wherein Liz reviews some meditation samplers

[edenfalling]

Apropos of nothing in particular!

Audible is running a bunch of random promotions at the moment (because life in the time of coronavirus is weird for everyone, including corporations), one of which is free downloads of some meditation samplers. It is hard to argue with free, so I flicked through and downloaded the three that looked like they might not be completely teeth-grating. (Note: I find a lot of guided meditation impossible to listen to because of unspoken assumptions on the part of the person doing the speaking/guiding. There's a certain... smugness, maybe? that seeps through around the edges. I don't want someone to sell me on a lifestyle. I just want a technician to help me turn my brain off.)

So I tried them. And. Well. Um.

I mean, the Cape Cod beach soundscape wasn't horrible or anything! It was just incredibly distracting, which is not helpful for calming me down or helping me go to sleep. I think that's because it's so obviously not what my local environment is doing. About the only time it might be useful is while I'm writing, and if I'm writing I can just find a long Youtube nature video or something.

The second was a crystal bowl breathing meditation which literally set my teeth on edge. The closest I can come to "why" is that the bowl the speaker identified as the lower note had such an intense high overtone that it practically drowned out the low note, and the low and high pitches rubbing against each other was distressing for some reason.

The third was a "sound bath" that, I swear by all the gods that anyone ever held holy, activated my fight or flight response. I had to go breathe heavily in the bathroom and it took me over an hour of comfort reading before I was able to even contemplate trying to fall asleep again.

In conclusion, I am staying FAR away from any meditation involving crystal bowls or sustained non-melodic tones. Whatever nice things they may do to other people's nervous systems, they play merry hell with mine.

Comments

[jjhunter]

If you are interested in trying out yet more meditation tracks, the ones I keep coming back to are available here for free. I'd rec scrolling down and starting with the basic body scan meditation.

[edenfalling]

I tried the body scan, and aside from making the mistake of lying down on the floor with no padding (my butt and lower back are not thrilled with me just now), it was very calming. Thank you!

[jjhunter]

I'm glad! There are some other good ones available at that same link, but the body scan one is my fav basic one.

[branchandroot]

I am right with you on guided meditations. I always have such a "shut up, that's not how my brain works!" response that they just agitate me.

If you still want to try soundscape soothing, you might try brown noise. It's much lower than most, fairly waterfall-y, but it's still that 'sound static' regular and non-meaningful thing.

[edenfalling]

I searched a couple examples, and weirdly, I think the non-meaningfulness is actually more distracting for me than if it were more patterned. My brain keeps trying to force the noise to have patterns instead of just letting it blur into background. *hands*

[the_rck]

A lot of guided meditations make me feel like someone's trying to gaslight me, so I tend to respond with extra wariness and hostility which is counterproductive.

[edenfalling]

I know the feeling! I like meditations that are very body-focused: some breathing patterns, or just focusing attention on your hand/leg/chest/whatever while you relax/release tension/are still. There's much less chance for me to be all, "But that's not how my thoughts/visualizations work!" and get frustrated.

[syrena_of_the_lake]

I use an app called Relax Melodies at night — they have nice breathing exercise relaxation tracks, and you can pick and choose the sounds you layer underneath. I have lots of nature sounds with underlying “vague melody but it repeats, with enough minor variations so you don’t get sick of it but it fills the background.” They have all kinds, though, including city noise (yuck). I think there’s still a free version, but I liked it enough to buy it, because the “white noise” is so customizable. Maybe worth a try?

[edenfalling]

Thanks -- I will look into it!