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How music changed my life
Music has impacted the lives of many, this is what I have seen in my journey with music. I will share a little bit about how music had started changing my life since the time I started diving deeper into it.
As a child I have always been inclined towards music more than any other art form. Music was everything for me. When I turned 11, I stopped learning harmonium and flute and started learning keyboard. I noticed that within a year, there was a huge shift in me.
From 4th to 6th grade my final exam cumulative report card would range from 55-70%. I was never interested in studies and found it difficult to grasp what the teachers were teaching. I would barely pass in tests and exams. My parents would have to teach me and I was on tuitions as well but still I was just not able to memorise anything or focus on what the teachers were teaching and that reflected in my report cards.
My parents and teachers tried very hard to make me pass and study well. However, I could just not do it. I passed 5th grade and it was my summer vacation so I joined keyboard classes. Entire 6th grade I focussed on playing music for 2 hours daily and saw that I was beginning to understand difficult subjects and my scores improved a bit.
One year passed and I entered 7th grade. There was a tremendous shift in me. I was able to memorise and grasp everything the teachers were teaching and I started doing very well in school. Apart from studies I became very active in the music group and participated in different events and won a few competitions. I naturally started making more friends and my scores became better.
In my final report card, I got 85% even after missing so many classes due to music events or competitions. Something changed within me. My self confidence and self esteem started blossoming and people stopped mistreating me. I became more focussed in every work I did, whether it was music or studies or even playing games. My concentration increased by 10x and I became more calm and poised.
Before I knew it, within one year music had started a transformative journey within me. I was learning entertainment music, but I naturally also had a flair for therapeutic music which I did not realise back then and was unknowingly using an amateur small part of music therapy on myself. With this kind of journey, if I can undergo transformation, then you can understand that even diseases can be transformed with music therapy.
This story of mine was to help you understand the power of music. If used rightly, it has the ability to transform you and heal you. There is more than enough research done on this topic to prove that music brings healing and transformation.
I need not go more in depth about proving this truth in this blog on 10 reasons to try music therapy. This one truth shared above is enough to understand that music therapy works, that it has the ability to transform you and heal you. However, for you to choose the right music therapy, you must first understand the difference between entertainment music and music therapy.
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What is the difference between entertainment music and music therapy?
Let's start with a simple example of a kitchen knife. If one knows how to use it, it is used for cutting vegetables or fruits. If not used rightly, it might also cut your finger or give you a minor or fatal wound. It all depends on how you use it. Music also works in the same way.
If you use music for a therapeutic purpose, then it will heal you and transform you. If you use music for entertainment purposes, then it does not help you in healing or transforming. It may have adverse effects as well.
For instance if you listen to sad songs having sad lyrics while you are going through depression, it does no good to you and will keep you stuck in depression. But if you listen to therapeutic music during depression, it will help you to overcome depression.
That covers the utility of music. When it comes to music creation for entertainment or for therapy, the method in which it is created makes a huge impact. Let us take the example of a famous Indian dish called Khichadi. Khichadi is recommended to most who fall sick because of its ability to provide a healing element.
If khichadi is made with the appropriate amount of salt, turmeric and ghee, then it is appropriate to give to a person undergoing fever or any illness etc. However, if you add excessive salt and chilli powder etc and make it according to your taste, then it cannot help a sick person. Such khichadi will not help someone going through fever or any illness.
Similarly with music, the notes, harmonies, frequencies and effects etc. that are used in the music track play a huge role. If used in the right proportions and combinations, it can either provide a healing touch or it can become entertainment music.
Hence, it is not easy to create a music therapy track for any disease. A lot of time is invested in research to understand the disease, its roots and what elements of music will help to overcome that disease. Particular ragas, healing frequencies and instruments are selected based on the type, severity and root causes of the disease.
When it comes to music therapy, even the composers who created it matter a lot. Those who have been in the healing field and have learned extensively about music, sounds and using music as a therapeutic tool can create such music therapy. Only those who have a flair for healing, who can keep themselves physically, mentally and emotionally aligned and stable can create such therapeutic music.
For creating entertainment music, one does not need to have extensive knowledge about music, sound and using music as a therapeutic tool. Having physical, mental and emotional alignment does not play a role at all.
I hope now you have understood the difference between entertainment music and music therapy. You must have also gathered a few benefits of music therapy by now. Let us understand holistically how music therapy can benefit us.
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What are the benefits of music therapy?
I would say that if you find the right music therapy, then there are only benefits and no side effects. Music therapy as the name suggests is therapeutic. It has a healing element to it and has the power to uplift and bring transformation.
