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 combined, they constitute a significant threat to your physical and mental well-being.
5. The destructive effects of loud sound, such as explosions or rock concerts, do physical damage to the hearing apparatus that is irreversible.
6. Noise Pollution is a social disease. Vast quantities of unwelcome sound are imposed on almost everyone. (But there is hope. New York City, for instance, has enacted Noise-Free Zones in certain parks and beaches.)
7. Sound Health begins at home. We have most control over our home environment, so that is the obvious place to begin. Turn down the volume on your own stereos and televisions, and ask your neighbors to do the
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