SOUND HEALING

Have you ever used soothing music to calm you down, help you to get to sleep or energise you to dance around the kitchen? If the answer is YES! then you know the power of music / sound to change your mood.

Different sounds travel through the air in different frequencies and these frequencies interact with our own and affect us on a physical, mental and emotional level. Because this is so, they can be used very effectively in a therapeutic setting to affect change in the body, mind and emotions for overall health and wellbeing.

Made up of approximately 70% water, the human body receives and conducts sound very well. And as every cell, organ and bone in the body has its own frequency, different sounds resonate and affect different parts of the body. Imagine the body as an orchestra, with all the different instruments / frequencies playing together. When in harmony, the sound is beautiful / the body is in vibrant health. But if one part is ‘out of tune’ the sound is not at all pleasant / the body eventually becomes sick. Our bodies can become ‘out of tune’ due to physical injury or illness, but also due to emotional stress, worry, anger, fear etc.

In 1665 (1665!!) Dutch Scientist Christian Huygens discovered that when two or more things vibrate together, they tend to lock and pulsate at the same rate. For example:

• Grandfather clock pendulums will, over time, start to swing at the same rhythm.
• Geese fly in a V shape and flap their wings together to save energy.
• Friends walking together in deep conversation will fall into step with each other.
• If you pluck a single guitar string, the one next to it will vibrate.
• Starlings fly together in complex murmations, and fish swim and change direction swiftly in tightly packed schools.
• Nature seeks the most efficient state.
• It takes less energy to pulse in co-operation than in opposition.
  

This phenomena is called Entrainment or Sympathetic Resonance.

The principles of entrainment are at work during a Sound Healing treatment. Creating clear, harmonious sounds around a client who is sick or out of balance will create a reaction in the cells of the client’s body, as the cells move to resonate at the same frequency – as everything in nature seeks this sense of balance and harmony.

The very matter of the body is being encouraged to tune itself, like a guitar or piano. The human body and mind will always work towards full health and wellbeing when given the opportunity.

Crystal Bowls Sound Healing

The human body is partly made of millions of tiny crystals. Our bones and teeth are made from calcium phosphate, which is a crystal called Apatite. When the sound of the Quartz crystal bowls on the outside of the body, travels inside the tiny cavities inside the bones, the crystals on the inside resonate and vibrate, in tune with the sound frequencies of the bowls, affecting the very crystalline structure within our bones.

Think about the spine, a snake-like row of bones, housing the spinal cord… the vertebra of the spine transmit the vibrations from the bowls into the spinal cord, the nervous system, the circulation system, tissues, organs and even into the blood!

Each organ, gland, molecule in the body has its own keynote frequency and when we play the pitch-perfect crystal bowls around or over the client’s body, the whole body absorbs the sounds and each tissue, cell, molecule respond accordingly.

The frequencies of the bowls also work on balancing the energy system in the body, via the Aura, Chakras and Nadis / Meridians.

Universal Life-Force Energy (in Yoga we call this Prana, in Chinese medicine this energy is called Chi, in Japanese it is called Ki) surrounds the earth, moves the planets, turns an acorn into an oak tree, grows your fingernails and beats your heart. Prana enters your own personal energy system via your Auric Field and into your Chakras, which are wheels of energy placed along the spinal column.

Chakras affect the functioning of the physical and emotional body. Disturbances in the Chakras can lead to im-balance or dis-ease, in the same way that illness and stress can do on a more physical level. In Sound Healing, we use information from the Chakra system to guide us to areas of imbalance in the body, using a crystal dowsing pendulum, and this information helps us in our Sound Healing session to know where to focus the sound.

The perfect note of each Crystal Bowl matches the frequency of different Chakras, from C at the Root Chakra to B at the Crown Chakra.

Himalayan Singing Bowls

Sound Healing sessions can be undertaken with Crystal Bowls or metal Himalayan Bowls, also known as Tibetan Bowls.

These days mostly made in India and Nepal, these bowls are made of several metals, and so the sounds they make are more complex and rich than the Crystal Bowls, with resonant harmonic layers of sound, as each metal vibrates at a different frequency.

Originally used by Tibetan monks as a bell to signal different stages of meditation, these bowls have a soothing and relaxing quality and can be used around, or even on the body in a Sound Healing session. The bowls have a fundamental note when struck with a mallet – this note can again correspond with a Chakra – but when played by running that mallet around the rim of the bowl, the sound has many overtones and harmonics.

Before a Sound Healing session, you can listen to the Crystal Bowls and the Himalayan Bowls and see which sound you prefer before you lie down on the couch!

One type of bowl only is used during a treatment.

History of Sound Healing.

Sound and music have been used since the beginning of civilisation for healing and transformation; it is one of the most ancient forms of healing known to man and used by many cultures worldwide.

Think of the Tibetan monks with their bowls, gongs and chanting.

Or Shamans with their drums and rattles, and the Australian Aborigines with the didgeridoo.

Even the ancient Egyptians were devotees of vowel sounds in their rituals and Pythagoras explored music as medicine in ancient Greece circa 500 BC.

So, when we are using sound as a healing modality, it is already a part of our innate, inner healing blueprint; it is in our DNA and our ancestral history. Your body will recognise it, connect with it and tap into this rich source of ancient power and healing.

My personal experience with Sound Healing

I have had some profound reactions to Sound Healing, mostly with local Sound Practitioner, friend and colleague, Steph Healy who works here in North Wales as Pure Sound. With Steph I have been immersed in Sound with her Gong Baths, Shamanic Drum Journeys and Biofield Tuning with specialist tuning forks.

I think of a Gong Bath like a meditation and I have received insightful messages, images and heart whispers during her Sound Baths. I met my Spirit Animal on a Drum Journey and have cleared a lot of 'Junk in the Trunk' during the Biofield Tunings. It's been quite a healing journey and I am grateful to Steph for holding space for me in the last few years as I have been delving into my childhood conditioning and releasing old limiting beliefs.

Thanks to Steph I really believe in the power of Sound Healing!! And when I asked her tentatively about exploring some more about this amazing healing modality, she directed me to the College of Sound Healing to pursue training with the Crystal and Himalayan Bowls. And all of 2022 I have been training with Adrienne Woods and studying this healing art.

AUTUMN 2022, I will be offering Candlelit Yoga and Sound Evenings on the second Friday in each of the winter months, plus a special Christmassy event on December 30th.

I will also be completing my Case Studies so that I can become a fully qualified Sound Healer and will be offering One2One treatments in my new Yoga & Therapy Studio in Glan Conwy.

PLEASE NOTE: Some health conditions are not appropriate for Sound Healing sessions.

Please see the list in the attachment below. Thank You!

The structure of a Sound Healing session:

• Arrive and discuss any current physical, mental or emotional issues that you would like to address during the session.
• I have a massage table ready and you lie down and get comfortable. I will then connect in with your energy by asking you if it is OK to place my hand on your solar plexus.
• I then take a dowsing crystal along the Chakras and through your Aura and make notes of the readings.
• I then place the bowls around the massage bed, on the floor and start to play them - this lasts for about 20 minutes.
• The smaller bowls can be played on my hand so I may move them above and around the body while they are singing.
• Then there is 10 minutes of silence - and this is where the healing really takes place!
• While you are resting, I re-read the Chakras and Aura to see if there has been any change.
• Then I will ask you to come back into your body, the room, the time and when you are ready you get up, drink some water and come back!
• We can then discuss your experience, look at the energy readings, before and after and I can explain what the readings mean in terms of the energy flow through then Chakras and Auric Field.

I have qualified in Sound Healing with The College of Sound Healing in May 2023.