How our bodies respond to sound
for as long as i can remember, music has been an integral part of my life.
whether it’s listened to through headphones, blaring out my car radio, dancing with thousands of strangers at a festival or sitting down to play the piano - it has always moved me in some way.
sometimes lifting me up and soundtracking the highest moments of joy. other times, allowing me to be sad, escape or get through hard times.
yet when i experienced live sound meditation for the first time, i noticed a huge shift - from listening to physically feeling the sound reverberating through my body.
it became far more than a sensory experience, but a complete transcendence of the auditory realm, permeating through the entire fabric of my being.
the effects were powerful, and left me with an inherent feeling of stillness and connection.
this unlocked a lifelong fascination about what actually happens when we immerse ourselves in sound, and why its effect is so transformative.
What is sound meditation, and how does it work?
sound meditation is an ancient art that has been practiced for thousands of years to support the body to relax, energise and heal.
you can think of all the different cells, organs and bones in your body as individual instruments that are each vibrating at their own resonant frequency. together they make up a composite frequency, just like the instruments of an orchestra.
if any individual instrument is out of tune, the whole orchestra will be affected. we can therefore use sound, and the principle of resonance, to bring the body back into harmony.
The benefits of sound meditation
just like when we listen to music that makes us feel happy or sad or reflective, sound can literally shift our emotional and physiological state.
sound takes many shapes and forms - from singing or chanting, to using instruments like gongs, tibetan singing or crystal bowls, chimes, rattles, drums and tuning forks.
each sound has its own frequency, and when we listen to that sound, our brainwaves ‘tune in’ to that same frequency.
this means we can shift our brainwaves from our normal ‘beta’ state (waking consciousness) to ‘alpha’ (relaxed consciousness), and even reach ‘theta’ (meditative state) and ‘delta’ (sleep; where internal healing can occur).
when we reach certain deeper states, our bodies begin to unhold and transform on a cellular level - from calming the nervous system, stimulating circulation and promoting cellular regeneration, to improving sleep, alleviating headaches and relieving chronic pain.
and its effect ripples out far beyond this too, affecting not just the physical body, but the mental, spiritual and energetic body too.
under its influence, we bypass the habitual traps of the mind, and get to digest life; detaching from ego to enhance mental clarity and experience heightened awareness, creativity, and inner wisdom.
we can release blocks on all levels of our being, lowering stress, anxiety levels, and awakening our connection to something much greater - the universal energy.