Mindfulness: listening to music

Option 1:
Sit and just listen to one CD without multitasking or doing anything else once per week for eight weeks. Listening while commuting does not count. Recommendations: Ray Charles, Genius Loves Company; J.S. Bach, Brandenberg Concertos (pick one); Johannes Brahms, Ein Deutches Requiem; Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Calling; Ella Fitzgerald, The Intimate Ella; your favorite—45 minutes to an hour.

Comment about what new words, music, phrasing, styling, tone, etc. that you notice that you didn't hear the first time.
If you happen to fall asleep while doing this, count it a success as a relaxation technique. :-)

Option 2:
Listen to a short piece of instrumental music (3-6 minutes) twice in a row every day for five days. Classical, jazz, rock, folk, anything you love--just without words. Don't do anything else. As you listen, close your eyes, relax, and "keep coming back to the sound. Grab onto any aural feature, a particular instrument or tone. ... Inhale music and exhale music. ... Scan it high and low. Be starved for it. Let it be starved for you." W. A. Mathieu, The Listening Book, p. 36-7

Comment about what you felt and where in your body you felt it, what shapes, light, colors or textures you "saw" as you listened, or what associations you made.