How music can affect your mind, mood and body.

  What Emotions Can Music Make You Feel? Music can validate your current emotional state and influence your emotional destination. Again, the  Iso-principle  can help us experience desired emotions. It works most effectively when we first find a song that matches our current feeling or mood. In music therapy, emotional regulation is frequently addressed. Music can elicit many, if not every, emotion. Knowing yourself and which music you pair with your emotions will improve self-regulation, or “feeling your feelings.” Music and emotions are personal, cultural and associated with prior experiences. A song will not give everybody the same feeling. That is the beauty of the diversity in music and preference across  diverse cultures and time periods.  Research  attributes this phenomenon to the messages our cultures and experiences have assigned to sounds before listening to a song . While culture, memories and associations influence music and emotions, Berkley f...

 By: Megan Hoffer MM MT-BC, Julie Avirett MM MT-BC, Kelsey Bocharski Music Therapy Intern, Joshua Da Costa Music Therapy Intern Do you find yourself tapping your foot while shopping? Or having all the feels while watching movies? No matter your race, ethnicity, age or gender, music is a common phenomenon that impacts everyone. Music can be a powerful tool with its ability to evoke strong emotional responses. For example, music may lead to the release of dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter. Music is present in everyday life for most people. Here, we answer questions about how music can affect your brain and body. The short answer is, yes! The  Iso-principle  is a tool that matches a music listening experience to a current mood or emotion and then gradually shifts to music that represents a desired mood or emotion. If you want to listen to a song that you pair with anger or sadness, go ahead, but  don’t let it repeat too many times. Move on to music of the mood...