We are almost a month into school and I know, like many of you, I have been getting tired and distracted. Throughout my junior year of high school, I finally found a way to improve my focusing skills and lower my stress: the help of music meditation. Music mediation itself trains our brains, and it increases signaling connections in the brain. When I grew more consistent with it, I found that it made music sound better. It improved my focus when listening to music; moreover, it helped me to truly enjoy and experience whatever I was listening to. In addition, I noticed my sleep habits improving and my stress levels were decreasing.

If you’re wondering what I listen to, it’s the Calm App. It’s full of all sorts of meditations, sleep stories, and different nature sounds. The meditation voice is Tamara Levitt and she has more of a sing-songy type voice. Within this app, there are body scan and walking meditations, daily calm sessions, and even a meditation calendar to plan your weekly sessions. If you really enjoy it, you can pay $12.99 a month to get premium features, but I personally don’t think it’s worth it. If you’re interested, you would get meditations that have topics ranging from choice, resilience, gratitude, impermanence, and letting go. More general topics include stress, forgiveness, happiness, etc.

There are several other ways to meditate with music as well. In my opinion, it’s simply going to the beach to do homework and listening to the waves. Or doing work in your backyard to feel the stillness of the afternoon air, hear the birds chirping, and the cars passing. These are a couple of simple things that keep me inspired and refreshed.