Why Sound and Meditation?
There is increasing evidence that sound therapy (also known as sound healing) provides a measurable positive impact for participants. A 2019 CNN article spoke to the growing trend: "Sound and vibration kind of act like a butterfly net capturing all of that mind chatter that we're constantly bombarded with throughout the day. Over the last few years, an increasing number of people have turned to the ancient technique to reduce stress, depression, and anxiety. The sounds and vibrations guide listeners into a state of deep rest known as the 'relaxation response.' 'That's a counter to the body's fight or flight response,' explained research psychologist Tamara Goldsby from the University of California, San Diego. Goldsby said when bodies are in fight or flight, blood pressure goes up, heart rate goes up, and healing stops. 'In the relaxation response, the body just chills, and that seems to happen as a regular kind of situation in the sound baths,' explained Goldsby. In a clinical study, Goldsby examined the effects of sound meditation on mood, anxiety, physical pain and spiritual well-being. Participants reported significant reductions in tension, anger, fatigue and depressed mood.
Soundbaths
The combination of sounds and the way I play the instruments is designed to move you into a deeper brain state. When we are fully awake and present our brain is in the Beta state – this means there is a regulating frequency of brain waves moving through the whole brain with a frequency of around 20 Hz. When we fall asleep, our state of consciousness moves from Beta to Theta (around 7 Hz) and then deep sleep Delta (around 3 Hz). During the session, your mind is likely is to move to a state between awake and asleep known as Alpha state.
The aim of my sound baths is to help your mind and body to shift into a deeper state of consciousness. This may be to help generate a more relaxed state, to help your mind and body to recover from stress, let go of tension; or it may be to take a deeper inner journey where you experiment with the importance of letting go into the experience as powerful sounds bring up difficult emotions and physical sensations in your body. Either way, you will have the opportunity to let go into a more fulfilling experience of life. This process may be deeply therapeutic, helping you to let go of inner struggles that may be holding you back or keeping you stuck.
During a sound bath, you may find that you feel deeply at peace, but you may also have an emotional repose and possibly uncomfortable physical feelings or thoughts. If you notice this happening, try acknowledging these feelings and thoughts as just that, “these are just my thoughts and feelings in this moment”. You can also notice tension in your body, as it arises, and relax around it, for example by imagining that your breathing is going deeply into these areas. The aim is to accept the experience just as it is, thoughts, physical feelings and emotions. Allow yourself to be transported inwardly with the sounds. This allows our mind to switch off, and for your mind and body to rest deeply. It is a very beneficial state to rest and recover, and participants often say it has been quite enjoyable!
Drum journeys
Drum journeys are a more primal and probably more ancient kind of sound therapy. They involve one or more drums and potentially other percussive instruments (such as shakers) and different rhythms. The experience for the participant can be very varied, and it is often the intention of the participant that makes all the difference. The aim is an altered state of consciousness, just like the sound baths, but with a more primal approach. The experience can be deeply healing, and this approach calls strongly to some people, and is easier to take into the great outdoors.
Meditation
There are many different forms of meditation. The one that I have found to be most beneficial to my mental state, to my life and to my spiritual growth starts from a foundation of calm mind and insight. These are often referred to through the Buddhist Pali terms of Samadhi and Vipassana. This practice allows the practitioner to integrate other practices related to any of the wisdom traditions while maintaining three key states of an equanimous mind:
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Empty mind
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Constantly open to new impressions, ready to change at every moment, open to all perspectives
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Unified mind
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Not force the complexity of life into a coherent self serving system
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Calm / still mind
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Not engaging in personal dreams and noisy fantasies that hinder true understanding
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Present moment awareness
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To help us access our most healing and rewarding mind states, our mind needs to be in the here and now
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Along with the equanimous mind, true wisdom is needed to see through the conditioning that we have undergone since birth from our environment - parents, peers, teachers, carers, culture, society etc. This is also important when working with and healing trauma, since being mentally in the past is a very vulnerable place for our mind. Being in the present moment is where we can deal with whatever happened in the past. Our nervous system is much more able to regulate when we can bring our awareness into the present moment, using sight, sound, somatic sensations, movement etc. Meditation can be seen as a form of mind training so that we can show up to life in its fullest sense. Integration of Tibetan Buddhist, Taoist and Indigenous practices can greatly enrich the foundations described on this page, but they should be laid on a solid foundation of mind training. This foundation allows us to gain mastery over the mind by becoming experientially familiar with the following processes within the mind itself:
Ultimately we are aiming for relaxed presence. This is something that you can work on from moment to moment. It requires you to be fully engaged with all your senses. Are you aware and present to all that is going on around you through your senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste)? Are you aware and present to all that is going on inside you? Are you able to stay relaxed and to keep relaxing more and more whatever is going on or whatever arises? This moment to moment practice is greatly supported by a daily (formal) meditation practice.
Having a daily meditation practice focused specifically on reactions to emotions is a very powerful way to shift our response to triggering situations over time. This is based on the Vipassana approach to meditation. In this approach it is important to experience reality, just as it is, as it is going on naturally within your body. This is done using the sensation of breath, and the other sensations that show up in your body, such as pain, pressure, warmth, cold, itchiness, tingling, prickling, lightness, heaviness, ease, relaxation. In this approach, it is vital to learn to notice, be with, accept and let go of every sensation – both pleasant and unpleasant – no matter how intense they are (good or bad).