How To Utilize Music For Spontaneous Self Improvement
Music is enjoyable, but can it significantly improve your life?
Yes, according to the research that has been done so far.
Would you like to toss on some beats and have an improved upon good quality of life, and even self improvement? There are three strategies you can use with the handy use of music to achieve this goal.
Music For Motivation
Put on energetic music, and even doing housework seems less like work. Using music to motivate yourself or change your mood is an area where you can trust your experience and experimentation. When you find the music that energizes you, relaxes you, or makes you happy, keep it ready for when you need it.
Music For Intelligence
Music creates neural pathways in your brain that stimulate creativity. Studies show that music trains the brain for higher forms of thinking. In one study, three-year-olds were split into two groups. The first had no special training in, or exposure to music. The second group studied piano and sang daily in chorus.
Eight months later the musical three-year-olds were much better at solving puzzles. They also scored 80% higher in spatial intelligence than the other group. There’s also anectdotal evidence that listening to music, especially from Mozart’s era, can help you study and learn better.
Hopefully there will be more research. In the meantime there’s no reason not to do your own experimentation. I’ve heard that Stephen King writes with loud rock music playing, so the benefits of music may be according to your own tastes or brain-organization. Going to sleep to ambient meditation or nature sounds gives an added benefit for its lister.
Music For Brainwave Entrainment
Want to listen to some music, and get smarter, or have instant easy meditation?
There are products now that “entrain” your brainwaves, in order to put you in a meditative state. Music is embedded with beats and pulses that entrain your brain waves to a specific frequency. Put in the right CD or MP3 for your activity, and you get better brain function. Science? Partly.
Brain wave frequencies vary with mental state. Daydreaming and light meditation take place in the “Alpha” range of frequencies, for example. So if you listen to music containing beats at a frequency of 10 Hz you will generate more brainwaves at a 10 Hz frequency and enter a relaxed Alpha mental state. Do these things really work?
Yes. I’ve found two products that put me in a peaceful state unlike any other music or meditative practice. Studies will prove the effects (some have already), and disprove the wilder claims. Given my results, however, I wouldn’t wait for more research. Many things work long before the scientific proof arrives.
If you are hesitant, you can hang on for more research of the positive aspects of brain wave stimulation. On the other hand, why not try flipping on some music when you study, just to see if it will help? Play with music – Music isn’t unsafe.