Tuesday, January 13, 2026

From Background Noise to Intentional Care: What College Students' Music Habits Teach Us About Everyday Regulation

A new issue of Music Therapy Perspectives was just released, officially publishing a study I co-authored on how college students actually use music in their daily lives. While the article has been available online for some time, seeing it in the Fall 2025 issue feels like the right moment to pause and reflect on what these findings really mean beyond academic journals.

Here's the short version:

College students don't need more music.
They need more awareness of how music is already shaping their mood, attention, and stress levels.

And honestly? The same is true for most of us.

Music Is Already Doing Emotional Work

In our study, first- and second-year college students reported listening to music daily, often for two to three hours at a time. Most of that listening happened alone (in dorm rooms, cars, or through headphones), primarily through streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.

When asked why they used music, the answers were strikingly consistent:

Over 90% reported using music to influence their mood
Many used music to relieve stress or anxiety
Others used it to cope with loneliness, boredom, or emotional overload
Music was frequently used as a way to "escape," "relax," or "take their mind off things"

One student summed it up simply: "Just how I feel during the day."

What stood out wasn't just how often students used music—it was how naturally music had become part of their emotional regulation system, even when they didn't consciously frame it that way.

Passive Listening vs. Intentional Listening

Most students weren't sitting down and saying, "I am now using music as a coping strategy." But their behavior told a different story.

Many students reported:

Choosing specific songs or artists because they knew it would create a reliable emotional effect
Matching music to their current mood
Experiencing strong emotional reactions to music, often unexpectedly, multiple times per week

In fact, more than 70% of students said they had a strong emotional response to music in just the previous week, even when the listening wasn't planned.

This highlights an important distinction:

Music doesn't need permission to influence us. It already does.

The difference lies in whether music is background noise that happens to us or a tool we use with intention.

What This Tells Us About Regulation (Not Just Entertainment)

A common misconception is that music is primarily entertainment. But the students in this study used music for much more than that.

They used it to:

Regulate stress
Manage emotional intensity
Fill uncomfortable silence
Support focus while studying
Shape personal identity

Interestingly, only a small percentage explicitly said they used music to "get through difficult times," even though many described exactly that behavior in other ways.

This suggests something important: People often use music for regulation long before they recognize it as regulation.

This Isn't Just a College Student Thing

If you've ever:

Put on certain music while driving to calm yourself down
Used playlists to push through fatigue or burnout
Avoided silence because it felt uncomfortable
Relied on familiar songs during emotionally heavy moments

…you're doing the same thing.

College students aren't unique here. They're just very honest about it. Their listening habits reflect a broader cultural reality: music is one of the most accessible emotional tools we have, but we're rarely taught how to use it well.

Where Intentionality Changes Everything

The research doesn't suggest that students need to stop listening to music or turn every playlist into a therapeutic exercise.

What it does suggest is this: With even a small amount of guidance, people can become more skillful in how they use music to support themselves.

When listeners understand:

Why they're choosing certain music
What effect it tends to have on their body and mood
When music helps—and when it might keep them stuck

…music becomes less about distraction and more about care.

This idea sits at the heart of my work with Music Makes Sense and my book Music for the Heart: music doesn't fix emotions, but it can support regulation, awareness, and resilience when used intentionally.

A Simple Reflection You Can Try

Here are three questions inspired directly by patterns we saw in the study:

When do I reach for music most often—and what am I hoping it will do for me?
Does this music help me stay with my experience, or avoid it entirely?
How does my body feel after listening—not just emotionally, but physically?

There are no "right" answers. Awareness alone can change the way music supports you.

Why This Research Still Matters

College students are navigating high stress, limited access to mental health services, and constant stimulation. Music is already embedded in their daily routines—not as a luxury, but as a lifeline.

This study doesn't argue that music replaces therapy. It shows that music is already doing therapeutic work in people's lives—often without structure, language, or support.

Helping people become more intentional with something they already use may be one of the most humane, accessible forms of care we have.

And that's a lesson worth sharing far beyond a journal page.

Want to explore this idea further?

