I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine

by Daniel J. Levitin

Meta-awareness is a double-edged sword. It can help you understand consciousness and conscious processes; it is what allows the student violinist to be able to step outside the sheer joy of listening in order to study how to play the instrument. That same meta-awareness, however, can prevent us from becoming fully absorbed. When that happens, we hear only the flaws in our own performances; we sit at the concert and analyze what is happening, rather than synthesizing and experiencing it. Richard Davidson frames it this way: “Across a range of traditional and contemporary contemplative traditions, the absence of meta-awareness is viewed as an impediment to various forms of self-monitoring, self-regulation, and self-inquiry.” Some meta-awareness is clearly necessary; too much of it robs us of truly becoming one with those things in life we care most about.