This article first appeared on the Sound Wellness blog in January of 2020. Because so many people are searching for ways to strengthen and maintain their health and immunity, it is being repeated here.
Sound Wellness – sound healing – sound therapy is considered complementary medicine. It is a fascinating modality because it bridges both the physical and the energetic aspects of healing. Sound healing/therapy complements and amplifies the effects of both physical body-work and energy medicine.
Sound (sound healing / sound therapy) by itself doesn’t heal. Your body already knows how to do that. What sound does do, is to stimulate or support your body’s natural ability to heal. Your body also works with your consciousness or soul to support healing.
Sound healing (including some music) can help to create wholeness. I use the word ‘can’ here because we live in a world of polarity and sound is part of that. Some sounds stimulate healing; some sounds hurt or create dis-ease.
Not every sound is good for you. To complicate this, each of us responds to sound in unique ways.
Sound assists healing in the following ways:
- vibration
- resonance
- entrainment
- quantum
Let’s take a closer look at each of these. Even though we are looking at them separately, they work in interconnected ways.
Vibration
To gain an understanding of how sound can affect us, and why it supports healing, we first need an understanding of what sound is, and how it moves.
All matter is in vibration. Sound is a vibrational energy. Sound is defined as vibrations that travel through the air or another medium that can be heard when they reach a person’s or animal’s ear.
Sound, at the 3rd dimensional level, is a very physical energy. It pushes against atoms as it travels.
Imagine standing in the waves on the seashore. Your feet feel secure in the sand and the waves move back and forth around your legs. You can feel the push of the wave as it crashes into your legs and you can feel the pull of the water as it moves back into the sea.
Sound is very similar. It pushes and pulls like the waves of water as it moves. Actually, sound can’t move at all unless it has atoms or molecules to push.
Not everyone knows that sound travels through the human body about four times faster than it travels through the air. Yes, we hear the sound – like a knock on the door – but it is also traveling through our bodies – creating waves of vibration as it travels.
Sounds like the waves of vibration created by a Tibetan singing bowl can stimulate your body and energetic systems to restart back to normal, healthy function and frequencies. In this way, sound can change the way matter itself vibrates.
Waves of vibration from Tibetan or crystal singing bowls or tuning forks can support the release of excess muscle and joint tension in the body.
Resonance
Resonance is the tendency of the vibration of one object or sound to force another object to vibrate at the same frequency.
Your body and energetic systems are an orchestra of frequencies all sounding together to create the being that is you. Every part of you has its own natural frequency – like your heart, your liver, your brain, your chakras.
If something is not singing its natural frequency, it is out of tune. Often a sound can stimulate the out of tune part of you to return to its natural frequency, stimulating a healing response.
John Beaulieu, one of the pioneers of sound healing and sound therapy, tells a story of spending many hours in an anechoic chamber. This is a small room devoid of outside noise, light, and any other stimulation.
After time in this silent space, Beaulieu was able to hear many of the frequencies of his body and nervous system. One day, he decided to bring in a tuning fork into the chamber with him. When he tapped the tuning fork, he heard the sounds of his entire nervous system change to the sound of the fork.
This is resonance.
Remember, sound goes through you. And as it does this, it creates a response from your nervous system.
Some sounds, like traffic noise, stimulate your nervous system to release stress hormones that increase illness and discomfort.
Some sounds, like nature sounds, stimulate your nervous system to release hormones that create relaxation and health.
Entrainment
Not everyone knows that within four or five minutes of walking into a mall or store where music is playing, your heartbeat attempts to match the beat of the music. There is no off switch to your body’s response to the beat.
This is called entrainment. Entrainment is the use of a stronger pulse to create a change in another. Entrainment primarily affects heartbeat, breathing and brainwaves.
Rhythmic entrainment is one of the methods used on music for relaxation or healing. It can create the relaxation response by slowing down the heartbeat, or it can create an energizing response by speeding up the heartbeat. When you affect the heartbeat, you also affect the breathing rhythm and the rhythm of the brainwaves. These three systems are deeply connected.
The Quantum
Because sound pushes against atoms as it moves, it also works at the atomic level and smaller. The leading edge of research focused on quantum mechanics and consciousness is beginning to give us an understanding of the connectedness of all things.
To me, as a Sound Wellness practitioner, this is the realm of emotional and spiritual healing. Emotional or spiritual issues are often sitting at the core of an illness or disease. Your physical body holds on to this energy until the issue is dealt with – or not.
Many physical issues are the result of or exacerbated by emotional or spiritual issues. These issues don’t have a physical presence like your heart, liver, brain or muscles have a physical presence.
I believe the energy of emotional or spiritual issues exists in the quantum spaces within and around your atoms. At the atomic level, you are 99.9% empty space. This ‘empty’ space is where our issues fester, affecting the natural frequencies and vibration of the physical tissues around it.
It is one thing to deal with an illness by easing symptoms. To a certain extent, this supports the body to stimulate the natural healing response. To create wholeness, we need to address underlying emotional and spiritual issues.
This takes courage and support. When we shift the quantum space, we shift the physical space.
An Invitation
I invite you to the community of Sound Wellness to explore ways to support your well-being.
Here are a few of our regular and coming events:
Sound Wellness Weekly Chakra Toning Circle
How to Create Calm in Challenging Times, complimentary webinar
2pm MST, November 21, 2020
Join us on a journey into harmony.
Sound affects you deeply from your atoms to your energetic networks, even if you’re ignoring it. This is why it is a supremely effective tool for self care.
Sound is one of the most powerful tools you can use to clear the clutter, expand awareness and reconnect with your body’s natural ability to heal.
Tune up Your Holistic Practice with Sound Wellness
2pm MST, December 5, 2020
Sound has been used to support health and healing for tens of thousands of years. It is also a powerful complement to many healing modalities.
In this webinar we will explore:
- the human being’s wiring for sound
- how to use that wiring in your practice
- how Sound Wellness amplifies your clients’ results
- how Sound Wellness integrates with many modalities
Sound healing/therapy training has moved to a whole new professional level with Sound Wellness Institute’s competency training. Bring a cup of tea, your notebook and your questions for this complimentary 75-minute webinar.
Tools for Emotional Health and Resilience, 2½ hour on-line video program, $29 CAD
The Sound Wellness Institute has created a 2 hour video program to provide the tools and understanding to shift the stress response, and to return to our natural state of calm.
It contains modules on:
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Perceptual Intelligence
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Mindfulness
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Sound Wellness
This is the same program that we offer our corporate clients. It was designed to meet the needs of those who are facing the challenges that have been brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak. And it contains powerful tools and information!
Sound Wellness Fundamentals of Healing with Sound and Music
3-day course, March 12 to 14.
Wellness is about thriving in every aspect of your life.
The use of sound and music to support well-being is as old as language itself. Every particle of your being responds deeply and intimately to sound.
The right choice of sound and music can:
- stimulate the natural healing ability of your body, reducing, or even eliminating pain
- help you reduce stress – you’ll sleep better, feel better, enjoy better health
- bring peace and calm to your day
- and so much more.
Practitioners in this program can qualify for certification as a Level I Sound Wellness Practitioner.