avatarJackson Zheng

Summary

The author presents a personal method for using music as a natural mood enhancer by associating specific songs with desired emotions, effectively programming them for later use to alter one's psychological state.

Abstract

The article discusses the pitfalls of traditional mood-altering substances, such as alcohol and drugs, which often lead to crashes, tolerance, and potentially harmful side effects. In contrast, the author advocates for the use of music as a safer and more effective alternative for managing moods. The method involves identifying desired emotions, selecting songs that naturally align with those feelings, and then "coding" the emotions into the songs through either imagined experiences or real-life emotional events. The process is designed to be efficient, suggesting that a few repetitions can solidify the emotional association with the music. The author emphasizes the importance of using the songs strategically to avoid tolerance and maintain their mood-altering potency.

Opinions

  • The author believes that music can be a powerful tool for curing depressive bouts without the negative side effects associated with recreational drugs or antidepressants.
  • It is suggested that the emotional impact of music is not inherent in the music itself but is a result of the experiences and memories associated with it.
  • The author expresses a preference for using songs that are new and unfamiliar to make the process of emotional association easier and more effective.
  • The article posits that overuse of a song to induce a particular emotion can lead to a diminished effect, similar to how the body builds tolerance to drugs.
  • The author shares personal experiences of successfully using this method to enhance productivity, manage stress, and improve sleep, among other benefits.
  • There is an encouragement for readers to try this method themselves and to follow and engage with the author's work for further insights and potential free resources.

The Best Natural Mood Enhancer I Have Found So Far

This “drug" has yet to fail me…

Photo by Colin Davis on Unsplash

No, this is NOT that type of drug you’re thinking of.

The problem with alcohol, antidepressants, MDMA, Adderall, etc, is that after the initial high, you’re bound to experience a heavy crash.

What’s even worse is over time, your body will slowly become tolerant to the effects, basically rendering the drug useless.

People then take more of it to boost the high and this then leads to an overdose and eventually…well, death.

…And that’s IF the side effects don’t knock you out first.

Personally, I can’t really judge anyone for taking recreational drugs since that would make me a hypocrite, but luckily for myself, I discovered a different “substance” that was way better at curing depressive bouts and didn’t involve me frying my brain in the process.

What’s this mysterious substance?

Music.

Don’t click away just yet.

Hear me out.

Look, I get most of you out there already know the benefits of music like how it improves your mood, pumps you up for the gym, reduces stress, etc, but do you know how to program your emotions into it?

What if I told you there was a way to code any emotion (happiness, excitement, joy, pleasure) into a song so that when played back, it wipes away all your current emotions and replaces them with the ones you preprogrammed?

Think about it, you can be massively devastated from a recent breakup, and within seconds of playing a particular song, your sadness gets completely erased and fully overwritten by the feeling of content and satisfaction!

You can be super tired/unmotivated and all it’ll take is 5 minutes of your favourite artist’s voice and — BOOM! It’ll be as if you just came out of the gym!

Obviously, the effects won’t be this strong the first time you try it out, but if you apply all the methods that I show you, achieving the results you want will be dead easy.

I know because I’ve experienced it myself.

Here’s how it works:

1. Identify the exact emotion you want to experience

Firstly, you have to figure out what are the emotions you want to trigger with music.

It can be positive and stimulating like happiness, joy, excitement.

Or it can be peaceful and relaxing like reassurance, tranquillity, contentment.

If you really wanted, you could even choose negative emotions like sadness, anger, jealousy, etc. But if you’re already that broken, I think talking to a psychiatrist might be a better shout.

You don’t have to pick just one emotion either. If you decide that you want to trigger multiple emotions at once, that’ll work too.

2. Find 3 songs that already associate with the emotions and feelings you chose

For example, “Stereo Hearts by Gym Class Heroes” is inherently an upbeat song so that’ll be a great choice if you want to program emotions like optimism, cheerfulness and happiness with it.

Something like “Man on the Moon by Gavin James” will be perfect for feelings like serenity, comfort and calmness since it naturally evokes some of those sensations already.

