We have all heard of the magical benefits of meditation. It can be used to relieve stress, heal the body, and change your brain in a positive way that strengthens your neuron connections. The hard part is knowing where to start. I found that for myself, I can only find time to meditate right before bed, and what helps me achieve a relaxed meditative state is Alpha brainwave music. This is often just a binaural beat at a specific frequency, but recently these beats have been made into very ear-pleasing music. I have a music file on my phone so I carry it around with me. It is good to play during any part of the day: while you are stuck in traffic or once you come home from work ready to relax. I noticed a few things happening since I started listening to this music. My brain has somehow firmly connected the sounds to feeling relaxed so when I hear it, I almost immediately go into a meditative ‘sitting on a cloud” mode. This is very nice, especially anytime you feel anxious about something or just want to relax. The biggest benefit of listening and meditating to this music came to me, eventually, when I was able to do it everyday before bed…

I noticed that the feeling of relaxation and positive mood carried into the next day. It was as if my brain would rather stay in an alpha wave mode instead of feeling anxious about the day’s or future events. This is part of my every night routine now because I feel a huge difference when I don’t use it for a couple of days. This very simple regimen always makes me feel in a good mood and never anxious. This Alpha brainwave music is scientifically proven to cause the different lobes of your brain to fire more alpha neurons. The process takes your brain to a much more relaxed state. All you need is a pair of headphones and a way to play the file. At first I was using the following Youtube clip using my iPhone, but since then I went to the guy’s website and purchased a 30-minute MP3 file that I now use. If you enjoy the music, it is worth the $14 download because you will probably use this file thousands of times.

I am going to give you a very simple entry meditation technique that you can try in addition to the music for ultimate results.

First, lay in bed with the music playing through the headphones. Try to even out your breathing into a calm rhythm. Start thinking “IN” during the inhalation and “OUT” as you exhale. Try to lengthen each breath. After about 10 breaths, start counting the seconds during each inhalation and exhalation. Work your way up to at least 5 seconds during the way in and 5 seconds during the way out. Proceed with this for as long as it takes to feel completely relaxed. At this point, start observing your thoughts as they come into your head but don’t focus in on them, just let them be on their way with each breath out. All the negative and positive thoughts from the day, entering your head again and the negative being flushed away with each breath. Try to maintain this state of relaxation and observation for as long as you can, but you will certainly begin to fall asleep.

I usually try to do this every night and see how far I can go. Sometimes I can just observe all the crazy anxious thoughts of the day, but other times I feel completely Zen. As long as you make an effort and combine it with Alpha brainwave music, I guarantee you a definite state of meditation and relaxation. Try it tonight!