Carol:
Soothing the Savage Breast (and Brain)
In Williamson Valley the wind pretty well blows everyday. I love that sound just as I love the sound of rain falling on our roof. I guess other people find these nature noises soothing too because there is a good market on the Internet for downloads of ambient sound.
I first heard about ambient sound in the 60’s although it didn’t have such a fancy name back then. It was called “white noise.” My dentist began experimenting with white noise as an alternative to pain-killers like novacaine. I would put on earphones and listen to what sounded like TV snow while he filled my cavities, directing me to turn up the sound if I needed more decibels to block the pain. I can’t really say how effective the earphones and white noise were as I have a really high pain threshold and an almost perverse ability to relax in a dental chair.
I didn’t really think about what happened to those white noise machines until I saw today’s topic. Turns out that white noise was not only found to be ineffective but also potentially harmful because of the high decibel range needed to distract from the pain (source: Tekavec). It is almost never used anymore although the use of ambient sound to “sooth the savage breast” has become quite common. Most popular are natural noises like ocean waves or steady rainfall. Ambient sound probably works better to alleviate anxiety than pain.
Music therapy is a profession that I don’t think existed when I was listening to white noise in the dentist chair, but brain studies and new research about how we learn support the positive effects of music. Music therapists are clinically trained, licensed professionals who tailor “interventions” to the individual, depending on whether the need is pain and stress reduction, or memory and learning enhancement. The website for the American Music Therapy Association includes testimonials from patients who have benefitted from working with a music therapist, including Alzheimer’s patients, children with autism, and people rehabilitating from both physical injuries and substance abuse. Apparently, the type of music used in these individualized therapeutic programs varies considerably.
Educational research in the last 20 years has also shown the positive effects of music for increasing memory and cognition. I quit nagged my son about turning off his music to study after his high school teacher shared with me the results of a learning styles inventory he had taken showing he could actually concentrate better and study more efficiently with music in the background.
I have my own musical tastes and habits to suit particular needs. I clean house much more efficiently with a little music to set the rhythm, something fast and peppy like Saturday Night Fever although more recently I have taken to using traditional Celtic music. The Old Blind Dogs or Jim Malcolm perks me right up for loading the dishwasher. On a car trip, I either use classical music to buffer the road noise or I find an “oldies but goodies” station and sing along to lessen the tedium of a long ride.
I don’t think we really needed a lot of scientific research to tell us about the physical, emotional and spiritual benefits of music and sound. And, I think William Congreve said it best in 1697:
I first heard about ambient sound in the 60’s although it didn’t have such a fancy name back then. It was called “white noise.” My dentist began experimenting with white noise as an alternative to pain-killers like novacaine. I would put on earphones and listen to what sounded like TV snow while he filled my cavities, directing me to turn up the sound if I needed more decibels to block the pain. I can’t really say how effective the earphones and white noise were as I have a really high pain threshold and an almost perverse ability to relax in a dental chair.
I didn’t really think about what happened to those white noise machines until I saw today’s topic. Turns out that white noise was not only found to be ineffective but also potentially harmful because of the high decibel range needed to distract from the pain (source: Tekavec). It is almost never used anymore although the use of ambient sound to “sooth the savage breast” has become quite common. Most popular are natural noises like ocean waves or steady rainfall. Ambient sound probably works better to alleviate anxiety than pain.
Music therapy is a profession that I don’t think existed when I was listening to white noise in the dentist chair, but brain studies and new research about how we learn support the positive effects of music. Music therapists are clinically trained, licensed professionals who tailor “interventions” to the individual, depending on whether the need is pain and stress reduction, or memory and learning enhancement. The website for the American Music Therapy Association includes testimonials from patients who have benefitted from working with a music therapist, including Alzheimer’s patients, children with autism, and people rehabilitating from both physical injuries and substance abuse. Apparently, the type of music used in these individualized therapeutic programs varies considerably.
Educational research in the last 20 years has also shown the positive effects of music for increasing memory and cognition. I quit nagged my son about turning off his music to study after his high school teacher shared with me the results of a learning styles inventory he had taken showing he could actually concentrate better and study more efficiently with music in the background.
I have my own musical tastes and habits to suit particular needs. I clean house much more efficiently with a little music to set the rhythm, something fast and peppy like Saturday Night Fever although more recently I have taken to using traditional Celtic music. The Old Blind Dogs or Jim Malcolm perks me right up for loading the dishwasher. On a car trip, I either use classical music to buffer the road noise or I find an “oldies but goodies” station and sing along to lessen the tedium of a long ride.
I don’t think we really needed a lot of scientific research to tell us about the physical, emotional and spiritual benefits of music and sound. And, I think William Congreve said it best in 1697:
Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
Today is my day to serve coffee after our dog walk. I have just the right background music, something with a little Irish lilt to it. Top ‘O the Mornin' to Ya.
Sources
American Music Therapy Association.: http://www.musictherapy.org/
Congreve, William. Quote from The Mourning Bride. 1697.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/252000.html
Tekavec, Mel. M. “Nitrous Oxide Sedation with Auditory Modificaiton.” 1976
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2515814/pdf/anesthprog00144-0015.pdf
Megan:
Mental Shock Absorbers
When I was 16, I crashed my car at an intersection just outside of Prescott Valley. I was going about 45 mph at the time, but the car I rear-ended was stopped at a red light. I remember slamming on the brakes and hearing the sound of the impact, but despite (or maybe because of) the fact that my forehead shattered the windshield, I did not feel anything. I opened my eyes and the entire front end of my car was folded up like an accordion – but the car I’d hit had only the slightest dent in its rear bumper.
My passengers and I walked away with bruises and a bloody nose, while an ambulance took the back-seat passenger of the car I hit. I remember she screamed and screamed while we waited for help and I didn’t understand. My car was totaled, and theirs was fine. Why was she hurt? The answer, according to my friend’s mechanic father, was the difference in our bumpers. Mine was full of Styrofoam, which then spilled all over the road. Their car had a steel bumper, which protected the car but absorbed none of the impact.
In addition to insulating car bumpers, packing electronics, and containing take-out food, Styrofoam is also used in bicycle helmets – another mental shock absorber. I’ve never had a serious cycling accident, probably because I never took to the sport, but almost everyone I know who rides on a regular basis has a story about how a helmet saved their lives.
But not all shock absorbers are physical. The mind has its own way of protecting itself from a shock. I believe “going into shock” is actually one of them. Sometimes, depending on the trauma, the mind suppresses it. Or the trauma leads to a fractured personality or post-traumatic stress. If a mind is repeatedly subjected to disturbing or stressful events, then it acclimates. It tries to cope, through meditation, or alcoholism, or exercise, or humor.
In the prison, whenever something bad happened, I always asked if any books had been damaged in the incident. This was not because I cared about the books (although I did), or because I knew that no one else gave a damn about them (which they didn’t), but because I thought it was funny. Someone gets beaten or stabbed in their cell, someone starts a fire or a flood, someone goes on dirty protest – whatever… are the books ok?
Maybe you had to be there.
The first time I asked, I was serious. There had been a flood in a cell in the segregation unit. The prisoner’s property had been bagged up to be disposed of, and I could see one of my books through the plastic. I asked if I could get it because I wanted the barcode to withdraw it from the library catalog. One of the officers handed me a pair of gloves and watched as I dug through the damp clothes and papers to reach the book at the bottom of the bag. “By the way,” he said. “That’s toilet water.” I swore at him and threw the dripping book in the trash. But after that came the jokes.
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