To make mental and emotional health more accessible to our Cleveland community, I started a weekly donation-based music meditation class. What makes this meditation unique is that you select the songs for your practice. In my dissertation, I conducted pioneering research on self-selected music meditation for stress management. Results showed that participants enjoyed meditating to their chosen songs more and experienced similar reductions in rumination and stress compared to mindfulness-only and music-only groups. These results remained consistent irrespective of musical style or genre. Meaning, participants who meditated with Metallica, for instance, experienced stress-reducing effects similar to those who meditated with sounds of the seasons.
I really believe this is an entryway to help people better manage stress. In brief, the most effective strategy for creating a new habit is to build upon an existing behavior. Considering that nearly everyone has access to music and it ranks as the second most utilized tool for stress management, it serves as an ideal foundation. We know mindfulness works, but very few can actually do it consistently because our 24hr/day fast paced society unfortunately makes sitting in silence so unfamiliar and painstakingly difficult to do! Also, it takes a significant amount of time of consistent practice to benefit from mindfulness. Look forward to seeing y'all at the next session and share with anyone who might benefit.
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