Music for mental health!
Art itself is a form of therapy, and sometimes a piece of art just touches the right strings and makes you feel understood.
“This flash essay is part of a collaborative, constrained-writing challenge undertaken by some members of the Bangalore Substack Writers Group. This month, we used the prompt, ‘MUSIC’. At the bottom of this snippet, you’ll find links to other essays by fellow writers.”
Now, since the word “mental health” is picking up and being spoken more openly, I often wonder how my parents took care of their mental health.
They obviously did not have access to mainstream therapy.
And then I started observing their day: how they listened to music, especially religious music, and how they regulated themselves.
And maybe this is the reason I have often gravitated towards playing bhajans while my commute to work - more times when I have pushed my body to walk towards my workplace in that crazy traffic, one of the Shiva bhajans was keeping me sane.
I have cried so many times while listening to bhajans on my yoga mat.
And now I have a regular practice of meditating to spiritual music for 15 minutes on my mat.
I have found the best way to relax with music is to become one with it, feeling its texture, often paying attention to which part of my body the rhythm reverberates in.
The complete presence lets the music take over.
And even at times when I am not able to give in completely, its still extremely therapeutic.
It has helped me process, and keeps helping me process, so many emotions I don’t have the words to articulate, perhaps.
Video: Soothing wind chimes shot in a Vietnam Monastery by me.
And it does work for someone who particularly doesn’t have a refined taste in music. Beyond music for meditation or relaxation, I probably have a very regular, popular taste in music, so yes, it even helps someone like me, who is not a music connoisseur.
So, here’s to music for mental health :) Because sometimes, mental health need not be complicated.
Art is a form of therapy, and I have great respect for artists who tune into their emotional landscape to create work that resonates with the raw human side of us.
P.S.: There are two artists whom I really, really revere and can get enough of, Malte Marten and Rishabh Rikhiram Sharma.
Do give them a shot if you haven’t, and observe how they make you feel in your mind and body.
Other Essays from Bangalore Collaborators:
DhvaniTaranga by Shwetha Harsha , Chutneymix
The Singing Neighbour by Rakhi Kurup, Rakhi’s Substack
#18: On Music by Siddhesh Raut, Shana, Ded Shana
How to build a time machine by Amit Charles
Growing Up a Metalhead in Small-Town India by Rajat Gururaj, I came, I saw, I floundered
Morning Raaga by Nidhishree Venugopal General in Her Labyrinth
ooh! that short clip of the chimes in the monastery :) Therapeutic indeed.
Appreciate your take on music as therapy and all the music references added here. Keeping it simple really brings out all the joy in all things :)