Music is a powerful medium and can play a role in meditation. It can help with healing, releasing stress, and staying in the moment. It’s important to know what music to choose to achieve your purpose and to understand how to incorporate it into your meditation.
Meditation Music | Best For... |
|---|---|
Using meditation for healing (he swears this works) | |
Deep relaxation | |
Meditating to natural sounds | |
Classical music meditation |
Music Can Help Reduce Stress
We live in a stressful world, right? There’s a lot of strife and anxious energy that surrounds us each day -- but there’s also a ton of light and peace and positivity to enjoy if we know where to look.
Metaphysicists suggest that music played at 432hz can actually connect us to a cosmic current of calm and serenity. It’s the universe’s tempo, the cadence at which everything that we know and don’t know about our reality synchronizes; ebbs and flows.
Most commercially produced music is actually recorded at 440hz which can disrupt the natural flow of chi, or energy. Does all meditative music have to be recorded at 432hz? No. But employing the likes of psychoacoustics can help us find deeper peace.
Choosing Music for Meditation
When it comes to choosing music for meditation, the selection is wide. You can choose from many different types such as binaural beats, instrumentals, sacred chants and ambient sounds. Good meditation music has the ability to soothe and still your mind. You might love pop, jazz, rock or the blues but the lyrics and loud instruments can be distracting when trying to meditate.
You may have some music you love, but it reminds you of events, periods or even people in your life. Listening to this music may trigger feelings, associations and memories that disrupt your meditation.
Different types of meditative music can be chosen to achieve different purposes. If you want to relax, you need calm soothing music. If you need to re-energize, melodic music will uplift you. Deep meditation music with some binaural beats will help you go into deeper mind states like Theta or Delta.
Some people believe you should only use specific types of music to meditate but this is not true. You can really choose any type that produces the right effect for you whether it’s traditionally associated with meditation or not. Some people find using classical music for meditation helpful.
Types of Music for Meditation
The most popular meditation music is probably ambient music. It is soothing, gentle and melodic. Many albums are available for those who find the sounds of the natural world calming. The sound of seabirds, falling rain and waves crashing can help you to achieve a relaxed, peaceful state of mind. Many of us live in urban settings where natural sounds may be rare. Contact with natural sounds seems to fulfill a deep need for connectedness to the natural world.
The best meditation albums are usually about an hour long and offer high quality sound. Music on such albums usually has a consistent tempo so it enhances your meditation without being intrusive.
Binaural beats help to induce a variety of mental states and this can be used effectively in meditation. Different frequency tones are played in each ear and affect your brainwaves. Put on your headphones and listen to Theta binaural beats played underneath a soundtrack of falling rain for an amazing experience.
Healing meditation music may not have been scientifically proven to heal, but there is no doubt that it can have a healing effect. Music for Healing by Steven Halpern is an album designed to help with mental and physical healing. This hour-long album has a constant tempo, using minimalist sounds and electric piano.
Certain songs may help you to meditate, even if they are not intentionally created for use in meditation. Some people find that a song like Enya’s Watermark puts them in a relaxed frame of mind, making it easier to meditate.
Meditation songs can be just exactly that – any songs you find that help you to get into the right state of mind. Just remember, though, that any music you use for meditation should never distract you in any way from your primary purpose of meditating.
Meditation Music | Best For... |
|---|---|
Using meditation for healing (he swears this works) | |
Deep relaxation | |
Meditating to natural sounds | |
Classical music meditation |
Top 4 Meditation Music Albums
Music for Healing by Steven Halpern
Steven Halpern is well loved amongst students of energy healing and meditation. He’s seen as a master of crafting meditation music that actually heals people of mental and physical ailments. That sounds like a tall order but his followers swear by the power his concoctions harbor.
Music for Healing is a part of the Sound Medicine Series. Halpern is able to capture the essence of good health and well being matched with other worldly stillness. Naturopathic doctors have even prescribed this album for patients needing to push the reset button on their health.
Music for Healing keeps a constant tempo throughout the album so there are no startling beginnings or endings to the tracks (which is perfect for sleeping and meditation music).
You won’t find nature sounds here like oceans and rain but you’ll find a sense of belonging to, and being an integral part of the earth. Electric piano and minimalist sounds induce an ambiance akin to a trance like state.
This hour long album is a go-to for stressful situations, simply reducing tension during a long commute, preparing to give a presentation, or to navigate fastballs life may throw your way.
Teachers of reiki, massage, acupuncture and other energy healers have used this album to help terminally ill patients through their journey of recovery and as a comfort piece for others experience life turbulence. Music for Healing could become the best in your collection overnight.
Chakra Suite by Steven Halpern
Another one of Halpern’s golden works, Chakra Suite is a great complement to Music for Healing. This album is nearly double the length and employs a sort of vibrating energy that encourages deep relaxation.
Like Music for Healing, there are no strident notes that will jerk you out of a tranquil state -- which is well-played and thought out by Halpern. The flow of the tracks seems effortless, so much so that you forget you’re even listening to it (yeah, it’s that good).
Chakra Suite uses psychoacoustic technology with an actual effect on brain waves.
It’s perfect for studying when you don’t want silence but you don’t want edgy beats and rhythms either. Use this to help you fall asleep, during deep meditation practice and when you need a rejuvenation sesh.
The downside? Some think that Chakra Suite is a bit repetitive and even borderline agitating at times. This isn’t the general consensus (and I certainly don’t agree) but it’s worth noting.
Ocean Waves by Rest and Relax Nature Sounds Artists
A more traditional nature-loving meditation album, Ocean Waves transports you to the cool sand of a summer night on the beach. Only three tracks long (but over an hour in length) this meditation music can ground you; reminding you that your breath has the power to transform your life.
Revel in the sounds of distant thunder, seabirds, and waves crashing. The album is not intrusive by nature meditation music standards and doesn’t have loud jarring bits that shake you from your practice. Ocean Waves isn’t for everyone though, it’s peaceful in a totally different way than Halpern’s kind of peaceful.
Ocean Waves speaks to those who miss their coastal home, or have a hankering to be more in touch with natural world. It’s for those who are calmed by the sound of rain or the wooshing sound of the ocean at night.
The album does seem to have a slight volume variation between tracks which can disturb those who are hypersensitive, but it isn’t prevalent enough to knock this album out of the best of.
Mozart for Meditation by Various Artists
Engage the mind and body in a delightful and appreciative way. Haven’t hopped on the classical music train yet? Allow this quiet and reflective collection of Mozart be your memorable introduction to the genre of classical and meditative music.
Unlike many of his more popular works, this album evokes an introspective and finally focused state of being.
Calms the mind so you can function and focus. Great introduction to the world of classical music. A great alternative to the new age style of music that is so pervasive in the energy healing scene. This album embraces the underbelly of Mozart and of ourselves.
A quiet and reflective piece of music recorded with excellent sound quality. Mozart Meditation brings a different vibe to the table, there aren’t bird calls or the natural elements at work, but instead horns, strings and compositions to ease the mind.
Some say, however, that the tempo is a bit too upbeat for serious meditation and that the variety is a bit stale.
Our Top Recommendation: Music for Healing
The best bang for your buck, the most soothing and meditation appropriate album goes to Steven Halpern’s Music for Healing. It has the highest quality of sound and science laden acoustics to help find a meditative state or just to unwind after the chaos of the day. It’s steady rhythm and level volume feed a tranquil state sans disruptions or distractions.
Music is but one way to enhance your meditation practice. We have a lot more recommendations on this front in our massive list of meditation accessories and tools.