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My style of learning is Auditory, Visual, and Tactile. Something I can do to learn better is make flash cards and read everything out loud.

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One of my favorite place to travel to is Big Bear. I love traveling here because it's really cold which is better than the heat. The simplicity just gives me a good vide and the cold reminds me of winter and chimnies.

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You should know this coming in: I am really shy. It is important that you know this because at first I don't talk but as soon as I get to know someone I become more outgoing and talkative. It takes time for me to become comfortable around a new surrounding and especially new people.

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I love to reduce stress by listening to music! this helps me reduce stress because it calms me down and makes me think of different things. Once I start listening to music I drift off into my happy place and it makes me forget about everything else.

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The soothing power of music is well-established. It has a unique link to our emotions, so can be an extremely effective stress management tool.

Listening to music can have a tremendously relaxing effect on our minds and bodies, especially slow, quiet classical music. This type of music can have a beneficial effect on our physiological functions, slowing the pulse and heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and decreasing the levels of stress hormones. Music, in short, can act as a powerful stress management tool in our lives.

As music can absorb our attention, it acts as a distraction at the same time it helps to explore emotions. This means it can be a great aid to meditation, helping to prevent the mind wandering.

Musical preference varies widely between individuals, so only you can decide what you like and what is suitable for each mood. But even if you don't usually listen to classical music it may be worth giving it a try when selecting the most calming music.

When people are very stressed, there is a tendency to avoid actively listening to music. Perhaps it feels like a waste of time, not helping to achieve anything. But as we know, productivity increases when stress is reduced, so this is another area where you can gain vast rewards. It just takes a small effort to begin with.

To incorporate music into a busy life, try playing CDs in the car, or put the radio on when in the bath or shower. Take portable music with you when walking the dog, or put the stereo on instead of the TV. A person with clinical depression or bipolar disorder might listen to music to help with their worst, lowest moods.

Singing (or shouting) along can also be a great release of tension, and karaoke is very enjoyable for some extroverts! Calming music before bedtime promotes peace and relaxation and helps to induce sleep.

Research on Music

Music has been used for hundreds of years to treat illnesses and restore harmony between mind and body. But more recently, scientific studies have attempted to measure the potential benefits of music. These research studies have found:

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Music's form and structure can bring order and security to disabled and distressed children. It encourages coordination and communication, so improves their quality of life.

Listening to music on headphones reduces stress and anxiety in hospital patients before and after surgery.

Music can help reduce both the sensation and distress of both chronic pain and postoperative pain.

Listening to music can relieve depression and increase self-esteem ratings in elderly people.

Making music can reduce burnout and improve mood among nursing students.

Music therapy significantly reduces emotional distress and boosts quality of life among adult cancer patients.

You can review some of the more recent research on how music helps to relieve stress here.

Meditation

Certain music is appropriate for meditation as it can help the mind slow down and initiate the relaxation response. However, not all peaceful or "New Age" music works for everyone. Music with no structure can be irritating or even unsettling. Gentle music with a familiar melody more often is comforting. But search around to find what produces a sense of calm, familiarity, and centeredness for you as an individual.

The sounds of nature often are incorporated into CDs made specifically for relaxation. For example, the sound of water can be soothing for some people. It can help conjure up calming images such as lying beside a mountain stream on a warm spring day. Birdsong may also be of use as an aid to help your mind slow down and release stressful thoughts.

The Power of Music To Reduce Stress

Related Articles

Jane Collingwood

Jane Collingwood is a longtime regular contributing journalist to Psych Central, focusing on topics of mental health and dissecting recent research findings.

APA Reference
Collingwood, J. (2020). The Power of Music To Reduce Stress. Psych Central. Retrieved on November 9, 2020, from https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-power-of-music-to-reduce-stress/

Last updated: 29 Jul 2020 (Originally: 17 May 2016)
Last reviewed: By a member of our scientific advisory board on 29 Jul 2020
Published on Psych Central.com. All rights reserved.

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The soothing power of music is well-established. It has a unique link to our emotions, so can be an extremely effective stress management tool. Listening to music can have a tremendously relaxing effect on our minds and bodies, especially slow, quiet classical music.

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The scariest thing I have done is go on a boat. I can't believe I overcame this fear because I hate the ocean. I hate it because Most of it hasn't been explored and because theres so many strange things down there.

