You may be familiar with meditation. It looks different from person to person. It mostly looks like taking time to separate yourself from the stress and intensity that is inevitable in our daily lives. What if I told you there was a way to elevate your meditation practice that’s already in place? (By the way, if you don’t have a meditation practice in your routine, it’s never too late to add one.) The answer is sound bath meditation.
What does a sound bath look like?
You may be surprised to know that sound baths don’t involve a nice, relaxing soak in the tub. However, the health benefits are similar. Sound baths include waves of soothing, echoing sound from traditional wind and percussion instruments. These soothing sounds are often created by circling a mallet around ceramic sound bowls. Several bowls with different vibrational notes may be used at a time. This creates an out of this world atmosphere for your meditation.
Beginners in meditation often have a hard time with the silence that is created in the practice. These sounds make it easier to ease into meditation and have something, other than breathe, to focus on. Have you skipped a rock and seen the ripples that follow? Vibrational sound therapy causes similar ripples within our bodies because 60% of the adult body is water. It’s normal during sound bath meditation to feel yourself rocking back and forth, swaying in response to those ripples.
Why should I care about sound bath meditation?
A sound bath is typically a way of managing anxiety, soothing the nervous system, and blocking all the ideas and thoughts out of your consciousness as you connect with your body. Think of it as a massage for the nervous system. Sounds soothing, right?
Since stress is associated with other conditions like diabetes and heart disease, engaging in sound baths might be a good preventive strategy to reduce the risk of chronic conditions, too.
Other benefits of Sound Bath Meditation include:
- Deepening relaxation
- Reduces stress and anxiety
- Improving mood and well-being
- Improving sleep
- Heightening focus and energy
- A feeling of rejuvenation
- Fewer mood swings
- Lower blood pressure
- Lower cholesterol levels
- Better pain management
- Reduced risk of strokes and coronary artery disease
My experience
Yoga plays a huge role in my life and who I am. I first started practicing yoga because I had a desire to reduce the pressure of the chaos in my life. Yoga slows you down and helps the mind, body, and soul to connect.
I first experienced a sound bath meditation within my yoga practice. At the end of a yoga class, the instructor led us to Shavasana. Shavasana is a practice where your whole body is still. The goal is to have your thoughts match that same stillness. To be clear, this is something I am still working on, that’s why it’s called a yoga practice. A couple minutes into being in this pose, the instructor invited those who could to stay and further meditation with a sound bath. Afterwards, I felt lighter and more relaxed. I went home and fell asleep quicker than I had before. My mind wasn’t racing like it usually did.
After practicing meditation on my own for almost a decade, I started on my journey of guiding meditations several years ago. I decided to combine the sound bath with my guided meditations to allow for maximum benefits through sound healing. My intention with these practices is to get you out of your head and connect with your body and soul. The ultimate goal is to be able to slow down and get quiet enough to hear your inner truth.
Each month I lead a sound bath meditation as a part of Soulful Sunday. If you feel drawn to experience clarity and peace in your life, I would invite you to show up for yourself in this way. Click here to be a part of it.
