Types

• Nature:
  The sounds of the ocean, the rain, birds singing, rain falling. This is often used in white-noise machines to block out less pleasant sounds.
  
  Guided Imagery:
  A voice takes you somewhere with words in a guided-imagery meditation while soft music plays in the background.
  
  Mantra:
  The repetition of words or sounds. Repeating (chanting) these words or sounds, often in Sanskrit, focuses thoughts and centers the mind.
  
  

Benefits

• Pain Relief:
  According to the American Cancer Society, "music trials have revealed a reduction in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, insomnia, depression, and anxiety."
  
  Better Meditation:
  While in your yoga class, the music promotes relaxation and calmness during meditation, making your class experience better.
  
  

Considerations

• Those who suffer from insomnia may find that listening to soothing music improves their sleep. A sleep study by the Journal of Advanced Nursing showed that those who listened to relaxing music before going to sleep significantly had better sleep quality, longer sleep, more efficient sleep and less daytime dysfunction.
  
  

Function

• Choose the right music for what you would like to achieve. Do you want to feel energized? Look for music with an upbeat tempo and a drumbeat. To center your mind, look for mantra yoga music. For deep relaxation, you might want to find guided imagery music or any type of music that makes you feel calm and relaxed.
  
  

Find It

• You can use iTunes to search for music, but remember that they do not have everything. Amazon has guided imagery and meditation CDs.
  You can ask your yoga teacher after class what music she was playing. Some CDs need to be ordered through a website. Find website information on the back of the CD.