While many of us love and cherish music in our lives simply for it’s entertainment value, it’s been shown that listening to music can improve our mental health and brain’s cognitive abilities. Depending on the genre, music can elevate our mood, relax our minds, reduce pain and even energize our bodies. And while we can all feel these effects, we can physically see it as well. Here are just a few of the ways music has been scientifically shown to positively impact our lives.

Music can actually play a role in our brain’s development, improving cognitive performance. Do you like to listen to background music while working or doing other tasks? This practice can actually improve your brain’s ability to focus and perform, in terms of both speed and memory. 

Additionally, the act of playing music is a type of exercise for your mind- it actually increases the amount of gray matter in our brains, leading to better cognitive performance in certain areas. Musicians are often high functioning in their brain’s ability to learn quickly, retain and recall information, and auditory processing. This is just one reason why music is a great hobby for young children to enjoy, while their brains are still developing! 

Music has also been scientifically shown to help us reduce stress, by relaxing us to the point that our body and mind is able to recover from outside stressors more quickly. Similarly, many patients who struggle with pain and depression use music as a form of therapy, acting as a distraction and increasing feelings of positivity. This in turn reduces the amount of cortisol in our bodies, which allows our bodies to function better, improving both sleep and digestion. 

If music can do this much good for one person, imagine what it could do for the world. Music holds the power to heal and bring positive change, it lies within its very nature. When we give it a positive message, it’s ability to bring change doubles!