What is Sound Healing?
I want to start this off on a personal note. I LOVE SOUND. I actually experienced sound for the very first time at our Nailsworth studio about 3 years ago. I had a yoga teacher (Lou) at the time who was trying to get me to come along to one of her sessions. I came into yoga from a gymnastics background and I always loved the asana (posture) practice and took a lot more warming up when it came to the more mindful and meditation practices.
I took Lou up on the offer and dragged myself to one of her sound baths. I remember rushing there from a super busy day worrying that I was going to be late (something that I now always tell my students not to worry about!) There’s no point going to a mindful class if you are going to be stressing out and rushing to get there.
I arrived at the studio and the energy in there was a breath of fresh air. The room was full of people who probally also had their own stresses from the day, all gathered to find some chill amount the business.
After staring at the ceiling confused for the first half of the session I finally allowed myself to let go and relax into the experience. As someone who never let myself relax before this was HUGE for me. After this first experience I was hooked! I continued going to these session every month when Lou held them.
About 6 months later after chatting to Lou (who had now become a great friend) I decided that I wanted to learn everything there was to know about sound so I could use it as part of my work as a yoga teacher. Lou so kindly trained me and I actually now use her bowls in my sound baths as she moved away and couldn’t take them with her. Such a full circle moment for me.
So enough of me…
What is sound?
In simple terms sound is audible energy vibrations. These vibrations, if large enough create sound waves that your ears can hear. Sound travels through the air but also through liquids and even solid objects, hence why you can hear things that are happing in a next door room our from outside.
Everything has a vibration including you, you just can’t hear it because it’s outside of the frequency of that the human ears can hear. We have known this forever and in the English language we talk about this without really realising it. You might use terms like ‘we’re on the same wavelength or ‘they have a good vibe’. These terms refer to the vibrations we make as humans, the vibrations that all things make.
How sound can affect our emotions.
Sound has a HUGE effect on us emotionally. Think about how lullaby’s can calm children or how music in horror films can make you more stressed and anxious. How your favourite song can make you want to dance or lift your mood. Songs might also remind you of a place a memory or a loved one. The accossiation we have with sound is so powerful.
Sound is so profound that unfortunately it has now also been used as a form of torture. Some sounds have such an effect on us that they can use huge trauma responses
Sound and calm
We now use sound machines (white noise) to restate the sounds from inside the womb to calm babies. White noise has also been shown to be useful for adults. This noise provides a blanket of background noise that your brain doesn’t recognise distinctly enough and can be used to drown out distractions meaning that your brain can focus more. Those with learning difficulties and ADHD often report improved focus and calm with background noise.
We have self medicated with sound our whole lives without even realising it. Putting on your favourite song to cry to when you need to let go of emotions or dance music when you know you need to feel more motivated. Even just sitting and listening to the sound of birds in the morning when we need some calm.
Why do people love sound so much?
Because we need it… the short answer is that we are all in such need of a space to relax. A recent UK study by The Mental Health Foundation found that 3 in 4 adults are so stressed that they feel unable to cope. These stats were worse across the board for women. Worryingly this study also showed that we are in the mist of a stress crisis with 18-24 year olds struggling more now then they ever have. So many factors play into this, cost of living going up, people working longer days. I also believe that for the younger generation social media has a huge part to play in this. Due to the increased use of mobile phones we can now be contacted all day everyday leaving very little time for ourselves.
We are increasingly finding it hard to calm our nervous systems and stay on top of stress.
Stress if commonly known for bothering our sleep and without enough sleep this cycle just keeps on going. We feel more irritable and have a lower mood in general when we are sleeping less and feeling more stressed.
Sound healing is in short allowing the body to rest and recover. Using the power of sound waves, sound healing enables you to get to the processing stage. It’s giving your body permission to rest so you can start to recover.
For most of us we give ourselves time to rest when we have a physical injury or are feeling physically unwell but we aren’t given the chance to rest mentally and emotionally. Sound is this permission to rest emotionally.
Nervous system
When we give ourselves space and time to rest we allow ourselves to transition into the parasympathetic nervous system. This is the system that is responsible for rest and digest the part of you that will allow time for healing and repair. It is not possible for our bodies to do this when we are in our fight or flight nervous system, feeling stressed, overwhelmed and exhausted.
When we allow our bodies and minds the time to rest that is when healing happens, when repair begins and when we can reset our systems.
I could go on and on about how much I love sound. I have been working with it for 3 years now and have seen such a difference in myself and with my clients who also keep coming back for more.
I really encourage you to give it a go if you haven’t already. If you have any questions I would love to answer them so please get in touch.
I hold Sound Bath’s every Sunday at 6pm in Brimscombe and I would love to see you there.
Best,
Grace x