There’s something about music that lets me see into myself.Not just who I am now—but who I was, who I’ve been.

When I hear a song that resonated deeply with me at one point in life, it’s like looking into an old mirror.It shines a light on what I was feeling back then—even if I couldn’t name it at the time.

Sometimes I listen and think, “God, I must have been in so much pain to feel this so deeply.”And music reminds me:

Yes. You were. And someone else felt it too.

That’s what music has done for me.It hasn’t necessarily healed me.But it has comforted me.It’s sat beside me in silence.It’s said, without words: “You’re not alone in this.”

It’s helped me rediscover parts of myself—memories and feelings held in my nervous system long before I had the tools to understand them.

There’s science behind this too.

Music activates the amygdala and hippocampus—regions of the brain tied to emotion and memory (Koelsch, 2014).That’s why a single melody can bring back not just a moment, but a whole emotional landscape.Studies in neuroscience suggest that music can even help regulate the autonomic nervous system, soothing us when we’re dysregulated or overwhelmed (Thoma et al., 2013).

In trauma research, music is seen as a way to access “implicit memory” — experiences that are stored in the body rather than in words (van der Kolk, 2014).When talk therapy isn’t enough, music becomes a bridge.It doesn’t ask us to explain—it just lets us feel.And sometimes, that’s the most therapeutic thing of all.

For more, see:

Koelsch, S. (2014). Brain and Music. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science.

Thoma, M. V., et al. (2013). The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response. PLOS ONE.

van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score. Penguin Books.

Looking back now, I realise just how devastatingly lonely my childhood really was.I used to dance to keep from falling apart.I used to convince myself I was loved when my body knew I wasn’t.And sometimes, I lost my sanity in trying to maintain that illusion.

But music remembered what I couldn’t.It held it for me until I was ready to return to it with more compassion.

Music, to me, is one of the most beautiful forms of human communication.It doesn’t need explanation.It just is—it bypasses logic and goes straight to the place where the soul lives.It unearths something primal in us.Our power to feel.Our capacity to love.Our connection to ourselves and each other.

This has existed for thousands, maybe millions of years—long before this capitalist machine we’re all navigating now.Music is older than shame.Older than suppression.Older than forgetting.

It’s a rhythm that reminds us we’re still here.That we’ve always been here.And that our feelings are worth listening to.

So no—music didn’t fix me.But it found me.And that was enough.