Music and stress? Bass tones have a soothing effect. High tones, as many attentive viewers of horror films have already noticed, will intensify a stressful condition. Rhythmical music will stimulate a person, whereas rhythmically neutral music will make a person more passive. Harmonic tunes will create harmony, whereas dissonance suits well for creating turmoil. Gentle music will calm down; loud music, however, will generate aggressiveness. Monotony is calming, while varying music tends to call one’s attention and reduce the freedom of thought. Whereupon some studies are supposed to confirm the interesting fact that classical music shall temporarily improve the IQ.
By the way, stress may be positive as well as negative. Hans Selye, the founder of stress management, distinguished between positive and negative stress:
- positive stress or eustress – this particular sub-category of stress occurs in situations that are considered rather to be a challenge or an opportunity for testing oneself than to be a direct hazard. In a situation of positive stress the effort taken and one’s discipline may be more than large, yet when the challenge is over, a sense of well-being and satisfaction will follow.
- negative stress or distress will occur, when a person senses a shortage or a lack of sufficient resources, while reacting to changes or challenges. A situation that has caused direct distress will not be followed by a sense of calming down but, in contrast to eustress, there will be feelings of agitation, rigour or fear. The latter ones will remain for an extended period of time.
So, we recommend you to open an according audio file, when doing your studies, and to disengage yourself from the outer world.
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