Traditionally, most people prefer to meditate in a peaceful, serene environment of total silence. The absence of noise and distraction helps to achieve inner peace. Depending on your lifestyle and living situation, however, you might find it difficult to find such moments of silence and serenity long enough to meditate.
If total silence isn’t available, you can learn how to meditate with the noise around you. While meditating amidst external noises is more difficult than meditating in a peaceful environment, you can master this meditation practice and achieve the same benefits, if not more!
This article will tell you how to meditate with noise around you and list helpful tools to make it possible.
The Flexibility of Sophrology
If you want to learn how to meditate in a loud environment, Sophrology is one of the best options available. Sophrology is a dynamic mindful method combining relaxation, movement, visualisation, breathwork and guided meditation that helps you to become more aware and can help balance body and mind. The exercises encourage you to observe any resisting thoughts in your meditation practice and let them go, and find focus amid the noises and world around you. You can also practise Sophrology in any comfortable position and at any time, whether it’s in the morning in your house, before a challenging meeting at work, sitting on the train or during the day to help you sleep better at night.
Unlike traditional meditation, where complete and total silence is often recommended, Sophrology allows you to find focus when you need it most. Sophrology can also help you unlock the calm or resilience you need if you’re practising in nature, in a noisy house, or anywhere else. This is because the overall goal of Sophrology is to teach you to be calm and connected to your body and mind in your natural environment.
Why Flexibility is Important With Meditation
Most people don’t live their everyday lives in total peace and quiet. Instead, there are usually people talking, nature sounds, environmental noise and much more going on around you. It’s just as important to be relaxed and calm in those environments as when you’re in your quiet place, and Sophrology teaches you how to do that so you can face the world feeling at your best.
Developing Focus With Sophrology
One of the reasons that people practise meditation is because they lack focus and motivation in their lives. In addition to developing flexibility, practising meditation amidst sound and noises will also help you create a higher level of focus. Focus is essential in both life and meditation, and Sophrology will help you develop it to the highest level.
Minimising Distractions
Practising Sophrology and meditation in a noisy place is also a great way to increase the quality and benefits of your meditation sessions. By learning how to block out external distractions, you’ll also learn how to navigate negative thoughts and emotions. As you learn to block these out, you can eliminate any unwanted distractions that hinder your relationships, work performance and other aspects of your life.
Techniques to Enhance Focus Amidst Noise
If you want to learn some specifics about how to meditate with noise around you, here are some helpful tips and techniques.
Start With a Body Scan
Whether you’re meditating in a quiet or noisy environment, you should always start with a body scan. The goal of a body scan is to make you more aware of the sensations and emotions you’re feeling throughout your body. Awareness of these sensations helps your mind and body connect to one another, leading to increased awareness of your emotions and feelings.
Use the Tension-Relax Method
Another great way to deal with external noise and distractions is to use the tension-relax Sophrology exercise. The tension-relax method is where you take a deep breath and tense a specific muscle or part of your body while holding your breath. You then exhale slowly while simultaneously relaxing the tensed part of your body. The tension-relax method is a great way to calm yourself if you get frustrated by external noise whilst you meditate.
Staying Relaxed is Crucial
Above all, it’s essential to learn how to stay relaxed while you’re trying to meditate with noise around you. If you can’t stay relaxed, it will be impossible to achieve a meditative state, and you won’t reap the benefits of meditation and Sophrology.
Activating Degree One of Sophrology
Another great way to stay relaxed and focused during your noisy meditation session is to use exercises of degree one of Sophrology. Degree one of Sophrology is all about incorporating gentle movements into meditation and observing your own sensations. These gentle movements and observations will help you remain focused while meditating and reduce the chances of getting distracted by external noise.
Meditating on the Effect of Sound
The 5th degree of Sophrology will also help you use sound to your advantage. Rather than trying to block out the noise and getting frustrated by it, Sophrology helps you learn to meditate on the sound of your own voice. By focusing on the sound itself and its resonance in your body, you may bring your awareness to places that you hadn’t noticed before. This will lead to increased concentration and allow you to look at sound not as a distraction but as a benefit.
The Importance of Regular Practice
As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect,” and this saying holds true when you’re learning how to meditate with noise around you. You likely won’t be able to achieve a deep meditative state during the first several meditation sessions. Instead, it’s better to consistently practice meditating in a loud environment in short increments to make the experience more bearable.
The Brains Adaptation to Distractions
Over time, and with repeated practice and consistency, you’ll learn to thrive when it comes to meditating in a noisy environment. With each new meditation session, your brain will better block out all the noises around you and learn new ways of dealing with distractions.
Learning new ways to deal with incoming information amid distraction is possible because of the neuroplasticity of your brain. Neuroplasticity means that your central nervous system (brain) can change how it responds to external noise and stimuli. The central nervous system does this by reworking how it’s structured and functions and forming new connections, which is essential to successfully meditate in noisy places.
Final Thoughts
Practising meditation with background noise, including birds chirping, people talking, and things happening around you will lead to better practice. Noises and distractions are a fact of life, and there’s no way to avoid them. Therefore, by learning how to stay focused, relaxed, and in control of your emotions while meditating, you’ll be able to focus when there are distractions in everyday life.
So, instead of turning to noise-cancelling headphones or meditation music to block out all the noise, you should try Sophrology. Sophrology only takes 10 minutes a day and will teach you to turn noise into your ally. By embracing noise rather than blocking it out, Sophrology helps increase your inner focus and stay relaxed in any environment. Try it out today!
Our Sleep Like a Pro 5-day online course is just £12 and you will discover simple techniques to learn how to let go of any stress and tension that will help you sleep quickly and soundly through the night. Sophrology can be introduced to your bedtime routine with just 10-minute practices per day to prepare you for deep sleep and support your overall health.
References
Body scan meditation: How to do it and benefits (medicalnewstoday.com)
Neuroplasticity – StatPearls – NCBI Bookshelf (nih.gov)
Learn How To Let Go & Reveal Your True Self | BeSophro (be-sophro.com)
Meditation: Take a stress-reduction break wherever you are – Mayo Clinic
