This is an introduction to sound meditation.
I travel with a hotel kit,
Musician-grade earplugs,
An ocean wave sound machine,
A sleep mask,
Noise-canceling headphones,
And so on.
It comes with me to every hotel because I dread staying in them,
Mostly for the noise.
Some people love hotels,
Not me.
When I first heard about sound meditation,
I understood right away it was something that I needed.
The essence of sound meditation involves relaxing and allowing yourself to simply experience what you hear,
Letting sounds be a cue for greater awareness.
Your heartbeat,
The room,
A car passing outside,
You let the raw sounds arrive into the ear as they are.
If your mind wanders and you notice it,
Success.
Your awareness caught you.
As you meditate,
Many thoughts,
Emotions,
And sensations may come.
Welcome them.
Returning again and again to presence,
You may discover a sense of natural well-being that lives inside you.
It's a stillness underneath everything,
Spacious enough that all the noises can rest inside of it.
Sound meditation is a practice that also trains us to experience sounds without labeling them as good or bad,
Welcome or intrusive.
You listen,
Allow yourself the space.
Experience the sound without reacting,
Or if you do react you simply notice it.
And allow your reaction to manifest,
Dissipate,
Or move into the background.
Over time,
You will cultivate a calm gap between the sensory experience and your response.
This training can even overflow into other aspects of your life.
When you receive criticism,
You can catch yourself before snapping into the defensive.
Or you accept praise without being inflated by it.
When the environment or external circumstances stop jarring you so much,
It's possible to stay steady.
Having that option is a quiet freedom.
