The Impact of Music on Social Relationships, Mental Health, and Well-Being - Essay Sample

Introduction

Music plays an important role in every dimension of our life. From ancient days music has been used to unite community members through group songs or even listening, which is witnessed to present through choir bands. Music is thus part of our everyday life and has helped people live a good life. Besides, music has impacted both listeners and singers positively. A healthy mind and body have also been achieved through the help of music. Furthermore, music has helped maintain good social relationships from an individual perspective to the whole community. Music has also shown a great change in schools by increasing attention among students and helping alleviate pain, stress, and isolation.

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In our evolutionary history, being part of a coherent community has been important for survival. However, barriers such as partner conflict and wealth are likely to be part of a community. To endure during these conflicts, our forefathers required the means to hold the community in synch. Music can be found in human cultures all over the globe. The earliest bone flute is 40,000 years old, meaning music has existed for approximately this lengthy time. This, and the fact that music frequently occurs in communal environments, from religious ceremonies to soccer sports, indicates that music may be an emerging activity to build group cohesion. Given that very few people have no musical ability, making music is still considered a very talented domain in Western societies. The development of society choirs, accessible to all, shows these innate abilities and indicates that we are going to the roots of collective musical conduct (Launay & Pearce, 2015). In the light of the rising urgency of seeking solutions and the growing concern about alienation and loneliness, it is interesting that individuals seem to be returning to enthusiasm for singing. In today's culture, singing offers a cost-effective and inclusive way of countering the disintegration of cultures that are becoming prevalent.

Association Between Music and Good Social Relationships and a Good Life

Music increases cooperation, coordination, and contact with others. The only way to experience music for most human history was to live because there were no records enabling music to be circulated beyond the show. Besides, if we want to create a pleasing sound, it is important to organize efforts when performing music. When we seek to synchronize with others musically, for example, to harmonize or hold a rhythm, we continue to have positive social feelings about others with whom we are synchronizing, even though they are not in the same room recognizable to us. Singing in a choir or performing music in a band requires collaboration during rehearsal or the planning of performances (Suttie, 2015). As a consequence, trust is strengthened by cooperation between individuals and increases the capacity for future cooperation, which are essential elements of social cohesion and human evolutionary success.

Music gives us an oxytocin boost, a neuropeptide related to sexual activity that breastfeeding, and is believed to play a significant role in raising people's confidence and bonding (Suttie, 2015). Oxytocin rates are directly affected by music, which influences our ability to behave and trust others freely, thus increasing our social relations. Music reinforces our sense of sympathy and our theory of mind. Music stimulates many parts of the brain, including a circuit that allows us to consider what others feel and think and anticipate how they may behave. It is a social ability defined as a theory of mind related to empathy (Suttie, 2015). When we listen to music, our brains do not just process sound but instead seek to grasp what is being conveyed and what the musician's purpose is.

Singing enhances our sense of well-being and happiness. People feel more optimistic when consciously singing than thinking about optimistic life events and listening to music passively (Launay & Pearce, 2015). The improved mood is affected by improvements in our sense of social closeness to others and the discharge of positive neurochemicals, including serotonin and dopamine. Music contributes to many ceremonies that mark the important events in the lives of people, such as church services and weddings, thereby regulating and promoting interpersonal relationships. Music enables couples to communicate in private and make physical contact in a socially acceptable manner (Hargreaves & North, 1999). Besides, music involves norms and rules evolved to which conformity is essential if the activity is to continue.

Music enhances community unity. Music is one way to communicate belonging, which may increase your sense of duty and security towards your group. We appear to think more of people who enjoy music like us, as if musical taste has a deeper significance than just entertainment. Besides, people associate musical taste with the hold of certain values, and the assumed link between values and music influences how we like someone based on their musical taste (Suttie, 2015). More than thoughts and phrases, music expresses feelings and emotions. It can be passed on from generation to generation, generating a sense of loyalty and continuity to one tribe. Like football teams, being in a choir provides a medium for individuals to meet others with similar enthusiasm, leading to a fuller communal circle and new friendships. To those grieving, choir participation can be spiritually uplifting, and for cancer patients and their cares, it improves the quality of life. Choral singing is a physical workout in itself. The deep breaths taken as part of singing equate to aerobic exercise, which releases the feel-good hormone and increases blood flow (Kerr, 2017). After just one hour of choral singing, the stress hormone cortisol is significantly reduced, and the hormone's low levels can help the body fight infections and boost the immune system.

