Managing Loneliness through Music

Abstract

Loneliness affects those who live alone, or even those who live with other people.
While the feeling of loneliness can normally happen, it becomes “chronic” when it
persists over a long time and many people experience it. Music is believed to heal
social, emotional, cognitive, physical and spiritual sickness. Since ancient times,
several philosophers and researchers studied therapeutic use of music to the
emotions. Most of the studies mentioned about music and depression. However,
there are only few studies which deal with managing loneliness through the use of
music in the Philippine setting. This phenomenological study answered two
research questions: a) “How does music influence the emotion and mental condition
of a lonely individual? and b) What kind of music do the participants listen to when
they are lonely?” For this study, five Filipino adults who experienced loneliness in
a Christian university were purposively selected. Data were collected through an
interview. The interviews were voice recorded, transcribed, and analyzed
thematically. Findings show that music helps the participants concentrate and helps
them manage loneliness by listening to their preferred music. The participants listen
to secular music such as love songs, classical music and spiritual music. These
songs generally have good meanings or message despite its style. Based on the
shared experiences given, music influences the mental and emotional condition by
serving as enlightenment, comfort, relief, consolation, and an uplifting instrument
in times of sadness or loneliness. It was also found out that music cannot really
influence someone when the mind is not conditioned to positivity and for not having
a deep relationship to God. This implies that music has a big impact in how
Christians think, feel, and react to sad situations. It is recommended that this
research study can be conducted in a large number of participants using quantitative
approach, and have further study about the effect of music to a person with
depression.