During quarantine, music connects people like nothing else can

Gulf Today Report

If music be the food of love, play on. William Shakespeare's classic line still holds influence centuries after it was written. Music has an enormous impact on the senses. It is the ultimate feelgood factor — it can boost language skills, improve learning, among other things. The right mood music can influence how well people work together, according to a study conducted a few years ago.

Along with medicines, listening to music may lessen acute or chronic pain related to cancer and other conditions, according to another review.

Now,an expert says music can ease the strain on your mental health. This is particularly pertinent to these coronavirus-laden times, where many are having nervous breakdowns due to the long lockdowns and other restrictions on daily life.

In an article, Everett Kalcec, D.O., a Family Medicine physician with Mayo Clinic Health System in Waseca, Minnesota, says that music has been a part of humanity for as long as humanity has existed. Archeologists have unearthed relatively complex bone instruments greater than 40,000 years old. Certainly, human ancestors likely were making music in more rudimentary ways even before this. It is no surprise then that music is so fundamental to development as humans and their continued psychological well-being.

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There's no doubt the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulties people all have experienced this year have taken a toll on mental health. Music is one tool to use ease the strain on your mental health, and help you to heal in the future.

No one can tell a person exactly how to enjoy music. This is because music preferences are as unique as each person.

Music therapy can be used to treat various conditions, much as a physical therapist might treat a patient. You can use some of their techniques to inspire your own healing and manage your mental health. These techniques are wide ranging. No matter your preferences for music, you can make activities like these work for you.

Performing music often is more powerful than listening, says Kalcec. If you have the skill, you should try to perform music. You don't need to be a classically trained musician, and you don't need an audience. Sure, you can sit down and play the piano, but belting out a tune in the shower or in your car likely is just as helpful. Whistling is performing music, too. Getting a group of people together outside, using social distancing, to play kazoos, rarely ends without laughter, which also is powerful medicine. However you do it, find a way to make music, the Tribune News Service quotes the physician.

Quarantine has become the new normal, thanks to the coronavirus. Music has always been a social bonding activity, adds Kalcec. If you aren't comfortable making your own music, you can make listening more powerful by listening together. With quarantine, this takes creativity. Try listening to a song together on Facetime with a friend or playing music that you and a neighbour enjoy. If you and another person have a song that you share as your special song, call him or her ― or send them the song to listen to ― and then call and talk when the song is done. If you are quarantined together, listen together.