Sound Baths

Sound has a way of moving us. Whether it be listening to an energizing playlist during a workout, or the sounds of rain to help you fall asleep. Sound baths help create a serene soundscape that can aid in meditation.

In this resource guide we’ll talk about:

• What a sound bath is
• The efficacy of sound baths
• How sound baths work
• What sound baths treat
• Sound baths at Sequoia Behavioral Health

What Is a Sound Bath?

Sound baths are a kind of meditation that uses the vibrations and sounds from various instruments to create a therapeutic mind-body experience. This experience promotes relaxation, mindfulness, wellbeing, and healing.

The sounds created during a sound bath are intended to create a serene environment in which people can meditate and clear their minds. When saturated with the frequencies of a sound bath, the body harmonizes with the frequencies and harmony and relaxation is achieved.

History of Sound Baths

The exact origin of sound baths, or sound healing, isn’t exactly known. That’s because many ancient civilizations recognized the transformative power of sound. Ancient Egypt, Greece, India, and other societies used sound to heal in some form or another for thousands of years.

The modernization of sound healing can be attributed to Swiss philosopher and scientist Hans Jenny who dedicated his time studying cymatics. By using sand, plates, and electronic sounds, he observed that specific frequencies create different patterns using the sand. 

What was shown is that when specific frequencies hit physical matter, that matter harmonizes and creates a structure or a pattern. The applied idea is that when matter harmonizes it relaxes and moves.

Tools Used For Sound Baths

Sound bath practitioners use specialized instruments to create their harmonious and relaxing environments. Every guide will use a mixture of instruments and some might use their voice. The instruments they use will depend on which instruments they’d prefer to use. These are some of the instruments used in sound baths:

• Gongs
• Chimes
• Bells
• Shruti boxes
• Nature sounds
• Tuning forks
• Metal bowls
• Himalayan, crystal, and Tibetan singing bowls

All of these can be used to create beautiful soundscapes that help relax patients.

What Does a Sound Bath Look Like?

Sound baths can happen in almost any environment as long as it’s quiet. Usually the practitioner sits in a central location with their instruments laid out around them. People who are attending can sit or lay down. Although, most people will lay down.

Sound bath sessions usually last between 60 to 90 minutes, and during that time attendants are encouraged to breathe slowly and let their body harmonize with the frequencies around them.

Thanks to the internet, sound baths can be conducted online. However, being in the physical space will have a greater effect as the frequencies wash over and through the body.

Efficacy of Sound Baths

It may be hard to believe that sound can carry healing properties, but the positive effects of sound healing have been proven over time. In one study that recorded the anxiety levels in patients awaiting urologic surgery, it was found that tibetan music was a useful strategy for preoperative anxiety management.

Another study measured the effects sound baths had on general wellbeing. That study found significant benefits across several markers of wellbeing. These benefits have been documented, but there isn’t a full understanding of just how beneficial this therapy is.

How Do Sound Baths Work?

Hearing that sounds can soothe physical pain, improve blood pressure, and create extreme levels of relaxation sounds strange. However, sound baths improve wellbeing by bringing harmony through the body's parasympathetic nervous system (PNS).

The relaxing environment sound baths create help people ground themselves in the moment and reach a deeply meditative state.

Resonance

Sound baths can lead to resonance and entrainment within the participants. 

Resonance occurs when the vibrations of an object occur at the same frequency as an external force that is acting on it. The resonance of the sounds during a sound bath may affect the vibrational frequencies of everything in the body—including a person’s cells, tissues, and organs. This can promote balance and relaxation everywhere within the body.

Entrainment

Entrainment also includes synchronization with external frequencies and tones. With entrainment, the rhythmic patterns of sound influence activity within the brain. The brainwaves synchronize with the sound waves created during the sound bath, encouraging relaxation and calm.

Connection of Sounds and Emotions

The high potential for therapeutic effects from sound baths also comes from the mental and emotional impact it can have. Sound is powerful enough to stir up emotions and memories as well as different states of consciousness. 

The meditative and reflective environment created during a sound bath can help improve moods, reduce stress, and boost overall well-being. The immersive auditory experience may also be able to influence emotional processing, attention, and relaxation in the brain.

Sound healing can help release trauma, unblock stagnant energies, and bring about mental and emotional tranquility. 

Imagine every part of your body as having its own unique frequency. When every part of you is healthy, all the frequencies play together in harmony. When even one part of the body is off or unhealthy, everything can sound out of tune. 

Through the use of different sounds and vibrations, sound bathing can help organs, bodily systems, and brainwaves fall back into rhythm. It re-establishes harmony and brings about relaxation and healing.

What Do Sound Baths Treat?

The healing qualities of sound baths are not only available for specific conditions or kinds of ailments. There are several conditions and issues that can be aided with sound baths.

It’s important to note that sound baths on their own are not enough to fully treat any one condition. Sound bathing is most effective when paired with other proven therapeutic methods. That’s why Sequoia Behavioral Health offers sound baths as part of our residential treatment facility.

Anxiety

The calming properties of sound baths extend into calming and treating anxiety. Anxiety occurs when neurotransmitters and hormones within the brain are imbalanced. While experiencing a sound bath your body releases endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, and other chemicals that help balance the brain and bring about calm. 

Stress

Stress can cause major issues if not dealt with. Health issues like high blood pressure are common in people who experience chronic stress, and burnout from stress can cause major mental distress.

Taking an hour or more to engage with a sound bath will bring your body to a great sense of calm.

Emotional Tension and Trauma

Sometimes, people experience fairly general emotional tension. These feelings can create physical tension, and are confusing to experience. This can be the result of trauma or just a life experience. Trauma can get stuck throughout the body, and sound baths can help release it.

Releasing tension and trauma is a benefit of sound baths. While patients are engaged with sound healing, they’ll feel the tensions in their body release over time.

Depression

Sound baths bring people to a deeper sense of mindfulness. People with depression may find that sound baths help them bring their mood back to a typical state of elevation.

These effects can last for a while, but are most effective when coupled with other forms of therapy.

Who Can Participate in Sound Baths?

Anyone willing to practice meditation with an open mind can benefit from sound bathing. You don’t need anything to participate. Anyone with sound-sensitive conditions, prone to migraines, epilepsy, or severe mental health conditions may need to consult a healthcare professional before participating in sound healing.

Sound bathing can help people suffering from sickness or disease, emotional or mental struggles, or even physical pain. Sound baths can also be for people who simply want a space to relax and decompress.

It’s important that participants are realistic about what sound baths can do for them and recognize that sound bathing is a complementary therapy and not meant to replace other necessary therapies and treatments.

Sound Baths At Sequoia Behavioral Health

Sequoia Behavioral Health offers sound baths as a part of a holistic therapy program. 

While attending Sequoia behavioral Health, you’ll be attending individual therapies, group therapies, and experiential therapies all designed to treat the symptoms and root cause of what you’re going through. Sound baths are just a part of our holistic and individualized programs.

Interested in learning if Sequoia Behavioral Health is the right choice for your healing, contact us. We’re more than happy to answer any questions you may have.