Meditation has a huge range of benefits, including lower stress levels, better health, peace of mind and even access to psychic abilities and altered states of consciousness. As a result, more and more people are taking up meditation than ever. Unfortunately, many of these people proceed to give up fairly quickly.
One reason why people stop meditating is because it can be very difficult at first. Sitting or lying down with your eyes closed sounds easy enough, but when you're trying to relax your mind, it can be very frustrating when you find - as most people do - that instead of quieting down as you want it to, your thoughts just jump all over the place in a completely uncontrollable manner.
This 'monkey mind' phenomenon is pretty much universal, and almost everyone who tries to learn to meditate will experience it. It's only with continued practice that mind control becomes easier, and meditation more rewarding.
However, there are things that you can do to shorten the learning curve and make meditation easier. One of these is listening to a meditation recording that includes music.
Meditation music is of value because it gives your thoughts something to focus on. By keeping the surface of your consciousness occupied, you're less likely to start thinking about random things and get carried away with your thoughts. Your mind may not be completely quiet when listening to music, but your thoughts will probably be less random than normal. Listening to music while you meditate helps you to achieve a focused mental state more easily.
Of course the benefits you achieve will depend also on the type of music you're listening to. Most meditation music is slow and relaxing in nature; while any music gives the mind something to focus on, slow, mellow music is better for meditation because the sounds themselves have a relaxing effect and help to enhance the benefits of your meditation session.
Some people find that melodic music can get a bit annoying after a while, especially if you're listening to the same track repeatedly day after day. If you have this experience, you might prefer to use ambient music and sounds, as these don't grate in the same way as melodic music with repeated listening.
Meditation music is sometimes combined with additional sounds such as binaural beats. These make the meditation even more effective, because they directly influence the frequency of the brainwaves that your brain produces. When meditating, your aim is to have your brain descend into a more relaxed state than usual, which corresponds to the production of lower-frequency brainwaves. By listening to a meditation recording which contains binaural beats (or other types of brainwave entrainment technology such as monaural beats or isochronic tones), it's even easier to achieve this kind of relaxed state than with music alone.
Music and sound have a powerful influence on consciousness, so if you want to learn to meditate, or wish to expand on your existing meditation practices, it's well worth exploring the use of music for meditation, particularly those recordings which incorporate brainwave entrainment as well.
