Our bodies are equipped with a stress response that can be
triggered by work, relationships, finances or just about any aspect of our
daily lives. It’s incumbent upon us to strike a balance between working hard
and providing for ourselves and families, while also taking care not to
overload our minds and create too much stress in our lives.
Having too much stress can affect our health, cause
us to feel sick (whether we are or not) and cause us to needlessly worry and
feel anxious.
If it gets bad enough, these stress responses can become the
norm for our bodies, creating a constant sense of anxiousness, frustration and
impending doom. We were never designed to take that much stress on in our
lives; the negative effects are way too costly for the benefit of a few
thousand extra dollars a year.
While we’re quite familiar with how to create stress, what
eludes us most of the time are opportunities to alleviate it.
There are plenty of ways to give yourself a break, but one
of the more surprising and possibly more consistent remedies would be simply to
learn an instrument and play some music on a regular basis.
Research
Medical research has shown that making music
with an instrument does actually reduce the stress response in our body and can
effectively reverse what stress triggers set in motion.
The more regularly we’re able to play an instrument and
enjoy it, the better off we’re going to be in terms of our stress levels. In
fact, it has enough of an impact to be considered a healthy lifestyle decision,
which like any similar decision, needs to be a matter of constant habit and not
a one time thing.
Enjoying as Opposed
to Working
For this to work, you want to find an instrument that fits
one of the following categories so that you don’t really have to “work” to play
it:
●
You’ve already
learned the instrument but haven’t picked it up in a while.
●
The instrument
is simple enough to put sounds together without a steep physical or mental
learning curve.
The point of this exercise is to get away from work, not
trade one form of work for another, so pick an instrument that’s easy, like the piano, or an instrument that you
might have already learned earlier in your life that’s easy to pick up again.
When you do play, make sure you don’t allow it to turn into
a pursuit or some kind of improvement game.
You’re not trying to turn into a musical genius or sell an
album. Instead, you’re just trying to relax, enjoy yourself and make some
simple music that will allow your body to de-stress. If you feel like you need
to improve your musical ability, you’re getting back into work mode and will
have less of a benefit from the time you spend playing.
Making it a Habit
Whatever instrument you choose, just enjoy the sounds that
you are able to make. Above all, make it into a habit and spend a little bit of
time every week (or every day if possible) engaging your mind in that fashion.
Know that it’s a proven method to lower stress, and if you
stick with it over time, you’ll get to the point where you can probably put
some energy and genuine interest into the instrument itself. Once that happens,
you’ll have not just a de-stressor, but a creative outlet, which can also lead
to lower stress days and more enjoyable leisure time.
Marcela De Vivo
is a freelance writer in Los Angeles who writes on everything from marketing
and social media, to gaming and tech, to health and beauty. She finds that
playing music on a daily basis, whether it be playing an instrument or
listening to an album, helps her eliminate a good amount of stress.
