You are What You Hear: Healing Broken Self-Image Through Music

A piano is, in essence, a giant brush, and the black and white keys are a palette of vibrant colors. It is where I can freely let out my emotions and lose myself in a world of my creation. One moment, I am lying on a blanket beneath the setting Appalachian sun hearing the playful laughter of children playing in the distance. Next, I am Mr. Darcy approaching Elizabeth in a windswept field. And just as quickly, brooding over the vast expanse of the ocean before me, I find myself on the edge of a cliff beneath a full moon. I feel an overwhelming sense of peace knowing that I can come to my piano at the end of a long day and infuse my gray and dreary world with rich color through the simplicity of black and white.

It is in these moments that I realize the true power of music. Polish composer Frédéric Chopin describes the power of music so poignantly when he writes to his close friend Tytus Woyciechowski, saying, “It is dreadful when something weighs on your mind, not to have a soul to unburden yourself to. You know what I mean. I tell my piano the things I used to tell you” [1]. For Chopin, music was an outlet, a way for him to relinquish his intense raw emotions when he had nobody in whom to confide. In the same way, music offers us all a place of refuge—a comforting environment where we can express ourselves when words fail while simultaneously allowing us to process certain emotions we keep locked away. 

Our emotional attachment to music is not simply based on feelings or anecdotal evidence; it is also deeply rooted in biology. A 2022 study conducted on college students found that music therapy effectively lowered students’ anxiety levels and increased their sense of self-efficacy [2]. This study is particularly significant in light of the current stress epidemic among college students, as a recent survey by the American College Health Association found that 76.4% of college students reported experiencing moderate to high levels of stress [3]. Thus, music emerges as a healthy and reliable means to address the mental health challenges faced by college students and provides them with an outlet to manage stress and improve emotional well-being. These findings mirror a study done by Stanford professor Daniel Bowling where he discovered that music can “modulate brain reward circuitry” [4]. Given that “dysfunction in brain reward circuitry contributes to a wide range of psychopathology, including mood disorders [and] anxiety disorders” [5], music’s positive effects on these neural pathways highlight its therapeutic potential. By promoting a healthy reward system in our brains, music can improve our mood and decrease our anxiety levels and will ultimately bring us a natural method of maintaining our emotional well-being at a time when mental health challenges are increasingly prevalent.

Music has great spiritual significance in addition to its therapeutic significance. Music is central to the Christian faith and often takes the form of praise and worship. In fact, the Book of Psalms directly calls for “everything that has breath [to] praise the Lord” [6]. God Himself proclaims, “This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise” [7]. Praising God, therefore, is an intrinsic part of a Christian’s identity—it is the very thing Christians were made to do. Praising the Creator of the entire universe may seem daunting; after all, what if my praise is subpar, and I fail at the one thing I was created to do? These feelings of inadequacy quickly vanish when I consider that praising God is my very nature. My namesake King David says, “My heart trusted in [God], and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him” [8]. At the time of writing this psalm, David’s life was in danger [9]. Yet, after experiencing the help of God, he could not help but respond to God in praise. Praise is therefore demonstrated to be a natural response to what God has done in the life of a Christian. King David did not have to make minute preparations before praising God. Rather, his praise flowed spontaneously from a heart filled with gratitude for all that God had done for him. The same response is often seen in modern Christians. When they experience God’s deliverance and provision, Christians naturally worship out of an abundance of gratitude in their heart. Worship is therefore not something that demands perfection or something to be done as a formality; it is an instinctive response to the ways that God has worked in their lives.

I often find the deepest peace in my Christian walk when I worship God through song. There is something about closing my eyes and singing to my God at the top of my lungs that is so comforting. At first glance, this seems paradoxical: how could such a frenzy of sound and passion ever translate to a sense of peace? The origin of the word “worship” sheds light on this matter. The modern term “worship” comes from the Old English word “woerthship,” which means to proclaim someone’s worth [10]. As Christians worship God, they are proclaiming how worthy He is to be praised. They ground themselves in His identity, rejoicing that they have the privilege to worship such a worthy God while also taking great comfort in the fact that this same worthy God calls them His own.

