All sounds at any given moment, when taken in aggregate as an environment, create a soundscape: a powerful tool that helps (or hinders) how humans relate to their surroundings. Increased awareness of how sound can heal or harm may have something to do with the rise of sound baths. According to
The New York Times, “One way sound is related to health is through noise pollution: traffic noise, planes flying overhead, loud concerts. The World Health Organization lists noise pollution as an increasing threat to human health, and recently
set limits on environmental noise.”
What is a sound bath?
Lately sound baths—an experience in which a group of people gather, often while lying on a mat, to listen to sounds produced through various instruments (such as singing bowls, tuning forks or gongs)—are trending. Hear them pop up everywhere: at yoga studios, basements, churches, community centers and even some prisons and hospitals.
Sound baths, like most forms of performed music, bring people together. But the experience of a sound bath is more meditative and soothing than most musical encounters, which often seek to entertain or provoke. Sound baths work via entrainment. Entrainment synchronizes our fluctuating brainwaves by providing a stable frequency which the brainwave can attune to. Harnessing rhythm and frequency, sound baths entrain our brainwaves.
Sound baths offer a harmonic source of healing, a sound conduit to help release anxiety, depression, insomnia and more. The sound frequencies played in sound baths tend to
slow down brain waves to a deeply restorative state, aka the relaxation response, which activates the body's system of self-healing.
Inside the relaxation response, marvelous things occur. Oxygen consumption lessens, blood pressure decreases, heart rate and respiration rate slows, muscles unwind, the mind clears and a sense of calm prevails. It’s similar to how meditators and yogis work with their breath, but with sound it's the frequency which influences the shift.
Although sound healing has become more prominent in recent years, as a healing modality that goes back to ancient times. From vocal chanting, mantra repetition and shamanic icaros medicine songs of various Indigenous peoples from Central and South America, to instruments such as Tibetan singing bowls, shamanic drums or the Australian didgeridoo, you will find some form of sound healing in practically every culture on earth.
How does sound affect our health?
The benefits of sound bath or a sound healing home practice, can include improved sleep, reduction of chronic pain and
blood pressure, lowered cholesterol and a
decreased risk of heart disease. In a
study published in 2014, for patients being weaned off mechanical ventilation, provided with sounds of nature, there was a significant reduction in agitation and anxiety. This was quantified through heart rate, expressions of pain and blood pressure, when compared to a control group of patients who did not listen to these sounds. In 2017, a
study found that singing bowl sound meditation was helpful in reducing tension, depression symptoms, fatigue and anger in a group of 62 adults.
What to expect from a sound healing?
Of course, everyone's experience is different. And experiences vary each time, and unexpected things may come up in a session. Most people will feel very relaxed during a sound healing; some might have visualizations, receive creative downloads, or have an emotional breakthrough.
Whether it’s a communal sound bath or personal private session, the length of a typical session is anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes, during which healers use tools like a vibroacoustic bed and instruments such as gongs, drums, bells, tuning forks, singing bowls, cymbals or chimes to create tactile vibrations at specific frequencies.
How can you integrate sound healing into your wellness routine?
Sound healing is accessible to everyone, and you can find innovative ways to incorporate into your wellness routine. Attend a local sound bath to get inspired, but you can also listen to prerecorded sessions. They are easy to find online, or you can listen to a sound therapy playlist on Spotify or some other app. Listening to sound through speakers means some of the nuances are dulled, but earbuds or headphones can help with that.
To really take sound healing to the next level, you can also invest in instruments (such as a simple singing bowl) and play them for yourself. But another fantastic way to tap into sound’s ability to nourish is to discover how your own voice is an instrument of healing. You can do this by humming, chanting and singing. Hum to yourself for just two minutes and notice how your mood begins to shift.
Or you can choose specific frequencies to hum to clear and balance particular energy centers in your body. Vocal toning exercises are a good place to begin.
Here's a toning exercise/vocal warmup to try:
Lip Buzz
Vibrate your lips together without pitch, at first. This will help build up your breath support and stamina while singing. The goal is to make a motorboat sound by making your lips vibrate as you blow air through your mouth and nose. Then you can try adding a pitch to your lip buzz and hold it anywhere from 3-5 seconds. Pitch can go up, down, or stay on one note. There should be a tingling sensation in your nose and other resonators (the forehead, cheeks, etc.).
As an added bonus, the vagus nerve is connected to your vocal cords and the muscles at the back of your throat. Singing, humming, chanting and gargling can activate these muscles and stimulate your vagus nerve. This has been shown to increase heart-rate variability and vagal tone, producing a palpable sensation of calm.
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