Take a moment to stop and listen to the sounds around you right now.
If you had to choose, would you say what you hear is:
a) Calming?
b) Stimulating?
c) Anxiety-provoking?
Music therapy has been examined in recent years and found by The National Association of Mental Health 1, Harvard Medical School 2, and AARP 3 to have positive outcomes on overall mental health and well-being.
Beyond its use in therapeutic settings, the science behind research therapy translates into promoting wellness in the workplace. 4
Play different types of music in the background or on headphones while you’re working and allow yourself to test which playlists, artists, or genres impact your mood in a different way.
Research shows that music can stimulate your brain chemicals that impact mood, like dopamine (the “happy hormone”), oxytocin (the “love hormone”), and cortisol (the “stress hormone”).
It’s been found that background music, or music played while you are focusing primarily on another task, correlates with improved performance on mental tasks in older adults.
Fast-paced, upbeat music tends to lead to faster processing speeds, helping to move through tasks more efficiently.
Slower music, like classical or piano, has been found to have about the same benefits to our memories while working as faster music – as long as the music has a good association to you, research shows it will help your recall more than learning in silence or with neutral tracks that are not meaningful to you in the background.
Beyond improvements in productivity and mood, research on the impacts of music have shown that it can help with pain management, improving sleep, and increasing motivation during physical tasks, as well as mental.
Like a favorite playlist keeping you motivated on a run, enjoying a variety of pleasurable music during your workdays will make a big impact in helping you reach your goals and improve your daily outlook and life satisfaction along the way.
https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/December-2016/The-Impact-of-Music-Therapy-on-Mental-Health 1
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/music-and-health 2
https://www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/info-2020/music-mental-health.html 3
https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/seven-ways-music-can-enhance-employee-wellbeing/ 4