• MAIN

Notes on sound healing

_{Photo-Sabri Tuzcu Unsplash}

Sound healing. It’s older than the singing bowls.

The notes from my first sound healing session or sound therapy are buried deep in the foggy times of childhood.
Before I could speak. Or walk. Or respond to my name.
I was a baby.
The sounds I hear were comforting, soothing, visceral.
I didn’t know what they meant. But they left me calmer, more secure, and often, sleepy.
They were lullabies sung by my mother.
It’s not a unique experience.
Because lullabies, or early sound therapy techniques so to speak, have been around since humans figured out how to soothe and calm a bawling baby. From Babylon to Brazil, Cherokee to China, Israel to India, every culture, every tribe had a lullaby for its children.
Going back even further, before the baby is born, there’s a sound, that’s constant, comforting and reassuring. The sound of a mother’s heartbeat. Osho talked about this profound connection between a mother and her baby, observing how the baby continuously hears the mother’s heartbeat and learns to associate it with safety and comfort. Which is why a crying baby almost immediately calms down when it’s held close to the mother’s chest.
There’s a biological basis too, I believe. The consistent, rhythmic heartbeat has a regulating effect on the baby’s own physiological functions, such as heart rate and breathing. It syncs the baby’s internal rhythms with the mother’s, bringing about a sense of calm and stability.
To me that’s sound healing is at its basic, primal, personal level. Sounds that heal, pacify and comfort. The meaning and the methods come much later.

Stillness through sound waves

The mind wanders.
It’s the nature of our mind to constantly jump between the many yesterdays and the unknown tomorrows. Worry and anxiety over what has happened and what might come up. In this see-saw battle, we rarely live in this moment, in the new, which is all we have, which is we can be sure about. Rituals of many cultures are deigned to bring one-pointedness so the mind doesn’t oscillate between the past and the future and abides in the present moment, at least while the rituals are on.
Sound bath is a pleasant combination to bring about this stillness by transporting you to a state of deep calm and tranquility, where the wandering mind is brought back to the sounds emanating from the singing bowls. The mind needs something to hold on to, and the deep, resonance of the bowls provide exactly that, so the mind latches onto the flowing notes and stay on the sonic journey.
So for that period we are not anxious, worried or tense. This instills a sense of much needed peace and quiet we all crave from the sensory ‘noise’ of the everyday life. And the more you experience this peace, the more you are drawn to it. The more peaceful you are the more clarity you will have to make informed decisions.

Photo: debra_warwick, unsplash

WHAT IS YOGA NIDRA?

What is yoga nidra?
Refined and popularised by Swami Satyananda, a disciple of Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh, yoga nidra a part of Tantric practice, facing in the pratyahara or sense-withdrawal stage of Patanjali’s ashtanga (eight limbed) yoga method.
It’s a state between sleep and wakefulness, kind of wakeful sleep. But it’s subject to neither state. Your consciousness is at its most receptive in this stage to receive any intent you want to plant in your mind. Swami says the conscious mind is hard soil in its intellectual, analytical state. When consciousness is linked to all the senses, its receptive capacity is less. Whereas in the yoga nidra state, your consciousness becomes extremely receptive (like tender soil ) as it’s de-linked from all the senses except that of hearing. With the analytical, logical mind quietened, the yoga nidra mind turns obedient to activate and carry out the intent you want to plant in your mind.
Briefly, sankalpa is an expression of your deepest desire. It’s what you want from your life. Your intent should be short, simple, in the present tense and positive. We’ll delve deeper into sankalpa in the next post. And in later posts, we’ll look at the other stages, namely, body awareness also called rotation of consciousness, and breathing by counting backwards.

IS YOGA NIDRA HYPNOSIS?

Someone asked me this question at one of the sessions.
While Yoga nidra and hypnosis involve states of deep relaxation and receptivity, they are two completely different practices.
According to Swami Satyananda, who developed the technique, the practitioner in yoga nidra consciously relaxes his body and mind while maintaining awareness. Remember, it’s a state between deep sleep and wakefulness. There is no sleep, which means you are in charge. And any suggestion made is by you, and it stems from the sankalpas you make based on what you want from your life. There is no outside influence or manipulation of your mind. So your suggestion is aligned with your life’s objectives, leading you eventually to illumination and freedom.
Whereas in hypnosis, the subject is under the control of someone else and the person follows the suggestions of the hypnotist. And since the brain is almost completely shut down it allows the hypnotist to manipulate and dominate the subject which is not the case with yoga nidra.
Hope that clears any doubt you may have had on this front.