You may have heard of artists channeling their traumas and pain into their art, which is pretty common and results in deep and meaningful music that captivates audiences by eliciting emotional reactions.
Grief is a very challenging emotional process that affects everyone differently, especially if you lose someone dear to you.
Musicians have been known to channel their grief into their music, creating something very unique and beautiful, especially if you know the story behind it.
Let’s explore more about music creation, helping people overcome their grief.
The Relationship Between Music Creation And Grief
Creating art is one of the most liberating processes that artists go through because many of them describe it as channeling the muse and not actively controlling or coming up with tones or lyrics.
It is often a surrender into the moment and entering a flow state where the rational mind almost ceases to exist, creating something that ‘comes from beyond.’
Although this may sound like ‘woo woo’ spirituality, entering flow states and creating something unique and authentic creates space for artists to process grief, allowing them to connect with others through their music in a genuinely empathetic way.
Healing may also be possible by connecting with others who share the same grief, and the music may open up connections with other individuals, such as siblings grieving the death of a parent.
Often, people get stuck in their emotions because they perceive them to be too uncomfortable, causing them to retreat into their minds, making the process more difficult. After all, the thinking ends up fueling the emotions, especially if there is no body awareness.
Musicians can navigate grief successfully by creating beautiful music that allows them to affect others and channel their raw emotions into the moment, creating space to feel them fully and let them go.
Although emotions can be overwhelming to deal with, and many of us have disconnected ourselves from feeling them fully, there is a way to return to the present moment and process what you feel.
Creating music is one way to do that. Many artists have experienced trauma-release moments during live concerts and connected with their audiences on a fundamental level, breaking down separation barriers by creating space for emotional processing.
How Music Affects Emotional Processing
Listening to music and creating music are separate things that can allow us to define our stories and relationships, especially our associations with our emotions.
Music may also be a trigger that connects us with grief because there will always be a part of others that lives on in you, especially if someone close to you has passed away.
Creating and listening to music connects you with those parts, allowing them to live inside you and making it possible for you to heal them and become at peace within yourself.
There is no doubt that music creation can speak to our subconscious, which is where we’ve buried all of our implicit memories that begin to surface when we are exposed to certain triggers.
Music creation is an incredibly powerful tool that helps us speak to our unconscious and helps those suffering from bouts of grief to finally put their sorrows at rest and move on.
Final Verdict
Artists and musicians often indulge in creating music as a way to deal with their difficult emotions and process them by giving them space to come up instead of suppressing and repressing them, which leads to being stuck in a vicious cycle.
Emotional regulation on a profound level is very likely if you are dedicated to the process of creating art and are able to surrender into the moment frequently.
