Music and Sound Healing: Why Frequency is so Important to help Balance Mind-Body Health [Episode #824]

This week’s topic is: Music and Sound Healing: Why Frequency is so Important to help Balance Mind-Body Health

When I say health, I mean on a physical level, emotional level, mental level, and spiritual level because everything is energy, including the frequency of sounds. Just like you’re listening to me speak, it really does make a difference. The tone in our language, in our communication, we feel that intuitively when we’re speaking to someone and their voice draws us in, versus we can all think of people perhaps where we get repelled by their voice. And this frequency carries over into the music that we’re listening to. It carries over into the sounds of nature. And this is why one of the reasons that being in nature is so incredibly healing. Not just the sights and the colors, but also the frequency of sounds. It’s real natural integration that comes into our bodies when we are in nature.

And white noise is really powerful, and I am a white noise listener myself. I sleep every night to white noise. We also have our air filters, so that feels really soothing to me. And now there’s more intentional sound healing practices like sound baths and things of that nature, that are once in a while. However we can all take advantage of using the healing frequency of sound in our everyday life through the music that we listen to. And there’s different apps and different ways of incorporating this healing. And there’s quite a bit of research around it as well, which we will get to.

The core tenet of today is to remember that energy comes into our bodies, it comes into our lives in all ways. This is one of the principles of Ayurveda that we digest through all of the senses, everything that’s coming into us, not just what we’re eating, but what we’re watching on tv, what we’re hearing and what we’re listening to has a profound impact on our vitality and our prana and our health. What we’re taking in with our eyes, what we’re perusing visually, all of it is coming into our being and does have an impact on our health. Today we’re going to be focusing on the audio nourishment that’s coming in. Is it toxic? Is it chaotic? Is it nurturing, and so on.

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[Question Answered]

Jennifer – Portland

I have a very stressful job and feel like it really is affecting my mental and physical states. A friend of mine was talking to me about sound frequencies that may help me. Would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

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Transcript:

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate. This is due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

Kimberly: 00:01 Namaste loves and welcome back to our Thursday Q&A  show where I’m so excited to talk today about audio healing, how Music and Sound Healing: Why Frequency is so Important to help Balance Mind-Body Health. And when I say health, I mean on a physical level, emotional level, mental level, spiritual level, because everything is energy, including the frequency of sounds. So just like you’re listening to me speak, it really does make a difference. The tone in our language, in our communication, we feel that intuitively when we’re speaking to someone and their voice draws us in, versus we can all think of people perhaps where we get repelled by their voice. And this frequency carries over into the music that we’re listening to. It carries over into the sounds of nature. And this is why one of the reasons that being in nature is so incredibly healing.

01:06 Not just the sights, the colors, but also the frequency of sounds. It’s real natural integration that comes into our bodies when we are in nature. And white. Noise is really powerful, and I am a white noise listener myself. I sleep every night to white noise. We also have our air filters, so that feels really soothing to me. And now there’s more intentional sound healing practices like sound baths and things of that nature, which may be inaccessible, maybe they are usually for most of us, those are once in a while. But we can all take advantage of using the healing frequency of sound in our everyday life through the music that we listen to. And there’s different apps and different ways of incorporating this healing. And there’s quite a bit of research around it as well, which we will get to in just a moment. So the core tenet of today is to remember that energy comes into our bodies, it comes into our lives in all ways.

02:20 This is one of the principles of Ayurveda that we digest through all of the senses, everything that’s coming into us, not just what we’re eating, but what we’re watching on tv, what we’re hearing and what we’re listening to has a profound impact on our vitality and our prana and our health. What we’re taking in with our eyes, what we’re perusing visually, all of it is coming into our being and does have an impact on our health. So today we’re going to be focusing on the audio nourishment that’s coming in. Is it toxic? Is it chaotic? Is it nurturing? Is it, and we’ll get into that in just a moment.

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Question around the topic of: Music and Sound Healing: Why Frequency is so Important to help Balance Mind-Body Health: I have a very stressful job and feel like it really is affecting my mental and physical states. A friend of mine was talking to me about sound frequencies that may help me. Would love to hear your thoughts on the subject. 

04:24 So it’s all over there on our website. Alright, let’s get into our show today on audio healing, sound healing. And our question comes from Jennifer, who lives in Portland. Thank you Jennifer for being in our community, sending you so much love tuning into that energy up there in the Pacific Northwest. Talk about nature, talk about beauty, and thank you again for bringing this topic forward in our community. And your question is, I have a very stressful job and I feel like it is really affecting my mental and physical states. A friend of mine was talking to me about sound frequencies that may help me. I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject. So stress, this tension that builds up in our bodies needs to be relieved. And one of the ways in which we can really be more resilient against stress is, number one, not getting so stressed out in the first place, maintaining our center, seeing what’s happening around us, but dealing calmly with each thing as it comes, which is easier said than done.

