Discover the benefits of music for stress relief, building resilience, and finding more joy in everyday life, plus five simple ways to incorporate music into your daily routines.

Think about the last time a favorite song came on. Maybe you started tapping your feet, singing along, or smiling without even realizing it. Within minutes of listening to music, our mood can shift, even if nothing about our circumstances has changed.

Music is one of the simplest, most accessible ways to bring more joy into our lives. Research also suggests music’s benefits extend beyond making us feel good. They include reducing anxiety, easing pain, and strengthening our sense of connection with others.

Music As Joy

When we think about managing stress, we often focus on reducing the things that make life difficult. But managing stress isn’t just about eliminating stressors. It’s also about making room for experiences that help us feel happy, connected, and fulfilled. That’s where the category of “Joy,” a category in the Purposeful domain of my Take Five Framework comes in.

Joy doesn’t have to come from major accomplishments, vacations, or special occasions. Unfortunately, when life gets busy, activities that bring us joy are often pushed to the back burner. We tell ourselves we’ll make time for them once everything else is done. Unfortunately, there’s always something else to do.

This is why it’s important to focus on small, everyday opportunities to experience joy, including listening to music. Intentionally incorporating moments of joy into our routines helps us build resilience and create a more fulfilling life, even when our responsibilities and stressors remain unchanged.

Music for Stress Relief

Music affects us both psychologically and physically. Research suggests it can influence our emotional state, how we experience discomfort, and how connected we feel to others.

Music Can Reduce Anxiety and Pain And Boost Health

A 2025 randomized controlled study examined whether listening to music during prostate biopsy procedures could reduce patients’ pain and anxiety.[1] Researchers divided 149 patients into two groups. One group listened to classical music during the procedure, while the other wore noise-canceling headphones without music.

Patients who listened to music reported significantly less pain and situational anxiety than those who did not. The findings suggest that music can be a useful addition to traditional approaches for managing discomfort during stressful medical procedures.

Additional research has explored how music helps relieve pain, perhaps better than opioids, as well as provide additional health benefits.[2] Much of this research investigates structured music therapy rather than everyday music listening, but the findings are promising.

  • Music therapy has been shown to help manage chronic pain, improve sleep quality, decrease fatigue, and support cardiovascular and respiratory health.
  • Studies have reported improvements in heart rate and blood pressure, as well as reduced pain and fatigue among patients with cancer and those receiving palliative care.
  • Music-based interventions may also support neurological rehabilitation, including improving speech following a stroke, enhancing balance and coordination in people with Parkinson’s disease, and supporting speech development in children with developmental delays.
  • Research involving premature infants has identified potential benefits for oxygen saturation, heart and respiratory rates, body temperature, sleep, and early development.

Although the strength of the evidence varies across conditions, these findings suggest that music therapy can be a valuable complement to traditional medical care.

Live Music Can Create Lasting Happiness

Have you ever left a concert feeling energized, connected, or simply happier than when you arrived? Researchers have examined why live music can have such a powerful effect. A 2025 study explored a phenomenon called collective effervescence, the feeling of emotional connection and shared excitement that occurs when people experience something meaningful together.[3]

Collective effervescence can also contribute to feelings of awe, another mood booster. To learn more, read this!

Across four studies involving 789 participants, researchers found that people who experienced greater collective effervescence at live music events reported more enjoyment and meaning. Those feelings were also associated with greater happiness one week later. The effect was particularly strong when people felt connected to the artist, were immersed in the lyrics, or attended with friends. The study suggests that live music may offer benefits that extend beyond the event itself by fostering connection and shared meaning, rather than simply improving our mood in the moment.

Music Can Help Us Regulate Our Emotions

Music also gives us an accessible way to influence our emotional state. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis found that engaging with music can improve our ability to regulate emotions, an important component of psychological well-being.[4]

For more on emotional regulation, read this!

An upbeat song might help us feel energized when we’re sluggish. A calming melody may help us settle down when we’re feeling tense. A familiar song can evoke pleasant memories or help us reconnect with feelings we haven’t experienced in a while.

Of course, not all music affects us the same way. The key is choosing music that supports the emotional state we’re hoping to create.

How to Use Music to Find Joy and Build Resilience

We don’t need to play an instrument, attend concerts regularly, or carve out large blocks of time to benefit from music. Small changes to our daily routines can create more opportunities for enjoyment.

Here are five ways to experiment with incorporating music into everyday life.

1. Take a music break.

Instead of scrolling through our phones during a break from work, we can listen to a favorite song. Even a few minutes of music can provide an enjoyable interruption to a stressful day. For an added benefit, step away from the computer and give the song your full attention.

2. Swap podcasts for music during a commute.

Podcasts can be educational and entertaining, but they also keep our brains stimulated and processing information. Occasionally replacing a podcast with music gives us an opportunity to enjoy the drive without feeling like we need to learn or accomplish something.

3. Make unpleasant activities more enjoyable.

Household chores, errands, and exercise aren’t always activities we look forward to. Playing music we enjoy can make these experiences more pleasant and help us approach them with a different attitude. We might even find ourselves dancing while cleaning the kitchen!

4. Use headphones during stressful situations.

Waiting for a medical appointment, the moments leading up to a high-stakes meeting, or sitting in an airport before a flight can trigger anxiety. Listening to familiar, enjoyable music may help redirect our attention and make these experiences more manageable.

5. Make time for live music.

Whether it’s a major concert, a local band, or a free community performance, experiencing music with others can combine the benefits of joy and social connection. We can make the experience even more meaningful by inviting friends or family and allowing ourselves to be fully present.

Bonus practice: Sing or hum along to your favorite songs.

Singing and humming may offer an additional benefit because they naturally involve controlling our breath. When we sing, we extend our exhalation to sustain notes and phrases. Slower, controlled breathing can help regulate our physiological stress response, particularly when our breathing becomes more relaxed and rhythmic.

For more on humming, read this!

Experiment With Music

Building resilience isn’t just about learning to cope with difficult situations. It’s also about making intentional choices that support our well-being and help us find fulfillment. Music gives us an opportunity to do both. It can help us manage stress in challenging moments while also creating more opportunities for joy, enjoyment, and connection.

This week, experiment with incorporating more music into an activity you already do. Notice how it affects mood, energy, or stress level. You may discover that a few minutes of music is enough to make an ordinary moment more enjoyable. And that’s worth making time for!

Simple, Science-Based Habits

This is one example of how you can build real resilience without adding more to your plate. Through simple, evidence-based habits and my Take Five Framework, you can feel calmer and be more resilient.

Ready to put this into practice?

If you’re ready to move beyond reading and start applying these tools in real life, I can help. I work with individuals and organizations to develop practical stress-management and resilience habits that fit into everyday life.  Let’s work on it!

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[1] Coşkun, Ç., Cem Bulut, E., Çetin, S., Aydın, U., & Küpeli, B. (2025). The Impact of Listening to Music During MRI-Fusion Prostate Biopsy Procedures on Pain and Anxiety Levels: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Scandinavian journal of urology, 60, 43–49. https://doi.org/10.2340/sju.v60.43106

[2] https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/how-music-therapy-rivals-opioids-pain-relief-2025a1000kai?ecd=a2a

[3] https://www.psypost.org/live-music-experiences-create-lasting-happiness-by-fostering-collective-effervescence-study-finds/

[4] Peters, V., Bissonnette, J., Nadeau, D., Gauthier-Légaré, A., & Noël, M. A. (2024). The impact of musicking on emotion regulation: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychology of music, 52(5), 548–568. https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356231212362