Could your prescription for a calmer, healthier you be as simple as a dose of your favorite song? The answer is “absolutely.”
We have proven through neurological imaging that music has a profound effect on both your mind and body. Whether your musical taste is Bono, Billie Holiday or Celine Dion, scientifically speaking, you can customize playlists (a combination of your favorite songs), to keep you emotionally sharp and balanced, offering a natural way to: relieve anxiety, increase alertness, feel happier, sharpen memory, improve mood, and fight off insomnia, depression and even addictions without any side effects!
Psychologically, music can be used to change the way you operate in specific situations (like that next business meeting, doctor’s visit or family outing). It can increase your ability to deal with stress and call forth your best, or peak mindset in everything you do.
But what exactly is your peak mindset? Scientifically, it is a “balanced” mindset. This means you are simultaneously operating from a place of both maximum calm and maximum alert. So you are not stressed at all — quite the opposite really — and you are highly alert, flowing from one thought, decision or action to another. Your focus is peaked.
Optimum Calm and Alertness
Optimum calm is not your deepest calm; it is reaching the point where, if you got any calmer, you’d be too mellow. Even one drop more calmness would be too much. The same goes for your alertness: You’re optimally alert when any more excitement is too much and would leave you feeling “wired.” You’re at your “best” when you are balanced.
This is where music comes in. You can customize your iPod, MP3 player or cell phone into a device to optimize your mindset in seconds. Here’s how:
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Pay Attention to How You Are Feeling: Figure out what you feel like when your mind is not in balance — e.g. you may feel out of sorts, too jumpy or too mellow to get a certain task done.
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Put Together a Playlist that Can Move Your Mindset Up or Down (Alert or Calm): Start using your playlist (or any song on repeat mode) to help you into your mental best prior to specific situations and then again after seven to 10 minutes.
• First, pick songs you like a lot.
• Look for calming songs. Choose any kind of music that calms your anxiety. You can develop real precision in picking the right songs to relax you in specific situations. Track how particular songs change your moods and leave you feeling in targeted situations. Add these to your playlist. Title situation-specific relaxing playlists such as: “Going Home from Work,” “Traffic Jams,” or “Before Office Meetings.”
• Look for alertness-energizing songs.
• Pay attention to when a certain song works and when it doesn’t. Songs are not always situationally interchangeable.
• Ingrain songs into your memory by playing them a lot.
• Make task-oriented playlists. Train your brain with your assembled playlist before and after specific tasks. Neurologically, this sends your brain the message that you want this specific mindset in all similar situations. Soon you will be able to call up your optimum mindset whenever you need it, whether you are actually playing the songs or just hearing them in your mind.
One great way to brighten your new year is to load your iPod, MP3 player or cell phone with playlists that optimize your mind for any occasion. Just by listening to your playlist twice a day, for 7-10 minutes, you will feel positive results within 2 weeks and full results in 3 months. Ultimately you can carry your best mindset in your pocket and use it whenever you need. Make this the year you change your life with a song.
For a complete exploration with lots of sample playlists, check out Your Playlist Can Change Your Life (Sourcebooks).
