Sound Healing Therapy & Nada Yoga

Sound healing therapy is a holistic modality that uses sound frequencies to promote relaxation and healing for mental and physical health issues. The practice has been used by cultures worldwide for centuries. In recent years, the popularity of sound healing therapy has increased, and more and more people are turning to this alternative therapy for its potential health benefits.

What is Sound Healing Therapy?

Sound healing therapy is a form of vibrational medicine that uses sound waves to restore balance and harmony to the body. The therapy uses specific frequencies to target different body parts and stimulate healing.

Sound healing therapy can take many different forms, including:

1. Singing Bowls: Singing bowls are a bell that produces a deep, resonant sound when struck or played. The bowls are made from various materials, including metal, crystal, and even wood. The sound produced by the bowl promotes relaxation, reduces stress, and balances the body’s energy.
2. Tuning Forks: Tuning forks are metal instruments that produce a specific frequency when struck. They are used to tune musical instruments but can also be used for sound healing therapy. The frequency produced by the tuning fork can have a healing effect on the body.
3. Gong Baths: Gong baths involve lying down and being bathed in the sound of a gong. The gong produces a powerful sound that can be felt throughout the body. The vibrations of the gong are said to promote deep relaxation and release tension in the body.
4. Chanting and Mantras: Chanting and mantras involve repeating a specific word or phrase. The repetition of the sound is said to have a calming effect.
5. Music Therapy: Music therapy involves using music to promote healing and relaxation. The therapist selects music based on the client’s needs and plays it during the session.

How Does Sound Healing Therapy Work?

Sound healing therapy uses specific frequencies to stimulate healing in the body. Everything in the universe, including our bodies, vibrates at a specific frequency. When we are healthy, our bodies vibrate in harmony with the universe at a specific frequency. However, when we become ill or stressed, our body’s frequency can become unbalanced.

The specific frequencies used in sound healing therapy are said to resonate with different parts of the body, including organs, bones, and tissues. When the sound waves enter the body, they create a vibration that can help to restore balance and harmony.

Sound healing therapy also works by stimulating the body’s natural healing processes. The sound waves vibrations can help increase blood flow, reduce inflammation, and promote the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers.

What Are the Benefits of Sound Healing Therapy?

Sound healing therapy is believed to offer many potential health benefits. Some of the benefits of sound healing therapy include:

1. Stress & Anxiety Reduction: Sound healing therapy reduces stress and promotes relaxation. The sound waves created during the therapy can help to calm the mind and reduce stress in the body.
2. Pain Relief: Sound healing therapy is believed to reduce pain effectively. The vibrations created by the sound waves can help reduce inflammation and promote the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers.
3. Improved Sleep: Sound healing therapy is effective in improving sleep quality. The therapy can help promote relaxation and reduce stress, helping to fall asleep and stay asleep.
4. Increased Energy: Sound healing therapy is believed to increase energy levels effectively. The therapy can help stimulate the body’s natural healing processes, leading to increased energy.
5. Emotional healing: Sound healing can also be helpful for those dealing with emotional issues such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD. The sounds produced during a sound healing session can help to release emotional blockages, promote a sense of calm, and improve overall emotional well-being. Many individuals report feeling more balanced and centered after a sound healing session, which can positively impact their daily lives.
6. Spiritual growth: Sound healing can be a powerful spiritual growth and development tool. The sounds produced during a sound healing session can help people to connect with their higher selves, promote inner peace, and foster a deeper connection with the world around them. For those on a spiritual path, sound healing can effectively deepen their practice and explore new levels of consciousness.

See: Dance Movement Therapy

Nada Yoga: Yoga of Sound and Music

Nada Yoga is an ancient Indian spiritual practice that uses sound and music to achieve inner peace and spiritual enlightenment. The word “nada” in Sanskrit means “sound,” and “yoga” means “union.” Thus, Nada Yoga is the practice of uniting oneself with the universal sound or the cosmic vibration, which is believed to be the source of all creation.

