By Emy Louie; Edited by MM.
Sound is life. Sound is vibration. Recently, I discovered that having a varied sound diet throughout the day is so important to me. Likewise, I encourage you to enhance your daily diet of sound by incorporating a variety of sounds.
Let’s start with sounds in nature that occur naturally–namely the birds singing their song and humans talking. I especially enjoy listening to birds in the morning. Then there are nighttime sounds from nature I enjoy about an hour before I go to bed.
In contrast, man-made and mechanical sounds have their own rhythm and can be just as delightful to listen to.
Then there are sounds that you can create anywhere, anytime by your own humming and singing. That is the most portable and convenient music. And if your own humming and singing is not appropriate at the moment, listen to your own breathing.
You can also add a huge variety to your own sound diet via all types of music and recorded sounds from nature.
The type of music I listen to will likely be different in the morning, afternoon and night, depending on my mood and the weather. Consider the type of music you listen to. I wouldn’t be surprised if the type of music changed every 90 minutes.
Consider strongly if the music is instrumental of has lyrics. Some songs with lyrics can be used as background music. And some music with lyrics requires your undivided attention. Consider that some music, because of its vibration and lyrics, can cause you to be agitated and melancholy. Be aware of this and minimize or eliminate music that brings you down. I know this sounds obvious; however, you would be surprised at the number of people who listen to music unconsciously and feel down as a result.
Sometimes, if you need silence to clear your mind, let there be silence. Turn on some relation music if you need to be contemplative. Many of the times, the music can be barely audible.
Sometimes, when noontime comes around, I like to turn on dance music for at least 20 minutes and just let loose and dance, if possible. However, I don’t like to listen to it for longer than an hour because it ends up being too enervating for me.
Everyone is different and their sound diet varies day to day and throughout the course of the day, so go with what you feel. If you get listless or aggravated due to the music of sound, it’s a sign to change the music and/or get a change of environment. Don’t under-estimate noise pollution: what is considered noise pollution varies with each person. Noise pollution to one can be heavenly music to another.
And then there is a whole science to music therapy. This is just my way of using music to support my life.
Do the same yourself!
Mindfulness and Healthy Living 