“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. … I get most joy in life out of music.” – Albert Einstein
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Music: More than Just Listening Pleasure
Often times, if I feel the need to be energized, like if I am cleaning the house or needing to get through something for work, I’ll put on my Pandora and rock-out to some house/dance music of some sort. It always does the trick as I immediately can feel the beat running through my bones and it gets me moving quickly.
And there is a biological reason why. It’s called entrainment.
Synchronization, Entrainment
Entrainment is defined essentially as synchronization of energy. Everything is comprised of energy, which has a rhythm, and there is a law saying that energy that moves within a certain speed or rate will attract each other and begin to mirror each other.
A great example of entrainment is if you have a room full of pendulum-type grandfather clocks and start the pendulums in motion at different times, they will all swing differently. However, if you walk out of this room and come back the next day, you will find that all the pendulums are swinging together at the same rate. This locking in step of rhythms is entrainment. The Dutch scientist Christian Huygens discovered it in 1665.
Within our own bodies, there are seemingly separate systems such as our heart rate, brain waves and respiration that all entrain with each other. Slow down your breath, for example, and you slow down your heartbeat and your brain waves. Conversely, if you are able to slow down your brain waves, you can affect your heart rate and respiration.
It has been found that the frequencies of pulse, breathing and blood circulation, as well as their combined activities, all function harmonically.
And since stress, especially as it pertains to fertility, is such an enormous factor within our bodies, we should do everything we can to lessen its effects. Music is an easy way to help your body unwind.
It makes me think of the book The Secret and if this entrainment concept is connected with it. At it’s basic core, the Secret says that when you feel good, good things will happen to you. When you feel bad and expect bad things, bad things will surely come. You create the life you want. If events are energy, and if your feelings are also energy, then – just like the pendulums swinging in tandem after a day or so – they entrain or come together. Interesting!!
Music and Entrainment
I am so fortunate to have a developing relationship with the music composer, Chuck Wild and his work called “Liquid Mind: Musical Healthcare.” Frequently on the top charts on iTunes for New Age, Chuck’s music is absolutely exquisite and extremely relaxing.
Not only is he a brilliant musician, but he has taken this idea of applying music to well-being in a very serious manner. Working with AIDs patients and now preemies, Chuck, and the researchers that he is working with, are uncovering loads of empowering information about the benefits that music can have on our bodies.
According to Chuck, music can be considered either stimulative or sedative. In either case, music enters the brain directly into the auditory cortex and mingles and directly affects our attention, memories, emotions, etc.
The rhythm associated with the particular composition can cause the body to physically change and entrain to the beat we are listening to. A fast beat will lead increase our blood flow, heart-rate and brain waves.
A slow, steady, “blanket quality” will do the opposite and allow relaxation to reverse the stress you may be experiencing.
Chuck developed this music after going through an intensely stressful period of his life. He couldn’t figure out how to calm his body and had chronic panic attacks. It changed for him when he took some time for himself and sat on the beach. He noticed that his body was finally beginning to unwind, and realized that it was the ocean steady, non-stop sound that enabled him to relax. This is when he came up with the name for “Liquid Mind.”
As he writes,
“I originally wrote the music of Liquid Mind to be of service to myself, my friends, and family in dealing with the anxiety & stress of working long hours, and also for friends and family dealing with the stress of life-threatening illnesses like cancer & HIV. The Liquid Mind albums seem to have an immediate “slowing down” effect on many listeners, and may also help some people get to sleep, and relax deeply after a tension-filled day.
The ultimate compliment to me is that people fall asleep to my music. This is functional music, it seeks to serve the purpose of assisting us to be tranquil, when that is not easy in today’s world. That’s why the compositions are longer than normal, and very slow in tempo. This music is very special to me, it is my labor of love, I hope you enjoy it.
I am a shameless advocate of life in the slow lane. For many years, I worked eighteen or more hours a day, seven days a week. Your body will always exact a toll for such abuse. I started composing slow music to help me find some peace and quiet, to get back in touch with the fact that I am responsible for the pace of my own life, to help me unify body, mind, and spirit.
Listen now to Chuck and I discuss his background and his theory on musical healthcare:
And stay tuned for some exciting co-development work to be done with Chuck and his music with Circle + Bloom!
And for more information, and to listen to a free 5 minute song by LiquidMind, here is the website: www.liquidmindmusic.com
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