‘Art’ encompasses the playful crafting and stirring of inner peace and healing using sound, voice, and silence. There are no rules, yet there is structure; one that first calms the energy in a room, creates a protected space, grounds the body, and then untethers the spirit, allowing it to soar. By quieting the Cartesian mind that believes only what it sees, we can visualize colours and movement, and, if we’re lucky, the cosmos itself. We can also go deep inside ourselves, to the level of our cells and energetic connections. Sounds can take us on a meditative journey with harmonies coaxed from crystal bowls, cymbals, chimes, rattles, and music created to resonate.
It may seem esoteric and unattainable, but the vibration from a crystal bowl can burrow deep inside and start to remove blockages. A first session may be one of offloading, opening up, and letting out fear, worry, and stress. There may be tears. In fact, this happens often. Emotional shedding opens space within for a sense of peace and lightness of being. Using various resonance levels to direct our thoughts toward wellness, we can shift.
By consciously sending love to a vital part of ourselves, we open our hearts to an increased sense of self-love and wellness.
For example, music at 528 hertz—the prime resonance of the heart—offers an opportunity to visualize coherence of heart and mind and send gratitude to this tireless, faithful organ that works to keep our bodies alive even when we don’t give it any thought. By consciously sending love to a vital part of ourselves, we can open our hearts to an increased sense of self-love and wellness. This may seem like wishful thinking at first, but thinking wishfully can prove quite powerful. Every manifestation begins as a thought.
Since the 1990s, I have participated in meditation circles, eyes closed, for two hours a week. It has been the single most positive consistent action to help build my wellness, my resilience, and a greater level of joy in my life. I have learned to empty my mind, even though it so loved to wander! The experience of meditation, especially with the help of resonance, has become expansive and life changing.
I now host my own sound mediation workshops. Participants sit in chairs, covered with a shawl to keep them warm for an hour. Some have never meditated and wonder how they’ll be able to sit still for that length of time. I reassure them that if they want to get up, move, stretch, or leave, they’re welcome to do so. Will it bother the rest of the group? It might, but it will also help train us toward equanimity—staying in the moment and just breathing through any disturbance. This hasn’t happened yet, but it might one day.
According to Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, late director of Medical Oncology and Integrative Medicine at the Cornell Cancer Prevention Center in New York, “If we accept that sound is vibration and we know that vibration touches every part of our physical being, then we understand that sound is heard not only through our ears but through every cell in our bodies… Sound can redress imbalances on every level of physiologic functioning and can play a positive role in the treatment of virtually any disorder.”1 My experience as both a participant and a leader of sound healing meditation corroborates Dr. Gaynor’s conclusions. When people relax as a result of meditation, chanting, or engaging with restorative sound, their heart rates steady, their breathing becomes deepened and their stress hormones decrease. If you try it for yourself, you may just open your wellbeing to the power of sound.
For more information, please contact info@andreacourey.com.