In the past year or so I’ve been so blessed to experience sound healing on a really deep level. A very close friend of mine Audrey, the founder of CoreState, is a qualified Sound Healer + she’s been so kind to do some bespoke sessions with me, tailoring the direction of each to my specific needs at each given session.
I am a huge believer in so many wellness modalities + practices, implementing many into my own life on a daily, weekly basis. But with this particular one I will admit that before my more recent experiences of sound baths with Audrey, I understood the practice to be a more fanciful type of self-care - something I always loved however, somehow not as justifiable in my mind as say my weekly therapy call or my gym membership + rather something of an occasional indulgence. It felt, to me, like more of an expensive way to take a nap as I’ve always found myself drifting off in any of the sessions I’d been to over the years. Despite this though, I always felt a sense of inner calm coming out the other side. And man, is it so much more than an expensive nap I’ve come to believe. It’s deeply healing. The more I’ve practiced the more I’ve realised the deeper meaning of it + the benefit of it’s not-so-woo-woo magic.
Sound healing, or therapy, might seem like it’s just popped up in recent times but it is in fact an ancient holistic healing practice that holds many therapeutic values. As humans we have used sound as a way to communicate, express, celebrate, heal + restore for thousands of years, transcending cultures, geography + belief systems. From the ancient mantras of yogic + Tibetan practices to more modern ways like The Haka, a sound + dance ritual performed by the New Zealand rugby team at the beginning of each game to showcase, in ceremony, their courage + determination. At a basic yet powerful level, think about how music can change the way you feel, it can help shift a dark + heavy mood into something more tolerable; taking us from overwhelm to a somewhat calmer state. Sound has been healing us for a long time.
Sound baths are an elevated version of this. Now backed by science, the point of sessions like an actual sound bath is to bring us, as entire beings, from imbalance into balance. To encourage a homeostasis state. The practice works wonders to switch on the parasympathetic nervous system, something I’m understanding more + more of late + the importance of it’s activation in nurturing the rest + digest side of our system which is becoming more vital with this very fast paced, high stress world we find ourselves in 2023.
And not only is it something for the soul to enjoy + explore, for anyone slightly on the more cynical side of the fence, it is scientifically proven to work on a cellular level. The sounds + vibrations of this modality are essentially frequencies created by + flow through the tools used by your practitioner that enter the conscious + subconscious, the physical + subtle energy fields within + around our body encouraging a state of wholeness. Reducing stress in general is a positive thing of course but at this cellular level the body + mind reap a lot of very tangible + long-lasting rewards. From regulation of the immense system, slowing the heart rate, supporting the production of melatonin which aids in a natural sleep flow along with lowering blood pressure, the prolonged effect is that it nurtures the longevity + quality of our mind, body + life in gerneral. For my fellow sleepers, I’ve also learned that dosing off is a sign of going deep while in a sound bath so it may, in one way, act as a nap but it’s definitely an elevated + high healing one so don’t worry about nodding off during a session.
Check out Audrey’s work HERE where you can book in with her for a private session, attend one of her groups or online classes.
