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Everyone is touched by music in one way or another. It can connect directly with our emotions, inspire us, capture our imagination and nourish the soul. Music can also create an atmosphere of calm and peace, allowing us to de-stress and relax in a very natural way.

There is nothing new in the healing power of music - it's a tradition dating back to the first musician and in many cultures the musician and the healer are often found side by side.

In more recent times research has shown that music has many therapeutic qualities aside from general relaxation and stress relief. Relaxing music can help to stabilize body temperature, lower blood pressure and heart rate during and after surgery, as well as reduce concentrations of stress-promoting hormones in the blood.

Relaxation music has also been shown to be very beneficial in treating mental illness, depression and sleep loss as well as enhancing memory and concentration. It can encourage resistance to infection, and ease pain levels during childbirth.

It has been shown that music played while involved in stressful activities - driving or having a tooth pulled for example - can significantly lower stress and help to maintain seratonin levels, and that relaxation therapies such as massage have a deeper effect when relaxing music is played during the treatment.

The first music we experience is the (hopefully) regular beating of our mother's heart, and this perhaps would explain the fact that music with a gentle repetitive rhythm can have profoundly beneficial physical and psychological effects.

Not everyone likes the same music and what we choose to relax with will change depending how we feel in any given time. Taking time to de-stress and especially with music can have a wonderful effect on our general health and wellbeing and ability to function amid the cacophony we call modern life..