Mental health matters. Full stop. Nothing more needs to be said. This is true if you’re running a school, a start-up, a multinational company or an NGO. Where there are people working together towards a common goal, over a period of time there are bound to be interactions, stressors, blockages in communication and eventually, the need to express (verbally or otherwise). Where words fail, art prevails… Enter expressive arts based activities, music therapy based activities, interactive music making and experience based sessions. Bottom line is that overall wellness needs to be focused upon and using various arts based modalities. Let’s have a look at the benefits of music therapy for mental health. 

The word therapy can only be used for ongoing work with a particular individual or group towards a predefined goal. So in such a case/situation we’ll stick to the term music based or expressive arts based activities.

Including music in your lives will help increase a feeling of being mindful or being in-the-moment. This in itself, done regularly, can help reduce long term stress symptoms. I’ve gone over the benefits of group drumming in various blogs written over the last year and so if you do have access to a regular community drum circle near you, please do go and remember to take a new friend with you each time. The more people that get turned on to regular community drumming, the better. If you don’t have such a community and are interested in being a trendsetter, do get in touch with us to learn how to lead groups using rhythm and become a drum circle facilitator. Our next Find Your Inner Rhythm Intensive Course is coming up in March 2025

Indulging in a wellness physical activity every morning will surely help with grounding and centring. This in turn helps tackle the day with a lot more presence of mind and focus on problem solving. Whether thei activity is an active meditation, yoga or exercise is entirely up to you but having such a practice can really rewire the way you think and feel. 

Almost all of our Indian art performance forms (be it dance or music) are designed in the way that it focuses on the art form (of course) but it also ensures that we are aware of, address and work on our own issues (under the careful guidance of our Guru). Over a period of time this process ends up being therapeutic and deeply healing for the artist. This is what takes the artist closer to their true selves and what can be defined as their core or a spiritual/divine experience. The art form is a part of their being. Consequently, a feeling of wellness or wellbeing is associated with the daily practice of this art form. This is one way to explain the intimate relationship that the artist shares with their art form (and admittedly, their sense of being, their identity, their sense of balance and wellbeing). Similarly, what is it that you do on a daily basis as a practice (a Riyaz)? Find whatever it is that sparks this joy or inspiration and dedicate a realistic amount of uninterrupted time for that over a period of time and watch the magic unfold right before your own eyes…

Regular art therapy sessions, or experience based activities will surely help you if you’re an individual or a team that works together in a corporate or educational setting. When it comes to drum circles, interactive drumming sessions, expressive arts sessions and experiential learning sessions, Taal Inc. is ready and waiting to customize an offering for you 

Come. Drum. Be One. 
Varun Venkit
Team Taal Inc.