05:39 But this is where the frequency can come in. If we’re listening to more melodic calm music, it can really help us to stay centered. And then number two, if we get triggered, if we fall into the stress response of stress reaction, the music and the sound frequencies can help us to bring us back into coherence, into equilibrium faster. So there is research around this. I will link in the show notes. One peer reviewed study, this is from 2013, investigated the effects of beats, so different music frequencies on stress responses. And it found that listening to these softer tones that were melodic, they were soothing, they were calming, literally helped to decrease cortisol levels. They were able to measure the impact of the hormones, the hormonal impact of these frequencies indicating reduced stress. So that is one of the ways they’re able to measure the efficiency and the effectiveness of music is seeing what is our hormonal balance or imbalance at the time.

06:53 And then another study that came out in the journal nature, this was from 1998, all the way back then found that music training can have a positive impact on cognitive function, which can contribute to overall wellbeing. So I remember when I was a child, I studied the piano, I studied the violin, and I was always taught that music has a connection to math and to all the amazing arithmetic and other sciences around mathematics. And there’s a real language, there’s a structure to music, but there’s all this beautiful soul in it. It’s really coming through us, whether we’re playing the instruments or we start to attune to this really beautiful, uplifting music that we can choose to listen to, which is very much what I listen to anytime I play music. It’s either music without words. I have a whole playlist on my Spotify that is my meditation folders, and I don’t actually meditate to that music.

08:15 It’s what I play. If I’m working writing emails and I want to have something in the background or I listen to spiritual music, I love Ton, I love Krishna Dass, who we have also interviewed on this show, and we will link to him in the show note that amazing interview. But I can say from personal experience that it really does keep me calm and it helps me feel centered and it feels amazing. Another study that I want to point out was from 2013 and this found that the effects of stress, effects of stress, the effects of music,

Kimberly: 08:54 Can help reduce the stress response, which is a fundamental aspect of sound healing. So again, this has been researched in so many different contexts. For me, sound healing is soothing as I keep saying, it doesn’t feel like it’s going into chaotic states. So there’s a time and a place I think for all music, but for me, some of the grading pop music, which is it feels artificial, it’s made from, it’s a synthetic sound, almost kind of processed food and it’s fun. And my older son starts to some of these songs and sometimes we have dance parties at home. So there’s a time and a place or maybe some of the hardcore wrap or something that’s there’s a time and a place for it. But in our daily life, if we’re looking to reduce stress, we remember that coherence frequencies that are going to put us in more order are definitely rhythmic, they’re calming, they’re a bit more soft and subtle.

10:11 And so these are the ones that we also want to have in our repertoire. We also want to have these playlists and these folders. And you can notice in your body these studies are backing up what we can intuitively attune to, which is that when we listen to these types of music, we can actually feel our breath start to regulate. We can feel our heart. All the systems in the body start to come into coherence versus some of the music we listen to can make us activated. It can bring more tic qualities, more activity inside of our bodies and we can really feel that inside of us. So it’s something to always take note of. As always, I encourage you to really tune into your body. Your body has so much wisdom. And so yes, this research can help to confirm it, but your body will also help guide you into what is really helping.

11:14 And it’s funny because just today I was in a salon. I do very little out there, but I do get my hair cut once in a while and every few years what I did today, I did some microblading so I feel clean, my eyebrows look great, and I don’t have to wear makeup most days, but they were playing this music that was so, it just felt really aggravating to my system. And there were all these commercials and I just couldn’t really feel that relaxed as I was sitting there and it took like an hour and a half or whatever it took. So we just start to notice when we have the choice and creating a really healthy environment for our bodies, whether you’re in a work cubicle and maybe you can play music softly or listen to headphones or what you’re listening to if you’re exercising or while you’re cooking or while you’re sending emails, whatever music’s in our home is those of that nature I spoke to earlier, which I find has helped to soothe the children.

12:24 And I’ll either be in silence because we have a lot of nature around our home. I’m very grateful for that. We have owls and hummingbirds buzzing by and lots of different other birds. So I like to hear that music or I like to listen to really soothing rhythmic music. And you’ll see if you try it for yourself, you turn off the tv and definitely please do not listen to the news while you’re cooking because there’s so much fear-based energy that comes through those headlines and what is going on beyond our control. And energetically, you don’t want that to come out into your cooking, into your meal preparation.

