This week’s Mental Sunshine is about music – and using it to your advantage!
We’ve all had that experience of music making us want to tap our feet – or even get up and dance!
But music can also help us to calm down, to relax, or to focus.
We’ve all had one of those days where we’ve a really long to-do list – or a short one filled with jobs we really just don’t want to do.
Often it’s hard to get started, but the things we need to do hang over us – we know they’re there, waiting for us to get to them.
Then we’re in a position where we can’t fully relax, because we know there’s something we should have done.
This is where music can really help us.
If the jobs you need to do don’t involve focusing on details, put on some happy songs and sing your way through your work!
If you need to be able to focus on the job in hand rather than the lyrics to your favourite song though, music can help with that too!
Search your music streaming service for “binaural beats” and put on your headphones.
There are usually different options to choose from – binaural beats for relaxation, for focus, for sleep and so on.
Binaural beats work by playing a slightly different frequency into each ear – and your brain integrates the two tones, creating the illusion of a third sound.
Apparently this means our brainwaves synchronise with the frequency of the binaural beat.
Depending on the frequency of that beat, it can induce specific states in the brain – deep sleep, calm awareness or focused alertness.
This might sound a bit bonkers – but music can actually really help us to focus – and to bash through a boring to-do list of monotonous tasks we would normally find it hard to get through.
And finishing that to-do list always brings me some Mental Sunshine – knowing I can sit back and relax, with nothing hanging over me for tomorrow!
Try it out – and let me know how you get on!