You can learn more about intentional music use, grounding, and regulation through my work at Music Makes Sense, or dive deeper into how music supports emotional regulation in Music for the Heart.

Music is already part of your life. The question is whether it's working for you—or just filling the space.

Monday, December 15, 2025

10 Science-Backed Ways Music Can Support Heart Health and Reduce Stress

How music therapy research can help anyone use music more intentionally for well-being.

Introduction

For more than 25 years, I have worked as a board certified music therapist. During that time, I have helped individuals reduce stress, regulate breathing, manage pain, improve sleep, and navigate emotional challenges through the intentional use of music. Over and over, people have asked me a version of the same question:

“Why does no one teach us how to use music for our health?”

Most people rely on music instinctively. They use it to relax, to focus, to motivate a workout, or to help them through difficult moments. Very few people understand why music affects the body the way it does. Even fewer know how to use music in a purposeful, strategic way to influence heart rate, breathing, nervous system responses, and emotional well being.

That gap is what inspired me to write my new book, Music for the Heart, a clear and practical guide for using music intentionally to support heart health and reduce stress.

In this post, I am sharing an overview of 10 science backed tools you can begin using today. These strategies are based on music therapy research, neuroscience, cardiology, psychology, and decades of real clinical experience.

If you want the full set of tools, worksheets, templates, and step by step guidance, you can find the book here:
👉 https://www.musicmakessense.com/shop

⭐ How Music Affects the Heart and Nervous System

One key concept forms the foundation for everything that follows.
Your heart and your nervous system respond to music faster than your thinking mind does.

Research has demonstrated that music can:

change breathing patterns
reduce sympathetic stress activation
strengthen parasympathetic rest and digest responses
influence heart rate variability
lower perceived stress
improve sleep quality
regulate emotional processing
support focus and attention

Music interacts directly with parts of the brain that manage emotion, attention, motor function, memory, and autonomic regulation. When you use music intentionally, with the right tempo, purpose, and structure, it becomes a powerful and accessible wellness tool.

⭐ 10 Science Backed Tools from Music for the Heart

The explanations below are summaries. The complete book provides full instructions, worksheets, demonstrations, and guided templates.

1. The Tempo Tool for Heart and Breathing Regulation

Music with a slow, steady beat can guide your breath and help naturally slow your heart rate.
The key is choosing music that is slower than your current breathing pace, then gently matching your breath to the beat.

2. Emotion to Motion Matching

Choosing music that matches your current mood or energy helps your body regulate more effectively.
This method prevents sharp emotional swings and supports smoother transitions into calmer states.

3. Musical Grounding for Stress and Overwhelm

Grounding techniques that use sound and attention are effective tools for anxiety and overwhelm.
The book includes ideas for grounding through the five senses with sound as the starting point.

4. Playlist Pathways for Mood Support

Organizing playlists with intention can help guide emotional shifts.
Research shows that structured sequences such as match, shift, and support are more effective than random playlists for emotional regulation.

5. Memory Anchor Music

Music connected to positive memories can activate the brain’s reward pathways.
This supports motivation, connection, and mood stabilization.
The book explains how to strengthen these memory anchors with intention.

6. Rhythmic Breathing for Heart Health

Breathing with rhythm can help reduce stress load and encourage nervous system balance.
This tool teaches you how to pair breathing patterns with specific rhythmic structures to support heart function.

7. Beat Based Motivation for Exercise

Music can reduce the perception of effort and help maintain pace during movement.
The book shows how to use beat matched music to support motivation during exercise or rehabilitation.

8. The Musical Pause Button

This tool provides a practical way to interrupt stress spirals, intrusive thoughts, or emotional overwhelm.
Short, intentional sound segments help reset mental and physiological patterns.

9. Music for Sleep Preparation

Certain musical qualities can help signal the body to shift toward rest.
This tool helps you design a pre sleep listening routine based on tempo, predictability, and repetition.

10. The Heart Playlist Framework

This is the signature framework of the book.
It offers a structured approach for using music throughout the day to support heart health, emotional balance, stress reduction, and energy regulation.
A downloadable worksheet guides you step by step.

