You can practice meditation with music in many different ways, because the role of sounds may vary. It depends on your needs and the purpose of meditating. You can focus on mindfulness exercise, concentration training, gratitude, or relaxation. Sounds chosen properly can improve the quality of your experience, and deepen your meditation. If you do not know how to start meditating with music and what kind of music is the best for meditation, just follow these 5 easy steps.
1. Choose the best music for meditation depending on its purpose
Focus exercise
If you want to use the music to amplify your concentration, you should treat it as the center of your full attention. Try to focus on the sounds and when you will get distracted, let’s go back to the music again. In the beginning, it’s worth choosing music without vocals and lyrics. This kind of music could engage your attention too much in understanding words or interpreting a text. Your thoughts can then easily drift off in an unwanted direction
Mindfulness practice
Meditation with music can also be used to practice mindfulness. While listening to music, let’s try to focus on your „here and now”. Listen carefully to all the sounds, trying to recognize every instrument, changes of rhythm, and nuances in the melody. After that let’s see if the music moves you, and what emotions it evokes. For this exercise, we can choose almost any type of music. However, it is worth reaching for songs that calm you down or put you in a good mood. At the same time, avoid music that recalls painful memories and intense emotions.
Practice of gratitude
If you want to practice gratitude meditation, you should choose music that makes you happy, moves your heart, and makes you think positively about your life. In addition, this kind of music helps you be more open, recalls good feelings, and stimulates you to express gratitude and look brightly into the future.
Relaxation
You can also try meditation with music to relax your body and mind. Choose soft music that calms you down easily. You can start with the music of nature – the sounds of wind, sea, rain, or a burning fire. Playlists and apps with relaxing music, such as Muzaic, will also work splendidly.
2. Find the right place to practice meditation with music
Look for a conducive place for meditation where no one will disturb you and where you can calm down. Set yourself up. Eliminate factors that may disrupt your meditation. Mute or turn off electrical devices, and try to cut off external noises.
3. Choose a comfortable position for meditation with music
The most frequently recommended meditation position is sitting, with your spine straight, shoulders loosened, and your head slightly raised. A stable posture helps you stay alerted and focused. It is important to find a middle ground – make sure that your body is neither too relaxed nor too tense. You can sit on the floor, chair, or pillow. Try out different options to find the most comfortable one for you. You can choose a cross sit, which is stable and one of the most popular positions, Japanese sit, Padmasana (Lotus position), sitting in your favorite armchair. Moreover, it is worth using additional pillows or rolled-up blankets to support the body (for instance knees in cross-legged sitting). It can relieve muscle tension.
Some people meditate lying down, but it is usually not the best position. It can increase your sleepiness, give the body a signal that 'it is time to sleep’, and also weakens your alertness and concentration. However, if we suffer from insomnia, it is worth using music for relaxation. It effectively supports falling asleep and improves the quality of sleep.
4. Listen to music carefully
Let the music touch you, and resonate in you. It is your closest friend when you meditate. Open yourself to sounds, listen to what music saying to you, feel it in your body, and rest.
Depending on the purpose of your meditation, you may listen to music in a slightly different way, focusing on different aspects of it (see point above).
5. When you notice a distraction, pay attention to the music you are listening to
If you find it difficult to stay focused and your thoughts are drifting in many different directions, try to focus your attention on the music you are listening to. In this case music should be the particular object of your meditation and your point of reference.
If you want to start a meditation with music, Muzaic has composed music for you to guide you through this time. You can find more music on our YouTube channel.