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Tim Unkenholz

Writer and stand up comedian in NY. Check out my monthly comedy show Roomie Raiders at the Creek and The Cave! @timunken

Sci-fi writer H.P. Lovecraft once said that the ocean "is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time." We land-dwellers can sometimes take the ocean for granted, but we really shouldn't, since the Earth's surface is 70% water. When you think of it that way, this is the ocean's planet, and we're just guests.

Here are some crazy facts about oceans that will instill upon you a healthy fear of water.

1. Spanning an astonishing 1,600 miles, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on the planet. It can even be seen from space.

2. The Rockall --- a 30-meter-wide rock protruding from the ocean 290 miles off the coast of Great Britain --- has had less than 20 humans stand upon it throughout history.

3. Sea monsters might really exist! With so much of the ocean still left unexplored, it's estimated that 86% of Earth's species have yet to be discovered.

4. The giant squid was thought to be something of legend until 2001, when one was finally captured on camera.

5. 50% of all United States territory lies below the ocean.

6. So far, we've only explored 5--7% of the ocean floor, and only 1% of the ocean itself.

7. There's a spot in the Pacific Ocean called the "White Shark Cafe." This is where great white sharks congregate to mate.

8. 99% of all shark species have been eradicated.

9. The longest mountain range on the planet is actually below the ocean. The Mid-Ocean Ridge, which cuts down the center of the Atlantic ocean, is 23,000 miles long, with peaks far higher than those of the Alps. It takes up 23% of the Earth's total surface.

10. Most of the oxygen on this planet comes from microscopic, ocean-dwelling animals called phytoplankton.

11. The average depth of the ocean is 12,400 feet. Light can only penetrate about 330 feet, therefore most of our planet is in constant darkness.

12. Jellyfish have claimed 15--30 times more lives than sharks have.

13. Experts estimate that there are 20 million tons of gold still under the ocean.

14. One milliliter of ocean water contains one million bacteria and ten million viruses. Most of them are harmless. Most of them...

15. There are more artifacts from human history at the bottom of the ocean than there are in all the museums on the planet combined.

We've been completely obsessed with space lately for some reason, even though we still know very little about the planet we currently inhabit. Maybe one day we'll find all the answers to life hidden away in our oceans. We may also come to find that the ocean is a creepy, hellish landscape full of monsters that we should just stay away from.

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If You Weren't Already Scared Of The Ocean, You Will Be After This...

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Tim Unkenholz Writer and stand up comedian in NY. Check out my monthly comedy show Roomie Raiders at the Creek and The Cave! @timunken Sci-fi writer H.P. Lovecraft once said that the ocean "is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time."

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An accomplishment I am proud of is not using my phone for a month. I am proud of myself because I'm always using my phone none stop. I'm always doing something on it like watching youtube, watching Netflix, going on social media, or I text/facetime people. So that month I final put down my phone and did productive things.

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Here's how to tell your phone that you need a little space.

Then select the app that you want to turn off notifications for:

Carolyn Kylstra for BuzzFeed

In this case, I'm showing you how to turn off notifications for phone calls. But the process is the same for all apps.

Then uncheck (untoggle?) where it says "Allow Notifications."

Carolyn Kylstra for BuzzFeed

You can do this for all your apps. And you can also follow the same trail to turn notifications back on. It's super easy.

9. Unsubscribe from all of the email newsletters.

Carolyn Kylstra for BuzzFeed

Go to Unroll.me. Sign up. It'll show you a list of all your subscription emails. In order to unsub from more than five you'll need to share something about unroll.me on Facebook... which is annoying, yes, but totally worth it to have a much less cluttered inbox. Ahhhhhh, freedom.

10. Carry a book with you. Or a magazine!

BuzzFeed / Via buzzfeed.com

It's not pretentious, it's just smart! This way whenever you're waiting in line and boooored, you have something to look at that isn't your phone.

You may want to start out with any of these 24 best fiction books of 2014.

12. Don't bring it in the bathroom with you, either.

13. And definitely keep it out of your bedroom.

Uncommon Goods / Via uncommongoods.com

"You don't need a $400 phone to be your alarm clock," Greenfield says. A cheapo alarm clock will work just fine (or the very cool cube one pictured above from Uncommon Goods). Keeping your phone away from where you're sleeping means that you don't have easy access to it before you go to sleep or right after you get up. This will make falling asleep easier... and it'll also make it easier to get out of bed and on with your day in the mornings. "Before you go to bed and after you wake up, you buy yourself between ten minutes and half an hour of time - or longer - without your phone," Felix says.

15. And along those lines, don't send texts or emails, or post anything to social media, within a few hours of going to sleep.

