Happiness

Improve your mood with scientifically designed music that boosts alpha and beta brainwaves to promote a happier, more relaxed state of mind.

Music for the Mind: Happiness
Happiness is a state of mind. We know it when we feel it – but when asked we probably cannot define it. Daniel Gilbert in his book, Stumbling on Happiness says it is a “feeling common to the feelings we have when we …receive word of a promotion, help a wayward tourist find the art museum, taste Belgian chocolate toward the back of our tongue, inhale the scent of our lover’s shampoo…” Each feeling is different but they share some common features – happiness. And, Gilbert says, “a roughly similar pattern of neural activity.” Happiness then really is a state of mind. But how do we get to it? Gilbert thinks we simply stumble on it occasionally. However, Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi, psychologist and leading happiness researcher, calls this state of mind “flow” — the opposite of apathy, worry, anxiety, and boredom. Happiness, or flow, lies in the spectrum of relaxation and emerges with some arousal and controlled focus.

How can we prime our mind to extract more happiness from the events and opportunities of our lives? How can we reduce the worry and anxiety that are the enemies of happiness? Of the many things you can do, listening to music is among the easiest—and has immediate positive effects. This Happiness album has been scientifically designed to prepare your mind for happiness by assisting the relaxation process so your mental state can improve and the focused arousal of happiness can emerge. This is accomplished by blending carefully composed music with brainwave entrainment and sonic stimulation techniques.

Brainwave Basics
There are four primary brainwave zones: beta, alpha, theta and delta. These zones are defined by the frequency of the brainwave vibrations (Teplan, 2002). Beta brainwaves, vibrating between 12 and 20 pulses per second, are dominant when a person is working and alert but not anxious. Alpha brainwaves, vibrating between 7 and 12 pulses per second, are dominant when a person is relaxing. Theta brainwaves, between 4 and 7 vibrations per second, are associated with a deeply relaxed, trancelike state attained during meditation or just before going to sleep. Delta brainwaves, between 0.5 and 4 pulses per second, are dominant during sleep. In addition to the main four brainwave zones, recent research has identified and explored the gamma zone, which is about 30–80 pulses per second.

To prime the mind for happiness a mental state must be created that is low on stress and anxiety. In Happiness this is achieved by boosting upper alpha brainwave activity between 9 and 12 pulses per second. Then, the brain should prepare to enter the “flow” zone – happiness —with the beta band between 12 and 15 pulses per second.

Recent research has shown that brainwave activity in the gamma zone, particularly around 40 Hz, has a very important role in mental processing. Research by Skille (1989) and Skille and Wigram (1995) shows that vibrations between 40 and 68 Hz can have a positive effect on depression and anxiety. In this recording, low-frequency sounds in the 40–68 Hz range are used to stimulate gamma brainwave activity.

The Science of Entrainment
The use of brainwave entrainment is what makes this recording effective in boosting positive thinking. Entrainment is the natural phenomenon that results in the synchronization of the rhythms or motions of separate entities (Clayton, et al. 2004). For example, clocks with the same length pendulums can be set in motion at various times but will be swinging together within a day. Recent scientific research has shown that music can be used to synchronize (or entrain) body rhythms such as breath rate, heart rate, and brainwaves.

The frequency of brainwaves follows, or entrains, to the impulse sent by the ear to the brain while “hearing” a regular musical pulse (Patel, 2003). An effective way to do this is to create the pulse inside the brain rather than at the hearing level. This is achieved by creating interference waves within sustained music by playing two pitches slightly out of tune with each other (binaural beats)—a technique used throughout this recording.