A SALTY PAUSE
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By Dhyani Parekh , Wynona Bakker & Tamara Damberg
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5 CALMING SOUNDS TO RELIEVE STRESS AND ANXIETY

Stressful days are in abundance but you are never powerless against them. Sometimes, all it takes to get your wits back is listening to calming sounds to relieve your stress and anxiety. It is a quick and practical way to restore happiness and well-being in a natural and effortless manner without sacrificing productivity. Check out the soothing sounds below and beat the stress any time of day… or night!

1. Nature Sounds → feeling of freedom, expense and calm
It is difficult to sustain tightness and grouchy emotions when surrounded by nature. After a long and harrowing day, cool your nerves with the gentle sound of cascading waterfalls, birds chirping, or rain. The outdoors creates a feeling of freedom, expanse, and calm, and while you cannot just teleport to the nearest forest or natural park, filling your room with nature's music is the next best thing to help you relax. You can even increase its effectiveness by cuddling with someone you love as positive physical contact encourages the release of happy hormones!

2. Sound Frequencies → stress and anxiety relieving
According to research, specific types of sound frequencies can alter the activity of the brain. These sounds naturally soothe the mind and bring it towards a calmer, more meditative state.
One of the most popular tracks neuroscience swears by is Weightless by Marconi Union. In the research conducted by Mindlab International, listening to this song relieves stress and anxiety by a stunning 65%. The carefully arranged frequencies in the song produces calm by helping slow the heart rate, lower blood pressure, and reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

3. Classical Music → gives the brain a boost
Facing your deadlines and quotas may be an easier task when done with classical music in the background. Yes, you may enjoy your pop tunes or angry rap music on regular days, but nothing beats Mozart on gut-clenching, migraine-inducing, high-pressure stressful days.
So when your mind cannot focus anymore, play Mozart. The Mozart effect is said to arouse the brain and give it that much needed boost for that final sprint to your deadline.

4. Jazz → relaxing and stable
Music with a slow tempo encourages the brain to sync with its beat - great for occasions when your mind rages uncontrollably. Find relief by listening to jazz music. Pick a title with an average of 60 beats per minute and slowly feel your brain dance to the tune and carry you into a more relaxed and stable state of mind.

5. Guided Meditation
When all else fails, meditate. Yes, you are busy but this is the perfect time to sit down, gather your thoughts, and find stability. It is the best thing you will ever do! Meditation clears your brain, lengthens your attention span, improves your mood, enhances awareness, and reduces stress hormones and any physical symptoms created by stress. Even if you have never tried meditation in the past, you can instantly reap its benefits.
And do not be turned off by all the spiritual airy-fairy - meditation is simply breathing! Try this short guided meditation by philosopher Alan Watts. His voice alone is enough to calm you down and relieve your stress and anxiety.

NATURE SOUNDS

According to a new study, the sounds of nature physically alters the connections in our brain, reducing our body’s natural fligh-or-fight instinct.
Both natural sounds and a green environment have been linked to relaxation and well being. However for this study, they first used brain scans, heart-rate monitors and behavioral experiments.
To investigate this, researchers experimented with adults. These adults needed to do a task while listening to different background noises. Meanwhile their brains and hearts where being watched. The results showed that artificial sounds was associated with patterns of inward-focused attention (worrying and rumination, stress) while listening to natrual sounds was more with external-focused attention.
The heart showed that the nature sounds were associated with a decrease in the body’s sympathetic responses (which causes that flight-or-fight feeling).
However, these relaxing results only occur when people are actually stressed. Everyone has their own preference of nature sounds

WEIGHTLESS

To define the relaxing effect of the song ‘Weightless” researchers measured the stress level of subjects while solving a puzzle. This puzzle caused some sort of stress level. With different types of music the heartbeat, brain activity, blood pressure and breathing was measured.

This experiments showed that the song ‘Weightless’ was the most relaxing music. The stress level of the subjects declined a lot with 65%.

The reason behind this reduction is the rhythm. The rhythm starts with 60 beats per minute and it slows down slowly to 50 beats per minute. Because of this the heartbeat will slow down parallel with the beat. This slowing down of the heartbeat causes a reduction in blood pressure.
The repeating melody of the song causes the brain to relax, because the brain doesn’t have to predict the next move of the music.
These two components make ‘Weightless’ the most relaxing song.

THE MOZART EFFECT

In 1993 scientist discovered listening to classical music can improve your IQ score. Only this improvement only lasted 15 minutes. There aren’t a lot of classical music pieces which have this effect. However the music pieces with this effect are all regularly and symmetrically constructed. One of these music pieces is Mozart's Sonata for two pianos in D major (K.448).

The theory behind this effect is that the music stimulates the spatial tasks of the brain. The music is a kind of warm up for the brain. Another property of the music is the smooth tune, it is stimulant.