Meditation - Sound Baths In Bed

Wellness

Meditation – Sound Baths In Bed

Sound baths may seem like a “new age” concept however the practice of healing ourselves through sound is ancient, deeply rooted in cultures across the world, and can have a profound effect on our sleep health.

On a good day we avoid blue light before bedtime, we wind down with a book or journaling and a soothing cup of Chamomile tea, and then drift off for a blissful eight to nine hours of restorative sleep. Although sometimes, life doesn’t go to plan! And stress, anxiety, work deadlines, fractious children and relentless connection to the world through social media gets the best of us.

This “spiritual, cleansing music” can be as simple as chanting after your yoga session or as complex as an hour-long experience in a dedicated space with a sound practitioner.

All spiritual jargon aside, a sound bath is simply a meditative experience where we are “bathed” in sound waves. The waves can be produced by various sources, healing instruments like gongs, singing bowls, percussion, chimes, rattles, tuning forks, and even voices. May I just say, I’m not convinced that my own voice could do anything but stress me out, my daughter on the other hand, inherited the musical gene in our family and I will happily be bathed in her voice any day.

The music shouldn’t be a catchy melody or rhythm like you’d experience at a concert or symphony, but instead a carefully selected wash of instruments or voices with notable resonance.

The key to a good sound bath is not to tune into the melody, or repetitive beat. You want to experience a sense of total release and your mind letting go. During the sound bath, lie on your back, preferably in Savasana position. Make sure you are in a space that feels safe and that you have cleared your schedule, silenced your phone and set an intention to dedicate this time to your healing.

“The general intention of a sound bath is to create a state of harmony in the listener by using sound to clear discordance from the participants’ energy fields. Among the benefits are relaxation, an increased sense of wellbeing, expanded awareness, and access to inner visionary experience,” says Seth Misterka, co-founder of the crystal Sound Bath in Los Angeles.

The key to a good sound bath is not to tune into the melody, or repetitive beat.

Carving out time to help our bodies relax can help foster physical healing. Many sound bath addicts compare it to acupuncture or therapy. The act of choosing to believe that the energy that carries us around everyday day can be optimised and harnessed for healthy living.

If you go to an acupuncturist, you likely have energy blocked somewhere that needs releasing, a sound bath is similar, but you’re using frequency and vibration instead of needles. I have heard of people experiencing specific areas of their body loosen up or pain draining from them.

Sound therapy is actually rooted in science and based on the principles of quantum physics and sacred geometry. There are hundreds of clinical trials on the healing properties of sound.

We are used to the Western medicine use of ultrasound technology, which is used to break up kidney stones among other things, but we are quick to brush aside the power of sound in our own bedrooms and homes.

Though many people have only recently heard of sound baths, the use of music for healing is nothing new. From Tibetan singing bowls to Aboriginal didgeridoos, music has long been used for its therapeutic effects. The ancient Greeks used sound vibration to aid in digestion, treat mental disturbance, and induce sleep, many ancient cultures believed that music could purify the soul.

At end of the 19th century, researchers began to focus on proving the correlation between sound and healing. Studies proved that music had the power to lower blood pressure, decrease our pulse rate and assist our parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for digestion and vital metabolic processes.

It can all be a little overwhelming, I would suggest beginning your journey to healing through sound with a ‘sound practitioner’, after a few guided sessions, you may feel equipped to create a space in your home with yoga mats and cushions and listen to a guided sound session on your phone.

The general intention of a sound bath is to create a state of harmony in the listener by using sound to clear discordance from the participants’ energy fields.

It’s wonderful to get to the stage where you can guide yourself through a quick 30 minute sound session in bed before falling asleep, to aid with relaxation and helping your mind re enter a clear and calm state after a hectic day.

Essentially, a sound bath is a meditation class that aims to guide you into a deep meditative state while you are enveloped in ambient healing sound played by sound therapists or yourself.

Meditation is excellent for managing our stress and improving our overall wellbeing. It can be very difficult to quiet the distractions in our physical environment, not to mention the distractions in our own minds.

Take the first step, and remember its okay to feel uncomfortable or distracted, it takes time to train oneself to let go and allow the sound bath to wash over you.

Happy meditation journey to you all,

Karen Reed