Here we have a sense we don’t often think about beyond just music yet it has so many benefits for our mental health and wellbeing, especially in promoting calmness.
If we’re at home chances are we’re surrounded by the same person or people and that can lead us to feeling quite irritable. Isolating ourselves, plugging in some earphones and just listening to SOMETHING can detach us from that reality and for a brief moment allow us to escape
Sound as a Healing Therapy
Sound as a healing therapy dates back all the way to the Ancient Greek times, where it was used to help people with mental health issues and those in pain. Over the years with more technology and understanding we’ve been able to cultivate this more than ever and specigically when it comes to music, improve our mood and mindset. Whether listening to music, singing to music, moving/dancing or playing an instrument – billions of signals are fired through our brains, giving us a sense of euphoria and calmness. That’s why there’s such a thing around singing in the shower.
Meditation
There are so many different types of meditation each of which offer their own benefits. For a full list click here.
mindfulness meditation
spiritual meditation
focused meditation
movement meditation
mantra meditation
transcendental meditation
progressive relaxation
loving-kindness meditation
visualization meditation
There’s also something called Ambient Meditation which I discovered recently. As we’re working from our homes this could very well be a saving grace. Instead of focusing on peaceful sounds, it helps us combat and normalise the distractions of life, such as traffic, creaking radiators and the general distasteful noises we encounter throughout the day. By normalising them, we can become more productive throughout the day.
Sound Hypnotherapy
This is a technique I have used for years in order to help me drift off to sleep. Whether anxiety of insomnia, I’ve had my fair share of difficulty attempting to get some shut eye and the various apps (such as Calm and Breethe) that offer hypnosis sessions have been a saving grace.
ASMR - Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response
It might sound a little weird, but I’m going to just say it – I love the sound of people eating soap. Yep, a hard bar of soap. I know, weird right? But its true. And I’m not alone. ASMR highlights noises that subjectively our brains find incredibly relaxing and focus on. (Let me be clear in that they spit the soap out, they aren’t actually swallowing it – so please DON’T start doing this yourself – it’s also about the noise of others, not ourselves.)
ASMR is described as feeling like a mild electrical current running from your brain slowly all the way down your body and is initiated by auditory and visual stimuli. Things like gentle whispers, loud chewing, tapping or repetitive sounds are all classed as ASMR sounds. It took me a while to figure it out as I thought I was just getting irritated and frustrated, but when you begin to actually concentrate on it you do inf act begin to feel more relaxed and alert. Odd, but affective.
Podcasts
There’s so many genres, everything from learning to self-guidance, wellbeing and more. It doesn’t just need to be about bettering yourself either, follow your passions and listen to something you find genuinely interesting. One particular thing we should all be on the hunt for right now is something to make us laugh – laughter is life’s medicine I always say! Every time we smile of laugh our body sends a surge of positivity through our bodies into our brains, resulting in us feeling better. The same goes for each time we learn something and feel self-growth.
Self Healing: https://open.spotify.com/show/0oHwerYHy5f1cYzd9qldsP
Binaural Beats Sleep: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX8h3zQNo57xG