Wondering what classical music, or music in general, can do for you? Read on to find out.
We almost all know the age-old tale that tells us that classical music makes us smarter. In fact this tale is so well-known, that many mothers listen to classical music while pregnant in hopes of giving birth to a genius-baby. However, is there any truth to this anecdote?
First off, you may be asking yourself: “How did this tale come to be?” Well, to answer your question, a study conducted among young adults in which they listened to classical music resulted in better IQ scores.
Even with this information, many still find themselves skeptical regarding a style of music’s ability to boost your intelligence. Keep reading to learn more about:
As it turns out, this answer is more complicated than you might think. Classical music itself does not necessarily make you any smarter. Rather, music of any style, in general, has a positive impact on intelligence, as well as in many other areas. Let’s dive a little bit deeper into this topic.
Any style of music has the power to have a profound impact on your emotional intelligence, focus, mood, and stress levels. Think about the way you feel when listening to your favorite song, singer, or music you listened to as a kid. Essentially, this feeling translates to the gray-matter regions of your brain. This is what allows music to benefit us in several ways.
Listening to your favorite music, which can be anything from classical, to pop, to country, is extremely likely to improve your emotional intelligence.
If you find yourself wondering what emotional intelligence is, and why it’s important, let me give you some information regarding this topic. Emotional intelligence is one’s ability to comprehend their own and other’s emotions, interact effectively in social situations, and cope with feelings.
This is an extremely important skillset to have as it allows us to practice healthy relationships and manage hard emotions caused by situations out of our control.
Music gives us an outlet in which to express our emotions, either by playing an instrument, dancing to a song, or simply listening to a favorite song. This in turn allows us to strengthen our emotional intelligence.
Because of the emotional outlet listening to music provides us, it has been correlated to decreased stress levels.
Listening to music has an element of relatability to it, and many people find solace in the lyrics or melody of a song. The emotions a song conveys can be relatable to the listener of the song, therefore allowing the listener to feel less alone.
This knowledge of not being alone, of simply knowing someone else is going through something similar, can be enough to decrease one’s stress.
If you have been feeling down, frustrated, or angry, listening to your favorite music is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Therefore, if your favorite music style is classical, don’t be afraid to jam out to some Mozart.
Listening to music can make even the worst situations seem magically better. Music helps calm us in hard moments by transporting us away from reality. It is an escape from what plagues us in everyday life.
Additionally, another way music can improve our mood is through intentionally listening to songs with a positive message or upbeat tune. Doing so can have an impact short-term by giving you an instant mood and energy boost. Long-term, this can help improve your outlook on life, making you more optimistic.
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Due to music’s ability to improve one’s mood, in addition to decreasing stress levels, it also has the added benefit of making it easier to focus.
With decreased stress levels and a better overall mood, it is easier to keep your mind from wandering while focusing on important activities. Therefore, in some ways, it can be said that listening to your favorite style of music, such as classical, does contribute towards making you smarter.
For example, with greater focus, you are often able to perform better on intelligence-based activities, such as IQ tests. This is because having greater focus allows you to comprehend the material better, and therefore perform better than you would otherwise.
As we have discussed, listening to music has countless benefits. There are simple things you can do in order to take advantage of these benefits. The easiest of which being, to simply listen to your favorite song, album, or artist.
You can do this at several points throughout the day such as when you are walking to classes, driving to work, completing paperwork, or working out.
Another great way to take advantage of the benefits music provides you with is by creating your own playlists which match your mood, what’s going on in your life, events, etc. This is good when you would like to match all your music to your present situation.
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So, although we have discovered that classical music is not necessarily correlated to intelligence, we have found that music in general is heavily tied to aspects that impact our intelligence.
In fact, listening to music in and of itself is actually tied to higher emotional intelligence levels.
Because of this, it is evident that one of the best ways to take care of yourself mentally and emotionally is to listen to music. So, pull up your favorite songs, create a playlist of your own, and get listening!
