How Listening To Classical Music Daily Helps Me Combat Anxiety

I grew up listening to Mozart and Villa-Lobos, Pavarotti and Maria Callas. So, turning on the classical station each day has always felt normal and healthy for me – it’s always been a part of who I am.

There are studies that indicate listening to classical music can help improve your intelligence and cognizance (temporarily). For me, though, listening to classical music is about more than just giving my brain a boost: it’s about releasing deep emotions buried inside and allowing myself to come to the world with a clean slate each day and cutting away the branches of anxiety.

Classical music specifically has been shown to lower cortisol levels. Cortisol is that frustrating hormone that the body produces when under stress. When you produce too much cortisol, you’re more likely to gain weight around the face and waist, have acne, and see other problems, especially as women. This means that reducing cortisol is a priority every day for good health. So, I turn on the classical radio or crank a playlist to start the day.

I’m naturally an open person, but even so, I struggle with self-disclosure about things like happiness and personal needs. As a recovering people-pleaser, I often find it difficult to identify my own needs and desires.

Studies show – and I’ve seen it in myself! – that listening to classical music helps you open up more honestly in your own self-talk and journaling. So, when I journal, putting on some Rimsky-Korsakov or Florence Price helps me get real about my internal struggles. This, in turn, helps me to identify areas of my life that are stressing me out and do something about them.

It’s a known fact that stress can raise this blood pressure and ultimately lead to permanent damage or even death. One study has shown that classical music (not music in general) helps to lower blood pressure levels markedly.

My blood pressure is good most of the time, but sometimes, I can feel it creeping up as the stress and anxiety levels increase. When I listen to calmer compositions by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, or Shuman, for instance, I can feel my heart rate slow, and the physical impacts of higher blood pressure drop.

The days on which I listen to classical music first thing, concentrating on the sounds, the rhythms or the power of a singer’s voice, I am able to come to my workday with a complete reset. Nothing petty from the prior day still clings to me. It’s like an eraser has removed the chalk. I’ve attempted this with other music I grew up with or rock classics I’ve come to adore, but nothing does the trick quite like classical music.

Studies show that this sort of music also helps reduce stress and boosts mental wellbeing of those in isolation (read: folks who work from home). I’m an extravert who works from home in near isolation every day because of living with two introverts with disabilities as my only daily companions. I guess this isn’t super shocking that classical music offers me this reset.

Whatever your normal day looks like, classical music can offer you the same benefits of an emotional reset, stress and anxiety reduction, and lower blood pressure. For that reason, I’ve created an inclusive playlist of some of the most incredible soothing and/or energizing classical music throughout the ages.

This playlist helps me break down the barriers of anxiety. You’ll find my musician friend, two-time Grammy nominee Laura Strickling, soprano, on there, along with other world-class musicians and composers who have broken racial and societal barriers. You’ll even find music written by a princess dancing through your earbuds.