Searching for new healing yoga music? Your practice has the potential to reach deeper levels when you find the perfect song. This roundup of top healing songs will give you plenty of options to find the best music for yoga that heals, transcends, and relaxes your entire body.
How Music Deepens Your Yoga Practice
For many of us, music offers us a way to express and navigate through emotions without directly speaking about them. This is similar to how many people feel during movement practices like yoga. Combining the two can provide a class that leads to deeper support, relaxation, and regulation.
For trauma survivors, music can even have an impact on stress levels. This review explores how music has been used to reduce stress and treat PTSD through music therapy. It also discusses music’s impact on you while you listen, with benefits that include:
- Activating the part of your brain involved in reward, pleasure, and emotional processing
- Reduces production of cortisol (stress hormone)
Why Music Isn’t in Every Yoga Class
Combining the benefits of yoga with the benefits of music can create a more restful experience, but only if it calms you. You don’t need to include music if you don’t choose to, and what feels supportive to you might look different from someone else.
You may also notice certain yoga classes don’t include any music. For some teachers, this could be a teaching preference, but for certain methods of teaching, like trauma-informed yoga, music is intentionally left out of classes.
Certain noises from tracks that include instruments, animals, and nature sounds might be activating for certain individuals. This way of teaching takes extra precautions to create more safety and predictability in each practice. If you’d like to learn more about this method of teaching, additional precautions taken, and if it’s a holistic healing modality that would be supportive for you, I welcome you to explore this Trauma-Informed Yoga Guide.
Ultimately, including music in your practice is your choice. If you like music, then I welcome you to include it. If you don’t, then no worries. You can mute your microphone in online live classes, and you can always add music if you prefer to practice on your own.
Even though I don’t include music in my classes, I wanted to provide the opportunity for students who love music and find it beneficial to their practice to have options.
Who Are These Yoga Songs For?
These songs and artists are perfect for students and teachers to include in classes. You can also use these for more than yoga and include them for:
- Post workout stretch routines
- Meditations
- Any time you crave a relaxing, mindfulness break
Best Music For Yoga: Top 10 Healing Songs
This list includes my favorite songs that I’ve researched and compiled over the years to craft the best music for yoga practices. A few of these come from podcasts because they are longer, meaning you can set your music without worrying about an abrupt end to your song.
I’ve listed supportive songs for each type of practice, but you’re welcome to use them however you like.
Top 10 Best Songs For Your Yoga Practice
1. Song: Weightless – Marconi Union
- Length: 8 minutes
- Song Qualities: Slow, ambient, gentle
- Best for: Savasana, reducing anxiety
They say to save the best for last, but if there’s one song I’d recommend above all others, it’s this one. This eight minute song is scientifically proven to reduce anxiety. This study by Mindlab research even found Weightless to be more relaxing than receiving a massage.
I welcome you to be in a calm, supportive space for this song to allow yourself to unwind.
2. Song/Podcast Episode: Soft Piano & Guitar Music For Stress Relief Calm Music, Beautiful Relaxing Music – Meditation Self
- Length: 1 hour, 24 minutes
- Song Qualities: Slow, repetitive guitar and string instruments to accompany a slightly energetic flow.
- Best for: Hatha yoga classes
I love the soft guitar and strings in this song. This was my go-to when I taught in-person, non trauma-informed classes because of the length and how it worked with both energetic and gentle flows.
3. Song: Restfulness – Zion Llama
- Length: 2 minutes, 55 seconds
- Song Qualities: Deep aura with gentle, slow piano.
- Best for: Yin Yoga Classes
I find this song allows me to settle into each pose a little deeper. Yin yoga is a practice where you slowly settle into the posture and discover more space over time. A song like this encourages deeper relaxation into your yin yoga practice.
4. Song: Happy – Owen Phillips
- Length: 2 minutes, 57 Seconds
- Song Qualities: Upbeat, energizing and a steady, faster drumming beat
- Best for: Peak of Vinyasa Classes
This song is best used during the peak of your vinyasa class, right before settling into your cooldown to motivate and uplift your mood when you’re deep into your flow. It’s the most high energy song of this list.
5. Song: Recovery – Inner purpose
- Time: 3 minutes, 12 seconds
- Qualities: Blend of water and subtle instruments for a truly zen experience
- Best for: Any practice you need gentle ambiance with hints of nature
I love a good nature-infused song that doesn’t include a lot of birds. If you love the sound of water like a gentle river or light rain, then this song is definitely for you. I’d highly recommend this if you love meditating or relaxing in a warm bath.
6. Your Preference of Color Noise – Any Artist
- Best For: Meditations (If you’re easily distracted by outside noises or want less external distractions)
What is color noise? You may have heard of white noise – that static sound to blend out outside noise. There are other colors of noise including green, brown, pink, and blue.
Each color produces a slightly different effect, but it mainly comes down to what you prefer best (I like green.) I invite you to explore different versions and see which one you like best.
There are loads of places to find your version of color noise that are free to listen to. Any artist for this works.
7. Song/Podcast Episode: Spiritual Reset, Deep Healing Meditation For Increasing Concentration – Meditation Self
- Length: 1 hour, 24 minutes
- Song Qualities: This song keeps the same level of calm, meaning you won’t have any large peaks that could distract your practice. It includes soft wind instruments and a low hum in the background.
- Best for: Restorative Yoga
Restorative yoga uses lots of props and promotes complete relaxation with little to no muscular effort. This song matches that energy, allowing you to settle deeper into your gentle sequence.
8. Song: Spa Relaxation – Hang Drum Music, the Hang Drum Project, Spa
- Length: 2 minutes, 28 seconds
- Song Qualities: Light, soft drumming with smooth transitions. It’s subtle enough to create a perfectly calm atmosphere.
- Best For: Subtle background music for beginning or ending a yoga class.
I welcome you to add this to the beginning or end of class because of the soft, slightly energetic sound. You won’t settle too deep into your practice too quickly, but it’s still calming enough to bring more ease and relaxation.
9. Song: 396 Hz (Muladhara) – Restwaves: Sounds For Sleep
- Time: 1 min, 0 seconds
- Song Qualities: Steady with one background wave-like, noise and no additional instruments.
- Best For: Grounding Practices
This one minute song is all you need for a quick check-in to bring focus to your grounding, root chakra. Your practices don’t need to be an hour long to discover a more grounded, rested state.
10. Song: Slowly Homeward – Owen Phillips
- Time: 2 minutes, 35 seconds
- Song Qualities: Even tempo and slow with light background instruments.
- Best For: Breathwork with counting breaths
The tempo of this song is perfect for counting breathwork. I welcome you to explore inhaling to a count of your choosing with the beat, and exhale the same number (I prefer a count of four for this song). Tip: Inhale for longer than your exhale to energize. Exhale for longer than your inhale to calm. These two and a half minutes are all you need for a quick breathwork practice.
Explore Gentle Songs with A Gentle Yoga Practice
If you’d like to explore these songs alongside gentle trauma-informed yoga classes that support your nervous system, I invite you to join my private yoga library, the Cozy Corner. Classes are catered to support sexual trauma survivors who wish to feel more supported and grounded in their bodies, release stress, and rest deeply. I invite you to learn more below if this feels like it would be a supportive place to rest your body and mind.