A Christian’s worth comes not from his merit, then, but rather from the worth of the One in whom he puts his identity. This paradigm shift is liberating and gives Christians a sense of assurance that no matter how many times they fall short, their worth remains constant because God Himself is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” [11]. In a world where placing one’s worth in academics, net worth, reputation, or attractiveness is so tempting, losing any of these can quickly lead to a sense of hopelessness. Even practicing the healthy habit of placing one’s worth unconditionally in oneself rather than in external factors can backfire. We will inevitably fail at something or feel inadequate, and then that same sense of hopelessness will resurface. Everyone faces this challenge—even Christians are not immune to the temptations of placing their worth in superficial aspects of life. Yet, Christians know that they have a God who invites them to place their worth in Him and who allows them to have a means to escape from the vicious cycle of seeking validation from the world.

The life of a Christian is not guaranteed to be easy, but it is promised to be filled with hope. In one of Jesus’ final conversations with His disciples, He both warns and encourages His disciples about the days to come, saying, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” [12]. This address is bittersweet. Jesus acknowledges that the disciples’ lives would be difficult, but He reminds them that He has already overcome the world and is in total control. Thus, as Christians venture into a world full of societal molds and expectations, the fact that God has already overcome the world is a deeply reassuring truth. The act of worship reminds Christians of their identity in God and prompts them to put their sense of worth back into Him. This return to God brings about a powerful sense of peace, as Christians can release the pressure of defining their own identity and instead embrace the identity of the One who has overcome the world. In Stuart Gibbs’ novel Waste of Space, an alien tells the main character that one of the qualities aliens envy most about humans is their ability to make music [13]. Humans can speak thousands of languages, build grand architecture, and even travel to the Moon, yet what stands out most to aliens is our ability to make music. While this novel is fictional, the sentiment rings true. Music has extraordinary power. It transcends the borders of culture, language, and time, uniting people on a profoundly emotional level. Music rewires the brain’s reward pathway and provides people with a biological basis to reduce anxiety levels and foster emotional well-being. As a Christian, music rewires more than just my brain’s reward pathway; it rewires the very way I view myself. As I worship God, I am reminded of how worthy He is, and even more than that, I am reminded of how blessed I am to be able to put my worth fully in Him. I do not have to fear the fluctuation of my worldly measures because I know that my worth is in an unchanging God. For this reason, I am able to “rejoice with joy inexpressible” [14] and enjoy an overwhelming sense of peace stemming from the reality that my worth and identity are rooted in Him who has overcome the world. In a world marred by hopelessness and damaged self-worth, God beckons us to put our worth in Him through an unlikely medium: music.

References

1. Letter to Tytus Woyciechowski. “Chopin’s Letters To Tytus Woyciechowski in Poturzyn.” The Fryderyk Chopin Institute, October 29, 1829. https://chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/list/664_to-tytus-woyciechowski-in-poturzyn.
2. An, Xiaomei. “RESEARCH ON THE ANXIETY RELIEF OF COLLEGE STUDENTS BY MUSIC THERAPY.” Psychiatria Danubina 34 (2022): 934–38. https://doi.org/10.24869/psyd.2017.
3. “National College Health Assessment.” ACHA, October 8, 2024. https://www.acha.org/ncha/.
4. Bowling, Daniel L. “Biological Principles for Music and Mental Health.” Translational Psychiatry 13, no. 1 (December 4, 2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-023-02671-4.
5. Ibid.
6.  Psalms 150:6, NKJV
7. Isaiah 43:21, NKJV
8. Psalms 28:7, NKJV
9. Psalms 28:1, NKJV
10. Gleddiesmith, Stacey. “Worship Theology 101: What’s in a Word?” thinking worship, March 15, 2020. https://thinkingworship.com/2011/04/25/worship-theology-101-whats-in-a-word/.
11. Hebrews 13:8, NKJV
12. John 16:33, NKJV
13. Gibbs, Stuart, and Gibson Frazier. Waste of Space. Solon, OH: Findaway World, LLC, 2019. 
14. 1 Peter 1:8, NKJV