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Forget Meditation, Listen to Music.

Forget Meditation, Listen to Music.

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 Forget Meditation, Listen to Music. Meditating isn’t effective enough anymore. As people become more addicted to their phones, society’s obsession with mindfulness meditation grows. I think that’s because the collective unconscious knows that we desperately need to take back control of our minds, as our lives are being wasted through endless hours of meaningless scrolling. There are only 24 hours in a day, and despite the fact that most people (including myself) don’t sleep nearly enough, we do still sleep some of those 24 hours away. Then the remaining time each day seems to disappear in a blur, and suddenly it’s bedtime again. So we close our eyes. The alarm rings. And we do it all again. I think it’s safe to say that no kid dreams of spending their one precious life this way. The people who viscerally sense this horror of modernity usually end up turning to some form of meditation as a path back to reality. And for the record, I meditate every morning, so I encourage this practice. However, I’ve come to think that meditation alone is no longer a powerful enough method in this modern world. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. It’s easy for us to forget that throughout the ages, the people who meditated were living in a completely different world. Not only did they not have social media and smart phones, but their pace of life was unimaginably slow compared to ours. Think about it, a hundred years ago most people still walked everywhere they needed to go. Now there are cars that drive themselves! And progress just keeps speeding up. So when people in the old-world meditated, it wasn’t for stress-relief or relaxation. It was mainly for religious reasons. Different meditation practices were used for different functions, but none of them were designed for improving mental health in the age of social media, smart phones, and AI. Once again, I encourage people to meditate, just remember that these practices were not designed as a technique for coping with our modern world. If you’re looking for help with that, there’s a far more effective method: listening to music! You see, actively listening to music not only helps to focus our minds, just like mindfulness meditation does, but music also resonates with our hearts and makes us feel. It instantly changes our emotions, which instantly changes our energy. If there was a pill that could do that, it would be the best-selling drug on the market. But all drugs have negative side-effects, whereas listening to music doesn’t. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Also, when we sit in silent meditation, we might get a break from outside stimulation, but if you’re an introverted intuitive like me, then this practice usually results in our thoughts getting even faster and louder in this silent, empty space. But if we actively listen to great music, like Bach or Vivaldi, it doesn’t allow our minds to wander. The music acts as a tether to our minds. And for people with obsessive thinking patterns like me, this mind-tether provides a deeply welcome break from our thoughts. And not only that, as I mentioned earlier, the music also tugs at our heartstrings and activates our emotions, which further helps our minds relax. So the opportunity cost of doing silent mindfulness meditation is expensive, because we could be listening to music instead. And if we choose the music wisely, and listen actively with our eyes closed, the music will literally change our physiology, and therefore our mood. Better moods lead to better days. And better days lead to better lives. This serves as my invitation to you to start practising music meditation today. If you’re not sure what music to choose, my favourite is an 18-minute long EP of Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater by the phenomenal Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Now, the only thing more magical than listening to music, is creating your own music. So if you need help making music, I’ve got you covered. From beginner to advanced, there are free resources for you on my website. If you’re a beginner, start by reading my free book 12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords. It only takes about half an hour to read, then you’ll have a solid foundation of the basics. If you’re already making music, though, you can work your way through 30 free PDF tutorials. They’re step-by-step musical “recipes” you follow to instantly make better music. All genres are there, too. Electronic to hip-hop, classical to metal, and everything in between. Enjoy! On top of the free book, 30 free PDFs, and over 220 free YouTube tutorials, I don’t paywall any of these posts either. I don’t want to exclude anyone. But, if you’re enjoying all these free offerings and want me to make more, please support my work by becoming a paid subscriber. It’s only about the cost of one coffee per month, but if enough people join...
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