Let the energy FLOW
Sound baths use frequency and vibration to support the body and allow it to heal
When I heard about a class that is said to have the power to shapeshift your psyche and state of well-being, I decided I had to give it a try, at least once. Which is why, on a dark winter night, a number of years ago, I found myself heading into a pilates studio on Queen West, entering a waiting room filled with the calming scent of burned sage.
Clad in loose, comfortable and warm clothes, as instructed, I saw the friendly smile of Vanessa Faria, the Toronto-based energy healer and spiritual guide I had met at other classes. She embraced me in a welcoming hug and I signed in, paying the $45 fee for her “Release and Restore” workshop. I was there to take part in my first sound bath, an ancient practice in which someone trained in the effects of sound and energy plays music of different vibrations to hit your parasympathetic nervous system to calm and put you in a meditative state.
I looked warily around the waiting room filled with about 15 or so strangers, hoping I wouldn’t see anyone I know, as I had heard that sound baths can make you let go of trapped emotions, which can lead to crying. I’m comfortable and aware that I’m a sensitive soul (I’m a relationship writer, after all) but I wanted to really embrace this experience and be open and vulnerable, something I didn’t feel my self-conscious self would be able to do if there were familiar faces in the room.
Right on time, we were all guided into the studio’s main room, which was dimly lit, and we were told to grab a yoga mat, a blanket, a bolster and a lavender scented eye pillow and to set them up in a circle in the middle of the room.
Sitting in the middle at the top of the circle was a set of crystal bowls of various sizes, some instruments I’d never seen before
and a long-haired, bearded sound healer and “music mystic” named Darren Austin Hall.
Hopeful to get the most of my experience, I set up my mat close to him and lay down and focused on being present. I had no expectations of this experience, just to have a place to transform my energy.
Though everyone was pleasantly smiling as we set up our pseudo-beds as if it was a kindergarten naptime (if only!), we were all in the room for specific deep-rooted reasons. Mental health. Grief. Loss. Inability to move forward. Inability to let go. Ultimate acceptance.
The less personally-obsessed and introspective were likely spending their evenings on the exact same street, filling one of its many bars with friends, or on the usual stream of first dates many of us go on at the start of a new year, telling ourselves that “this year will be different.”
But it turned out this studio, with its spicy scents and strange sounds, was exactly where I needed to be.
Some scoff at how much time and money people spend to take part in what seem to be woo-woo forms of self-care. That two-word, hyphenated term “self-care” alone will make many roll their eyes. Yet, the need to take part in rituals that have the potential to benefit the mind, body, spirit and emotions — such as the ancient Tibetan wellness practice of sound bathing — can be transformative and healing, for those who participate and those who orbit their lives.
Sound baths have brought me peace, acceptance and the ability to move forward.
My intention going into it was that it could act as a healthy tool to aid with what was, at the time, my debilitating depression and anxiety. I was looking to release what I was holding onto emotionally, and to move forward feeling refreshed and renewed. So what is a sound bath? Yoga teacher YuMee Chung tells me, “Sound baths bring the practice of deep listening (known as Nada Yoga, the yoga of sound) to an overstimulated and overworked population and they can create a safe container for rest, relaxation and effortless meditative focus. Those with busy minds may find a sound bath to be a portal to self-care and introspection.”
She says that it uses frequency and vibration to support the body and to allow it to heal and it has been practised all over the world. In Tibetan practices, the sound is created using Tibetan bowls, and in more New Age practices, the sound is created using crystal bowls.
At the time, I didn’t really tell people about this workshop I began attending (they coincided each month with the new moon). It felt like a sacred space, a special gift for myself and, had I told others, I felt like the secret would be out and I wouldn’t be able to be present in a room filled with familiar faces, selfish though that was.
Now, here we are in 2020 and various forms of sound healing and sound baths are all around the city. Some of the better known Toronto-based sound healers are Kiko Sounds, who offers $20 sound baths at +focus mindspace; Darren Austin Hall, who hosts various forms of sound baths and mystical healing events around the city and hosts an array of international retreats; and Alexandria Santaguida, known as “The Only Alexandria,” who offers sound bath experiences in the form of classes, one-on-ones, private groups, corporate activations, school programs and most notably a monthly pop-up class at Hoame meditation studio within their impressive pink Himalayan rock salt cave ($60 for a session in the cave).
“Your body is made up of 70 per cent water and the vibration from the crystal singing bowls will actually create movement within your body whether you are conscious of it or not. The frequency I work with is 432 hertz, which is lower than the normal frequency we are exposed to daily (440 Hz),” Santaguida says. “It has been studied in science that working with a lower frequency actually helps reduce anxiety and stress.”
Those who have suffered from trauma or who have anxiety or mental health issues are often drawn to sound baths. Santaguida says that people come in thinking they need one thing, but end up receiving another.
“Sound is extremely powerful and is my favourite modality to work with, but each person plays a key part in their ‘healing.’ Their willingness to receive, to rest and to relax allows the sounds to help them go deeper,” says Santaguida.
She acknowledges that resistance is normal with any new experience and on all of our journeys, so by coming back to the breath and remembering to just listen to the sounds, you allow the mind to find ease and give the body permission to relax.
“When we get to that state of relaxation and surrender, that is when the magic happens,” says Santaguida.
So where does self-care and self-growth come into the mix?
Santaguida says: “They feel at peace, relaxed and grounded, or after our session they’ve slept for the first time in years, or have had intense emotional release and had been brought back to past traumas that hadn’t fully processed. In each case, the person receives what they most need and are ready for.”
Because we all have our past traumas and current stresses, this way of meditating and this experience of sound bathing can be powerful for anyone, at any point in time. Each person’s experience is completely unique.
“What I love about this practice is that you learn more about yourself in the stillness. More of yourself gets revealed, new layers and a deeper understanding can be experienced when you go deeper and stay dedicated to self-expansion and exploration,” says Santaguida.
Sound baths aren’t the only answer for me. I have ups and downs like everyone else, and at times, it takes a combination of various forms of self-care to keep me on the up and up. But sound baths are something I have continued to attend and act as a great tool on those days where I feel like I need to move around the negative energy from within.
Perhaps, I’ll see you on the mat or in the cave, though if so, let’s not acknowledge it. I’m still working through that whole being vulnerable in public thing and the tears tend to stream down my un-tense face.