Meditation is a popular, all natural cure for anxiety. More than a quick fix, it’s a long term lifestyle choice. The only problem with that is… how boring meditation can be every day. Forget an hour of meditation a day – ten minutes can feel too long too. In our media rich age, we need some kind of stimulation at all times. That doesn’t mean you can’t reap the benefits of meditation though. There’s a way to make it more bearable. The answer is music! You’d think it was distracting, but soothing music is proven to help you deal with mental stress. When you mix the two together, the results are better than silent meditation alone. If you’re still not fully convinced, read more about it below!
1. Helps With Deeper Meditation
Soft, calming music can actually give your mind something to fixate on as it winds down. The sound vibrates around you — play the sound of the ocean, the wind, or an instrumental you enjoy. It calms your mind and allows you to land in a profound stillness, improving your cognitive abilities, both distracting you while also making you feel more present.
2. Reduces Stress
The consistent stream of sound engulfs you, leaving no space to worry about anything else. Meditation is the foremost recommendation given to anyone suffering from stress. If you’ve had a hard week at work, or have important decisions to make weighing on you, the a break from them by meditating. Your work will still be there once your done, but you’ll feel much less overwhelmed by it.
3. Heals Your Body
Music and meditation together don’t just improve your mental health, but also help you deal with physical injuries. Relaxed minds are more capable of healing your body at faster rates. Stressed out bodies exhibit elevated levels of adrenaline. This keeps your body under a certain amount of stress which slows down healing. Meditating naturally relaxes your mind, improving your ability to heal wounds. Numerous studies have shown how listening to calming music while meditating can be especially beneficial for patients coming out of surgery.
4. Helps You Eat Better
As silly as it may sound, meditating with music on can also improve your dietary habits. A mind more at ease also eats with ease, slower, and more mindfully. You won’t over eat because you’re distracted. If you’re a stress eater, this is definitely going to help limit your unnecessary eating. Take out fifteen minutes a day to meditate with music during exam season, and you’ll find yourself less inclined to take snack breaks!
5. Balances Your Emotions
It’s important to maintain emotional balance, but for that you first need to calm your mind down. Playing music in the background while you meditate creates a peaceful environment and allows you to be aware and in control of every emotion. It helps people compartmentalise issues they’re facing or tasks they have to carry out. It could make you less anxious, or if you tend to react with anger, help manage it. One could even say it’s the best medicine for a broken heart.
6. Keeps You Calm While Travelling
Travel anxiety is real and for some people a long haul flight is nothing less than a nightmare. You can naturally overcome this anxiety by meditating, which is even easier to do when you’re on a plane with no where to go, and nothing to do. Put your headphones on, play soothing music, and visualise doing yoga while seated. It’s not always necessary to sit a particular position to meditate. It just requires stillness and presentness of mind.
7. Inspires You
Along with healing you mentally and physically, listening to music during meditation inspires you to a great extent. It makes you feel good about yourself, and helps you think optimistically. When unpleasant feelings of hopelessness start taking over, get into meditation mode and play your favourite song. Then just sit back and let the magic happen!
What do you think?
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