Listening to This Song Reduces Anxiety by 65 Percent
Managing stress is key if you want to being healthier and happier, as we know that it exacerbates or increases the risk of heart disease, obesity, depression, gastrointestinal problems, asthma, and more. In fact, Harvard and Stanford recently reported that health issues from job stress alone cause more deaths than diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or influenza.
While there are many techniques to relax and reduce stress, I can’t think of a more enjoyable one than listening to music. Indigenous cultures have used music for centuries to help enhance well-being and now neuroscientists out of the UK have specified which tunes produce the greatest state of relaxation.
The No. 1 song? Weightless. When hearing the song, focus group participants realized a 65 percent reduction in overall anxiety and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates. The group that created Weightless, Marconi Union, did so in collaboration with sound therapists. They purposely set out to arrange harmonies, rhythms and bass lines that help slow a listener’s heart rate, reduce blood pressure, and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
What are the other top 10 songs that the UK researchers found greatly reduce stress?
- We Can Fly, by Rue du Soleil (Café Del Mar)
- Canzonetta Sull’aria, by Mozart
- Someone Like You, by Adele
- Pure Shores, by All Saints
- Please Don’t Go, by Barcelona
- Strawberry Swing, by Coldplay
- Watermark, by Enya
- Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix), by DJ Shah
- Electra, by Airstream
- Weightless, by Marconi Union
I’ve always thought of music as a simple antidote for stress, and now researchers have confirmed my suspicions. In fact, Watermark by Enya has been on my personal playlist for decades.
BE AWESOME! A public playlist of these 10 songs can be found for free on Spotify, so enjoy. I’d love to hear your thoughts after listening to this playlist, as the best leaders are those who are relaxed, healthy, happy, balanced, and engaged. To your success.