Sensational Sunday How to Use Music as Meditation
Every Sunday the Single, Happy, and Strong Blog will have an exercise for you to do. This is a wonderful way to start a new week; to reflect, grow, and begin a shift in your life. Today on Sensational Sunday we will discuss music as Meditation. This will be another tip for your Tool Box!
How to Use Music as Meditation
Meditation helps to calm the mind and connect with the inner, most deep part of ourselves. It is the closest we may come to experience the Divine, God, the Source or whatever your term is for it. Meditation does not relieve our problems in life, but, it may help us handle our problems and stress. There are so many types of mediation and there is no right or wrong way. I believe it is a personal choice. Today, we will explore using music at a type of meditation.
There is much research done on the use of music for stress reduction. The Mayo Clinic and the University of Maryland both have done extensive research on the use of music. In an Indiana University study, they stated, “Since the beginning of time chanting, singing and rhythmic vocal activities have been used for stress reduction”. The American Cancer Society says that music therapy promotes healing and there is some evidence that it may relieve stress and provide an overall sense of well-being.
In a 2013 study in “The Arts in Psychotherapy” found that “The effects of sedative and stimulative music on stress reduction depend on music preference”. This research gives strong support that we should choose specific music to release stress.
Now the question is: what is your preferred music? You probably have music you enjoy listening to, but, it may or may not be the type to relieve stress. This week I want you to explore some types of music and then choose one song that calms you. Keep this for your “Tool Box”.
The steps:
1. Spend 30 minutes today exploring different types of music. Go on Pandora, uTube, iTunes, or whatever you are most comfortable with.
2. Some Suggestions:
Blues, Music to open the chakras, Classical, Meditation music, Operatic, Chanting, Tibetan Bell Music
3. Pick 3 songs from 3 different genres. Listen to each for 5 – 10 minutes each.
4. After each song, write down in your journal how you felt. Happy? Relaxed? Peaceful? How did it speak to you? Did it resonate with your soul?
5. Take 1 of the songs into your week. Spend 5 minutes several times this week listening to your song. Just sit, uninterrupted, quietly listening to it. I
What song did you choose? Did you feel it helped relieve some stress?