Relaxing Music: How Music can Enrich Our Lives
I realized that not every music tagged as relaxing music or music for relaxation sounds and feels the same and is able to provide relaxation to everybody. Just like there are different artists with different visions; there are different audiences with different tastes and needs.
There are multiple ways to find one’s perfect „music to relax“. The thing is that oftentimes what I search for doesn’t really have a word for it. It’s not easy to describe whole songs – in all its dimensions – with one or two words (a title, a genre or a tag). I believe that what is considered to be relaxing is not really bound to a specific genre or to a specific artist. Sometimes one specific song can make you feel relaxed though it’s tagged „pop“ or is performed by an artist that mostly does rather activating music.
But there are also artists and musicians who focus part of, or their complete resources (time, energy, money) to create music that is meant to slow down. Often such music is tagged as Chillout, Downtempo, New Age, Easy Listening, Beautiful Music, Smooth Jazz, Ambient Music, Relaxiation Music/ Music to Relax/ Relaxing Music, or peaceful, calm, soothing, smooth, gentle, ethereal, reflective, dreamy, atmospheric, etc. Such music rarely can be found on mainstream radio or on the billboard charts. Probably it’s too smooth and peaceful for being chosen as a mainstream daytime soundtrack for our fast pacing society.
What would happen if we all slow down a bit?
Everybody knows it, but rarely someone responds to it: World speeds up. We’re supposed to be more effective in our jobs over and over again, produce more and faster for less money. Schedules are becoming denser. Some are overwhelmed with more tasks than they actually can accomplish. Skills are becoming irrelevant; new skills are expected to be learned in ever shorter time. Products are expected to be updated in ever shorter cycles. Everything is expected to be done by yesterday. Even children and young folks are expected to perform „better“ in many societies today.
One could sum up: We’re striving for efficiency and diversity. Which I believe is almost perfect, because this is how nature in it’s most natural way works. Why almost? Because there is more than work and profession in a humans life.
What about family? What about friends? What about your body and your health? What about spirituality? What about safety, love, esteem? What about respect to other humans and nature? What about you: What about becoming more and more what you are – everything you are capable of becoming? Expressing and living out your interests, your talents, your believes. I believe all the above are important in a human life’s puzzle of becoming prosperous and/or happy.
You already established a great work life balance? Great! For the rest of us: How can we become less busy and more human again? Addressing more time for what really matters in our lives as a consequence.
The right balance – for a better youI don’t want to sound preachy or foolish here. There’s just this feeling that, after industrialization, globalisation and the connection of almost everybody and everything via the internet, time has come for the next evolution: Maximum respect for the individual, for life and for the planet as a whole. We already begin to live in a more meaningful way than ever before. I believe that a good balance between being productive and relaxation, between being true to yourself and adjusting to circumstances or between self-interests and interests fellow men and our planet might have, makes a better world in the end. Your world. Our world.
Slow, soothing, peaceful music, music that rather relaxes than activates can help to escape to a different place, establishing a mood in which you are able to step aside and think about your day, do a weekly review, or review your last year and try to adjust for future. Relaxing music shouldn’t necessarily make you tap your feet to a supercool groove. It should be able to slow you down in an enjoyable way creating a contrast to our fast pacing daily routines. What you do while listen to relaxing music in the end is up to you. Some just relax. Some do yoga or other exercises, some get a massage, some meditate. Some pray, some dream, some dive into a virtual game where they feel alive, some make future plans, some think about a problem or develop a (society changing) solution. Some mourn, some refill their energy cells. Some become creative.
There are many ways to come closer to a healthy you. I believe the world can become a better one with more happy people. People who know who or what they are and who live by that. Music can set the right tone to take your time to get there. Relaxing music can stop you to rush. It can be an initiator or a soundtrack for activities that make you feel being complete.
What about you? How does (relaxing) music affect your life? What relaxes you?