Let me make it easy for you by listing a few benefits:
Builds self confidence
Boosts self esteem
Helps in developing concentration power
Refined focus
Healing physical, mental and emotional diseases
Relaxation at body and mind layers
Higher mental and emotional stability
Changing negative emotions to positive
Cleaning negative thoughts by bringing positivity
Pain relief
These are just a few of the benefits. To learn more about the benefits, you can read this blog on 27 Benefits of music therapy before you ignore it. You will get an in-depth understanding on the benefits of music therapy at the physical level, mind level and emotion level.
Now that we know the benefits of music therapy, you should give music therapy a go. Music therapy is not just for a dis-ease, but it is also helpful to maintain your wellbeing. So whether you are going through any issues or not, listening to music therapy daily is very beneficial. I have written about how music therapy is like a wellbeing vitamin in my blog on How to incorporate music therapy into your life.
If you are still not assured that music therapy will help you, read this blog further and assure yourself with these powerful 10 reasons to try music therapy.
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Are there 10 powerful reasons to try music therapy?
10 is too short a list. There are for sure more than 10 powerful reasons to try music therapy. However, I will explain the reasons you must try music therapy and continue doing it on a daily basis. In short, the 10 reasons are:
No side effects
Pain relief
Positively impacts the body, mind and emotions
Effortless relaxation
First aid digital kit for mental and emotional diseases
Maintaining wellbeing
Speedy recovery
Natural method for healing
Alternative medicine
Life transformation
Reason #1 - No Side Effects
Unlike medicines and pills, there are absolutely no side effects when you listen to authentic music therapy. The challenge is finding the right one! When music therapy is conducted or tracks are created, there needs to be a high level of understanding about the disease or illness and what type of notes, sounds, frequencies, etc. will help.
With such in-depth knowledge, music therapy will only work wonders and there will not be any side effects for sure.
Reason #2 - Pain Relief
Without taking pain killers there is a way to get pain relief. When music therapy is created using particular frequencies and ragas, then it has the ability to relieve pain in the body. Sometimes we also feel mental and emotional pain.
There are no medicines to relieve us of such pain which happens due to being hurt. However, music therapy is one of the most powerful tools to relieve you of mental and emotional pain or hurt. It does not suppress the pain or numb the pain or feeling of hurt temporarily, but it rather helps you to overcome it completely.
Reason #3 - Positively impacts the body, mind and emotions
By now you understand that music has an impact on all the 3 layers; the impact may be positive or negative. However, music therapy has a positive impact on these 3 layers. The particular healing frequencies, raga, notes and effects used relaxes the body, calms the mind and helps to neutralise the negative emotions and eventually release positive emotions.
Reason #4 - Effortless relaxation
Usually with music therapy, if you are using music therapy tracks then you just have to lie down or sit down comfortably, close your eyes and listen. The most effective way is to plug in earphones or headphones. You do not have to do anything as music does all the work and relaxes you.
Reason #5 - First aid digital kit for mental and emotional diseases
At our homes we have first aid kits. However those kits cannot be used for the mind or emotions. When you fall down you immediately clean the wound with cotton and antiseptic. You know what is to be done. But do you know what to do when you are feeling angry or when you are afraid or feeling hurt? Do you immediately do something about it or let it linger?
We do not have kits at home for immediately cleaning the negative thoughts and emotions. We do not know what to do to immediately release the negative thoughts and emotions. Hence, music therapy is the best solution. It is like a first aid digital kit for mental and emotional diseases.
Music therapy immediately releases the negative thoughts and emotions and helps you to stay positive. Usually you will end up suppressing or repressing them, but you need to release them and music therapy helps wonderfully to do that.
Music therapy can also be used for physical diseases. However with the body sometimes we need something more tangible to help with solving the issue. Music therapy helps in faster healing and gives relief from pain.
Reason #6 - Maintaining wellbeing
Here is a free online wellbeing assessment to check what is the status of your wellbeing. Usually we have observed that very few people are in high wellbeing. The difficult part is not reaching high wellbeing, but rather maintaining high wellbeing no matter what situation or condition one is going through.
When one has their body, mind and emotions aligned to the natural state of being, then they are in the state of wellbeing. However, if one gets angry then slowly the mind starts getting misaligned and then emotions get misaligned and eventually the body also falls out of alignment. To maintain wellbeing, one must have all 3 in perfect alignment with each other.
When you listen to therapeutic music on a daily basis, then it helps you in aligning your body, mind and emotions to the natural state of your being or soul or spirit, whatever you wish to call it. Therapeutic music brings your body, mind and emotions to their natural state which helps in alignment and when this is done on a regular basis, you will be able to maintain your wellbeing with ease.
