Speaking of emotional balance, music is mentioned much less often than antidepressants and psychotherapy. Meanwhile, properly chosen melody can change your emotional state in a few minutes. Employees at CSG Renovation regularly listen to music to make them more effective https://csgrenovation.ca/brampton/basement-renovations/.
Aretha Franklin’s Respect will make some people smile even when things are going wrong, while others will cry profusely listening to Chopin’s Nocturnes or Simon and Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence. In the series of “sex, drugs and rock and roll,” the latter addendum remains the most underestimated in terms of changing a person’s psyche. And for good reason. In the 1980s, the 7-Eleven supermarket chain in Canada came up with a way to chase idle youths away from their parking lots: play not fancy music, but classical or easy-listening music in that space. The teenagers couldn’t stand the “old-fashioned” tunes and left.
To discourage juvenile delinquents
Decades later, the New Zealand town of Christchurch repeated the trick to scare off juvenile delinquents. True, they used Barry Manilow hits instead of classical music. History also remembers how Israeli forces tried to get terrorists out of the Temple of the Nativity in Bethlehem with heavy metal, among other things. And Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, according to one version, surrendered to U.S. troops also because he, an opera fan, could not stand the sound of unceasingly aggressive music by Black Sabbath, Whitesnake and AC/DC, which was part of the American psychological operations team plan.
Music in Medicine
Medicine is another field where music is actively used. Neurobiologist Gottfried Schlaug from Harvard University has introduced “melodic intonation therapy”, which shows amazing results: patients with speech disorders after a stroke cannot pronounce a three-word sentence, but can sing, for example, their favorite song by The Rolling Stones. The documentary “Alive Inside,” directed by Michael Rossato-Bennett, shows how patients with Alzheimer’s and other memory disorders listen to music from the past and get better in an American nursing home.
Music can affect a person in many different ways, here are some of them:
- Mood: Music can evoke different emotions and change our mood.
- Concentration: Music can help improve concentration and productivity, especially when performing routine tasks.
- Social interactions: music can help people make social connections, communicate and find common interests.
- Health: music can help manage pain, reduce stress and anxiety, relieve depression, and improve sleep and overall health.
- Physical activity: music can increase energy levels and motivation to exercise.
- Learning and memory: music can help improve learning new information, memorization and comprehension.
- Creative expression: music can be a way of creative expression and self-actualization.
- Preservation of cultural heritage: Music is an important part of the cultural heritage of various peoples and can help preserve that cultural memory.
Today, psychotherapists make personalized playlists for sessions with patients, and surgeons know that jazz aids recovery from surgery. You can also use basic music therapy techniques on your own to adjust your mood in the here and now.
To reduce pain, listen to music you love, not relaxing music
Researchers from Glasgow Caledonian University have proven that properly selected music can reduce physical pain. Moreover, the most effective in this case does not work relaxing tunes, but the music, which a person is accustomed to listen to before the pain. In other words, if you prefer hardcore rap, your therapy should include it, rather than the sounds of nature and melodies for meditation. The participant in this experiment, a Prodigy fan, chose the track Firestarter – and was able to stay in cold water five times longer than usual, despite muscle cramps. This fact also explains why long-distance running or exercising on an exercise bike is easier if you work out to your favorite music, even if it’s not very energetic. As Kanye West says, every superhero needs his theme music.
To fall asleep, play classical music at 60 beats per minute
Music promotes relaxation and slows breathing and heart rate, according to researchers at the Hungarian Institute of Behavioral Sciences. In his experiment, they proved that if you listen to classical music 45 minutes before going to sleep, you will fall asleep quickly. Melodies in this case should not excite goosebumps, but rather be supportive background. The optimal frequency is 60 beats per minute. The composer, scholar, and author of Why We Love Music – about the influence of music on areas of our lives – advises falling asleep to the melodies of the lute players. You can start with Nigel North’s cantabile.
Add to the playlist for falling asleep
It is not unreasonable to add to the playlist for falling asleep albums listened to dozens of times Kendrick Lamar, Zemfira and other favorite musicians. Familiar tunes have the same soothing effect as classical music. The structure of the songs is predictable and does not require the listener to actively participate, so you can just relax.
Scientists have also participated in the development of melodies for sleep. For example, a group of neuroscientists recently helped British DJ Tom Middleton to record an album that relieves insomnia. According to them, the tracks Sunset, Ocean, Moon, Stars and Space contribute to the reduction of blood pressure and, as a result, to the successful immersion into sleep. The Better Sleep album is already available for download on Apple Music.
To cope with anger, have an aggressive playlist handy
Extreme music is a healthy way to work off anger. That’s the conclusion scientists at Australia’s University of Queensland came to after an experiment. Although heavy metal, hardcore punk, screamo and growling may be associated with anarchy, crime and Satanism, in terms of mental hygiene, these music styles are even useful when one is feeling angry or angry. Ignoring or silencing the temporary states of our emotional system is not only pointless, but harmful. That’s where extreme music comes in, which “outlasts” anger by reducing internal emotional tension. A study published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience showed that ten minutes of heavy metal and hardcore punk music during anger decreases the level of hostility and irritability. However, the same effect is given by ten minutes of silence. But if in the case of aggressive music anger is worked out, in silence anger is simply ignored, which, according to psychologists, is harmful: a person turns the negative emotion to himself, and this is likely to lead to a new breakdown.