How to use Sound?

A few of us actively soundscape the worlds in which we live, but way too many of us just let sound happen to us, which is an opportunity missed.  To calm yourself via your ears:

• Try listening to music with 50-70 beats per minute (aim for around 60, if you can), that has a deeper, more resonate sound (think cello not violin).There are multiple internet sites where you can learn how many beats per minute are in music that you might choose to listen to.  Try not to listen to music much slower than 50 bpm;  if you do, you’re getting into the range of lullabies and the outcomes then are pretty predictable.
• Music not for you?—and it is unlikely to be if you’re trying to concentrate. Give white noise a shot.  Even when played quietly it is likely to drown out most of the tension boosting sounds that surround you.  White noise is also available online but you can create it yourself via an old style radio that you tune to between two stations so instead of hearing one channel or another you process only a comforting staticky hum.
• A few people get tensed up listening to white noise and those people will be particularly happy to learn that listening to the nature sounds, very quietly can do all the things that listening to white noise does, and listening to nature sounds doesn’t seem to rub any of us the wrong way. There are some nature sounds that are much more effective at de-stressing us than others.The best sorts are gently burbling brooks, quietly and peacefully calling birds, gentling rustling leaves and grasses—basically any of the sorts of sounds you might hear in an idyllic meadow on a lovely Spring day.
• Traffic and other sorts of noises made by machinery outdoors stress us, so exterior walls with soundproofing materials in them are a good idea—but an expensive retrofit.It’s important to have natural light in a space where you’ll decompress (we’ll get to that in a moment), but at night there’s no natural light (duh), so soundproofing curtains on windows can be handy then.
• While we’re on the topic of random noise—using soft materials in your home (for example, in upholstery, as rugs, and as wall hangings) can keep down echoing in your home and also help reduce noise transmission through the structure—as do doors that close and stay closed when people want them to.The goal with these materials is not to create a silent space, that freaks us out because of our early experiences as a species (and is impossible to achieve anyway), but to produce an area where you can be cognizant if there are other people in your home and vaguely what those other people are up to but not a situation in which you can follow conversations, pick out words or percussion in music that others are playing—you get the idea.
• Nothing irritates or stresses us more, sound-wise, that rhythmic or nearly rhythmic sounds such as dripping faucets and heating or air conditioning that activates every so often with a clatter—so, when you’re having a handyperson’s day, deal with those faucet washers and install sound dampers for your heating/air conditioning systems.