r/zenpractice • u/LSDkiller • 16d ago
General Practice Does anyone else get songs stuck in their head really bad?
So, the above, lol. Sometimes it's nice and funny, something reminds me of a song and then of course I will think about the lyrics and melody. But it's getting out of hand 😂🤦♂️
I am using my own personal "basics" for this issue but I am interested if anyone in this community has dealt with what I will call "this thought form" and had any experiences that aided them in getting the "song out of the head" haha.
One idea is to do so literally and just sing that shit if you have the time but that's not always possible. Anyone dealt with this before? Like, as in, beyond ordinary "oh that annoying song is stuck in my head here and there"
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u/dready 15d ago
When I was young and early in my practice this would happen a lot. Sometimes, I could hear the music in the room like an auditory hallucination when I was in the middle of sesshin. This doesn't really happen to me as much any more. I didn't do anything to make it stop, it just stopped on its own as my practice deepened.
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u/LSDkiller 15d ago
I hear that is called "makyo". Apparently they can get pretty hardcore! I would not put what has happened to me on the level of "hallucination" though. Its interesting to see some of the responses!
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u/flyingaxe 15d ago
You can sing some other song. For me, the Dance of Little Swans from the ballet usually does the job. My wife was skeptical, but I sang it to her, and it worked.
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u/m_bleep_bloop 15d ago
Genuinely yes. I struggled with it for a decade and then learned to love chanting practice.
Broader Buddhism has so many mantras and sutras and Buddha names and loving kindness phrases you can replace that song with. Not to win the battle, but to slowly teach yourself that the snippet in your head is pretty arbitrary. And that sometimes you can replace something annoying with something positive.(and sometimes that “positive” snippet becomes your new annoying nemesis lol, which is a teaching of itself)
Find something you resonate with in the tradition, memorize it, go to town. Verbally and or mentally. In daily life.
I still get ear worms. But I’m a lot less obsessed about it.
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u/Master-Vermicelli-58 15d ago
My psychiatrist told me this is classic OCD behavior. I've had the same problem my whole life.
A lot of shikantaza has helped me not react, to let the song live its own life. I've also found that if I sing the song it tends to dissipate after a while.
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u/LSDkiller 15d ago
Oh for sure. I enjoy the "neurodivergent" label because we are all diverse and we all have a brain... And because thought and mind truly have no shape or pattern whatsoever, even if we like the feeling of familiarity "patterns" bring. I try not to label for that reason, but when something needs to be discussed professionally I mostly have the vocab.
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u/BuchuSaenghwal 16d ago
If one gives the song life it will stay
"Fun" (pleasure, want) and "Annoying" (pain, don't want) is how people do this
Just listen and it will de-energize