An intro to sound healing

Sound Healing feels like one of the trendiest meditation practices that’s popped up in 2021. Though we may have not mastered the yoga, and breathwork we tried last week, why not give another form a try? Bring on the 'zen'.

Sound healing is a form of meditation, helping the receiver to drop out of the busy, thinking mind and into a deeper space of awareness, which is where a lot of healing takes place. It’s done through the use of healing vibrations and frequencies that come from beautiful instruments and often human voice.

We have partnered with Holly Husler to give us the low down on all things sound healing, the benefits and how to add it into our daily or weekly routines. 

The science in a nutshell: Sound healing is the use of energy and vibration to shift us back to balance and harmony, which is our natural state of being. Everything in the entire universe is energy vibrating. Even though we as humans appear solid, we are made up of hundreds of thousands of vibrating molecules and atoms that are vibrating at such a pace that we can’t see the vibration. Also, everything that vibrates has a sound. We can’t hear ourselves vibrating, because it’s out of our human hearing range. But if we were in perfect health and we could hear ourselves, we'd be humming a beautiful melody. However, in reality, many of the cells that make up US, are vibrating at a rate (or frequency in sound terms) that does not match perfect health, because things like stress, anxiety, toxic thoughts, trauma, stuck emotions take over and cause our cells to vibrate disharmoniously with one another. This is essentially dis-ease in the body, and can eventually lead to physical problems if not managed. 

Think of an orchestra. Each instrument is tuned before they start playing music, otherwise it would sound awful. We can think of ourselves as an orchestra - organs, systems, blood, water, thoughts and emotions - we need tools to reset us and tune us back to harmony again. The vibrations that come out of the instruments used in sound healing (I use crystal singing bowls) are frequencies that match harmony, balance, peace - all the good stuff. The sound waves that come out of the instruments permeate through the body and work to pull the disharmony within us back to harmony. It's called ‘harmonic resonance’. You might’ve heard the concept of a positive thought outweighing a negative - same kind of vibe.

What are the benefits?

 1. The sound waves emitted from the bowls reach our brain waves and draw them into theta and delta states - the slowest in humans - which is where we are most relaxed

 2. In this deeply relaxed state, the body release the hormone oxytocin (love/kindness hormone) and serotonin (happy hormone)

 3. Nitric oxide is released in some parts of the body which helps with immunity

 4. The thinking mind drops away, giving us the freedom to explore the magical place between awake and asleep, which is often where you will connect with your inner wisdom

5. When we’re out of our thinking minds, we can feel more creative, receive clarity and ideas, and answers to questions

 6. The body is tuned back to a state of balance and harmony through the use of healing vibrations and intention 

How to incorporate it into your weekly routine?

Make an intentional slot in your diary to have some ‘you’ time each day. Remember that with sound healing, you will have a different experience each time. Sometimes you’ll be able to totally relax and surrender. Sometimes you’ll fall asleep (the healing still works). Sometimes you might feel uncomfortable as an emotion is brought up to the surface (there’s a reason it’s called ‘healing’ and healing isn’t always relaxing). Sometimes your mind won’t switch off. Sometimes you’ll receive guidance and answers and pure magic. Every experience is perfect, and will be exactly what you need at the time. 

There are lots of online sound journeys you can search for and include as part of your self-care routine through your week when you just need to get out of your head. You’ll find a free 10 minute session on Holly’s website.

Holly also provides free weekly ’Sound Awake’ sessions on her instagram on Tuesday mornings 8:30-8:50am, and longer bedtime sessions called ’Sound Asleep’ on Wednesday evenings, 8:45-10pm via Zoom.

If you want to try it out, Holly takes us on a 30 minute sound journey on our IGTV here.