Saks Snacks 37 - Foods for Thought
🥑 Mindful soundscapes and finding joy in others' successes 🥑
I’ve decided to share more bite-sized newsletters again and share more of my personal journey and reflections. You’ve told me you relate most to my personal experiences and while I’m working on longer essays, I still want to share content with you.
Here’s 2 high-quality, nutrient dense tweets I came across or revisited this week. If an idea resonates, feel free to reflect and share in the comments.
Tweet 1: Mindful soundscapes will pick up steam in 2020s
This tweet confirms something I’ve thought about for a while: tailoring music and your “soundscapes” is a competitive advantage in modern life.
Industry updates:
Universal Music Group entered into a strategic partnership with generative music creator, Endel. Together, they’ll develop AI-powered music that promotes well-being by interpreting real-time inputs like movement, heart rate, and location. Using Endel's tech, they plan to transform licensed songs from high-profile artists into calming soundscapes.
Could this lay the groundwork for "restorative music" as an industry that merges music with health?
Last week, Apple revealed its VisionPro headset, basically the first computer you look through, not at, that blends the physical and digital worlds…
Before diving back into the world of audio, it’s worth mentioning that I think we’ll see “innovative health solutions” across other dimensions (visual, audial, somatic, etc). We’ll pick that up in future Saks Snacks…
My Soundscapes: I recently started sleeping with a White Noise Machine. It’s magical - it produces a soothing, consistent humming noise that lulls me to sleep. As I explained to a friend, it “propelled me into a Mental Savasana” (that pose at the end of yoga where you just lay there and… do nothing.
I think mindful soundscapes will pick up steam in the 2020s. As Melody Song brought to life in “Of Sound Mind”
Music is a powerful healer; humans are naturally drawn to sound. In particular, music is potent for younger listeners. Gen Z consistently reports turning to their headphones during times of stress.
A few other thoughts here:
My takes: Younger, digitally native generations will need to recalibrate their “soundscapes” the most. A rise of “functional music” will help listeners enrich and optimize their daily routines like reading, running, and sleeping.
Research corroborates intuition: We’ll continue to prove out the impact of music on wellness and our mental health (which we can intuitively understand), honing in on focus, athletic performance, and sleep hygiene
Work flow: If you’re looking for a work playlist to propel you into a flow state, check out Big Desk Energy.
Before we move onto the next section, I’ll leave you with a question to ponder:
What is one small action you might take to curate a more intentional soundscape?
Tweet 2: Finding Joy in Others’ Success is…
I wish you could have known my Grandpa. You’re likely on this journey with me because we share a similar intellectual curiosity. One of his redeeming traits was that “the joy of others was parallel to his own joy.”
A few months back, I learned 3 different words that capture this same, beautiful sentiment:
Mudita - Sanskrit term meaning “joy” or pleasure. The kind of pleasure that can be obtained from seeing other people do well.
Freudenfreude: describes the bliss we feel when someone else succeeds, even if it doesn’t involve us. (inspired by the German word for “joy”)
Compersion: “Our wholehearted participation in the happiness of others. It is the sympathetic joy we feel for somebody else, even when their positive experience does not involve or benefit us directly. Thus, compersion can be thought of as the opposite of jealousy and possessiveness. → mainly thought of in romantic/sexual contexts
Here’s another question to ponder:
What’s one small action you might take to find more joy in somebody’s life who’s meaningful to you?
In the week ahead, here’s to finding joy in others’ successes and forgetting about ourselves for just a moment.
Endnote - Thanks for snackin’
While I’m working through a few expansive essays, I still want to satisfy your cravings with some digestible content offering productive reflection.
As I experiment with different formats, please let me know what you think and how I can improve your reading experience.
Please share any and all feedback - I hope to hear from you! If you liked this edition, would you mind giving the heart a click? Thank you.
Til next time.
Adam
sound machine is a game changer!!! I am about to mail one to Cory because the train keeps waking him up! as always- great edition! hope u are well! xoxo