The Real Power of a Power Ballad: How Music Shapes Our Moods

Like most people, music fuels a large part of my life. In times of emotional highs and lows, I turn to music as a way of making sense of different experiences. I’m one of those annoying people who, once I find a song that I connect with, will play it on repeat. All day. All week if I have to. (Apologies and love to my former housemate for never once complaining!). Music has an incredible impact on our emotional states. It has the power to help us feel like we’re not alone, and sometimes the right lyric can save you. It’s no surprise that we seek out songs that align with our current states of being. We tend to make our musical choices unconsciously, through feeling and meaning rather than deliberate choice. But how helpful is this? Knowing that music has such an influence on our mood, perhaps when we’re feeling sad we need to be reaching for the songs that match how we want to be feeling, rather than those that match how we actually feel? All By Myself Research has long shown that sad music intensifies negative emotions in people with a disposition towards rumination and depression. Rumination refers to the tendency to repetitively think about negative emotional situations, and the causes behind them. Listening to sad music amplifies feelings of sadness and can lead to individuals ruminating more about negative or stressful situations in their life, both past and present. I think we can all relate to this idea, particularly with difficult situations we’ve gone thr...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Creativity General Habits Happiness Mental Health and Wellness Personal Research Stress Imagination Mood Disorder Mood Swings Music Source Type: blogs