WHAT IS SOUND HEALING?
Imagine walking along a beach. Cloudy skies bring a comfortable coolness.
The wind teases your hair and dances around you.
You hear the majestic waves rise and fall.
The crashing crescendo a continuous soothing lull to your ears as you feel your cares melt into the water like sea foam.
The sound of lapping water kissing the shore and receding away in gentle loving repetitions, evokes contentment and wistfulness.
You finish your walk. You feel relaxed, refreshed. Revived.
The walk in itself did you good. Or so you believed.
But what if what we hear affects us more powerfully than what we do?
My hometown. Image sourced from Wikipedia SouthMissionBeach, CC BY 3.0
Science has long established the relationship between improved well-being and music participation either listening to or playing an instrument (Harvard health, 2011 ).
However, recent studies have delved deeper into the intricacies of sound and its neuro chemical effect on our brains: how audible and inaudible sounds and their vibrations can shift brain waves into alpha (conscious) or Delta state (sleep) reviving the body’s regenerative pathways. This is what makes sound healing so powerful. And with mounting scientific evidence of its efficacy, this ancient intuitive wisdom has become an accepted component in healthcare applications.
So, while you would have believed that your physical walk on the beach caused you to feel recharged, it's actually the vibrational frequency of those natural sounds …. the crashing waves, the lapping water… that would have contributed more significantly to your state of well-being at that time.
Sound healing is not a new concept for the human race. It dates back to tribal times where ancient cultures used sound tools and voice to heal.
Indigenous Australians have been playing didgeridoos for 40,000 years to restore broken bones, heal illnesses and most importantly played in their spiritual ceremonies. Similarly, Native American’s use chanting and drums to restore health. These cultures still believe health is the ultimate expression of a unified spirit, mind and body. If this harmony is disrupted, illness occurs within our bodies.
As a certified practitioner in Sound Healing, I am always happy to hear my clients say they find peace and healing from my wellness sessions.
Sound Healing clears blocked energy, boosts mental, physical and emotional well-being. In fact, there has been scientific evidence suggesting Sound Therapy activates damaged DNA strands to self-repair. It seems particular tones tend to promote vitality and healing as well as enhance happiness. This can enable a sense of empowerment to achieve life goals such as prioritising health or creating wealth.
Some of the other benefits reported by enthusiasts are better balance and harmony in life, pain relief in joints and muscles, relief from sciatica, headaches and migraines, reduced depression and anxiety, improved immunity and digestive system, deeper quality sleep, better focus, increased energy.
How does sound healing work? Give me the science!
To understand how sound can heal, we need to take a mini science session to understand how we ‘hear’ sound.
“Everything in Life is Vibration”
Albert Einstein
According to the laws of nature, everything has a vibration. Science has defined all things as a composition of molecules- groups of atoms. These atoms are in a constant state of motion. But the speed of that motion dictates whether objects appear as a solid, a liquid, gas or plasma.
As objects vibrate, the surrounding air molecules are moved and bump into other molecules which affects other nearby molecules creating a chain reaction called sound waves. So sound is essentially a vibration.
Vibrations are measured in Hertz (Hz) which is the same unit of measurement used for sound. Although we can generally hear frequencies from 20hz to 20,000hz, the frequencies outside these limits are not beyond our ability to absorb them.
When sound travels, your outer ear (pinna), like a satellite dish, collects and transmits these vibrations to the middle and inner ear (cochlea/vestibular apparatus). The hair cells in the inner ear pick up and convert these into electrical impulses (brain waves) which the brain then interprets as recognised sounds -child laughing, partner snoring, bells chiming.
The middle and inner ear are also connected to the Vagus nerve -the longest nerve in your body that connects the brain to all the organs. It regulates your Parasympathetic Nervous System which influences your rest state, aids digestion, reduces blood pressure, heart rate, inflammation etc everything that keeps you in a calm, relaxed state.
On the other hand, your Sympathetic Nervous System is responsible for your ‘fight or flight’ state keeping you in a state of stress.
This means that every sound vibration processed by your ears also gets transmitted as information to your Vagus nerve. Those vibrations interact with the millions of cells within your body. Every cell in your body communicates with each other and with the environment using tiny antennae, called cilia, that emit and receive signals, including sound, smell and light.
