Meditation has exploded as a huge trend that is now being seen beyond just yoga studios. Meditation is being used in schools, corporate offices, and during team retreats to decrease stress and improve productivity. The first step to meditation is having a quiet space where you can relax and have a peaceful mindset.
There are three main sound issues that can make it hard to actually focus on meditating:
- Poor acoustics, with the excess echo causing music or an instructors voice to reverberate, making both unpleasant and harder to listen to
- Sound flanking, or leaking, into your meditation room, causing distractions and interrupting your focus
- A lack of sound, making it so quiet that you can hear everything – people breathing, hungry stomachs, people walking by the room
Check out these DIY tips for acoustically treating and soundproofing your meditation room.
Meditation Rooms – Décor & Design for Acoustic Treatment
Designing your space with acoustics in mind can make all the difference in the sound quality produced in that room. While some meditation studios may keep it quiet (no music, no instructor), some people prefer a guided meditation, which can involve some music and some speaking. If there aren’t any absorptive materials in the space, you may notice echo and reverb that makes it unpleasant to listen to music, and hard to hear and instructor.
If this is a DIY meditation studio, try placing plush decorations around the space such as pillows, area rugs, or even curtains to helps absorb sound. This creates less echo and prevents noise from spreading throughout the room, while also creating a comfortable and stylish space to relax. For a more professional and effective approach, especially if you have a large meditation studio, consider installing acoustic wall panels. Acoustic panels are commonly used in group fitness and activity rooms to help absorb unwanted echo.
Soundproof Curtains for DIY Meditation Room
Depending on the location of your meditation studio, it may get a little too loud for you to able to actually focus on meditating. Many studios these days are located in strip plazas, with large storefront windows that face busy roads and sidewalks. Without some sort of barrier, any noise happening outside that windows can cause distractions and disturb meditation sessions for most people.
Our AcousticCurtain™ can be hung over any sized window to deflect sound waves from entering the room. This keeps noise from other rooms in the building or outside from coming into your mediation space. It comes in a variety of fabric colors, can be easily installed, and dramatically changes the atmosphere of the room. In larger studios, soundproof curtains can also be used as soundproof rooms dividers in order to create multiple small meditation spaces.
White Noise for Private Meditation or Yoga
For some, having background noise is actually more relaxing than complete silence. In complete silence, you can almost hear too much; people breathing, stomachs growling, the conversation of passersby. If this is a problem in your meditation studio, consider adding some background noise in the form of white noise.
A white noise machine is the ideal solution for raising the ambient background level in a space, so that background sounds that would otherwise be distracting can no longer be heard. The best white noise machines are small, portable, and ideal for sound masking. The sound of trickling water from a fountain is another similar, aesthetically pleasing form of background noise that is perfect for a meditation space.
Soundproof Your Walls with Acoustical Wallpaper
Like we said earlier, a lot of meditation and other group activity studios are located in strip malls, where you can’t choose who your next door neighbor will be. Unfortunately, a lot of quiet tenants can end up next to high intensity workout gyms, doggy daycares, and or other generally loud spaces. In this instance, you’ll need to look into wall soundproofing options, which can be hard after construction has already been completed.
Although there’s not an actual special soundproof wallpaper on the market, Mass Loaded Vinyl can be installed over existing drywall for some level of sound reduction from adjacent spaces. However, in order to permanently keep sheets of MLV in place, an additional layer of drywall should be installed over the MLV. For the best results, you should build out a “second wall” on additional studs over the existing wall, and build it with metal studs, mass loaded vinyl, and drywall, in that order.
Once the new layer of drywall is finished, paint it any color that fits the decorations in your studio, and notice the difference in the amount of sound leaking into your studio.
Check out this infographic for easy to read steps to soundproof your meditation room!
In summary, here is the list of most helpful approaches to soundproofing your meditation room – allowing you to focus within and not be distracted by noises without.
- Improve the STC (soundproofing level) of your walls
- Soundproof the doors with soundproofing blankets or curtains, and adding door sweeps and seals
- Make sure the room is located away from busier or louder areas, if possible
- Add white noise or background, ambient noise into your meditation space. This reduces the disruption caused by impulse noises nearby.
