Music for Stress Relief
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Music is a written and expressed language, a form of communication that can be understood when words do not suffice. Music is an emotional language that elicits imagery and feelings. The composer paints an acoustic picture, a soundscape of beauty, brutality, tension, release, soaring upliftment, and devasting grief. Soundtracks can enhance a storyline, echoing the film’s narrative so closely that it can be recalled when listening to the music. That is powerful.
But what about music that doesn’t seem to speak at all? What comes to mind when I ask that question? Do you think of muzak, the rather uninteresting instrumental background music played in stores and elevators? What about New Age music, which emphasizes serenity and relaxation through atmosphere and mood? Mood music sets the emotional tone, a singular sustained emotion that can sound peaceful or dull. How about music that evokes trance states. Let’s talk about that.
Music and words are similar in that they either convey meaning or they do not. When a word is repeated continuously, it loses its meaning, a psychological effect known as semantic satiation. The sound of a word fires up regions in the brain linked to categories and ideas that confer meaning to the word. It takes energy to stimulate brain activity, and energy is an exhaustible resource. Every word repetition uses more energy (Feehly, 2021) until the brain, which is an energy-efficient organ, stops firing at the sound of the word, resulting in a perceptual change from word to meaningless sound (Feehly, 2021). Meditation mantras that induce deep trance states work similarly. However, mantras that induce deep trance states, such as mantras used in transcendental meditation, are syllabic sounds that were never words and have no semantic association. Therefore, the brain quickly gives up the pursuit of meaning. Music that elicits deep meditative states is composed in a way that does not provoke an emotional response. Emotion in music is accomplished through musical expectancy. Composers set up the listener’s expectations. Then, the expectation is affirmed or betrayed, prompting an emotional response. Without musical expectancy, the music fails to evoke emotion. Emotionless music is meaningless. The brain quickly gives up trying to make sense of it. The music becomes like a mantra, eliciting a relaxation response —a set of physiological reactions that promote autonomic nervous system stability and good vagal tone. An example of music that promotes deep relaxation is singing bowl music, a timbral form of music that is utterly meaningless yet exceedingly pleasant and beneficial to health.
What is the best music for stress relief? I would try timbral music, the kind of music produced with singing bowls, gongs, and various percussive and droning instruments. It has great potential to elicit a relaxation response, improving health measures. When viewed through this lens, music is a vital component of overall wellness.
References
Feehy, C. (October 6, 2021). Words seem to lose their meaning when we repeat them over and over. Why? Discover Magazine. https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/words-seem-to-lose-their-meaning-when-we-repeat-them-over-and-over-why
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