The meanings and experience of everyday music listening for women living with chronic physical illness were investigated. Multiple, in-depth interviews with six women, living with a diagnosed illness and identifying music listening as important in their life, provided a primary source of data. Analysis included a guided existential reflection and engagement in phenomenological writing. A key finding was the suggestion that to listen to music was to be in the company of a long-time companion who ultimately aided in coping with the unanticipated arrival of chronic illness. Further findings identified music listening as strongly embodied, ‘timeless’, ‘time-full’, ‘timetabled’, ‘time-encored’, and spatially freeing and comforting, which had positive experiential meanings in terms of living with chronic illness. These findings reveal something new about the phenomenon of listening to music in a particular context and invite further phenomenological inquiry, as well as investigation of music listening as a social process and the body’s role in identifying the ‘right’ music.
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