How Music Helps Regulate Our Emotions

A prominent view in psychology is that our emotional lives are shaped by our values and judgments. It’s the basic premise of modern cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). This is also one of the basic psychological principles of Stoicism. Much, if not all, of our thinking is up to us. We can liberate ourselves from destructive emotions such as anger and hatred by developing a capacity to choose how to interpret the situation.

Stimuli (events) > Appraisal (thoughts) > Feelings > Action (tendency)

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The appraisal aspect of emotion suggests that our emotions are not entirely beyond our control. They do not just happen to us, but we are responsible for them. We interpret everything we see or hear in terms of our habitual thinking or prior experience. Thus, an emotion is a special kind of thinking about what we make of an event. This theory also shapes how we practice emotion regulation. Emotion regulation refers to attempts to influence which emotions one has, when one has them, or how these emotions are experienced or expressed.

Music offers a resource for emotion regulation (Koelsch, 2025). Music is a universal source of enjoyment for humans, and hearing a favorite tune can instantly lift one’s mood. Music can be used to down-regulate negative emotions. Simply immersing ourselves in positive-sounding tunes can break the toxic cycles of negative emotions, filling us with fresh, uplifting thoughts and elevating our mood.

People use music to achieve various goals, such as to energize, maintain focus on tasks, and reduce boredom. For instance, sad music enables the listener to disengage from distressing situations (breakups, death, etc.) and focus instead on the beauty of the music. Further, lyrics that resonate with the listener’s personal experience can give voice to feelings or experiences that one might not be able to express oneself.

Music often creates strong action tendencies to move in coordination with the music (e.g., dancing, foot-tapping). Our internal rhythms (e.g., heart rate) speed up or slow down to become one with the music. We float and move with the music. Dance is a powerful way to express joy and connect with others. In younger individuals suffering from depression, dancing effectively alleviates symptoms of depression and anxiety (Prudente, 2024).

According to the Broaden-and-Build Theory (Fredrickson, 2009), positive emotions result in a broadening of the scope of attention, an increased openness to new experiences, and a readiness to engage in holistic processing. The ability of music to increase positive emotions broadens the listener’s behavioral and cognitive repertoire. Upbeat music can make us perceive the world in a brighter light. Listening to happy music can influence the way one perceives the world in a stressful situation. For example, upbeat tunes can give you an optimistic outlook and make you feel better. Music distracts attention, making it easier to focus on positive thoughts, thus alleviating worries.

Music evokes emotional memories if we have stored it alongside an emotionally significant autobiographical event. Later, listening to this music can trigger the memory and its associated emotion. For example, Christmas songs are associated with childhood memories of the festive spirit and thus inspire feelings of Christmas cheer. One might exploit this phenomenon by organizing a playlist that evokes positive autobiographical memories, thereby activating corresponding uplifting moods.

In sum, music is a highly valuable tool for emotion regulation. Active engagement with preferred music brings on a pleasant state and helps to regulate moods and emotions. Actively interacting with music is essential. By fully focusing on the sound and physically responding through singing, dancing or tapping, you occupy your working memory. Doing so effectively blocks out negative thoughts.

However, music is not a magic pill that can immediately resolve a negative mood. For instance, depressive mood is often closely related to thought patterns. The benefits of listening to distracting music can be temporary. However, listening to music that alters mood via shifting thought patterns may have a long-lasting effect. Also, the effect of music is personal. The same music that stimulates some people to dance may move others to tears. This exclusively depends on the thoughts that are aroused in our memories.