I love music and I have a varied taste, from old rock, techno, rap, some country, classical, jazz, and blues. You name it and I probably listen to it.

The question is, does it affect us? I know for me music absolutely affects me, my mood, and even my behavior. I have all of my music in my computer on iTunes and I have it on shuffle. So I get to listen to a variety of music through out the day. Sometimes I notice that I am feeling anxious and tense. When my attention goes to what could be making me feel this way, I notice it always goes back to the selected song on my i Tunes. I will change the song in my playlist and start to calm down again.

I have read a bit about the affects music has on our teens and our selves, but I invite you to test it out yourself. If you have access to shuffling your music, put together a playlist of different music. Make sure you put a variety in the list and put some very soft easy music on and some heavy hard music with disturbing lyrics on. Sit back and relax as the music carries you away, pay attention to how your body is feeling with every song. Tune into your thoughts with the different songs. You might even journal about how each song affected you.

I think this is a great exercise to do with your teens some day. Have them lay on the floor and relax, ask them to pay attention to their thoughts and how their bodies feel with the different music. Maybe only pick 6 different songs, when the play list is done, ask them to journal on how they felt and their thoughts, and then talk about it as a family. The only way they are going to understand how music really affects them is if you show them. If they are more attracted to the disturbing music, ask them what they like about it, maybe they just like the beat and they really don’t even listen to the lyrics.

I suggest doing research on the internet with them to help them understand what certain music does to your being. Try not to judge them in this process, just research and talk about it. Let me know how it goes.