There’s a remedy for everything these days.

We have pills for headaches and syrup for coughs, tea to help us sleep and vitamins to keep us healthy. There are therapists for the mind and doctors for the body, physical therapists for recovery and masseuses for stressed muscles. Yoga helps us connect to our tangible selves, and meditation allows us to escape the weight of reality. It’s no wonder life expectancy is rising.

Yet, many people seem to have forgotten there is an all-purpose antidote that can help heal any pain, let it be physical or mental. (Not to mention the money it saves) It has the power to break a person down to tears, or raise them up with the highest of optimism. It can empower individuals to stand up for themselves and give an energy high that no caffeine drink or electrolyte booster could ever boast about. It can instill paralyzing fear or uncontainable happiness, motivate the cowardly and courageous alike. As long as there are ears listening, it consumes the body and soul with an overpowering and lasting effect.

Unfortunately, it often draws the short end of the stick when it comes to its medicinal uses. It is dismissed as a hobby, a way to relax and nothing more. Many musicians are pegged as starving artists and high-school dropouts, people who couldn’t make it in the “real world” and had to instead struggle by on whatever loose change fell into their hat that day. Arts programs in school systems are often the first to be cut from budgets, as they are seen as simple extracurriculars. People shame those who pursue it, when the real shame is losing those who should be.

Where would we be if we pressed the mute button on the music that backs all of our lives? It would do more than quiet instruments and voices — it would silence our emotions, our spirits and our ability to experience beyond the visible reality. We overlook the role it plays in our lives, forever under the surface as an underestimated being capable of healing elements of ourselves that no prescription drug can.