Music therapy has become such an effective and recognized medical practice that today it is used in hospitals and psychiatric offices, and it is a profession with enough recognition that it has licensed professionals. Music is a powerful art form beyond entertainment. Music touches our emotions directly, as no other art does, and this is predominantly because music directly affects parts of the human body including the brain, the heart, and the respiratory system. We feel compelled to dance or sway, clap our hands, and sing along to music because our bodies and emotions are so affected by it. Music therapy has been demonstrated by science and experience to be so powerful that it is now commonly used to help treat a range of maladies including:

Depression

Negative thought patterns

Self-defeating attitude

Chronic stress

High risk of or being in the recovery stage from a stroke

High blood pressure

Physical coordination problems

ADD

Insomnia and other sleep disorders

Creative obstacles in professionals

Mental problems and degenerative mental disorders like Dementia

Respiratory ailments

Abnormal shyness

Speech impediments

Music therapy is more than just treating existing maladies. Music therapy is used to help small children develop memory, focus, and creative areas of the mind. It is used to enhance performance in athletes as well as students, scientists, engineers, and business leaders.

Music therapy does not necessarily need to be clinical. Individuals can engage in music therapy just be mindfully weaving music into the fabric of your daily life and career. You may take up the practice of a musical instrument for personal fulfillment, even if you have no intention of or not enough talent to become a professional musician. But even if you can’t play any instrument and have trouble carrying a tune with your voice, you can collect and listen to music that inspires you or gives you joy in various ways such as:

Lifting your spirits when you are down or stressed out

Making mundane tasks (like household chores) more enjoyable

Helping you to better understand or accept your own emotions

Inspiring you to do your best at work

Motivating you to work out or do your best at competing in a sport

Giving you creative drive or ideas when doing some other art like drawing or writing

Being the “soundtrack for your life”, enhancing your life with more excitement and meaning

Music and Social Media

In these days of highly personalized Internet radio stations and track-by-track music libraries, it’s easy to have access to music all the time. And with today’s social media outreach, an added dimension of music therapy is, quite simply, sharing music and ideas about music with other people on the Web. Ways of doing this include:

• Taking part in the Voices music therapy forum
• Uploading music tracks that you own to your Google+ and other social media pages
• Sharing music with other people and your friends at online radio stations like Spotify and Last FM. You can participate in message boards there, too.
• Uploading music videos that you have made utilizing your personal music library to YouTube.

You may make use of clinical music therapy. Or, your kind of therapy may comprise just being a music lover. But the health-giving power of music can’t be denied.

Justin Miller is a professional blogger that writes for Jamplay.com. JamPlay is a leading online music educator offering 2,000+ online guitar lesson videos in HD.

This article is for information only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider. The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent the views of RxEconsult, LLC.