Is listening to music healthy for us?

 

I have had a negative view of music until today. Of course, I still am not wholly convinced that it’s something healthy for us tender homo sapiens, given that its impact is quite strong. But there is a good side too. 

Music has always made me lose connection with reality. It makes you impractical and unreasonably emotional. You start living in an unrealistic and imaginary world which, after a point, you start believing to be the truth. That’s when you get tagged as “dreamy.” It’s not a good thing, in terms of modern-day living standards, because such people don’t make it very far. They get stuck. As such, it’s a waste of time. 

But since I was having a hard day since morning and after having tried everything out, I switched to music as the only option left to me. I was having severe headaches throughout the day but after a song or two, it just went away. I don’t know the scientific implications of it but I guess it’s probably because I must have had a lot of stressful thoughts stuck up somewhere in the back of my mind and music diverted my mind from them. I know it’s just a coping mechanism, like drugs, and does not do any real, permanent good, but it feels good for the time being. Medication too does the same, anyway (until it’s homeopathic). 

Eventually, it’s on you and how well you control your mind. If you have a stronghold over your mind, you cannot let music affect you in the least. If you deliberately want to lose sight of reality for some reason then that’s a different case altogether. 

From what I’ve understood is, despite its unrealistic and distracting nature, you can take music in your stride. For instance, apart from what I’ve mentioned above, you can put your earphones on when you’re stuck in a toxic environment, like among your fighting parents, to get distracted from the scene. You can switch on to music whenever you’re stuck in a negative atmosphere and you’ve nowhere to go. Anything in excess is harmful, not when it’s taken in a minimal amount, given the situation you are in. Lastly, what matters is the kind of music you listen to. You have to decide for yourself whether it should be a masala Bollywood song, an international pop song, or whichever else, based on the mood you are in, and what mood would you rather be in. 

Note: People having music as their profession are excluded from this whole story. (Making music is a whole different process; you take it professionally then, not personally). 

P.S. This was written some days back.