Association of Music with a Healthy Mind and a Healthy Body

Singing is profitable for enhancing muscle tension, posture, and breathing. Participation and listening to music are efficient in alleviating pain, simply because of the discharge of neurochemicals. By raising the Immunoglobin A antibody and reducing the stress hormone cortisol, music may play a part in maintaining a healthy immune system (Launay & Pearce, 2015). Music has been used in many healing ceremonies in various cultures. Our society is also using it as a therapy for language deficiency, breathing, and mental illness, to note. Choir participants have indicated that learning new songs improves their memory and is cognitively stimulating. Furthermore, it has been shown that those who have dementia can benefit from singing. Music is such deep emotional know-how, especially in the minds of children and mothers. Children typically feel an uplifted feeling of happiness as music and brains participate in emotion and feeling, causing a child to start dancing and smiling. Also, music influences mood by creating several other profitable particles in our organic pharmacy. Listening to music produces high affection that boost the dopamine quantity released in the brain and helps regulate the brain's enjoyment and reward centers (Goldstein, 2017). Also, if feelings are kept on a subconscious level, the music evokes people's deepest emotions and helps to express anger, sorrow, grief, and fear. Therefore, music has succeeded where verbal language has failed.

Our brains are developing or discovering new pathways that can function better when they are impaired. Surprisingly, in the case of brain damage, music provides the catalyst for developing these new avenues and allowing the brain to rewire (Goldstein, 2017). For example, patients with traumatic brain injury can use music to remember personal memories. Music can affect patients' brain capacity to restore memories, and they have not formerly been able to access it. Music plays a critical role in the cognitive performance of students, especially college students. Music relieves the emotional impact of anxiety and stress in many students while engaging in complex cognitive tasks such as writing, reading, completing homework, and studying. Music serves as a distracting factor when one engages in cognitively demanding tasks, perhaps because less cognitive resources are available when the attention is drawn to the memories, emotions, and lyrics that music can evoke. Relaxing and relaxing music helps improve memory capacity and arithmetic tasks, particularly in children, and helps improve altruistic behavior (Dolegui, 2012). Soft music offers a relaxed, calming, and optimistic atmosphere due to its relaxing sound, which encourages the processing of information. Therefore, in the presence of music, students are provided with a soothing environment that puts them at ease, thereby enabling cognitive processing and improving performance.

Music can enhance, maintain, and activate our consciousness if we engage our hearts and brains in the right way. Listening to music may help the brain pay more attention and predict events. Space between notes captivates attention and helps a busy mind to incorporate and connect with the heart. When our hearts and minds work towards coherence, our concentration is complete and absolute in the silences where true healing and harmony will occur (Goldstein, 2017). However, when we become part of a song's scene or plot, some songs will negatively affect our attention. Lyrics are concise and involve our critical mind, and lyrically heavy music will split the attention of other people's brains. Music helps patients with Alzheimer's recover part of their memory and improves the quality of life and brain health. Adding the music that the Alzheimer patient used to enjoy in his playlist helps to brighten the patient's mood and allows him to reconnect with the world around him. As a result, the patient will relate and become conscious by reconnecting with his life through his music (Goldstein, 2017). There is a part of the brain that connects memories with music when encountering intense vivid episodic thoughts caused by popular songs from our personal history.

Conclusion

Music plays an essential part in our well-being despite the pleasure it provides. Music also is a powerful social magnet and plays a critical part in strengthening communal bonds. Not only does group singing help create communal bonds, but it also does so especially swiftly, serving as the best icebreaker. Group singing is an ideal behavior to enhance our wider communal associations since it is effective for bonding larger groups.

References

Dolegui, A. (2012). The Impact of Listening to Music on Cognitive Performance. http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=1657

Goldstein, B. (2017). Music & the Brain: The Fascinating Ways Music Affects Your Mood and Mind, by Barry Goldstein. Retrieved 7 August 2020, from http://www.dailygood.org/story/1613/music-and-the-brain-the-fascinating-ways-music-affects-your-mood-and-mind/#:~:text=Music%20was%20able%20to%20bridge,held%20on%20a%20subconscious%20level.

Hargreaves, D., & North, A. (1999). The Functions of Music in Everyday Life: Redefining the Social in Music Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0305735699271007

Kerr, G. (2017). Sing ’til you're grinning: community choirs versus football teams. https://theconversation.com/sing-til-youre-grinning-community-choirs-versus-football-teams-85133

Launay, J., & Pearce, E. (2015). Choir singing improves health, and happiness – and is the perfect icebreaker | University of Oxford. https://www.ox.ac.uk/research/choir-singing-improves-health-happiness-%E2%80%93-and-perfect-icebreaker#