In Nada Yoga, sound is a powerful tool for self-transformation and healing. Everything in the universe is believed to be made up of sound vibrations, which directly impact our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. By working with sound consciously and intentionally, we can harmonize our body, mind, and spirit and connect with the divine source of all creation.

History of Nada Yoga

Nada Yoga has its roots in the ancient Vedic scriptures of India, which date back to around 1500 BC. The Vedas contain hymns and chants used for spiritual purposes, and Nada Yoga is believed to have originated from these ancient texts.

Over time, Nada Yoga evolved into a distinct spiritual practice with its techniques and teachings. It became popularized by the Nath yogis, wandering ascetics who practiced yoga and meditation in India during the medieval period. The Nath yogis believed that sound was the key to unlocking the universe’s secrets and achieving spiritual enlightenment.

See: Sound & Music Healing

Nada Yoga was further developed by the 16th-century saint and poet Kabir. Kabir was a disciple of the Nath yogi, Ramananda, and he wrote many devotional poems and songs based on the principles of Nada Yoga. His teachings emphasized the importance of connecting with the divine through sound and music, and his poetry is still popular in India today.

Principles of Nada Yoga

The principles of Nada Yoga are based on the idea that sound is the source of all creation and that by working with sound consciously and intentionally, we can achieve inner peace and spiritual enlightenment. The key principles of Nada Yoga are:

1. Everything in the universe comprises sound vibrations.
2. The human body has its unique sound or vibration, which can be harmonized through sound and music.
3. Sound directly impacts our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
4. By working with sound consciously and intentionally, we can connect with the divine source of all creation.
5. Nada Yoga is a path to self-transformation and spiritual enlightenment.

Techniques of Nada Yoga

Many techniques of Nada Yoga can be practiced in various ways. Some of the most common techniques include:

1. Mantra chanting: This involves the repetition of a sacred sound or phrase, such as “Om,” “Hare Krishna,” or “Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram.” The repetition of the mantra is believed to create a vibrational resonance in the body and mind, which can lead to a state of deep relaxation and inner peace.
2. Listening to music involves conscious listening to music, such as classical Indian music or devotional chants. Music is believed to have a transformative effect on the mind and body and can help induce meditation and inner peace.
3. Playing musical instruments: This involves the playing of musical instruments, such as the sitar, tabla, or harmonium. Playing the instrument is believed to create a connection with the divine source of all creation and can help induce a state of meditation and inner peace.

See: Kirtan Kriya Meditation

Sound healing is a potent tool for promoting physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Whether you are dealing with stress and anxiety, chronic pain, or emotional issues, sound healing can help you relax, heal, and find greater balance. To explore the benefits of sound healing, consider finding a qualified practitioner in your area or exploring self-guided sound healing practices such as meditation, chanting, or listening to recorded sound healing sessions.

NourishDoc: Namaste. Well, happy new year. I hope everyone is safe and healthy. We are bringing something really interesting today called Nada Yoga and Sound Healing. We will find out who is joining me live from India. Namaste Advait.

Yoga Expert Advait: Namaste. Thank you, Amita ji, for the heartful invitation.

How Nada Yoga Can Be Combined With Sound Healing?

NourishDoc: Great. So let’s explain what Nada yoga means and how you combine it with sound healing.

Yoga Expert Advait: Absolutely. So as we know, yoga is the lineage and the tradition of yoga. The word yoga means the union. The divine union of our consciousness to the cosmic consciousness to the universal consciousness and Nada yoga is a method through which we use the sacred sound, the Anad-Nad; we might have heard, and all might have heard this. So, with the divine frequencies and this banda, the vibrations, we use these techniques and modalities to help us connect with the divine vibrations.

So, Nada Yoga is the last part of any yogic journey or seeker journey to unify with the cosmic consciousness. That is a little about Nada yoga and how we integrate it with sound therapy. Well, sound therapy or sound healing, which is famously known worldwide, is also called a sound bath. In the majority of the US regions, in UK regions. How do we integrate Nada Yoga with sound therapy?

