Notes on sound healing
All life is vibration. Plants, animals, humans, you and me and all the people we see are vibration.
Because we are made of atoms and atoms vibrate. Our sense of hearing is based on vibration. Each of the organs inside us vibrates at varying frequencies. No wonder we say things like ‘that place doesn’t have good vibes’ or ‘he or she has great vibes’. It’s a visceral feeling.
Sound healing through singing bowls works at this level.
Waves from the bowls, when rimmed or struck with a mallet, reach various parts of your body, bringing waves of healing energy and balance to the affected parts. In a sound bath, the melodious tones from the different bowls reach your nervous system bringing calm and peace, bathing you in healing waves. In what is known as body work, bowls are places on a particular place on your body and rimmed, the waves penetrate the affected part to heal and reduce aches and pains. Do understand that it’s not a cure or replacement for medical care but a supplementary healing technique. Try it if you haven’t, that’s the best way to find out. Stay tuned for the next post.
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.
