The Power of Sound
When was the last time you really heard what was around you? Was there a lot of noise or was it quiet? Did the sounds create energy or soothe you?
In my case, it is hard for me to calm my nerves. My brain likes to keep whirring like a computer that’s run out of storage space. Even on my daily dog walks in the woods my brain is usually so busy I don’t even hear what’s around me. When I was younger, my favorite sound was wind through trees but in recent years it takes a lot of intention for me to slow down enough to even hear it. Thankfully, this week it has snowed twice. I suppose that’s a funny sentence to most, but snow to me, makes everything quieter. There are fewer cars, fewer people, and in the woods it’s much easier to hear the sweet bird song symphony over my whirring mind. The hush makes the sound of wind through the trees feel big and spacious and oh so calming, especially when the sun comes after the snow and I am all too happy to be out breathing in the clean crisp cold while the sun warms me and makes the snow shimmer. In these moments I’m reminded of the Japanese concept of Forest Bathing. A practice that promotes the healing power of nature through slow walks in the forest.
The last few weeks a powerful urge to get rid of anything I no longer want has come over me. I’ve reduced our book collection by half and packed up all of our old cd’s. They’ve been sitting in a bin in our basement since we moved in 13 years ago. I’d say It’s time for them to go. In looking through them I was taken back to a younger self, a girl who loved everything from Ella Fitzgerald to NOFX. Quite a range. I guess I still have a wide music range, but the hard core music has fallen off. I no longer need anything to amp me up, choosing the crystal singing bowl meditations on Insight Timer over Green Day.
I’m still taking drum lessons, something I’ve done on and off for 15 years, but these days I’m more drawn to understanding rhythm patterns than specific songs shifting from hard rocking momentum to something more measured. In a continued effort to sooth my mind I found my way to sound healing and found Lauren and Julie at Sacred Sounds where I learned about sacred drums, heavy grounding sound of the gongs, and sweet drone of the crystal bowls. They use instruments I had never heard of before like shruti boxes and kalimbas and I could feel how my body releases when they all combine into their one of a kind sound baths. So much so that I completed the Awaken the Alchemy Within Series they offered last year and continue to learn to combine the instruments and skills I was introduced to there..
If you’re interested in the topic some interesting further reading on how music effects and can heal our brains see Rolling Stone article Hot Digital Shaman: New App Wavepaths Guides Users Through Therapeutic Trips and/or Nautilus article Your Brain’s Music Circuit Has Been Discovered.
My final sound comment for today is about the Candlelight tribute to Beyonce concert we went to on Friday night hosted by Fever . I’m only familiar with the most popular of Beyonce’s songs but I loved the idea of a stringed quartet playing her songs by candlelight in an old church. And it did not disappoint. The setting was magical, with what had to be hundreds of electric candles and hearing the songs as stringed arrangements allowed for something beyond the standard pop delivery. The lack of words opened up space for imagination and dare I say more emotion. I felt lost in the waves of sound coming over us from the pulpit into the pews. This felt particularly interesting to me as someone who is not one to attend church regularly. I realized as my creative compatriots, the Cazimi Collaborative, and I wove a sound wave as part of our Artist Residence at South Church, that music is really my way of connecting to the spiritual, music is what takes me beyond this body into another realm.
So in closing I would invite you to take a moment to notice the sounds that are around you and feel into your body for its reaction. What are you resonating with and what is creating discord?
Spotify playlist: Nourish_Power of Sound