13:05 So there is another study I want to point out from 2016 in the Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine, which examined the impact of poor mood and elevated anxiety when linked to increased incidents of disease. And it found that sound meditation, specifically Tibetan singing bowl meditation, was elevated mood, anxiety, pain and self-reported levels of spiritual wellbeing. So this is really wonderful to note that there is so much power in frequency which goes beyond language. Think about these ancient singing bowls. And I remember being in Nepal when I was backpacking years ago and getting one of those bowls that was a mix of all these different metals. And at the time it was a good amount of money for me on my tiny backpacking budget, but it was something that I really felt when I heard it being played, it’s s saying to my soul, it felt so good in my body and I really wanted it.

14:16 So I got it and I car it around in my backpack of the ana perna trek. But it was this intuitive knowing, and I still have it to this day, that these frequencies can’t be just pinned down into words. Which again is why I think music without words is really powerful to incorporate. You can feel the soul in the instruments, you can feel the soul in the melodic tones and the ways that the music reaching into your body and to soothe your nervous system, your central nervous system, essentially your spine, your brain and the nerves and what Ayurveda would call these different channels, all these naughties, 72,000 knots little energy centers through the body, and of course the main chakras. So when we can go beyond word, I think words and music in particular and in sound healing, we can really heal in such a deep cellular way, can be really, really powerful to add in.

15:29 And now there’s even research in neuroscience. This was from, let’s see what year this was 2000. And this study in the National Institute of Medicine used sensitive instruments to investigate how the brain was responding to these frequencies. And they found that these sound frequencies were able to modulate the brain and the brainwaves in positive ways. So when we’re in beta brainwaves, that was a really simplistic way to soothe to explain this very complex study. But we know that beta brainwaves are, when we’re in action mode, when we’re doing, we’re running around, we’re doing tasks, we’re checking errands off the list, and we have to be in that go mode. And then as the sound frequencies start to slow a bit, then we start to get more into the alpha and the creative states. And it really starts to shift our perception of the world. It starts to shift our lives when our brainwaves shift.

16:34 And again, this is reinforcing a lot of what we know so intuitively, but it’s really wonderful to incorporate on a more intentional basis. And also, there’s a beautiful study in the National Library of Medicine about pain management strategy where they found that music therapy really helped with pain and anxiety. So for those of us that have loved ones or we are going through pain, there’s a lot of resistance that can contribute to pain. Our bodies almost don’t want to feel that we can tighten, we can contract, we can anticipate there’s anticipatory pain. And I recently read a book talking about anticipatory grief. So these expectations that we have in our mind and our body for, oh, this is coming, which can actually create more heightened sensations and more heightened suffering. So it can be very powerful to listen to these, again, soothing tones and music.

17:39 And I even have some tracks in my playlist that are just the Tibetan bowls. So if you’re in these music apps like Spotify, you can search for Tibetan bowls or chimes going again into the pure tones and beyond the words. If you’re someone that usually listens to a lot of country music or pop music, which is great, it has a lot of words though, it’s great to introduce that as well for when you’re looking to calm your anxiety. And also this next study, the last study I’ll mention here, there’s so many, I’ll link to all of these in the show notes once again on my sauna.com. If you’re interested in reading the research from 2015, found that tranquil music help to elevate your H R V during sleep transitions, meaning the study suggested that calming sounds can reduce cognitive conflict and stress. So this was tranquil music and nature sounds soundscapes.

18:41 And if particularly if you live in a city and you are not near nature at all, I highly recommend bringing the power of nature in through this audio channel. Why not? I love, I have some of those tones as well. If I ever do get a massage, which admittedly is quite rare right now, I asked the masseuse to play nature music. I really love it. Water, rain, frogs, storms, I love it all because we are part of nature. And so when we listen to nature, it immerses us in this feeling of being in nature. There’s a different embodiment to this frequency coming all around us. So it’s amazing. And I love that this study was showing sleep transition. So if you’re looking to go to sleep, if you’re looking to wake up to this sort of music to get you going into the day, think about how differently you would feel listening to this, the nature sounds and the tranquility versus turning on the news, the morning news first thing, which would be quite jarring to your nervous system.

Ways to incorporate these frequencies into your life

20:00 So what we talked about today, there’s lots of research around here and this whole different, there’s so many different ways of incorporating these frequencies into your life to help with stress reduction, anxiety reduction, helping to boost yourself out of depression. And I encourage you just like other lifestyle habits and simple steps that you want to bring in to make it a regular practice and to stack it with other practices.

Meditation and Music

So for instance, whenever my mornings are really busy and by the time I go downstairs and I’m hustling to make breakfast snack for my older son who’s going to school, pack his lunch, but breakfast for both the kids, get them dressed, all of it, I automatically turn on my soothing music. So when I go downstairs and I’m making my hot water with lemon, and I start that process, boom, there goes the music, I go right to my playlist.

