When it comes to choosing and using music to support a specific activity, such as empowering audio affirmations or enhancing concentration, it's worthwhile to consider some guidelines to help you choose wisely.

Audio Affirmations: How do you know if they are working?

     One of the questions I'm most often asked is, “How do you know the audio affirmations are working?” It's the same principle, whether the affirmations are written or spoken. Obviously, some results are quicker and more easily detected. Here's an example.

     If you're interested in reducing your stress, take a moment to become aware of how you are breathing?  Deeply and slowly, or rapidly and shallowly?

     How fast is your heart beating?

     Now, read these words aloud: "I am relaxed."   Become aware of any changes in your breathing or heart rate.

     Now, play a thirty second sample from any of my relaxing albums, like Ocean Suite (www.innerpeacemusic.com/albumdetail.asp?pid=24), Peace of Mind (www.innerpeacemusic.com/albumdetail.asp?pid=66), or Chakra Suite (www.innerpeacemusic.com/albumdetail.asp?pid=2), and read these same words aloud.

     Become aware of any changes in your breathing or heart rate. If you're like most people, you can feel the difference almost immediately.

     Take-away message: if you want to successfully reduce your stress, one sure way is to support that outcome with relaxing music and positive self-talk.

Silent Audio Affirmations: Sound Evidence

    There are many times when it's not appropriate or desired to listen to words. I'm often asked, “are spoken affirmations more powerful than unspoken affirmations”? There is no definitive data, and besides, no one else has your voice. This gives you a great opportunity to participate in your own research. To do so, use the same basic process as above: tune in to your current state of being.

     Now, instead of speaking the affirmation aloud, just think it. Notice any physiological changes.

     Now, listen to an appropriate soundtrack from the selections listed above and think to yourself, "I am relaxed." Hear it, but only in your mind's ear.

     Did the addition of the affirmation enhance your relaxation? If so, you've just learned another secret of “the owner's manual for the human instrument.” And if not, just sit back, listen and relax. It's that easy.

Choosing the Right Music for Peak Performance

     After relaxation, the ability of a specific piece of music to enhance or interfere with concentration and focus and performance is the next easiest activity to objectively measure to know if you're actually getting the results you desire.

     I consider this a matter of both attention and intention. In my experience, it also qualifies as “evidence-based” research; i.e., long before Bill Cosby commercialized it, our grandparents used to say, “The proof is in the pudding.” A less scientific but aptly descriptive and more identifiable phrase would be “the spacing out effect.”

     Here's what I mean: If you're studying for a test or just reading a book for pleasure, and you find yourself reading the same sentence over and over again, that's a pretty clear indication that the music is interfering with your ability to concentrate and focus.

Relaxation is the Key

     As with many of my discoveries, I first really became aware of this phenomenon when I was working on my book, Sound Health. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was intrigued by Dr. Georgia Lozanov's research and documented success in the area of accelerated learning. The Bulgarian researcher claimed that students could dramatically increase the speed with which they learned a foreign language. They also claimed that using specific kinds of classical music enhanced the speed and effectiveness with which they learned any subject.

     Since I was working on my second book, this time for a major publisher rather than self-publishing, for the first time I had to deal with externally-imposed deadlines, and I was running behind schedule. I figured this would be a great time to do my own studies.  

     I was also way behind in listening to newly-purchased and all-time favorites in my own classical record collection. I also tried listening to the classical FM station. Day after day, I'd sit at my desk, staring at the typewriter (remember, I was writing the book before home computers.)

     Finally, I gave up. I was not getting quality listening time, where I fully focused on the music. And I was not getting any significant amount of writing done. I all too often found myself following the melodies of the music, rather than focusing on my work. It was like my attention was getting split between two conflicting needs.

     Granted, there were a few compositions that were suitable, but they were few and far between. I discussed this with my friends and associates, Charles Schmid and Ivan Barzakov. They were two of the earliest authorities on accelerated learning, helping to popularize the concept which was initially introduced to us in the West through the landmark book, Psychic Discoveries behind the Iron Curtain in l973 by Ostrander and Schroeder. These authors followed up that wide-ranging book with their Superlearning, whose title became synonymous with the field.

     What most mainstream media articles missed was that all these authorities wrote that only certain kinds of music were suitable. This all-important distinction was lost from the outset, and continues to be MIA (missing in action) to this day.

     No reputable expert stated that all classical music, or all Mozart's music, or all of one specific genre (Baroque) music was appropriate and effective. But that didn't stop the hucksters and record label PR departments and opportunistic authors from creating a modern myth. Even within the Baroque genre, the key to making effective choices, as I was one of the first to point out, was to use only the adagio (slow) portion of the four part Baroque format.  The other three sections were too fast to allow the reader to get into the proper brain state and mindset.

     Relaxation, therefore, was the key.  In Bulgaria in the 1960s and 1970s, as Dr. Lozanov admitted, there was a limited choice of music. It may well have been the case that Baroque was only the best of what was available.

     I am certain that is one of the reasons my contemporary compositions, which I composed and recorded with the focused intention of evoking the relaxation response in the listener, have been so effective in terms of supporting individuals in achieving acclerated learning and greater focus, performance and productivity.

     I invite you to check this out for yourself, if you have never done so.  Next time you're reading something that's important for you to learn or remember, try doing so while listening to pop, rap or classical music. Then try listening to my Comfort Zone (www.innerpeacemusic.com/albumdetail.asp?pid=4), Peace of Mind (www.innerpeacemusic.com/albumdetail.asp?pid=66), or Music for Accelerating Learning (www.innerpeacemusic.com/albumdetail.asp?pid=19).

     Notice the difference. That's why, when my time and effectiveness is on the line, I make the informed choice and give myself “the Sound Advantage.”

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© 2008 by Steven Halpern. Steven Halpern is the most trusted name in sound healing. Some of his  recent releases are Tonal Alchemy and Initiation: Inside the Great Pyramid. Listen to samples at www.innerpeacemusic.com.

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