Soothe your Spirit with Sound Healing

Jun 28

3 min read

Sound healing has been gaining popularity in recent times, but is it just a passing fad? Or is there more to this seemingly ‘New Age’ therapy?

We all instinctively know that music 🎼 and sound affect us on a deep level. That’s why our bodies respond enthusiastically to lively music 💃 and relax to soothing music 💆.

Why, though?

What’s happening in our bodies that causes us to respond so strongly to sound?

And can we use that power intentionally as a source of healing? Let’s explore these questions and more!

What Is Sound Healing?

First off, what IS sound healing? Sound Healing is a therapeutic modality that uses sound to interact with the human body to effect change on a physical, mental, emotional, and/or energetic level.

Intentionally or not, sound and music have been used by humans for thousands of years for everything from meditation 🧘‍♂️ to relaxation to celebration🎉.

Borrowing from the ancient Chinese and Ayurvedic ideas of life energy known as Qi or prana, respectively, sound healing is thought to work to keep this life energy flowing smoothly.

Common Sound Healing Instruments

A wide variety of instruments may be used for sound healing, depending on the goal. Some common ones are listed below:

Gong - struck with a mallet, this makes a deep resonant sound

Tuning Forks - may be used near the body or placed directly on the body

Drum - thought to represent Mother Earth's heartbeat

Wind Chimes - manually moved or blown by the wind, chimes make a tinkling sound

Singing Bowls - played by gently tapping or rubbing a mallet along the rim

Voice - the most ancient of all instruments and beautifully powerful

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The Science of Sound Healing

The simplest form of science has been around forever and is, quite simply, observation 👀. This most primitive form of science is what civilizations have been doing since the beginning of time. They then used these observations to create practices and rituals to benefit both the body 🚶‍♀️ and mind.

Modern science goes quite a few steps beyond simple observation and also performs elaborate studies 🔬to test what we ‘assume’ we know. This helps us to form a better, more accurate understanding of various phenomena.

From these modern studies, such as through MRI’s, we know that sound and music affect the brain🧠. We know about various brain waves and their effect on the body. We understand sound frequencies 〰️ and how they affect the body.

And putting this together with centuries of observation on how sound and music affect our emotional and physical states, we can tell that these external stimuli certainly do provoke an internal reaction. Scientists will continue probing for evermore information until there is a deeper understanding of it all. Then, hopefully, we can put it to its most effective use.

Sound Frequencies

Sound is made up of waves 〰️ which travel through various mediums at different speeds. These speeds, or frequencies, are measured in Hertz (Hz), just like brain waves. Humans can hear 👂 a large range of sounds between about 20 Hz all the way up to 20,000 Hz!

Interestingly, sound travels faster through water 💦 than it does through air. Why does this matter? Because the human body is made up primarily of water! This means that sound travels quickly and efficiently through the body making it a powerfully effective–and potentially healing–tool.

If you want to see something REALLY cool, check out cymatics (the study of visible sound frequencies) studied by Dr. Hans Jenny in the early 20th century.

Benefits Of Sound Healing

So, now that we understand a bit more about the science behind sound healing, what are some of its benefits? The purported benefits of sound healing are many and a few of the more common ones are listed here: