Music & Emotions

Photo by Jovan Vasiljević on Unsplash

Every time the outside world felt heavy or the voices in my head were too loud, I reached for my headphones. Music has calmed me down instantly. It has always helped me zoom out and look at the entire picture, how vast the universe is and how trivial my problems are. It won’t invalidate your feelings, instead it will give you hope that this too shall pass.

Music has a way of making people feel understood. Sometimes we feel like the worst has happened and that it can only happen to us, but then you discover someone has gone through that same phase and has written a song about it. It’s surreal but comforting as well.

Every single emotion you feel can be validated by music. It doesn’t ask what you’re feeling before it shows up for you. It’s there at 6am when you’re trying to convince yourself to move, and it’s there at 2am when you cannot. It sits with you in grief and dances with you in joy. It soundtracks first loves and also helps you survive the end of them. No other art form follows you so quietly through every single phase of your life.

Oftentimes I find myself wishing for a guidebook on life. A step-by-step manual on how to navigate every phase, how to figure out the right thing and how to have all the answers. Although I did not find a manual, I found my answers in the lyrics. Music might not give you all the answers, but it will definitely remind you that someone else has survived that question.

In your 20s, the world feels like it’s moving at a speed no one warned you about. Everyone around you seems to have figured something out that you haven’t, and the fear of being left behind quietly settles into your chest. You’re expected to have direction while still finding it, to have answers while still forming the questions. It’s an overwhelming place to exist.

And in those moments when you lose your footing, when the noise outside gets louder than the voice inside — music has a way of bringing you back to yourself. It slows the world down just enough for you to breathe. It reminds you that you are not behind. You are just in the middle of your own story, and the middle is always the hardest part to sit with.

As Billy Joel once said, “slow down, you crazy child” — you might as well pause and find your rhythm, because the world around you will keep rushing. But you must remember that “you can’t be everything you wanna be before your time.”