⭐ Why I Wrote Music for the Heart

Over many years of clinical and educational work, I met countless people who wanted to use music more intentionally but did not know where to begin. Others were overwhelmed by stress or navigating health concerns without simple strategies they could apply on their own.

I did not see many resources that translated research into clear, accessible tools for everyday life. I wanted to create a resource that explained why music works for the body and how to use it safely and effectively.

My hope is that this book helps people feel more grounded and supported in their daily routines, whether they are managing stress, supporting heart health, or simply hoping to feel more peaceful through music.

⭐ Want the Full Set of Tools and Worksheets?

If you would like step by step instructions, playlists, templates, and personalized tools, the complete resource is available here:

👉 Buy Music for the Heart:
https://www.musicmakessense.com/shop

The book includes:

Printable worksheets
Guided activity templates
Practical prompts
Playlist structures
Adaptations for adults, caregivers, and clinicians
Simple steps for immediate use

Sunday, November 9, 2025

Grounding with the Five Senses — Why It Works, and How Music + Coloring Amplify It

Grounding with the Five Senses: Why It Works and How Music & Coloring Make It Stronger

When life feels loud, busy, or overwhelming, our nervous system often shifts into “auto-survival mode”: racing thoughts, muscle tension, shallow breathing, and future worries. The 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique— naming 5 things you see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, and 1 you can taste—is a simple, portable way to bring attention back to the present moment.

In our Grounded by the Five Senses coloring series, we pair this well-known technique with mindful coloring pages and curated music playlists so you can use all five senses in a calm, creative way. This post takes a closer look at what the research says about grounding, why structured coloring helps, and how music can support the process, especially for stress, anxiety, and emotional regulation.

The Science Behind 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding

“Grounding” describes strategies that help shift attention away from distressing thoughts or sensations and back into present-moment awareness. Clinically, grounding is used in anxiety, trauma, and stress-management work as a way to reduce physiological arousal and reorient a person to safety.

A clinical commentary by Imran (2020) describes the 5-4-3-2-1 technique as a structured sensory task that interrupts escalating anxiety by engaging multiple senses in sequence, creating an attentional shift from catastrophic thoughts to observable cues in the environment. This shift is consistent with broader evidence that attentional refocusing and body-based awareness can reduce anxiety and support emotion regulation.

See:

Imran, A. (2020). Combat Against Stress, Anxiety and Panic Attacks: 5-4-3-2-1 Coping Technique. Journal of Trauma & Stress Disorders & Treatment, 9(4).

Research in body-psychotherapy also highlights grounding as a measurable, whole-person phenomenon. Shuper Engelhard et al. (2021) developed an observational tool for “groundedness” (including posture, stability, and presence) and argued that grounding reflects integration of bodily, emotional, and cognitive states, which is exactly what sensory exercises aim to support.

See:

Shuper Engelhard, E., Pitluk, M., & Elboim-Gabyzon, M. (2021). Grounding the Connection Between Psyche and Soma: Creating a Reliable Observation Tool for Grounding Assessment in an Adult Population. Frontiers in Psychology.

Together, these findings support what many people experience anecdotally: guided attention through the senses can help interrupt spirals, reduce distress, and restore a felt sense of “I am here, I am safe.”

Why Mindful Coloring Fits Naturally with Grounding

Coloring is more than a pastime; when done with intention, it naturally aligns with the “see” and “touch” components of 5-4-3-2-1 grounding.

In a review of structured coloring activities, Ashdown (2018) reported that several experimental studies found reductions in anxiety and negative mood after adults completed specific coloring tasks (for example, mandalas or themed designs).
Mantzios & Giannou (2018) showed that unguided coloring did not automatically increase mindfulness; however, when mindfulness instructions were included, coloring became more effective as a calming and present-focused exercise. In other words, structure and intention matter.

See:
Ashdown, B. K. (2018). How Does Coloring Influence Mood, Stress, and Mindfulness? Journal of Integrated Social Sciences, 8(1), 1–21.

Mantzios, M., & Giannou, K. (2018). When Did Coloring Books Become Mindful? Exploring the Effect of Structured Coloring Books on Anxiety. Mindfulness, 9(4), 1154–1162.

