>We all have that song that does something to our complete being when we hear it. It’s that song that makes you almost involuntarily turn up the volume and say, “oh, I love this song!” The song elevates your mood, makes your body groove to the beat, and in the end leaves you feeling all around better. This is an example of sound therapy.
Music has long been a powerful tool for healing, among other things like inspiring creativity, productivity, motivation, and peace of mind. For thousands of years, music and sound has been utilized to alleviate mental disorders, stress, insomnia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety. The ancient Greeks, Tibetans, and native tribes of North, Central, and South America have used sound therapy for many different reasons.
Sound therapy goes far beyond just hearing a song that has meaning to you though. Sound therapy involves the use of different instruments and tools that produce different frequencies and vibrations of sound. Common tools include but are not limited to gongs, singing bowls, tuning forks, cymbals, chimes, bells, and drums.
These instruments are used to induce entrainment, which is a process that synchronizes our fluctuating brainwaves by providing a consistent frequency for our brainwaves to match. The idea of entrainment is to take our normal beta state down to an alpha (relaxed consciousness), theta (meditative state), or even delta state (sleep state).
When our brainwaves are operating in a down-shifted state of alpha, theta, or delta healing can occur. Sound healing is sometimes used during yoga or meditation practices. A guided meditation or a meditation that includes a mantra is also considered sound healing in and of itself.
In a world where our senses are constantly being inundated, a practice that focuses on solely one sense can be quite powerful. The whole-body sensation that occurs from the vibrations made from singing bowls and a gong are almost paralyzing, but in a very positive way.
Sound healing is used to move us from a state of imbalance to a state of balance. More and more of us are finding that we need a little extra help when it comes to balance in our lives. And who could blame us! Our lives pull us in so many directions and there are so many demands for our time and energy that it is no wonder many of us feel unbalanced.
This upcoming year of 2019, you will start seeing a lot more sound healing classes and opportunities popping up as sound healing really starts to make waves in the Western world. This holistic and natural healing practice is one that every single person can benefit from.