Life today is very hectic. Everyone rushes to work and back again. Yes, you cannot live without money. But it is also important to rest and relax. You can rest actively (through movement and exercise) or passively (by truly “switching off”). Our editorial team put our heads together and we bring you an article on “The best relaxation and meditation music“. Relaxation music is, of course, a personal matter and depends on your approach, but the following selection is worth trying.
What will you learn in this article? First, we will give you basic information about what relaxation and meditation music is and how it is categorised. We will look at the effects of relaxation music. We will offer you tips on “How to use relaxation music” and introduce you to sound healing (phonotherapy) and to Roland Santé. Finally, we will show you the most played relaxation and meditation music videos on YouTube. You can also play relaxation music with relaxing images on your television.
Table of contents
What is relaxation and meditation music?
The Latin word “relaxare”, borrowed into Czech, means to loosen or release. The word “meditatio” also comes from Latin and means contemplation. When we talk about relaxation and meditation music, we mean music that is meant to help you relax and reflect. It should have positive effects on you. You can completely “switch off” while listening to it, or, on the contrary, “recharge” with it.
Relaxation and unwinding are hugely important today. A person can focus and concentrate only for a certain time, and then the body needs to relax and switch off. Many experts claim that people who relax more are sometimes more creative and more successful at work. Everyone relaxes in their own way, but a massage or a sauna combined with relaxation music, for example, can work real wonders.
If you are interested in the subject, try one of the most widely read books on it: Relax for the Exhausted: Using Mindfulness to Find Relief from Mental Burnout (Relax pro vyčerpané – Využití všímavosti při hledání úlevy od duševního vysílení).
Types of relaxation music
There are several ways to categorise relaxation music. One distinguishes between relaxation music and meditation music in general.
- Relaxation music uses soothing background tones and fills you with a sense of calm and ease.
- Meditation music does not aim only to relax and calm you like relaxation music. Besides soothing tones, it also contains a dynamic element that supports active meditation. We can often hear drums or other rhythmic instruments in it.
Meditation music has a positive effect on breathing, heart rhythm and blood pressure, and it also influences brain activity.
The second categorisation is more specific and divides relaxation music into 4 groups.
- Ethnic music: linked to particular cultures. It uses instruments typical of the culture in question (for example, the flute). The best known and most listened to are Tibetan, African and Indian music.
- Nature sounds: one of the “most ordinary” types of music. It includes all the sounds of nature: rushing water, rustling treetops in the forest and animal sounds.
- Meditation music: this music is mostly used for meditation. It can also be used for yoga or Tai Chi.
- Refreshing music, also known as “chill out”. This is easy-going to energetic music designed to recharge you. This type of music blends various cultures and rhythms.
Effects of relaxation and meditation music
Relaxation and meditation music essentially has these effects:
- calming,
- relaxing,
- creating a balanced state of mind.
It raises levels of serotonin, which is involved in shaping our moods and affects how we perceive music or sounds. It is important to remember that music or any sound affects each person very individually. This means that a certain piece of music or sound may feel pleasant to one person, completely neutral to another and even grating to someone else.
If you find the “right” music for you (see below), it will have a positive effect on your emotions, put you in a good frame of mind and may even help in treating certain physical problems. Healing with meditation music was already used by the ancient Egyptians, who knew that this kind of music works against stress, low mood, insomnia and high blood pressure.
If you practise meditation or yoga, you have surely noticed something. When you listen to music during your exercise or meditation, you relax much more deeply than without music. Listening to relaxation music heightens your sense of relaxation, so your body gets a wonderful rest.
How to use relaxation music
Here are a few tips on how to listen to relaxation music properly so that it has the right effect on you.
- Don’t play your music too loud. If you listen to your chosen relaxation music too loudly, the loud music may leave your brain in a dulled state.
- Relaxation music should not be a backdrop to your whole day. If you listened to relaxation music all day, you might even end up feeling irritable by the evening.
- Ideal listening time. For a healthy, vital person, listening to relaxation music should not exceed 20 minutes a day.
- Individual reactions to music. As we wrote above, each of us is unique, and different sounds and music affect each person differently. You need to find “your own” music.
- Removing unpleasant stimuli. If you know of a sound or music that you find unpleasant and you can remove it, do so. This will move your mind into a calmer place.
