Jessica Turner The second you try to stop thinking is the moment when your brain decides to mentally write a “to do” list.
Most people who’ve attempted to meditate will understand this frustrating paradox.
But the health benefits of meditation (including boosting the immune system and cultivating better mental health) are abundant.
Thankfully for those who find tuning out tricky, many styles of meditation exist and they are more accessible than ever.
Some might take to sound bathing (a style of group meditation popular with New York hipsters) like ducks to water.
This type of bath bears no bubbles. Attendees are immersed in soundwaves emitted from instruments such as crystal singing bowls, tuning forks and gongs rather than water.
Aficionados testify, that by observing and focusing on the sounds, you become more present with the moment – and can transcend into a theta brainwave of deep relaxation and healing.
We speak with Anne Ridgway, director of Blue Mountain Sound Therapy to get the lowdown.
What happens in one of your sound baths?
I run group sound baths twice a week in my home and I have about eight people coming to each evening and then once a month I hire a yoga studio so there’s more space.
Often, I include a guided meditation in my sessions, so it becomes a multi-layered experience and I use my singing voice throughout.
A lot of people who come to my sound baths have not done much meditation before, which is one reason I tend to talk people through it – they like the extra guidance.
I work on particular things, for example, with chakras, so we might work on one chakra each week and I talk people through a guided visualisation and play the sounds at the same time. Sometimes, I include music tracks which I select based on the theme of the session.
The sessions usually start with me using my voice to do a relaxation, then I take people on a sound journey using Tibetan bowls, then crystal singing bowls and gongs.
I try to match the notes of the bowls to the tracks that I’ve chosen so it becomes a really layered experience and a bit of a journey for people with meaning
Towards the end I use percussion instruments such as rain sticks, different drums and chimes.
Why do people attend sound baths?
It is mostly people who are looking for a way to de-stress and relax but sound baths have a healing element.
People find profound changes over time in the levels of their anxiety. It might lessen considerably and improve their sleeping patterns.
Some people are able to be more aware of themselves and their energy. Maybe they’re able to release things, then experience enhanced energy through the sounds.
Healing can be very subtle or be dramatic. It depends. Sound healing is non-invasive but can be very powerful.
How does the healing work?
The instruments have the capacity to help people to reach a brainwave state called the theta state – this is the meditative state that you’re in before sleep.
The theta state is excellent for helping people to be in that optimal healing receptivity.
There is also a musical theory in that you can use instruments like tuning forks with different musical intervals.
There are intervals that are healing and intervals that are releasing.
These go beyond the ears and can be used over different parts of the body for a particular reason such as enhancing creativity or increasing motivation.
Drums can also be used to induce a theta state, or even a “trance-like” state where people can access a subconscious part of themselves. In this state, they can make impactful changes in their emotional well being or thought patterns.
Sound baths excellent for helping with pain. Different instruments that can help with pain relief in individual treatments.
What does the trace-like state feel like?
People have the most amazing symbolism and images that come to them.
Sometimes we have a bit of a de-briefing at the end of a sound bath and they’ll say: “I really went deep, I really felt like I was out of my body. I saw a vision. I imagined colours and shapes.”
They might see certain archetypes or guides.
We have mental, emotional and spiritual levels of consciousness as well as the body, and they respond to sound in different ways.
The sounds can reach right down to the cells – they have frequencies that can go down to a cellular, DNA level where they can repattern and rebalance and recalibrate.
It’s about letting go. It’s about letting the music wash over them, penetrate and absorb the sounds.
Do you have to have musical talent to lead a sound bath?
I am a musician – I am a singer, songwriter and I do a lot of singing in sound bath meditations.
But you don’t have to be a musician to be a sound healer.
Anyone can learn to lead sound baths but you obviously have to work with it and gain skills and understanding.
We run diploma programs in sound healing.
How can one harness the healing power of sound in their aesthetic practice
The voice is incredibly powerful.
At the end of many of my sessions, people have said to me: “Out of all the instruments, I felt your voice travel into my body most of all.”
I think it’s just that human element. That connection. It’s really important that you have that accessibility for connection with people. That you’re working from a pure place with good intention.
Always have the wellbeing of the people that you’re working with in mind.
*Anne Ridgway lives in the Blue Mountains, NSW. She is a contemporary singer-songwriter and an accomplished musician, performing at festivals around the world.
With a certificate and a Diploma in Sound Therapy through the Sound Healing Academy in the UK, she offers her skills via one on one sound healings and group sound baths.
She teaches at The Colour Of Sound Institute, running a special sound therapy diploma course.
