I'll assume that you've recorded your own voice speaking your affirmations. (Interesting, isn't it, that your voice sounds different on a recording than it does to you as you speak. This is due to the phenomenon of bone conduction. Don't worry, it won't affect the effectiveness.)

Over the past 30 years, millions of people have discovered that using music can enhance the effectiveness of the spoken word. Feel free to try different kinds of music when recording your New Year’s Resolutions. You may want to consider that since behavioral changes occur at a subconscious level, you may wish to choose music that puts you in the right frame of mind.

Music that evokes a relaxation response is ideal. All of the recordings in my Inner Peace Music™ series are composed to evoke the relaxation response, and are ideal to serve as your soundtrack for your audio affirmations.

Especially recommended are my albums Ocean Suite, http://www.innerpeacemusic.com/albumdetail.asp?pid=24 
and Comfort Zone http://www.innerpeacemusic.com/albumdetail.asp?pid=4

Click on the links to listen to audio samples.

I think you'll enjoy enhancing your New Year's resolutions this way.

Until next time, Stay Tuned!

Harmoniously Yours

Steven Halpern © 2007  

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.

In my last post, I suggested an easy way to begin to fine-tune your awareness, so you'd be able to more easily measure whether a particular approach to reducing your stress was working for you.

This time, I'd like to suggest a variation. Using the same basic process, tune in to your current state of being.

Now, instead of speaking the affirmation aloud, just think it.

Notice any physiological changes.

I bought the Jan/Feb issue of Psychology Today for the cover article, so imagine my surprise when I got to page 59, with its headline: “Health in Harmony: Music fights stress and keeps you sound of mind-and body.”

So far, so good. Then I read the text, and was amazed that there was no accurate information on reducing stress. What they did have were some of the same old clichés and misinformation that continues to be perpetrated on an uneducated public.

Let me give you an example, and you'll soon know more than the writer of this article: "Just half an hour of iPod time not only lowers the stress hormone cortisol and boosts feel-good endorphins..."

What's wrong with this picture? I'll answer that in my next post.

Until next time, Stay Tuned!

Harmoniously Yours ™

Steven Halpern © 2007  

Making a statement as the one in Psychology Today that “listening to music lowers your stress level” is meaningless without appropriate recommendations as to which music to use. As the old saying goes, “the devil is in the details”

Most music has been proven to be an ineffective choice to reduce stress for a number of reasons. Here's just one example that you can verify for yourself. It's the physical phenomenon of rhythm entrainment.

Simply put: your heartbeat will automatically change its speed to match the tempo of the music you're listening to.