Phonotherapy, healing with sound
Phonotherapy is a type of therapy that uses non-musical sounds. It involves the health-motivated use of pleasant sounds, including natural ones. These are sounds such as birdsong, the rustling of a forest, the roar of a waterfall, the murmur of the sea and others. The sounds can be either authentic or created in sound laboratories.
Some authors link phonotherapy with sounds such as those from the abdomen of pregnant women, the songs of whales and dolphins, the howling of wolves, the chirping of crickets, the buzzing of bees and the rhythmic splashing of waves against the shore.
The basic condition for successful treatment with phonotherapy is choosing sounds that have a positive effect on the person in question. This choice must not be left to chance; it needs careful attention. The client, fully concentrated, notes how certain sounds affect them, whether a sound is pleasant or unpleasant, even aggressive.
As a therapy, phonotherapy is used, for example, for people with Alzheimer’s disease, who can recall memories from the past thanks to familiar sounds. It is also very popular with expectant mothers and with people suffering from various anxieties, stress and mental health problems.
Instruments used in phonotherapy:
- Tibetan singing bowls,
- rain sticks,
- a specially made gong,
- Tibetan cymbals.
If you are interested in the general topic of how relaxation music and phonotherapy affect people, we warmly recommend the bachelor’s thesis Differences in the Perception of Relaxation Music with Phonotherapeutic Elements across Age Groups (Rozdíly ve vnímání relaxační hudby s fonoterapeutickými prvky u různých věkových kategorií) by Iveta Mikešová.
Roland Santé
Despite his exotic-sounding name, Roland Santé is a Czech composer who has become a world-famous and respected therapist and visionary. He wrote his first compositions at the age of 13. Roland Santé’s music is widely used in psychotherapeutic relaxation centres, schools and hospitals for its calming, therapeutic and motivational effects.
The cornerstone of Santé’s compositions is keyboard and bell chord backgrounds. Combined with other electronic sounds, they create what some clients call “heavenly music“. Among other things, Santé likes to use the sounds of electronic organs and nature in his compositions.
TOP 7, the most played relaxation and meditation music on YouTube
In this section, we offer you the 7 most popular relaxation music videos on the world-famous website YouTube.
As we can see, the top 7 relaxation and meditation music videos include Tibetan music and music dominated by the guitar, piano and flute. Exactly as described in the article.
Relaxing music can help us not only to unwind but also to support effective learning (when we are calm and relaxed, learning will surely come more easily). If you know a woman who has no time to relax, a CD or a selection of relaxing music given as a gift might be just the thing to inspire her.
Larger employers offer relaxation zones in the workplace as an employee benefit. Thanks to soundproofing, staff can switch off and relax in a comfortable armchair or on a sofa in these zones. When working at a computer, table tennis or table football at work is also a good way to relax.
💡 Tip: Also take a look at our article on why a competitive environment builds a good team.
How to meditate
Anyone can meditate. Meditation is simpler (and harder) than most people think. Read these steps, make sure you are somewhere you can relax, set a timer and give it a try:
1) Sit down
Find a place to sit that feels calm and quiet.
2) Set a time limit
If you are just starting out, it can help to choose a short time limit, such as five or ten minutes. You can then pick relaxing music of a matching length.
3) Notice your body
You can sit on a chair with your feet on the floor, sit loosely cross-legged or kneel. All of these are fine. Just make sure you are stable and in a position you can hold for a while. Then begin to notice how they feel: your feet, your legs, your stomach and so on.
4) Feel your breath
Follow the sensation of your breath as you breathe in and out.
5) Notice when your mind has wandered.
Your attention will inevitably leave your breath and wander elsewhere. When you notice that your mind has wandered (after a few seconds, a minute or five minutes), simply bring your attention back to your breath.
6) Be kind to your wandering mind
Do not judge yourself or dwell on the content of the thoughts you got lost in. Just come back.
7) Close with kindness
When you are ready, gently lift your gaze (if your eyes are closed, open them). Take a moment to notice any sounds around you. Notice how your body feels right now. Notice your thoughts and emotions.
That’s it! Simple? Give it a try and devote a few minutes a day to meditation regularly.
How often should you meditate?
Meditation is no more complicated than what we have described above. It is that simple … and that challenging. It is also powerful and worth it. The key to success is committing to doing it every day, even if it is only for five minutes. The most important moment of your meditation practice is the moment you sit down to it. Because that is when you are telling yourself that you believe in change, that you believe in caring for yourself, and that you are making it happen. You are not just holding on to a value such as mindfulness or compassion in the abstract, you are actually putting it into practice.
