Reduce stress with relaxation music
It is essential to understand stress, recognize the negative symptoms of stress, know how stress can adversely affect our lives, and most importantly, how we can reduce, if not eliminate, stress from our life. The harmful symptoms of stress can show up in your body, mind, thoughts, feelings, and behavior. If the experience of stress is not managed effectively, it can contribute to the development of many severe and sometimes lethal health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, to mention only a few of the many harmful physiological issues.
What is stress? Stress has a great deal to do with your thinking. Stress is the perception of some threat or challenge to the individual, both psychologically and physically. The initial perceived cause can be a potentially harmful threatening event to the individual or the result of a positive challenge. During a person's experience of stress, a person's body appears to produce a variety of hormones that assist the individual in meeting the demands of the perceived stressful situation. If the stressful situation continues for too long, the individual may become "stressed out," and possibly damaging physical and psychological consequences may occur.
There are many documented symptoms of prolonged stress. According to Mayo Clinic, the common symptoms of stress and anxiety can develop in three areas of our life, our body, mood, and behavior. In your body, stress and unresolved stress can result in headaches, muscle tension or pain, chest pain, fatigue, change in sex drive, stomach upset, and sleep problems. With your mood, stress can result in anxiety, restlessness, lack of motivation or focus, feeling overwhelmed, irritability or anger, and sadness or depression. Regarding your behavior, stress can result in overeating or undereating, angry outbursts, drug or alcohol misuse, tobacco use, social withdrawal, and exercising less often.
It is commonly believed that there are a variety of causes of stress which can be referred to as stressors. Stressors tend to be thought of as something external, are what happens in your environment that requires you to change or respond differently, and the situation in question can be positive or negative. Stressors are associated with a person feeling stressed. Some of the more common stressors are job insecurity or even loss, financial strains and problems, marital issues including divorce, illness, injury, death of a loved one, experiencing abuse, social isolation, and many more. However, what is a stressor for one person may not be a stressful experience for another person. The experience of stress can be very individualized and does vary from person to person.
A person can do a variety of things to reduce, if not eliminate, his experience of stress. For example, some behaviors that help to reduce a person's experience of stress are engaging in physical activity regularly, getting proper sleep, having a healthy diet, practicing yoga, obtaining a massage, having a sense of humor, spending time with friends, family and loved ones, having hobbies, will all help to lower your experience of stress and reduce the possibility of severe physical and psychological problems that accompany them. Seconds Count also states that maintaining a positive approach to life, setting realistic expectations of yourself and others, and choosing healthier ways to relax and manage stress can also help to reduce stress.
There are two specific, different things you can begin to do and practice that will help you to mitigate and even reverse the harmful effects and consequences of stress. The first thing is to learn how to experience deep relaxation with therapeutic relaxation music. The second way is to create a practice of changing or transforming your thinking, which some believe is the underlying cause of stress, that is, a person's thoughts and beliefs about not only the stressor but, most importantly, oneself. This inner transformation is brought about by using positive affirmations or thoughts combined with relaxation music to change how you define yourself and who you think you are in life.
Music has always been a potent modality to help you relax and reduce your experience of anxiety and stress. Repetitiously using therapeutic relaxation music will help you experience a profound state of relaxation and, as a result, promote healing and health. When therapeutic relaxation music is mixed with both binaural audio tones and the powerful sounds of nature, the healing power of the music is enhanced and increased. When used as a carrier for one's meditation practice, therapeutic relaxation music can help to produce remarkable and even profound results. Similarly, sleep music allows you to experience this calm, relaxed state of mind and body as you prepare for an evening of sleep.
Using positive affirmations consistently will help you to change and transform your thinking and, specifically, how you perceive yourself, your value, and your worth as a human being. When we change what we think about ourselves, especially when we transform from a predominantly negative to a positive perception of ourselves, we will learn how to improve and increase our self-esteem and confidence. As your belief in yourself and your faith in what you genuinely believe you deserve and are capable of in life increases, you can effectively deal with the stressors that may happen. As a result of your improved self-image, you will come to reduce your experience of fear and, with it, your anxiety and stress.
Dr. Harry Henshaw
