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There are numerous sounds around you at each moment of the day. From the natural sounds outside to the news on the radio, the songs on your music player, or the voices you spend your time around. These have a profound effect on your subconscious, altering your emotional state and influencing your wellbeing. Being conscious and selective of the sounds we let into our minds and bodies is the first step to a healthy sonic diet.

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How Music Can Improve Our Wellbeing

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In Robert Gupta’s TED Talk, Between Music and Medicine, he shares how music has the

power to heal. Stuck between a career as a violinist and a doctor, he discovered that music was the path to curing people when traditional medicine doesn’t work. Neuroscientists are now discovering the incredible remedial influence of music on the brain. When given seventy hours of music therapy, stroke victims who struggled to form four-word sentences could now sing lyrics to a song. 

 

Music can rewire the brain. Through observing brain scans, scientists are seeing a different structure in the brains of musicians. The effects of both listening to music and learning an instrument can help children with autism, people suffering from anxiety and depression, and people with Alzheimer’s.

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Music changes the frequency in our bodies, therefore influencing our physical and emotional state. So, how can we introduce a wholesome relationship with music into our lives? Firstly, we can create positive music rituals, by choosing a playlist of songs which lift us and play them each day whilst dancing at home, or with friends. We can sing daily, by letting go of judgements about our voice and inviting the pleasure of song into our space. If possible, we can have background music playing at work to help ease our stresses from the working day. And what about silence? 

By switching off all devices, TV, and radio, we can hear the natural sounds around us. When we actively listen and tune in to music that surrounds us, the human brain lights up and becomes fully engaged, which vibrates deep in the body and transforms our emotions 

and thoughts.

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Various frequencies resonate with the human body. Mother Earth resonance is set at 7.83 Hz, known as ‘The Schumann Resonance.’ The idea is that all matter in the world, in motion, has a sound, a frequency - the number of pulses in a specific sonic wave-form. The frequency of a human being fluctuates, influenced by sound, environment, and people.

 

According to David George Haskell, even trees emit a vibration, which he calls their song,

that influences the physical, emotional and mental state of human beings. And what

frequency we vibrate at influences those who come into contact with us. We all influence one another. By being selective about the music we listen to, inviting this music into our daily lives, and

actively listening, we can alter our emotional state and feel better. Whether that’s seeking a

calmer state of being, or feeling more energised and uplifted, music has the power to transform and heal us in unbelievable and magical ways. What songs are you going to sing today?