Just listening to music

Meditation is hardly a new thing, it’s been around for a long time, and it sometimes becomes an “in” thing. At the moment, meditation apps like Calm and Headspace are being taken up by many people, who are finding life so busy, things so frantic, that they need their phone, a bit of a modern talisman, to help them carve out a space to relax and breath in.

I am a user of Calm myself. I do take the space, and I enjoy the music, the deep sleep, and even try the commute meditations. However, sometimes it feels like a chore, to be not doing anything but breathing for a while. Sounds crazy right, to be doing nothing seems more difficult than doing something.

I’ve gotten so used to having many projects on the go, a book, robots, a day job that is quite engaging, kids, a wife, communities I want to be part of, annoying things like finances and home repairs to deal with. In fact, I’m so used to it, that taking time out to watch a TV program is possible guilt trip territory, because the tyranny of the to-do list awaits me the next morning.

This evening, on a bit of a whim, I went and found some of the more relaxed music I used to listen to as a teenager. Now, this was due to some conversation about guitar solos. And I found something that made us all quiet for a while, not the thrashy angry stuff, but the chilled, long guitar instrumentals, perhaps with mellow vocals. I was suddenly dropping everything that was going on, the conversation kind of petered out, and we all just listened. It was a bit of a moment.

And then I thought of how often, as a teenager or maybe a young adult, I would just sit and listen. Not doing anything else, not music in the background while commuting or computing, but only really hear the music. Perhaps I’d stare off into space out of a window, or maybe I’d close my eyes and breath, sometimes I’d find myself caught up in the layers and melodies of the sounds. And upon recalling this I realised, this was a kind of meditation. When I did it, the music, only the music was on my mind. Perhaps I was working out a few things at the time - maybe I’d had a less-than-great day and needed to carve out this space.

So it’s hard not to see the parallels here, that perhaps instead of the “chore” that is clearing my mind and letting the meditation guru talk through a phone app to me, I just find a space, put on my music, and stay with it. Just listen, be kind of still, and breath. It’s not quite the mindfulness of noticing all of my body, breathing and the space around me. But it is relaxing, and it does give me space.

Call out of date, but I might just go find a corner and listen to 40 minutes of Prog rock to unwind…