How to Use Music to Be as Effective as Meditation

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Meditation and music are two of the most common uses of complementary and alternative medicine, and people use these methods to feel control1. Meditation helps us improve our cortisol and testosterone levels, which indicates that meditation can reverse the effects of stress2. Meditation (particularly Loving-Kindness Meditation) also starts a process of positivity, where doing the meditation regularly increases the number of times you experience a positive emotion, which increases the number of personal resources, such as mindfulness, purpose in life, and social support. These personal resources then lead to more life satisfaction and lower symptoms of depression3.

Listening to music, however, is just as effective at improving well-being as meditation is (particularly against Loving-Kindness Meditation), and combining them did not provide better benefits4. Meditation and music listening are also similarly effective in improving memory and cognitive performance, particularly in people with subjected cognitive decline, across 12 min sessions per day for three months and then at their discretion for another three months5. Also, people who listened to sedative music for 45 minutes daily before bedtime for three weeks had slept longer and higher sleep quality6.

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The biggest tip I can give for this is to intentionally listen to songs that make you feel happy. Fredrickson’s7,8 Broaden and Build Theory of Positive Emotions suggests that positive emotions compound to bring about personal resources. Also, Bottom-Up Spillover Theory suggests that being satisfied with specific event will spill up into broader areas of your life. In other words, listening to something that makes you happy will increase happiness in or life, which will improve your quality of life. These happiness-inducing songs will be different from person to person, but Jason Mraz’s Have It All is a good place to start. It has the elements of the Loving-Kindness Meditation built into the lyrics. While you are intentionally listening, do the following:

1. Make intentional listening a regular part of your daily routine
2. Feel the emotions of the songs
3. Analyze the lyrics of the songs
4. Put yourself completely into the songs and forget about anything else

1. Kang, McArdle, & Suh (2014); 2. MacLean, Walton, Wenneberg, Levitsky, Waziri, Hillis, & Schneider (1997); 3. Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek, Jolynn, & Finkel (2008); 4. Sorensen, Steindl, Dingle, & Garcia (2018); 5. Innes, Selfe, Khalsa, & Kandati (2017); 6. Lai & Good (2005); 7. Fredrickson (1998); 8. Fredrickson (2001)