6 Ways to Heal and Re-Energize Yourself With Sound
When your favorite song comes on the radio, you may find your mood transforming instantly. If you were ruminating on a stressful situation, a sudden wave of relief may come over your body. The sound shifts your focus and you’re transported into a different state of mind.
All forms of sound can have a significant effect on the way you feel and perceive your surroundings. You can use sound to boost your energy levels, let go of trauma, or relax. Sound healing uses vibrations to relax your mind and body. Sound has the ability to penetrate into deeper layers of your energy body to heal at the mental, emotional, and spiritual layers.
Sound has been linked to a number of health benefits and is even used in medicine to heal ailments in a non-invasive way. Ultrasonic sound waves can be focused inside the body to treat tumors, hemorrhages, or internal clotting for example.
Those who have used different methods of sound healing such as gong baths, chanting or music therapy have reported:
Less stress
Better sleep
Increased sense of well-being
Reduced depressive symptoms
Decreased mood swings
So let’s look at a few ways that you can use the power of sound to release negativity and re-energize yourself.
1) Chant mantras
If you’ve ever attended a yoga class, you may have chanted “Om” at the end of the class. Om is a sound that carries the vibration of the universe. Chanting this mantra helps you tune into that cosmic healing vibration.
But there are thousands of other mantras out there...so what exactly do they do and how can they help you heal? Mantras are short words or phrases, often written in Sanskrit. Each is associated with a different trait or area of healing.
When you chant a mantra focused on the area of life you want to heal, you bring intention and energy to that area. There are single-word mantras that are connected specifically to the chakras - the seven energy centers in your body. By focusing on the aligned and balanced aspects of each chakra through, you can clear energy blocks. You can find the mantra for each chakra in our Beginner’s Guide to Chakras here [insert link to blog post].
When you chant a mantra, the mental patterns that bring on fear, stress, and anxiety disappear into the background. By no longer giving your attention to these thoughts, they lose their power over you. This allows you to channel your energy in a way that empowers you and helps you become the person you want to be.
2) Use binaural beats for background music or meditation
Playing background music while working, studying, or cleaning the house can shift your mood and enhance focus. If you’re trying to get into a relaxed or meditative state, you can also find music to shift your brainwaves into an alpha state.
Binaural beats can further boost the benefits of healing and meditative music. In binaural beats, different tones are played in your right ear and left ear through headphones. Your brain perceives these two tones as one harmonious melody.
Binaural beats have been claimed to help relieve stress, anxiety, and to promote creativity and positive moods. You can find binaural beat meditations or background music to help you focus or relax on sites like YouTube.
3) Listen to Solfeggio frequencies
Solfeggio frequencies refer to tones of music that promote benefits for both mind and body. The Solfeggio frequencies range on a vibrational scale that correlates to each of your chakras. By listening to the frequency in the range of the chakra you want to work on, you can help unblock the energy in that particular chakra.
To use sound healing with the Solfeggio frequencies, look up the chakra or issue that you want to focus on (link to Beginner’s guide to Chakra’s). Then find music in that specific frequency range and listen to it during meditation or as background music. Many of these can also be found on YouTube.
Below is a description of seven Solfeggio frequency ranges and what they can help heal:
396 Hz: Root Chakra
Removes subconscious negative thoughts, feelings, and trauma. Helps to transmute feelings of fear, guilt, shame, or grief.
417 Hz: Sacral Chakra
Relieves stress and tension in the body. Sparks creativity, change, and new beginnings by removing negative energy.
528 Hz: Solar Plexus Chakra
Helps with boosting confidence and eliminating self-doubt. Enhances personal growth and transformation. Associated with miracles and DNA repair.
639 Hz: Heart Chakra
Promotes love, healing, and harmony. Strengthens relationships and improves interpersonal communication and connection.
741 Hz: Throat Chakra
Helps with authentic self-expression and creative fulfillment. Empowers you to speak your truth for the benefit of yourself and others.
852 Hz: Third Eye Chakra
Enhances intuition and spiritual awakening. Cleanses the mind and body from toxins. Boosts mental clarity and aids in decision-making.
963 Hz: Crown Chakra
Brings a feeling of unity and connection to Spirit and higher realms. Reduces feelings of loneliness, unfulfillment, or apathy.
Experiment with listening to the different frequencies to see which one resonates most. Your body will intuitively know where energy is blocked and which sounds are most soothing to clear that particular blockage.
4) Attend a drumming circle
There’s a reason why Indigenous cultures create community around sound and organize drum circles. Drumming with intention can help increase connection to Spirit, Mother Earth, and our ancestors. It’s also a very fun way to get in touch with a more primal part of yourself and to connect to your heart.
Drumming has been shown to help reduce stress, aid in the release of emotional trauma and boost the immune system. Drumming also helps to increase neural connections in the brain synching the left and right hemispheres. This sharpens your intuition, creativity, and mental clarity.
See if there are any drumming circles near you and try it out for yourself. There’s often a ceremonial aspect to drum circles to symbolize the four elements: water, earth, fire, air. Representations from each element are brought in to make the drum circle even more powerful and healing on all levels.
5) Immerse yourself in a sound bath
One of the easiest and most relaxing ways to heal with sound is by attending a sound bath (no bathing suit necessary). Sound baths are often done with a range of instruments such as gongs, Tibetan bowls, tuning forks.
A sound bath can start with a meditation to clear mental chatter and help your body relax. The healer or Gong Master then plays the instruments in a harmonic rhythm that produces coherent sound waves. These help realign your system back into balance.
The beauty of a sound bath is that you don’t have to do anything but relax and soak up the healing properties of the instrument. If you’ve never tried a sound bath and are in the New York City area, you can check out our upcoming gong baths here.
6) Take a Sound Healing Class
Throughout the year, our Gong Master Teachers offer classes in gong training and sound healing. Starting in January, we are offering a whole year of training, mentorship, and support on the path of Gong Mastery and Sound Therapy.
In the Divine Sound Academy, you will develop a deep understanding and connection with sound and its transformational properties, cultivate spiritual growth and expansion as we transform the planet into a place of peace.
On this expansive sound journey, you will receive all the tools you need to become and competent Gong and sound healing practitioner. Learn more about the program here.
Resources:
https://www.westcoastyogaperth.com/2020/06/30/solfeggio-frequencies-and-the-chakras/
https://meditativemind.org/benefits-of-music-based-on-7-solfeggio-frequencies/
https://www.healthline.com/health/binaural-beats#potential-benefits
https://qz.com/595315/turns-out-sound-healing-can-be-actually-well-healing/
https://www.healthline.com/health/sound-healing#benefits
Resources
https://www.westcoastyogaperth.com/2020/06/30/solfeggio-frequencies-and-the-chakras/
https://meditativemind.org/benefits-of-music-based-on-7-solfeggio-frequencies/
https://www.healthline.com/health/binaural-beats#potential-benefits
https://qz.com/595315/turns-out-sound-healing-can-be-actually-well-healing/
https://www.healthline.com/health/sound-healing#benefits
https://www.drnorthrup.com/health-benefits-drumming/