I stopped listening to music.
A few months ago, I stopped listening to music. In this blog post, I will explain why, what happened, and if you should do it or not. When I say I stopped listening to music, I mean that I don’t play music for myself anymore. When I am somewhere and there is music playing, there’s not much you can do about that. I did have Spotify Premium, but now I don’t use it anymore. Only occasionally, I listen to a podcast on Spotify, but most podcasts I listen to are on YouTube. I also used an iPod Shuffle for a couple of weeks as a bit of a switching period, but after that, I just stopped using it. The iPod could, however, be a great alternative to not listening to music.
Why?
There were multiple reasons for stopping, so let’s cover them all.
Mental health: One of the first reasons is mental health. Most music these days is very degenerate and bad for your mental health. You can keep saying that it won’t affect you, but the truth is that it does affect your subconscious brain. Listening to modern songs gives you fake desires and really messes up your mental health.
Sleep quality: I actually only thought about this afterward, but not listening to music really helps you sleep better. Maybe you have had days where you tried to sleep, but a song was really in your head keeping you awake and thinking about things. Well, not listening to music, no songs in your head.
Focus/flow state: In order to really do great work, you have to get into a ‘flow state’ (I will most likely make a separate post about the flow state). Working really focused or in a flow state means that there are no thoughts in your mind while you are working. Listening to music makes it impossible to work in a flow state. Even during workouts, I didn’t listen to music because you also need to get into a flow state for workouts.
Those are the main reasons; there might have been some other small reasons, but they don’t matter as much.
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Results
The results are pretty significant and expected. Improved mental health, better sleep quality, and more focus. The results came pretty fast; after a couple of days or one week, you could already see huge improvements. Most interesting might be what happened when I heard a lot of music on a day after stopping. It shocked me personally: I got into a bad/mad mood, I slept way worse, and still felt it the next day.
Should you do it?
Yes, I highly recommend it! But I want to warn you, it is easier than it looks, so don’t talk yourself out of it. Like with everything, consistency is key. Here are some tips to get you started:
Make music less accessible: if it’s hard, you are less likely to do it. Remove or close music apps and put away speakers or other devices to listen to music.
Using an iPod to get started: you can use an iPod without a screen to get started. It makes you want to listen to music less because it’s harder and you get less dopamine.
Stopping any music subscriptions: you might want to stop current music app subscriptions to help you. If you won’t use them anymore, why not save the money?
Only listen to music without text: this might be the best alternative, just listen to music without text. Listen to beats, epic music, or classical music.
Not improving means declining! Start today, and keep improving daily! Start implementing new good habits and removing old bad habits. You can change your life, but it has to come from you.
Disclaimer
I’m not very happy that I have to add this to this post. But apparently, it’s necessary for a lot of people. I would like to remind everyone that these are my personal observations and thoughts. I am not stating that these are scientifically proven facts and laws to follow. My goal is simply to inform people about something that greatly impacted my life and make them think about it. I want people to start thinking about their actions, and a part of that is their content consumption, in this case music.
Quote
Let’s end with a quote:
“You’ll see it when you believe it.” ~ Wayne Dyer