If you’re struggling with postpartum depression, it might be difficult to know how to move forward. Music can boost your mood immediately.
Anyone who knows me in real life probably knows how important music has been for me. My earliest memories of my love for music were around 5 when I would listen to Beethoven every night while I fell asleep. The cassette tape was my moms, but she let me steal it. I’m forever grateful.
Music has been my companion my whole life. It helped me through many hard times growing up, and when I had a baby was no different. In fact, on our first outing the babies lullaby CD ended up soothing me more than the baby! When breastfeeding was difficult, it was soothing music by Ellie Holcomb that brought me to a place of calm and peace. It’s no surprise to me that music can benefit our mental health and mood.
Physical Health Benefits of Music
There are numerous mental health benefits to music, but the physical benefits are also worth noting. Not surprisingly, listening to or playing music reduces cortisol levels (the hormone that surges under stress). Music also can improve your immune system and lower your heart rate. Plus, if you move your body by dancing, you get the added benefits of physical activity. Exercise is one of the best ways you can combat depression and anxiety postpartum.
Mood Boost
Music can boost your mood immediately. If you don’t know how to move forward through postpartum depression and anxiety, turning on some music is one of the easiest ways to change your outlook. Along with all the physical benefits of listening to or playing music, your brain processes music as a reward. Music also can reduce feelings of loneliness and promote social bonding. This can happen through a “phantom” bonding with the person singing or playing. Have you ever felt so connected to the lyrics of a song that you felt like the singer must know you? That kind of “bonding,” even though it’s not real, per se, sends signals to our brains to soothe the loneliness. And, of course, when we are with other people and enjoying music together, it helps us feel a sense of camaraderie with them.
My favorite mood boost from music? Nostalgia. Especially now that I’m not as young a spring chicken as I’d like to think, turning on my favorite music from the early 2000’s (Relient K anyone?) makes me feel like the young carefree soul I was back then in an instant. I can listen to songs from my husband and I’d wedding and smile from the fond memories of being a newlywed and having that fresh love feeling. And then in the next song I can listen to a song from the birth of one of my children and be transported back to the deep connection I had with the Lord on that day.
No matter what benefits resonate with you, I hope you can see that turning on your favorite tunes can help you move forward in your journey through postpartum depression or whatever mental roadblocks you may face.
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