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Sound Environment Shapes Your Health
| Article
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11526 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1986 |
2,640 Words |
| Author
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Steven Halpern
Steven Halpern is an internationally acclaimed composer and
recording artist, and the author of Sound Health: The Music
and Sounds That Keep Us Whole. He now resides in San Anselmo,
California. |
Few factors in our life play as significant a role as the quality of our sound environment; yet, few are as universally ignored or unacknowledged. Invisible, odorless, tasteless, and at times even inaudible, the sounds of your life can actually make you ill, or conversely, help you to maintain a high level of well-being - what I call "sound health."
Sound is a double-edged sword. The bad news is that medical research has documented that certain sounds and music can contribute to stress, tension, aggression, headache, hearing loss, disturbed sleep, poor digestion, irritability, and decreased concentration, work efficiency, and productivity.
The good news is that researchers have documented that certain kinds of music and sounds can facilitate relaxation, mood change, creativity, productivity, and digestion, reduce stress, and promote self-healing.
More good news: you can enhance the quality of your sound environment immediately.
Sound Principles
Here are seven key principles that I have identified that will help you to understand how sound affects you, both physically and psychologically. Armed with this information, you can begin to take control of your soundscape.
1. Our bodies are literally "human instruments." Just like the soundboard of a piano, our bodies resonate to incoming sound stimuli, with different areas responding to different frequencies of vibration. You might say that the body is an instrument played upon by the keys of the environment.
2. The whole body responds to sound. Nature gave us eyelids, but she didn't give us ear-lids. Even if the brain consciously filters out certain sounds, like the ticking of a clock, the body cannot. It goes on responding, often in stressful ways. In other words, even if you think that a sound is not affecting you, it still is!
3. If it true that you are what you eat, it may be said just as accurately that You are what you hear.
4. The effects of stress-inducing sounds are cumulative. A few airplanes, a refrigerator, and a barking dog may each only be a little annoying, in and of themselves, but when
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