Stress Relief Music: How Music Affects Your Body

By Jonathan Park

Stress has been the problem of most people around the world, especially with the rise of global crisis the number of people that are engaged in stress management has been increasing significantly. Most of the techniques in managing stress requires time and needs to be practiced often in order to reap its actual benefits.

The problem is that most people do not have the time to practice their stress relieving techniques regularly. This is why doctors are very much familiar regarding stress treatments: what we usually do is go to the doctor and ask for the prescribed medicine, pop it in our mouths, and hope for the best. What we may not realize is that we are slowly starting to get addicted to the medicine. There are also a lot of side effects in stress pills that leads us to other problems. So instead of a stress-free life, your new problems bring about new headaches.

There are alternative medications you can take for your stress problems. They are natural and organic medicines, and since they come from herbs, have less side effects than conventional pills. These medications, however, can make you really sleepy; hence not advisable to take before going to work, or before going on a drive. There is another method to effectively relieve you of stress without making you drowsy and without time constraints. Listening to music has been an effective weapon against stress, yet it has been highly overlooked.

Music can change the levels of our brainwave activity bringing lasting effect in our state of mind even after listening to the music. With the effect of music to the brainwaves it can alter the function of our nervous system, such as breathing and heart rate making us breathe in a slower pace and our heart beats slowly therefore activating our relaxation response, which is the opposite of stress response.

Music is also used in therapy sessions with anxiety and depression. It helps convert the negative state of mind into a positive one. When the person achieves this, he becomes optimistic. It helps him look at the bigger picture of things and find the most effective solution for it.

No wonder why music therapy has become popular in this present generation as a good and natural relief for stress. With music you don't have to set a time for it in compared to other stress relief techniques, all you have to do is find a comfortable place a player, press play and then listen to music that relaxes you.

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