When you color with awareness of line, shape, pressure, and movement, you are already:

Noticing what you see: patterns, curves, shadows, and color choices.
Feeling what you touch: paper texture, the weight of the pencil, gentle repetitive motion.
Regulating your breath and pace to match slow, rhythmic strokes.

This is precisely the kind of sensory engagement the 5-4-3-2-1 method is designed to create. The pages in the Grounded by the Five Senses series build on this by pairing each illustration with a short, therapeutically informed prompt to guide your attention, turning casual coloring into a grounded, evidence-aligned practice.

How Music Enhances Grounding and Coloring

The “3 sounds you can hear” step is one of the most powerful parts of 5-4-3-2-1. Music can deepen this step by offering predictable, soothing auditory input that supports nervous system regulation.

Multiple peer-reviewed studies highlight the impact of music on stress and anxiety:

A systematic review and meta-analysis by de Witte et al. (2020) found that music interventions produced significant reductions in both physiological and psychological stress markers across a variety of settings.
Dong et al. (2023) demonstrated that a 15-minute music intervention for patients after cardiac valve replacement significantly lowered anxiety, heart rate, and blood pressure compared to standard care alone.

See:
de Witte, M., Spruit, A., van Hooren, S., Moonen, X., & Stams, G. J. J. M. (2020). Effects of Music Interventions on Stress-Related Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Two Meta-Analyses. Health Psychology Review, 14(2), 294–324.

Dong, Y., Zhang, L., Chen, L.-W., & Luo, Z.-R. (2023). Music Therapy for Pain and Anxiety in Patients after Cardiac Valve Replacement: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial. BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, 23, 32.

These findings support what many of us feel intuitively: thoughtfully selected music can slow our breathing, soften muscle tension, and shift mood. When paired with coloring, music:

Provides a gentle, continuous sound to “hook” your attention during the 5-4-3-2-1 practice.
Helps mask distracting noise, making it easier to stay with the page in front of you.
Supports a sense of safety and predictability, key elements in regulating the stress response.

That is why each book in the Grounded by the Five Senses series is designed to work beautifully with calm, curated playlists. As you color and read the prompts, the music becomes your “3 sounds,” naturally woven into the grounding process.

Turning Evidence into a Simple At-Home Practice

Here is how you can combine 5-4-3-2-1 grounding, coloring, and music in a way that reflects what the research supports:

Set the scene. Choose a quiet spot, soft lighting, your coloring book, and a warm drink.
Press play. Start a calming playlist at a comfortable volume.
Begin with sight. Take a slow breath. Notice 5 visual details on the page—lines, shapes, shadows, and small textures in the illustration.
Engage touch. Notice 4 tactile sensations—the page, the pencil in your fingers, the table under your arms, and your feet on the floor.
Listen. Identify 3 sounds—the music, your pencil moving, and your breath. Let those sounds remind you that you are here, not in the worry story.
Finish with smell and taste. Gently notice 2 smells and 1 taste (tea, cocoa, a candle, or fresh air).

Color at your own pace. If your thoughts wander, simply return to one of your senses or the next section of the page. Over time, this sequence can train your body to associate coloring and music with safety, regulation, and calm, which is exactly what the research describes as effective grounding.

Why a Grounded Coloring Book Is a Meaningful Gift (for Yourself or Someone You Love)

The holidays and everyday life rarely slow down on their own. Building a small, sensory-based ritual is one way to gently reclaim your attention, your breath, and your body.

The Grounded by the Five Senses series was created with this in mind: mindful illustrations, reflection prompts, and sensory themes (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) that fit naturally with 5-4-3-2-1 grounding and the growing research on music and coloring for stress relief.

If you would like a simple, research-informed tool to support grounding for yourself, your clients, or someone who needs a gentle reset, explore the full series on my Amazon Author Page: Daniel B. Tague – Grounded by the Five Senses Series. Pair a book with a cozy playlist, a favorite mug, and a quiet corner, and you have more than a gift; you have a portable, sensory grounding practice.

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