BuzzFeed / Via buzzfeed.com

You can schedule your emails to go out first thing in the morning (or even schedule your social media posts to do the same). This lets you go to bed without stressing about whether anyone has liked your photo or written you back yet. No more anxiety over misery-inducing ellipses. Hyper-vigilance, managed!

18. Also, stash your phone in a desk drawer when you're at work.

That way you won't notice when someone has texted you and you won't be tempted to look away from what you're doing to respond to it. Make a conscious decision only to check your text messages at specific times during the day - maybe at lunch and again at 3 PM for a short break, for instance. Whatever makes the most sense. Reminder: It's easier to avoid temptation than to resist it!

19. Seriously, truly, honestly: Do NOT text and drive. Put your phone AWAY when you get behind the wheel.

Here's one idea: put the phone on silent and put it somewhere completely inaccessible without actually parking the car and getting out to grab it.

That can mean in your purse in the back seat; in the passenger's side door; in the trunk if you have to. There is absolutely nothing you need to look at on your phone while you're driving.

But what about GPS?!

If you can spring for it, you can buy a Garmin nuvi from Wal Mart for about $100. And if you rely on Google maps on your phone for GPS, then actually turn off notifications for messages, phone calls, and all social media accounts before you start driving. And do it every time!

But what about my MUSIC?

OK, look. If you've set up your phone to connect to your car speakers via Bluetooth, that's great. Just make sure that you have a playlist queued up before you pull out of the driveway... and then put your phone in airplane mode until you get to where you're going.

20. Download some apps to keep you from texting and driving, if you need to.

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22 Ways To Break Up With Your Cell Phone

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Here's how to tell your phone that you need a little space. 12. Don't bring it in the bathroom with you, either. 18. Also, stash your phone in a desk drawer when you're at work. That way you won't notice when someone has texted you and you won't be tempted to look away from what you're doing to respond to it.

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My future goal is to one day foster animals because i love animals so much and i'd love to help them. Ever since I was young I lived with animals, mostly cats, dogs, and birds.Growing up with animals made me fall in love with them. Anytime I saw a stray animal I would always want to take it in and care for it but of course I wouldn't be able to. so when i'm older I would love to help give an animal a temporary home before it can get a permanent one.

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Foster Program | Los Angeles Animal Services

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Foster care volunteers provide temporary care for kittens, puppies, dogs and cats. Some animals may only need a home for several days or weeks, while others may need several months of care. By offering your home to an animal in need, you prepare an animal for adoption into a permanent home as well as DIRECTLY SAVING LIVES by fostering animals from our overcrowded shelters.

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A passion of mine is Art. Art is my passion because it can express how you're feeling, it has so many different colors, it's so creative, and because it can mean/show all kinds of things. My favorite piece of Art is  Frida kahlo's self portrait with horn necklace and humming bird, 1940.

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Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, was painted by Frida Kahlo in 1940. Although this painting has a small size (about 16x24), it draws lots of interest, since it contains so many aspects which are symbolic to Frida Kahlo. In this portrait, Frida Kahlo faces the viewer with a background of large green leaves and a yellow leaf right behind her. The thorns are around her neck like a necklace which is held by a black monkey. Her neck is bleeding from the piercing thorns. On the right side behind her shoulder is a black cat. A hummingbird is hanging on the thorn which knots around her throat. Her expression is calm and solemn. It also seems she is patiently enduring the pain.

Frida Kahlo put so many symbolic creatures in this painting. She was not painting a realistic scene but using these symbolic elements to express her feelings. A bird often symbolizes freedom and life. Especially a hummingbird which is colorful and always hovering above flowers. But in this painting, the hummingbird is black and lifeless. This might be a symbol of Frida herself. Frida spent most of her life in physical pain after the bus accident happened when she was eighteen. After that, she endured about thirty-five operations to fix her body. She spent so many years bedridden and cannot bear any children. This is a painting about her suffering.

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Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940

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Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, was painted by Frida Kahlo in 1940. Although this painting has a small size (about 16x24), it draws lots of interest, since it contains so many aspects which are symbolic to Frida Kahlo. In this portrait, Frida Kahlo faces the viewer with a background of large green leaves and a yellow leaf right behind her.

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One of my favorite  musicians is Bane's World. The style of music I often listen to is Indie.I'll also listen to Folk, lternitive, Rock, and sometimes rap. I also love to listen to Lana Del Rey, Cuco, and Still woozy. I love artists like them because their music gives you a beach/chill vide. It also makes you feel relaxed and happy.