Welcome back to another Living Musically Podcast. My name is Kyle. I hope you are all safe and healthy as Covid 19 continues to spread throughout our world. Please continue to isolate yourself as much as possible in an effort to eradicate this disease quickly.
In this difficult time I thought it would be helpful to not just distract with content but talk about a way to help deal with the anxiety in a constructive manner. One way is through meditation. Meditation has played an important role in helping me work through the negative voice in my brain.
I think there’s a misconception when a lot of people hear the word meditation. They roll their eyes and think of some hippie type in the middle of the desert living on grubs, never taking a bath and chanting strange phrases while doing awkward yoga poses all in an effort to completely clear their mind and achieve some higher plain of thought.
That’s a little too far out there to me first before I tell you my technique, let me discuss why I practice meditation. Before I continue, I say “practice” meditation. I am by no means an expert or a master. I fail at it all the time, in fact the essence of my practice is to fail. This is where Music comes into play. In order to get better, you have to fail. You can’t get better at anything if you already do it perfectly. That is the nature of practice. The same is true for meditation.
So for me the goal is not to achieve a clear mind, the goal is to recognize when my brain or the voice inside of my head tries to prevent me from having a clear mind, or stop me from focusing on what I want to be focusing on. It’s an exercise to help you gain better control of your mind.
What does meditation have to do with music? For me, the negative voice in my head was so loud during performing it was distracting. “You can’t sing in tune! Your vocal technique is terrible. You call THAT improvising?!” By practicing meditating I learned techniques to redirect my focus away from that voice and into more productive thoughts to improve my performance. You can do the same in your every day life.
Before you begin you need to choose something to focus on. Personally I like to focus on breathing to start. But, the more you meditate the more you realize that anything can be used in meditation. Aside from breathing here are some other things you can use: Focusing on how lightly you can touch your thumb to your index finger, noticing the sound in the room, concentrating on your contact point to the ground, maybe your feet or your legs for example. Sometimes I’ll even use the absence of focus as a meditation.
The next thing you need to do is to get into a comfortable space. You can sit, kneel, stand, lay down, it doesn’t matter. You want to be alert but comfortable. The trick is to be comfortable enough to completely relax but alert enough to not fall asleep.
In the beginning you focus on short times 2-3 minutes is enough to get started. As you get more comfortable with the techniques, you can increase your time as you see fit. I’d recommend in the beginning set a timer for 2-3 minutes. You can always go longer if you want to.
Many people ask “How long should I meditate?” They never like the answer I give. “You should meditate as long as you need to.” Once I learned the concepts behind meditation I actually stopped timing myself. When I’m done, I’m done. Sometimes it’s 15 minutes, sometimes it’s an hour, sometimes it’s only 2 minutes.
Another question I get asked is “Am I allowed to listen to music while I meditate?” You’re allowed to do whatever you want. Personally I find music distracting. When I hear music I start to analyze it and my brain goes into hyperdrive. But if it helps you absolutely go for it.
What I’d like to do now is walk you through 2 short 2-3 minute meditations. I would encourage you to try both. As I’ve taught meditation to people I’ve found there are tactile meditators and visual meditators. Some need to focus on physical touch while others can visualize more effectively. My hope is that you’ll connect with one of these and you can begin your practice with that technique.
We’ll start with a breathing meditation:
First find a comfortable spot. You can leave the lights on or off. You can close your eyes or not. You can sit, stand or lie down whatever is comfortable for you.
Inhale deeply
Fully exhale
Inhale deeply
Fully exhale
Inhale deeply
Fully exhale
Inhale deeply
Fully exhale
Inhale deeply
Fully exhale
Let your breath return to normal
Now focus on what it feels like to inhale. Is the air hot or cold? Where is the first place you feel the air hit? Is it at the edge of your nostril maybe somewhere in the back of your nose or the back of your throat. Try to focus on that one thing. If your mind starts to wander bring it back to that initial point of contact for the air or your breath.
Take one final deep breath. And you can open your eyes.
Now let’s try a tactile meditation. The focus with this meditation will be to focus on the contact point between your index finger and your thumb
As before, find a comfortable spot. You can leave the lights on or off. You can close your eyes or not. You can sit, stand or lie down whatever is comfortable for you.
Inhale deeply
Fully exhale
Inhale deeply
Fully exhale
Inhale deeply
Fully exhale
Inhale deeply
Fully exhale
Inhale deeply
Fully exhale
Let your breath return to normal.
Next with both hands squeeze your index and thumb together like you’re pinching something. We’re going to count back from 5. With each number you’re going to lessen the pressure until we get to 0. When we get to 0, there should be no pressure but your fingers should still be touching.
Now I want you to focus on keeping your fingers touching as lightly as possible.
If other thoughts enter your mind, refocus on the contact point between your thumbs and index fingers. Make sure they’re still touching with as little pressure as possible. You should always be trying to have as little pressure as possible but still have them touch.
Take another deep breath, and open your eyes.