Sound therapy is the external treatment and intervention of powerful frequencies calibrating our imbalance frequencies. So, sound therapy means we introduce different frequencies and sounds, which can help us recorrect our balance of the body, mind, and energy mechanics. Then when we establish ourselves in the sound therapy and vibrations, the journey of Nada yoga starts, which is the internal yoga of sound, the internal sound therapy. That is how these both sciences are interlinked. Sound therapy is the science that helps us to balance external situations. And now there was the internal spiritual science. The yoga of sound.

Different Sounds Used For The Sound Therapy

NourishDoc: Okay, that’s fascinating. So, let’s understand that you talk about the external. So, let’s understand the frequencies of the different sounds used for therapy.

Yoga Expert Advait: Yes. So, for therapeutic purposes, we all understand that we have our body, the brain, then the mind, which deals with the emotions, intellect, thoughts, and all the processing of the intelligence, and then we have the energies. So, how do we deal externally with the sound and frequencies?

First, we use certain instruments called singing bowls. Traditionally right now, they have been famously called the Tibetan singing bowls. But they have their history in Ayurveda and in the Indian yogic traditions. They originated from the science of Ayurveda and Nada Yoga. They are now known as Tibetan goals because Tibetan monks and Buddhist monks have been using them extensively worldwide. So these singing bowls introduce us to the harmonious Satvik frequencies that balance our disturbed frequencies.

Body’s natural healing frequency

How do they do that? The moment the vibration starts encapsulating us, our brain starts to go into the brain view of science to the theta and delta levels. Generally speaking, right now, we are in the beta state of brain view frequency. So when we go into these states of theta and delta waves, which are in the range of zero hertz, like 0. 1 hertz to eight hertz, this is where the body’s natural healing capacity is.

The autonomous nervous system kicks off the sympathetic nervous which helps us to go into a deep meditative state. Deep sleep helps us balance the hormones, the human growth hormone, the serotonin, the melatonin, and all the good hormones required for the body to relax. Then it ultimately helps us to relax in the nervous system. So, the majority of the part, when we go into the delta and theta level, this system starts to kick off.

So, there is a need in a society where everyone is stressed out. Everyone is in a state of fear and Flight mode. Even though the real stress is not there, the pursuit stress that we inherit from our surroundings to manage and effectively tackle is the majority part where the lower frequencies help us. Even the sulfate of frequencies has been said to help us retune back to the theta and delta levels of brain neuroscience.

Instruments Used By Sound Therapists for Therapy

NourishDoc: So that’s fascinating, and so explain a different type of instruments to us, right? That you are using, and any sound therapist will use to help us reach this therapeutic level.

Yoga Expert Advait: So, the typical instruments that I have traditionally used in the science of Nada Yoga and sound therapy are the singing bowls and the gongs But around the world, sound therapists and the music therapist have been using the shamanic drums, they use the digigro. There are crystal singing bowls also which are available.

Chimes have been used, and at the same time, traditional cultural instruments can be linked with the usage of sound therapy and music therapy. But the one using the modality or the instrument should know how to use it; if I have the instrument, I can use it for enlightenment, or I can use it for entertainment. So it depends on the seeker or user who has beautifully guided the people around him or herself.

Choosing The Instrument

So any instrument can be typically or hypothetically used for healing. However, I suggest you specifically go into the science of healing and connect it with psychology and medicine. Our go-to instrument is the singing bowls because they have been traditionally used for thousands of years to heal our body, brain, mind, and consciousness. So therapy, first of all, works beautifully on the body.

Then it translates to the mind level, and then it translates the energy and to the consciousness growth. So I use the singing bowls and gongs, but we can use various instruments to heal the stuff. Even many sound therapists and classical music artists around the world. They also use their voice, the vowels. If we date back to the ancient civilizations, all the tribal culture had their own set of instruments, their culture. In India, we have the culture of Aarti and Mantra. But let’s go to the African culture. They have their rhythmic dances and therapeutic movements combined with sound beautifully.

Different Layers Of Sound

NourishDoc: It’s fascinating. So the last question is, like you talked about the nada yoga being the internal part of it, the spiritual part of it, and the sound therapy being external, which we understand. Did you explain more in detail about Nada Yoga, the internal part?