The only thing you want to avoid is using songs that are inconsistent with the emotions you hope to trigger, like for example, using “Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo” to instil cheerfulness and get into a sociable mood. It just won’t work.

Finding songs that match the mood you want to feel will make the following steps WAY EASIER to follow as that way, you won’t have to retrain your brain to think in a different way to how it normally thinks.

TIP: The best kinds of songs to go for are the ones you’ve barely ever heard before and know none of the lyrics to.

I’ll explain why in the next part.

3. Time to “code” the emotions into the songs

Listening to a brand new song for the first time, you’ll probably notice that it won’t have much of an emotional impact on you, even if the artist had poured their heart and soul into the piece.

That’s because the emotions that music evokes don’t actually come from the sounds of the instruments and the singer’s voice, but instead, it comes from the experiences we associated it with.

Similar to when you smell a particular scent and a distant memory gets brought back, filling you with all kinds of nostalgia. The smell itself isn’t the thing that “created” the visions and memories — it’s your brain.

All the smell did was just trigger some part of your brain to fetch an old memory and play it back to you in real-time.

That means, if a smell doesn’t have any memories linked to it, your brain simply won’t trigger.

It’s the same for music.

If you never previously linked any emotions to a song, you won’t feel a thing when it gets played.

This is why I told you it was best to choose a song you’ve never heard before because that way, you can start with a fresh clean slate without having to worry about reassociating new emotions to familiar songs you already vibe to.

Plus, it’s just much easier for your brain to learn a new pattern than to break an existing pattern.

It’s why forming bad habits seem effortless while breaking them takes forever.

Ok, so now you’ve picked the song, how exactly do you “code” the emotions into it?

Well, to be honest, it’s less “coding” per se and actually more like “associating stimulus to a particular behaviour”, but coding just makes the whole thing sound fancier.

Essentially, there are two options for what you can do.

Option number 1 is to imagine yourself experiencing the emotion or feeling and really live it in your mind whilst you listen to the songs you picked for this emotion.

Option number 2 is to actually wait until a natural situation crops up that provokes the emotion or feeling in real life and then you put on your headphones and listen through the songs you picked.

Personally, I tried out both options and I almost always prefer option number 2.

For me, imagining a feeling was never as effective as experiencing the feeling in real life, probably because there was less room for misinterpretation, and I can actually take my time to soak up the feeling.

I’m not saying option number 1 doesn’t work (it definitely will if you do it right), but option number 2 is just way easier.

That being said, option 2 will, of course, take longer to do since you’ll actually have to wait for the right circumstances to happen but, it’ll definitely leave a longer-lasting impact than option 1.

Now, the second question will be “How many times do I need to do this until the emotions get programmed into the songs?”

The answer: 1 or 2 times is enough.

Thing is, you don’t want to over-associate a song to a particular emotion because every single instance of that emotion will feel slightly different. If you do this too many times, your brain will get muddled up trying to figure out which of those feelings it should associate with that song.

Over time, this will dull out the effects and eventually, you’ll just get sick of listening to the same song over and over again.

This brings me to my second point which is — Only play back the song when you absolutely need to feel the emotion. Just like taking a drug, you will become tolerant to its effects if you overuse it.

If a song makes you feel confident, don’t play it unless you’re about to go on stage and speak to hundreds of people.

If a song makes you feel happy, don’t play it unless you feel super depressed and think that life is meaningless.

Music will only get you into the mood if you aren’t already in it.

Once you are in the mood, music won’t enhance it any further.

My experience

Honestly, I cannot count how many times this method has saved my ass.

From getting into “the flow state” for writing to clearing my head before a job interview, music is the most powerful tool I use to alter my psychology at will.

I rely on it to stay positive through even the toughest of times, to calm myself in moments of stress when I want to bang my head against the wall and to sleep through those anxious thoughts that would otherwise keep me awake all night.

Go give this method a try yourself— and actually carry through with it.

I promise you, if it even works half as well for you as it does for me, it’ll still be well worth the effort.

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Mental Health
Emotional Health
Happiness
Mood
Mind
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