21:06 So for you, it might be that time when you brush your teeth, put in the rushed thoughts, start to come in, start to check email again, I encourage you to try to meditate before all that goes. And then as Paramahansa Yogananda said, we don’t want to go straight from meditation into some sort of argument or into hurry and rush energy. He describes it as milking a cow and then kicking the pale of milk over. We want the benefits of meditation and our presence, having a really mindful present morning to keep going as much as possible into the day. So after meditation, it’s really beautiful to keep that music going. You can maybe check your emails, delay it a little bit longer, enjoy that time in the morning. I definitely do not turn on any sort of media in the morning or the news or anything, whatever feels good to you in that regard.

22:14 But that’s a way that I really do contain that peaceful energy for longer. And then if you are interested in incorporating some of these frequencies into your meditation, our hard aligned meditations, which we’re going to be publishing soon on the website, have music in them. And it’s a beautiful way to elevate your coherence and to drop into your heart and into your true self in a deeper way. And the meditations that Yogananda would teach, there would often be a chant first. So a devotional chant can really help to create that, the mood, the rasa, the energy before you just sit in it, right? Or you can have singing bowls in the background. You can find all these amazing chants and mantras on these apps like Spotify. And that’s a really beautiful way to enhance your meditation as well. And then creating more restful sleep because of these sound frequencies.

Sound Healing

23:23 It’s a beautiful practice, again, while you’re journaling at night or you start to go towards sleep, to listen to soothing music in the evenings. And then if you get the chance to go to a sound healing or a sound bath, sometimes they’re inaccessible. I’ve gone to some that are amazing and I’ve gone to some that were not as amazing. And so it really depends on the energy I think of the person doing the sound bath because they are controlling the frequencies. So if you’re called to that, if you have a great recommendation, it’s popular. Now, there’s a lot of people that are getting chimes and getting sound bowls because there isn’t that. The barrier to entry is not that high. So I would definitely recommend like you get a great recommendation for a colon hydrotherapist or a masseuse, definitely get a recommendation for a sound healing practitioner if you’re going to be immersed in that energy for 40 minutes, an hour, whatever.

24:27 It’s, but it can be beautiful, but do be discerning and do be mindful. And that’s why it’s wonderful to have access to these apps because you do have that freewill choice of choosing which music comes into your particular field, your energy field, because it will interact and it will shift your energy. So isn’t it so empowering to know that we have all these ways that we can work with energy, our bodies, ourselves, the true self is so amazing. And on one hand, also be mindful that everything that you are taking in through your senses, you are digesting. It is affecting your energy. So everything that you see with your eyes, that’s why colors and feng shui and beautiful colorful foods and beautiful scents and essential oils, which we talked about here on the podcast as well, the music you’re listened to. And then one thing that we didn’t yet touch on is the tone of the voice.

25:41 So if you do have to interact with someone, and I’ve done this, I’ve said to even my hubby who can be really loud talker, babe, can you lower your voice a bit? Because sometimes people’s voices can be really jarring. Sometimes we naturally move away from people, maybe that matches their energy. Sometimes we can have a stand our heart and have a really honest, loving conversation and just say, I love talking to you, but maybe slow down a little bit or can you lower your voice a little bit? I’m right next to you. So tone is so important. I am very sensitive to tone and I appreciate when people aren’t super loud. And for me, that means sensitivities to screens. It’s probably the reason I don’t watch TV or TV or movies hardly at all. I prefer more tranquility. I prefer conversation. There’s wrong with it.

26:43 My husband loves watching things. When we’re on the plane to Hawaii, my older son will watch some things. It’s what we’re drawn to, but for me, it can be jarring. And I’ve noticed that jacks up my nervous system to an extent. So we all have different sensitivities. So whether it’s audio or food sensitivities or whatever it is, it’s important to be intuitive and to really pay attention to what feels good in your body and what feels good for you to digest and assimilate. So I hope this helped to inspire you about this whole new realm of healing and energy management and energy elevation. And I would, I’m going to pull out one of my favorite playlists right now, as a matter of fact. And if I could recommend, I’m pulling up my meditation playlist. I really love, let’s see here. I love Morley. I love Krishna Dass. There’s some amazing soothing music from Mc Yogi who’s also been on our podcast. There is absolutely love, love, love. Where’s this artist that I do want to share with you?

28:14 Hold on one second. I have a lot of her music here. Oh, wa w a h exclamation point I highly recommend. And our upcoming heart aligned meditations will have amazing music in them as well. So please check out the show notes. Please check out the other podcasts I mentioned, especially the one with Krishna Doss, which I think you’ll enjoy very much. He is amazing and brilliant and insightful, and had really wonderful stories to share. I will be back here Thursday or Monday rather for our next interview show. Until then, please find me on social at Kimberly Snyder. I look forward to connecting with you more and sending you so much love, so much gratitude. Namaste.