So what has the Vagus nerve got to do with sound healing?
If the Vagus nerve is inactive or blocked, your body goes into a state of illness. Manipulating the Vagus nerve, and by association the brain, with the right frequency through sound vibrations can restore the body into wellness.
Sound Healing Therapies use resonance and vibration, created by specialised tools like tuning forks, gongs, drums, chimes, singing bowls and many other sound tools to shift or entrain brainwave frequencies maximising well-being and harmony in the body and mind.
Human Biofield and Tuning Forks
A normal, healthy human is said to resonate from within a biofield at an optimal frequency of 62-70Mhz.
The biofield is an informational energy field surrounding every living thing. It is believed to be permeated with the accumulated cellular vibrations of all your life experiences.
When this vibration drops to 58Mhz due to stress from physical, mental or emotional disruptions, the immune system is compromised and becomes susceptible to low frequency operators like bacteria, viruses and disease. Not only does this mean that you’re now probably feeling pretty run down and unwell, there is also dissonance or noise in your bio-field.
In Biofield Tuning an experienced practitioner can ‘zone’ into where the dissonance lies; to the traumatic or difficult period of time you might have experienced especially in relation to a specific age, thought pattern or memory that gradually built up to an overwhelm within.
Using the frequency and vibrations of an activated tuning fork, brainwaves are recalibrated to a higher frequency. This enables the noise to be replaced with a clear tone and the dissonance balanced.
People often report feeling a sense of clarity and profound relaxation, and better sleep post sessions. With cells restored to their normal vibrational frequencies, physical healing and emotional releases are not uncommon.
Singing Bowls
Tibetan Singing Bowls have been used by monks for over 2500 years as a meditation aid in their spiritual practices. And they are becoming increasingly popular in the modern-day well-being sector. Singing bowls have been scientifically tested and proven to produce sound waves patterns, similar to alpha waves in the brain present in states of meditation and calm consciousness. The size and different properties of these bowls determine their varied enthralling, transcendental sounds which nurtures your physical, mental and emotional states.
A study done on 62 men and women found sound bathing reduced anxiety and depression. The study stated “significantly less tension, anger, fatigue, and depressed mood after sound sessions. Tibetan singing bowl meditation may be a feasible low-cost low technology intervention for reducing feelings of tension, anxiety, and depression, and increasing spiritual well-being.”
A Soulavita sound meditation (Sound bath) is like an acoustic energy massage. Participants lie down and absorb the soothing vibrations from different singing bowls being struck and toned by an experienced practitioner. These travel through the body restoring wellness leaving participants feeling relaxed and recharged
Sound Therapy techniques can certainly differ in delivery but they all apply sound waves and harmonic vibrations to the body in an attempt to synchronize fluctuating brainwaves to its optimized frequency.
As the brain is entrained to this higher frequency, it becomes much easier for an individual to transition from normal waking consciousness (beta state) to a relaxed consciousness (alpha state) perhaps even attaining a meditative state (theta state) and sleep (delta state) where internal healing happens.
When Sound Healing anchors meditation, the effects can be long lasting as balance and calmness are restored within which increases clarity of mind and fortifies a sense of purpose.
In fact, many large corporations looking to secure staff wellness, and therefore ramp up productivity, have incorporated alternative modalities as perks. Google, one of the world’s tech giants, recently added Sound Healing as part of its staff wellness program. This marks a momentous breakthrough in establishing the credibility of the therapy and its benefits towards enhancing corporate leadership and empowering genius.
Very few can dispute the power of tones in music to move people from all over the world. Sound Healing then has so many applications- from a substantive alternative healing modality to a complementary mainstream healthcare course or even just as a novel way to relax and rejuvenate and destress from life’s pressure.
Whether you are looking for an alternative healing modality to complement a current medical treatment...
...wanting to find new ways of empowering yourself to increase business acumen and create wealth, ...enhance leadership expertise...
or simply just to treat yourself to some love and recuperation…
Sound Healing could be a “sound” option.
Want to find out how sound healing can help you overcome stress and overwhelm to gain clarity and profound wellness?
Contact me for a chat on how I can help you on your wellness journey.
As I am confident you’ll find a solution with Soulavita Sound Wellness.
