Can You Meditate With Music?

 

Will music enhance your experience with meditation or ruin it. This is a question often asked by beginners ready to start there meditation practice. This article will help you understand the advantages and disadvantages of using music as part of your meditation practice.

Can you meditate with music? Yes many meditators successfully incorporate music into their daily practice. There are even those that encourage its use, claiming it to be an effective way of accessing that inner space of peace, calmness, tranquillity and balance.

But take note here! When you choose to integrate music into your meditation practice, you need to identify the factors that will either boost your practice or jeopardize your meditative experience!

Can Music Help You Meditate?

Music can most definitely help you meditate, but really it all depends on the type of meditation you want to do. If you’re keen on engaging in the practice of mindfulness meditation, for example, go right ahead. There are hundreds of popular playlists out there featuring meditation music designed to help you relax and de-stress using this mode of meditation.

These soundtracks typically feature the voiceover of an instructor who will guide you through the meditation and often direct you to bring your attention away from thoughts and feelings, and to rest on a single object (in this case certain sounds and auditory stimuli) instead, which have been deliberately included in the track.

If you’re interested in engaging in a more traditional approach, however, music is a big no no. Traditionalists in the field of meditation believe that music only serves as a source of distraction that will inevitably disrupt your concentration and prevent you from reaching a state of Zen-like calmness.

In addition to this, it is also worth noting that the type of music you choose to listen to in your meditation session can play a huge role in whether that music will benefit your practice or not. For example, a soundtrack designed to help you unwind like the ones I described above, featuring sounds of nature, gentle chanting or ambient background music, could potentially be a perfect accompaniment for your meditation.

However, if you were to select a pop song full of vocals, catchy riffs and emotionally charged lyrics, you will probably have a hard time meditating. This is because the whole purpose of meditation is to unhook yourself from thoughts and feelings, not to create them, which is exactly what happens when we listen to this kind of music.

You have to remember that the whole idea of meditation is to switch your attention back to a single object every time you get distracted by your mental chatter, thereby achieving a sense of detachment and calmness from your thoughts. Try doing that when you’re listening to a Katy Perry song!

So, in summary, while many practitioners believe in the value of music in creating an immersive, meditative space for the person seated on the meditation cushion, it is advised that you first select an appropriate practice and, even more importantly, an appropriate soundtrack before sitting down to engage in your practice. Do that and you’re well on your way to using music as part of your meditation!

How to Meditate With Music

To meditate with music, you can use a pair of reliable headphones, which will allow you to focus more on the music, thereby deepening your experience of the Meditation. Or You Can Simply Sit Your Smartphone Next You On The Table.

Then Follow These Simple Steps:

1. Find a suitable, distraction free environment where you can sit for the duration of your practice without being disturbed.

2. Adopt a meditation posture that is comfortable for you, although the conventional posture is to sit cross-legged on a small cushion, this is not essential. Sitting in a chair is great! Sit with a straight back, relaxed neck and shoulders, and hands gently resting on your knees or in your lap.

3. Gently close your eyes or leave them open with a soft gaze. As the music starts to play, carefully follow the directions offered to you by the instructor. If there is no voiceover included in the soundtrack, begin to focus your attention on the music or soundscape playing.

4. Fix your awareness on individual sounds. Let your attention rest in the music. Observe the different sounds and instruments in the piece you are are listening to, let your mind be total absorbed in what’s playing.

5. Avoid mentally labelling, judging, or thinking about the sounds. Rather listen to each sound with a sense of detachment and objectivity. If at any time your attention wanders into other thoughts, then gently bring your mind back to the music and soundscape. When the music finishes, slowly come out of the meditation when you feel ready.

Benefits of Meditation Music

If you select a style of music that complements your meditation practice, you are likely to experience some bonus side-effects. Studies have shown that should you implement the right kind of music into your meditation session, you might:

Experience a Decrease in Stress and Anxiety

Enjoy the added benefit in a decrease of stress and anxiety levels when you put on your meditation music. Meditating to a soundtrack that is filled with soothing nature sounds, such as birdsong or rainfall, can assist you in feeling calm and relaxed. Let your troubles get washed away by the sound of crashing waves or the gentle voice of your meditation guide.

Deeper Meditation

If implemented correctly, the calming effects of meditation music can help you enter a deeper meditative state thereby allowing you to develop a closer bond with and understanding of your inner, observing self.

Helps Develop Concentration

If you correctly use music during your mindfulness meditation, your ability to focus and maintain concentration may improve over time. As meditating on music requires you to detach from any mental chatter and to refocus your attention on the soundscape over and over again, you might find over time that your attentiveness might expand, which can affect your life in all sorts of positive ways!

Can You Meditate to Classical Music?

Technically, you can meditate to any type of music, so long as it is conducive to your personal meditative process and aligns with the style of meditation you want to practice. This includes classical music.

If classical music (or any music of an orchestral or instrumental nature) helps you enter a state of deep relaxation and cathartic detachment, then you can technically use it for meditation purposes. Just keep in mind that the goal of meditation through music – whether that is classical music or nature music – is ultimately to develop self-discipline by disengaging from your thought processes and resting your awareness on the soundscape instead, returning to the object(in this case music) every time you find your attention wandering.

Remember, classical music composers often designed their music to be dynamic and rousing, so you may want to think twice about putting on some Beethoven or Bach.These songs are designed to whisk you away into a world of emotion and wondrous thoughts, which is something you ought to avoid when meditating.

If you’re going to use classical music in your meditation practice, you might benefit from opting for a calmer, more subtle and soothing number.

Can You Meditate to Rap Music?

Technically, yes. You can. But if you want to chuck some Eminem on and apply your meditative process to it, be warned:it’s likely you’ll find it super challenging!

When we use music to meditate, research suggests that it is better to opt for soundtracks that are specifically designed to induce a state of catharsis and relaxation. Sorry to inform you, but tracks by Drake and Public Enemy don’t exactly fall into that category.

You may find that if you try to meditate to rap music that your attention will be swept up in the storm of emotionally-charged lyrics, the use of sound devices, rhyme and rhythm, which is precisely what we want to avoid. Remember, meditation is about developing the habit of non-thinking. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a pretty hard job to do when you’re listening to rap music.

So, while it is certainly possible to treat an element of your favourite rap song as the object of your meditation (i.e. the auditory stimulus you fix your attention on) it’s likely to prove difficult.I recommend looking to styles of music that are specifically designed for meditation purposes instead.

Meditation: How Long to See Results?

If you’re expecting a quick fix from meditation, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but it’s unlikely to happen.Unless you’ve got a talent for it, it’s most likely you won’t start experiencing the benefits of a regular meditation practice until you hit the three to four-week mark.

Is Listening to Music Mindful?

No, it’s not. Mindfulness is the practice of consciously observing your sensory experience in any given moment with the goal of detaching from thoughts or feelings. Listening to music, on the other hand, is all about immersing yourself in the thoughts and feelings produced by the music.

How Many Times Should I Meditate In A Day?

The frequency with which you practice should be commensurate to your skill level. If you are a beginner, for example, you might like to try meditating once a day for 5-10 minutes at a time, whereas if you are an intermediate or expert, you might like to meditate up to two or three times a day for extended periods of time (30 mins to 1+ hours).