Music and Resilience

The Power of Music: How It Shapes Our Emotions and Resilience

One example of how music can shape our resilience is my personal story of how I discovered the Rolling Stones as a kid. My dad gave me a couple of their records and a record player when I was about 10 years old. I was fascinated by the sound of the vinyl spinning on the turntable without an amplifier. It was like magic. I would listen to their songs over and over again in my room.

The Rolling Stones’ music opened up a new world for me. It was rebellious, energetic, passionate, raw, authentic, diverse, eclectic, innovative, influential, timeless, legendary. It spoke to me on a deep level. It made me feel alive; free; powerful; confident; curious; adventurous; creative; expressive; rebellious; resilient.

Their songs helped me to cope with the challenges that I faced growing up in a difficult environment. It gave me an outlet for my emotions; a way to escape from reality; a source of inspiration; a sense of purpose; a direction for my life.

The Rolling Stones’ music still shapes my emotions and resilience today. Whenever I feel down or stressed or bored or stuck or lost or hopeless or alone or afraid or angry or sad or anything else that I don’t want to feel - I put on their music. And it always makes me feel better.

Music is a universal language that can touch our hearts and minds in profound ways. Music can evoke powerful emotional responses, such as joy, sadness, anger, or awe, even before we consciously process what we are hearing. Music can also help us cope with stress, enhance our well-being, and foster our resilience in the face of challenges.

Music and Emotions

How does music affect our emotions? One of the main theories is that music stimulates the brain’s reward system, releasing neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, that are associated with pleasure, happiness, and social bonding. Music can also activate brain regions involved in emotion regulation, such as the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala, and the hippocampus. These regions help us to interpret the meaning and context of musical stimuli, and to modulate our emotional reactions accordingly.

Music can also influence our emotions through the associations and memories that we have with certain songs or genres. For example, a song that reminds us of a happy or sad event in our lives can trigger the same emotions that we felt at that time^. Music can also convey emotions through its expressive features, such as tempo, pitch, timbre, harmony, and lyrics. For example, fast music with high pitches and major chords can sound happy, while slow music with low pitches and minor chords can sound sad.

How does music help us to be resilient? Resilience is the ability to adapt and overcome adversity, and to grow from it. Resilience involves both internal factors, such as self-esteem, self-control, optimism, and coping skills, and external factors, such as social support, belonging, and resources. Music can enhance both aspects of resilience in various ways.

Music can boost our self-esteem by allowing us to express ourselves creatively, to achieve mastery and competence, and to receive positive feedback and recognition from others.  Music can also improve our self-control by helping us to regulate our emotions, to focus our attention, and to manage our impulses.  Music can foster our optimism by inspiring us to hope for the future, to appreciate the present, and to reframe the past in a positive light.

Music can also strengthen our social support by creating opportunities for connection, communication, and collaboration with others who share our musical interests and values. It can enhance our sense of belonging by affirming our identity, culture, and community. It can also provide us with resources by offering us a source of enjoyment, relaxation, distraction, or motivation.

Music has been used as a tool for resilience in various contexts and populations, such as war zones, natural disasters, refugee camps, hospitals, schools, prisons, and workplaces. It has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, pain, and trauma symptoms, to increase happiness, satisfaction, well-being, and to promote healing, learning, growth and empowerment.

Music is more than just sound waves hitting our ears. It is a powerful force that can shape our emotions and resilience in profound ways. Music can heal us, inspire us, transform us and empower us.

Our next Resilience and Flow retreat takes place in Morocco this March 16th 2024 - you can find more details here.

Upcoming Events

Trauma Resolution Retreat, Morocco - January 27th to 3rd February

Flow Day Retreat at the Wave, Bristol - February 17th

Resilience and Flow, Morocco - March 16th  

Working with Grief at The Wave, Bristol - March 30th

With gratitude, The Resurface Team