music means that you are probably outgoing and hardworking. The last two articles go in depth on what your music type can say about you.
I personally, listen to specific music when I am at the gym and when I need to get work done. Then, if there are times when I am trying to relax and chill, then I will go with a slower paced playlist. When I want to be nostalgic, then I have a playlist for that. I have these playlists for the moods I want or need to be in and it helps me put my mind in the right headspace for what I need. I will continue to use music to help me get my mind right, and I might even try to use it more as I am trying to be more productive at work and at home.
So, take a look at your playlists and see if they are helping you or hindering you. Make adjustments for what you need and add some more happy songs to bring more positivity into your life.
From Your Life Tutor
-Sam
https://selecthealth.org/blog/2017/02/what-happens-to-your-brain-when-you-listen-to-music
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