Can music help for Work?

[edgitarra]

I've been wondering if listening to music can be an useful tool relaxing the body, for example in my case I tried to put myself in bed for an hour(but not sleeping) and focus attention on parts of the body and listening to some ambient songs.
There are periods when my imagination flies away with the song itself, when I try to visualize the solar system or slow-motion phenomenons(like a water drop falling the water etc.)

Is it self-calming or can be useful?

Thanks for your replies. :)
Ed

 

[Gaby]

Hello Ed!

I think it can be most useful! There are specific frequencies which stimulate the most evolved branch of the vagus nerve according to the polyvagal theory, meaning that music has the potential to make you more sociable and relaxed.

You'll find some information in this thread:
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,1369.msg6806.html#msg6806

The basics of the polyvagal theory are found here:

Polyvagal Theory, Sensory Challenge and Gut Emotions
http://www.sott.net/article/256043-Polyvagal-Theory-Sensory-Challenge-and-Gut-Emotions

Although there is much more information on the forum if you search for "polyvagal". Here is a most fascinating article:

Music Therapy and Trauma - Insights From the Polyvagal Theory

Specific acoustic frequency bands in the environment elicit different emotional experiences, which are paralleled by adaptive physiological states. Each of these physiological states is functionally an adaptive state that influences affect
regulation, social engagement behaviors, and our ability to communicate. We experience these states with feelings of safety, danger, or ultimate demise (i.e., life threat). Physiological state is an implicit component of the subjective experience of listening to or producing music. Music changes not only our emotive state, but also elicits changes in
our physiology that parallel the feelings of anxiety, fear, panic, and pain. For example, while listening to certain melodies, we relax, slow our heart rate, and smile. However, while listening to other music, we may start to imagine danger and
visualize marching off to war or protecting our loved ones. The feelings of danger will change our facial expression and increase our heart rate.

As Oliver Sacks discussed in Musicophilia (Sacks, 2007), music appears to be part of the human experience, yet no brain area or circuit has been identified to explain or represent music. This chapter approaches this question differently and
asks a different question. Rather than seeking specificity in the neural regulation required to process and to express music, the chapter will discuss the convergence and similarity between the neural mechanisms required to process music and the neural mechanisms required to process features of social engagement behaviors and risk in the environment. This convergence between physiological state and music-related emotional experience is neurophysiologically determined and explained by the Polyvagal Theory (Porges, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2007). The Polyvagal Theory will be used as an organizing principle to explain how music, and especially music when expressed via music therapy, can recruit the neural mechanisms that integrate facial muscles and visceral state, which in turn promotes restorative affective states and prosocial behavior.

This article is available if you search google for "Music Therapy and Trauma - Insights From the Polyvagal Theory PDF"

There is more info about Musicophilia here:

http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,1369.0.html

Music therapy is a fascinating field! :)

 

[edgitarra]

Nice one! Thanks a lot. I really wanted to use Music Therapy so you got the words:) I still have the "be productive" program made by my parents, so that I feel guilty if sometimes I just lay down and relax.

 

[furryfrog]

I must first admit that I was a music buff long before I arrived here and started the "work" and "waking Up.

Music has helped me immensely in the work, especially when I was starting out with meditation. Listening to the right music (calming, relaxing and beautiful music) helped me get in touch with my emotional center. It is also helpful in blocking background noise in the city I live in. I was wondering if maybe I was "identifying" with the music I was listening to while meditating, but came to the conclusion I was not, because it was a conscious decision, I was conscious of the music I choose, and conscious of myself. I was using it as a tool so to say.


I also at times have used music in a different way for the "work". I would browse youtube looking for very Top 40 style catchy music videos and listen/watch them while trying not to get "sucked" into them and "identifying". It is actually kind of fun to try to stay present while doing this, Resisting the foot tapping, the emotional connection to the "catchy" music and chorus, and also being conscious of yourself when it comes to the visual aspect to the videos, most often very sexualized. These types of videos are so ridiculous, and every year more pornographic than the last.

When I was younger I listened to more negative music, heavy rock, punk, etc. This type of music would give me an energy boost and "pump" me up. Now when I seldom listen to it, I try to remain myself and not get hooked in and "pumped up".

Music is everywhere in modern day life, stores, work, coffee shop etc.. When I suddenly find myself tapping my foot I know that I have fallen asleep.

Music therapy is a fascinating field! :)

Thanks for the links.