Sound healing to re-align well-being

Many people are growing aware that breathwork can be a useful tool as part of a healing journey. 

Yet, you may not be aware of how powerful sound healing therapy can be as it combines breathing practices with healing sounds, energetic vibrations and frequencies.

Chanting and mantras involve vocalisation of tones. This chanting or repeating mantras is another ancient form of sound healing that can be combined with playing crystal healing bowls or tibetan bowls. The rhythmic vibrations produced by chanting are believed to have a calming effect on the nervous system and can be incorporated into meditation practices.

Chanting and mantras are observed and felt to enrich wellbeing. They may promote relaxation, reduce stress, and enhance focus by engaging the mind with rhythmic vibrations. Some cultures and traditions suggest that specific sounds or mantras can harmonise energy and contribute to overall mental and emotional balance.  Many individuals find personal benefits from incorporating chanting and mantras into their wellness practises.

Beyond traditional instruments, music itself can be a powerful healing tool. Music therapy encompasses various approaches, including receptive and active forms. Receptive therapy involves listening to music, while active therapy involves creating or performing music. Both have been proven to promote healing and relaxation. The diversity of instruments available can complement different kinds of meditation (i.e. yoga nidra) and kriyas.

Overall, music therapy has shown positive effects on mental health, promoting relaxation, and facilitating emotional expression. Further, it has been shown to aid in physical rehabilitation, alleviate pain, and support individuals dealing with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. The personalised and non-verbal nature of music therapy makes it accessible and effective for many people.

If you feel you would benefit from sound healing, there are many ways to explore options. You may be drawn to in-person group events or personal healing sessions.   Contact me about breathwork and soundhealing services. A new Youtube channel will soon be emerging to showcase some of my approaches to sound healing.

Equanimity is what you are

Notice the resistance that arises at the prospect of facing adversity. Sitting meditation in silence offers ideal conditions for preliminary practice, to develop tools to face what evokes discomfort, and yet, sitting as such is not the real thing. True meditation happens when you are amidst the action, the chaos, when you face impossible people, intense emotions, unavoidable situations. During such conditions, can you keep the mind in silence, solitude and peace? To do so, we must first raise awareness and stop attacking ourselves. Many of us have a mind split into a victim, rescuer and/or attacker for ourselves or "others". We may even change roles. Still, when we are fiercely equanimous, we do not perpetrate or yield to threats, do not cave at emotional manipulation or implications, remain unaffected from attacks and guilt-trips that come from our superego, our own unconscious. We dissolve it by refusing to ratify it. By calmly abiding, we see through the unreal. The ego mind attacks, would like us feel bad about ourselves, stuck in a spiral. The only way out of it is to stop being an ego self, be unaffected by desire or fear, pain or enjoyment. Our true practice is to come to view suffering as a mental exercise. Most of us are taught to fear death, pain and other challenges. Yet, to a Zen master, all are great blessings. The view is our enemies are our greatest gifts to evoke love, passion, forgiveness, self-empowerment in the realisation of the unity of all that is. They guide us to let go of the ego mind, that which would like to be in pain, to be in a state of inadequacy, guilt, shame, attacking or peaceless self -justification or self-reproach. These are all false relationships with the real. The Supreme Being is within us. Only through awareness and alignment with Soul can we claim this power. A guru cannot give it. Mantras or other spiritual practices do not give it. One must claim it and with the power of will, integrate it into our life. It happens when we are in a state of deep honesty and truthfulness with ourselves. If we allow it, our inner voice can sting us worse than a sword. Let us focus on remaining in unwavering stillness. Let us not react, but move instead into that state that dissolves into the pureness of our Being which is love. Let us follow our breath. Get into the mind of silent presence. This vital life force, or equanimity is what you are and it cannot be lost.