Music therapy is not THE ONLY way of maintaining wellbeing. There are other things you must do at the body, mind and emotion layers to maintain your wellbeing. However, music therapy is an integral part which helps you to maintain your wellbeing with ease.
When you maintain your wellbeing, you will notice that you remain healthy. When you are not in the state of wellbeing, you will notice that you keep falling sick. As the saying goes, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”; I would say, “maintaining wellbeing regularly keeps the dis-ease away”.
Reason #7 - Speedy recovery
Even if you take medicines and pills, without relaxation and without changing thought patterns and emotions, you will not be able to recover faster. Music therapy is both complementary and supplementary to medication. Music therapy will relax your body and that will help the medicine to work better.
Thoughts do affect our recovery process and there are no medicines to change thoughts. Hence, we need music therapy to change negative thoughts to positive which again helps immensely with the recovery process. Emotions are usually fluctuating too much which again influences our thoughts. This is where music therapy comes handy to stabilise emotions.
Overall, music therapy can speed up the recovery process when taken with medications. Even without medications, it does have the ability to cure.
Reason #8 - Natural method for healing
Music therapy is a natural way of healing without external chemicals being induced within the body. When we externally induce chemicals, we are not very sure if the medicine will suit our body type or not. We are not sure how the reactions will happen or what the side effects are.
With music therapy, it is a natural method using natural sounds. Hence, there is no fear of chemicals being induced in the body, or suitability for our body type, or reactions or side effects. Music therapy is free from all this and is a very safe alternative.
Reason #9 - Alternative medicine
Mostly when it comes to music therapy it has been ignored or taken very casually because it has no shape, size or colour like a normal medicine. Plus, the human mind is trained to see medicine as an edible form only until the researchers started showing evidence that music therapy is also medicinal. Music is medicine.
Reason #10 - Life transformation
These days music therapy is becoming very popular with Alzheimer's disease, Dementia, Autism and Depression. Lot of research has been done in the neurological field with music therapy and it has been proven to work wonders with neurological disorders and diseases.
Lives have been transformed with the help of music therapy. There were patients who had phobia all their lives and tried thousands of methods to cure it. However, with music therapy they saw results within 6 months. When they are free of phobia they can lead a normal life. Such is the life transforming power of music therapy.
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How can music therapy help with diseases?
The American Psychological Association (APA) calls music as medicine. Music is proven to reduce pain, anxiety, stress, negative thoughts and emotions. Music can also immensely help with neurological disorders and diseases. Music helps with mental health issues such as depression, addiction, mood, insomnia etc.
Music also helps with physical diseases such as arthritis, thyroid, fever, cancer etc. It helps with emotional diseases such as fear, anger, frustration, trauma, shock etc. Music is the basis of our life. We are musical beings, we are vibrational beings.
Hence, what we are is what can cure us when we have any disturbance within the body, mind or emotions. Medicines and pills will provide relief and temporary solutions. But permanent solutions can be received through music therapy.
Healing music and sound vibrations will definitely cure the disease. Certain healing frequencies are carefully thought and used. Certain instruments are carefully picked for particular diseases. Even ragas are carefully selected based on the disease type.
Making music therapy is like making medicines. The ingredients, quantity and proportions are thought through, researched and tested. The way you trust that a medicine or pill works, the same way you need to have trust that music therapy also works. You can think of it as a music pill.
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Powerful resource for music therapy
We at Yaha Life have in-house music therapy experts with 35+ years of experience in sound healing and music therapy. With these music therapy tracks 1,00,000+ patients have been cured and healed. Many years of research and development has been invested in creating these tracks.
We have compiled these music therapy tracks in one webapp. This Music therapy webapp currently covers 51 diseases including various physical, mental and emotional diseases. There are 2 additional bonuses included. They are Writing therapy diary and Mirror therapy flashcards to use along with music therapy for each disease.
These tracks are created using raga based notes and special healing frequencies like 432 Hz. The instruments and sounds are carefully handpicked and manually recorded when creating each music therapy track.
Use this music therapy webapp and try it for yourself. This is your first aid digital kit for any mental and emotional issues. It can be used by anyone and is not restricted by age factor.
Conclusion
I have explained in length about the reasons you must try music therapy. I have also shared about the powerful benefits and unique utilities of music therapy. Only when you try for yourself, will you know the true power of music therapy. Until you do not try, it will not help you at all.
Hence, try music therapy in whichever method or form you feel comfortable with. Whether you want to listen to audio tracks from a webapp or go to a therapist or want to just listen to entertainment music, it is up to you.
If you have any further questions or queries or experiences you would like to share after reading this blog on 10 reasons to try music therapy, please share in the comment section below.
My wellbeing prayers for you.