Yoga Expert Advait: When discussing Nada yoga, especially from the Nada Yoga Upanishad. So different layers of sound can be correlated with the different levels of our consciousness. Typically when we explore different scriptures and texts, or even the modern like, we can say the words which the author has been down so we can link it to the four levels of consciousness, seven layers of our mind, or seven layers of our spiritual growth. Typically there are nine.

So when the Nad Yoga starts to happen within us, carefully note that it happens to us. It is not a way that, okay, let’s, I say that, I want to practice Nada yoga, let’s do it. It is not the way around that. So, it’s like the grounding, which has to happen first. When the grounding and the positive environment have been created at the body level, the Nad Yoga starts to happen slowly. So, there are nine sound levels and nine consciousness layers.

With every step of our practice of internal sound, we start to go up and up, which has been interlinked with our science of DNA upgrade, like the DNA science of DNA activation or how we can listen to the sound of organs. Like right now, I can listen to my heartbeat when I speak to you. I can listen to what my kidneys are speaking to me. This is the layer of scanning our body, mind, and consciousness. So when the seeker practices it more intensively with a specific tradition, guru, or master, it happens internally. Then you are in the divine consciousness of sound.

Deeper Version Of Body Scan

NourishDoc: It’s fascinating. So, would you talk it something similar to what they call a body scan in the Western world?

Yoga Expert Advait: It is similar to that. But it is extraordinarily deeper, an advanced aspect of Nada Yoga. So we have to do the body scanning like we have to follow certain instructions. But when we are into the spectrum of Nada yoga, it is happening to us 24 by seven without me or us doing anything. The sound is right there in your elites, like upfront, and that guides you in your decision making in your intuition, in your clarity of life because right now, the entire humanity is facing a thing called forward mental fatigue, or they are in the state of conflict.

So this conflict doesn’t allow us to see our natural frequency, our singular vibration. So when we practice the science of sound therapy and Nada yoga, our unique frequency comes to us. Our voice changes, and our behavior changes. Our patterns of lifestyle start to change. That is the beauty of it. So with sound, we can change our entire lifestyle. Similarly, now that scientists and even people have been discovering sound, we can use it like a war machine with resonance, with the sound, with the science of resonance. Similarly, if we use it beautifully for our spiritual growth, nothing is like it.

NourishDoc: It’s fascinating how we can. An inner voice we don’t listen to an inner voice because we are so inundated with all the social media and they. We want to, I mean especially the teenagers. I was reading an article in New York Times saying that people are taking all these pictures to put on social media to get likes. So that is not listening to the inner voice at all. That’s listening to the outside voice. What are your thoughts on that? How do we change society?

Yoga Expert Advait: So the society starts like if you want to change the society, it starts with the individual level. There is a beautiful saying that I don’t know the exact words, but charity begins from home in a way. Right? So, what do we mean by the home? Our this body is nothing but the abode of God. That is what our scriptures have been saying. In this body, you don’t have to go external to why people behave on social media or how it has been designed because they want to seek attention from external objects.

They don’t know how to seek this internal love and companionship which has to be generated from within. This is where the science of Nada yoga and sound therapy helps. Instead of relying on the external frequencies, we become so full of completeness and wholeness within that we no longer need any external stuff. No external dependencies and this is where the real transformation can begin.

It is like that. If our body and mind become the healer, only the true mother can help. It’s not about biology or gender. It is about becoming our healer and the moment we are healed and complete within ourselves. This is where an individual can transform billions of billions of people. This is what I truly believe in. Then this is where Nad Yoga helps us to be in our frequency and voice to find our purpose.

NourishDoc: It’s fascinating. We wanted to bring a quick primer and intro to Nada Yoga and how it can be combined with sound healing to find your inner love and yourself. That is what is propagating and advocating, and we’re bringing these workshops launching it within this month. So, stay tuned, and thank you, everyone, for your support. Namaste, thank you so much, Advait, for joining me live from India. Bye-bye and namaste. Thank you.