5 Ways to Increase Wellness with Sound & Music

Our daily life is replete with constant access to information, communication, and entertainment, making us susceptible to the influx of both welcome and unwelcome distractions. In this age of multitasking, applying mindfulness and setting intentions can greatly improve the quality of activities including work, exercise, talking to our friends and family, or even eating.

Sound and music can have a significant impact on your well-being, whether your intentions are to boost energy, increase focus, reduce anxiety and symptoms of depression, or just to add joy to your day. Here are a few ways to be intentional with sound and music which can become part of your mindful practice:

1. Take a Sound Bath.

Sound baths are rooted in ancient meditative and spiritual practices using a wide spectrum of  eastern traditional instruments such as gongs, chimes, Tibetan singing bowls, tuning forks, and can include chanting. The sound waves “bathe” you to incite a phenomenon called sound healing by guiding you into a meditative state. There are sound healer licenced professionals that perform these in various indoor, outdoor, or virtual settings. 

2. Put on your headphones and find a track with binaural beats. 

 This is a very powerful sound tool to transition your brain frequency into different functional states, known as entrainment. Essentially, two frequencies (tones) are listened to in each ear that your brain synchronizes in about 15 seconds into a 3rd new tone. Headphones are required to isolate sounds in each ear. The Insight Timer meditation app as well as Youtube have free ones.

3. Focus attention on the sounds around you. 

Next time you're on a walk, shift your focus on one type of sound to another. Birds chirping, leaves rustling in the wind, the water stream beside you, or the crunch of your steps on your path. Many music and meditation apps have nature soundtracks that can be very soothing and grounding to calibrate our natural rhythms.

4. Play an instrument. 

Focusing on this one activity can be rewarding (also frustrating depending on the level you are at). However, there are some instruments that sound soothing regardless of your level. Tung drums are a great example, as well as guitar, harps, or xylophones. Generally, playing songs in major keys are happier and uplifting; songs in the minor key are characterized as melancholic. If you don’t play an instrument, even a very affordable tuning fork can help with your mindful practice. 

5. Listen to specific music genres designed to energize, help with focus, or relax you. 

Music with minimum lyrics can be less distracting since we associate meaning and interpretation so much to language. I find electronic music, specifically progressive house music, to be repetitive enough to help me focus and not be too distracting, but varying enough in melodies and instrumentation to not get too monotonous. Classical music serves the exact same purpose. Apple and Spotify have curated playlists with this theme, or you can take the experience further with services that curate music to match your intention in real time. Better yet, you can opt for a music service that directly combines the principles of music therapy and neuroscience using a service such as Spiritune. You can input your current emotion and choose how you want to feel and the music will help you transition within minutes.

In that spirit, I’ve mixed a compilation of what I think are uplifting, beautiful, electronic songs. This can be enjoyed while doing anything and isn’t meant to be too distracting with varying energy levels of progressive and deep house. I used to make mixtapes for people I love, and I’d create a story with the track titles to make it a little more special. So….I made you a mixtape!

https://soundcloud.com/zaffronmusic/uplift-ootify-mix

Track Title Story (song titles in bold): 

“Let this mix be your Elixir. Sound and music are an expression of Amor, and can be The Bridge to finding your rhythm. Remember to Breathe Daily. You’ll get a feeling of being centered, and even Jubilation. You are a rare gem, like Opal. When i’m admiring you and When You’re Watching Me, we can see Every Color on every Level (Laveel). Don’t Wait, start now, Come With Me, and we can go anywhere or just be in LA. Enjoy the journey and if you ever feel lost, remember Our Love will always feel like we’re Heading Home. Today is a new day and a chance to be as you were intended.”