Meditation problem - songs stuck in my head

[Darkmatters]

Hey all - I read that meditation helps with becoming lucid, and recently somebody (I think it was Taosaur?) posted a link about Mindful Meditation. I downloaded the PDF of the book and have been practicing for a few days now and LOVING it!!! Unexpected benefit -- sitting with my vertebrae 'stacked' is improving my posture and seems to be alleviating my chronic back pain! Ok, on to my question. I have no problems letting thoughts, feeling and images pass right through without getting involved... but my worst nemesis is those pesky songs that get stuck in your head!! The book listed a few ways to negate certain issues of distraction, but I haven't run cross anything specifically to help with this. To be fair, I'm not quite finished reading the book... it might come up, but I was wondering if anybody has encountered this and hopefully has a strategy to deal with it? Note... before anybody suggests this... Im not referring to songs I necessarily heard just before meditating... you know how some songs are... they get STUCK in there, even hours or days after you heard them, and no matter what you do you just can't shake them loose!!! The problem is compounded by the fact that I:m paying attention to my breathing, which by its nature is rhythmic, and can easily spark a song innocently enough in the depths of my tiny cranium.

[ClouD]

You are fuelling these thoughts with attention, with interest. No thought can function without you.

[Darkmatters]

Yep. I know it. I should add... it's not a bad problem. I've meditated I think 6 times now, and it's only been a problem once (the last time)... and not a bad problem. But that @#$% song floated up several times and didn't want to go away (eventually it did). In the book there are several specific solutions offered to certain problems... I:m hoping somebody has a specific technique to counter this. Like... I don't know... play the Collected Hits of Barry Manilow till you puke and then your brain is conditioned against music entirely... ? There probably IS no such technique, but a guy can still hope!

[Xaqaria]

Here is a trick I've developed for myself, I don't know if it will work for anyone else. When I get a song stuck in my head, it feels like sort of a feedback loop. The lyrics of the song just make me think of the song itself which leads me to think of the lyrics over and over again. What I do is break the lyrics down and run through associations that I make with the individual words or phrases. I follow the chain of associations until what I'm thinking about really has nothing to do with the song. If the song tries to pop back into my thoughts, it becomes easier and easier for the thought pattern to lead away from the lyrics and be terminated.

[Darkmatters]

Good plan!! Ill give it a try if it happens again. Thanks! I wonder if there's some kind of "noise-canceling" technology that could be applied (mental technology obviously, I:m not talking about electronics). Maybe I could make myself think of a different song to cancel it out? A completely different kind of rhythm? Just thinkin' out loud here... well, you know what I mean... typing out loud.... whatever. ... In fact, I'm due for my morning session right now... maybe I can try it out. Hopefully it wont be necessary though.

[Darkmatters]

Went for a half an hour, and the noise-canceling thing worked!! A couple times at the beginning of the session a song started to come up, and I countered it with a drum rhythm I imagined that has a sound similar to the "bonk" sound a computer makes when you've made a bad request (or whatever... not good with computer lingo). I was afraid it might turn into a silly game, with the two songs playing against each other and fighting for my attention, but it only took a couple notes of the drum rhythm to completely silence the other song each time, and I only had to do it 4 or 5 times before the monkey mind settled down pretty well. In fact after the first time it only took a single "bonk" note each time. Briefly it was like the scene from Austin Powers (second one I think) with Dr Evil and Scott, where every time Scott tried to talk Dr E just went "Zip it...". A quick volley like that and then silence reigned supreme. Good to know!

[Acala]

Here's a little trick: When you hear the incessant song in your head, try to pinpoint the location in three dimensions in your head where the song seems to originate. Is it by your ears? In the center? Etc. Not trying to turn it off or change it in anyway. Just trying to be as precise as possible in locating the place where you detect it. And then just keep your focus there, observing it.