Sound is first and foremost a vibration that travels through the air before reaching your ears and finally being interpreted by the brain assound. However, you have to realize that it's not just your ears that hear sound, the entire body perceives it.

Metal or quartz singing bowls, gongs, tuning forks, chimes, rain sticks, percussion or melodic instruments and even the voice have many benefits through their vibrations.

A little anatomy-physiology...

At the heart of our ear, in the cochlea, are small cilia bathed in a fluid called endolymph that oscillate according to the vibration emitted by a sound. Thus, the hair cells at the base of the cochlea respond to high frequencies (high-pitched sounds) and those deeper down aremore sensitive to low frequencies of low-pitched sounds. This oscillation gives an electric current that will be transmitted bythe auditory nerveor vestibulocochlear nerve which is itself directly connected to the brainstem. The pitch of the sound finally interpreted by the brain therefore depends on the hair cells stimulated.

How does the body perceive sound?

Have you ever seen deaf or hard of hearing people dancing to the beat? However, they do not hear! At least not with their ears...Since sound is a vibration, the body can feel it. The body being composed of 70% water, the vibratory wave of the music spreads and diffuses in your body as when a stone is thrown in the water. It is this principle that interestssound therapy.

Sound massage in sound therapy

Sound Massage is practiced clothed and lying down. The therapist places quartz or crystal bowls in various strategic locations around you and/or on you and tunes them with a mallet according to your needs. The vibrations emitted provide a real sensation of relaxation and of well-being leading the mind to settle down or even disconnect and the body to relax and free itself from many tensions.

The vibratory wave whose frequency is more or less high depending on the note played is diffused by the air and then transmits through the water contained in your body which is, as a reminder, 70% water. Your entire cells are truly bathed in this vibratory and undulatory field thus readjusting their own frequency which may be disturbed due to illness, physical blockages or emotional tensions.

Sonotherapy and meditation

Sound therapyis a form of mediation that allows one to experience a moment of calm in the present moment.

Traditionally used during ceremonies, the gongs and Tibetan bowls accompany the mantras which are sacred words, chanted and repeated to help the monk to amplify his state of consciousness until he reaches a kind of trance.

The alpha waves emitted by the brain only during meditative states are close to those emitted by these same singing bowls. They have, therefore, their place in relaxation and meditation sessions.

Sound therapy in the hospital

The benefits of these specific sounds combined with meditation are now recognized by some of the medical community, both empirically and scientifically. In particular, it is interesting to note that, since 2011, the palliative care department headed by Dr. Pascale Vassal at the St. Etienne University Hospital has been offering its patients at the end of life sound therapy workshops lasting 45 minutes. Given the enthusiasm of the caregiving teams and families, since 2014 these workshops have also been open to families.

Who is sound therapy for?

Sound therapy is specifically aimed at. at stressed people, who wish to find a calm and relaxing interlude in the tumult of their daily life.

On the other hand, if you are subject to problems of concentration, to some mental agitation,sound therapy can bring you inner calm by calming untimely cogitations.

This technique is also interesting to relieve certain physical ailments such as inflammatory conditions, nervous tension or any other pathology diagnosed as psychosomatic.

Sound therapy is one of the many ways that leads to letting go, thus allowing one to find a certain serenity within oneself that sweeps away various emotional disorders from the mind.

Sound therapy may prove beneficial for people suffering from problems falling asleep while improving the quality of their sleep.

From an energetic standpoint,sound therapy also works on the subtle which has the effect of rebalancing your electromagnetic sphere as well as your various energy centers commonly known as chakras.

Finally, as mentioned earlier,sound baths are wonderful accompaniments to meditation.