Ease Tinnitus with Meditation

Ease Tinnitus with Meditation   

More than 50% of the general population has some form of tinnitus. This condition, characterized by a constant ringing or comparable sound, currently has no cure and experts cannot entirely explain its cause. Anyone living with tinnitus will tell you about its effects, though. It is linked with emotional and mental stress and can make daily life a challenge. Imagine never getting a moment’s peace!

There are therapies on the market that assist in alleviating the burden of tinnitus. However, meditation has recently risen as a way to successfully disarm the disruptive condition.

What is tinnitus?

Tinnitus is defined as the perception of sound when no external noise is actually present. The most common presentation of tinnitus is described as a “ringing in the ears.” Tinnitus might take other forms, though, and can produce sounds like buzzing, hissing, whistling, swooshing and clicking. In very rare cases, tinnitus can sound like muffled speech or even a piece of music!

The ways that tinnitus can impact a life range from debilitating to merely an annoyance. Many patients with this condition report distress, depression, anxiety, mood swings, irritability and frustration, and poor concentration. As you might imagine, tinnitus can also result in poor sleep habits, which further decreases our ability to concentrate and moderate our stress responses.

Creating space between reactions

What people often find most liberating when they begin a meditation practice is the way that thoughts just change! One of the greatest benefits of meditation is learning to sit with discomfort and watching it as it — the discomfort with a difficult circumstance or thought — changes into something else. You begin to notice that like thoughts, feelings are only temporary. You can notice a thought or feeling and let it pass by, as you might watch a cloud in the sky.

The constant sound or ringing that tinnitus produces won’t really go away, but it might change. And if the annoyance itself doesn’t change, you can become curious about the way you react to it. Instead of honing in on the sound, imagine your mind like a house. In your mind’s eye, imagine that the sound is coming from another room. Try to breath into that space and become aware of the distance between your consciousness and the sound. If you find yourself constantly returning to the annoying ringing, again put it into another room and come back to your breath. Don’t stop just because your mind starts to wander. That’s completely normal! The actual practice of meditation is coming back to stillness and the breath when thoughts naturally creep up or our attention wanders.

Your brain is a muscle, so use it!

What you are essentially doing is putting your mind through a workout. You’re training your brain just as you would any other muscle in your body to create a new and stronger pattern in which space is invited in between what’s happening in your body and your response. Eventually, this new path will become stronger and will happen automatically so that it becomes something you practice without thinking, like brushing your teeth or the actual act of breathing itself. That distance and quieting you are creating will happen outside of meditation, in your regular life and without having to consciously move your thoughts. You’ll be able to find peace in more moments of your life.

This mental process, of training your brain to ignore sounds or stimuli, is called habituation. We are able to tune out sounds by giving them less attention and calming our minds and bodies in response to them. It’s why people who live near train tracks aren’t bothered by the loud train whistles. Some people who’ve experienced this for many years even admit to be lulled by the loud train whistle on a nearby track!

Establishing a daily meditation practice

Don’t set yourself up for failure by expecting a “perfect” meditation practice when you get started. It takes monks years to develop their extensive meditation practice, so give yourself realistic expectations to begin with and try starting at just five or ten minutes a day. That’s all it takes to reap real benefits.

There are all sorts of routes to meditation. Some people prefer a guided meditation talk, some a completely quiet room and a timer, and some even enjoy yoga nidra, which is a yogic meditation practice. Spend some time on the internet and try out each of these methods to find the one that works best for you. Again, the best one for you is the one that you actually do regularly!

Therapeutic measures

Today’s hearing aids often have a tinnitus therapy option. This can be something as simple as a tinnitus program that introduces white noise into your ear in order to balance out or distract from the tinnitus sound. Have your hearing tested and investigate your tinnitus with us at Desert Valley Audiology. Our team can assist you in carving out the right path for your personal tinnitus treatment.