Sara Whatley is inviting you to open your ears and get grooving to the music this month as she looks at sound and vibration for wellness, and dancing for health
Sound and vibrations fill our world. From our own breathing and heartbeat to the sounds that surround us in our everyday lives, we are constantly being subjected to noise. How we use this sound and vibration is up to us. We tune into the bits that are relevant to us, conversations for example, and sometimes let the rest flow past us without much notice.
There is a listening mindfulness meditation which is very interesting to do – simply let the sounds around you come to your ears, without searching them out, and listen to the quality of the sounds (pitch, length, volume etc) rather than making a judgement (I like this sound, I don’t like that sound). Let the sounds layer up. It’s amazing how much we can hear when we pay attention.
Let’s look at how sound, vibration and music can be used in wellness and movement through various sound practices and therapies, and dance.
WELLNESS: SOUND AND VIBRATION
Sound and vibrations are a powerful tool in the wellness world. You might have heard of a sound bath, or perhaps music therapy, but what do these do?
When we make sounds with our own bodies, such as chanting the mantra 'om', it can focus the mind and help us concentrate, and bring a sense of calmness, connection and peace. This happens through the act of breathing deeply which lowers the heart rate and relaxes the nervous system.
A sound bath has very similar effects. As you lay there the waves of sound and vibration wash over you while the practitioner plays different instruments, such as gongs and singing bowls. This can change our physiology – lowering the heart rate and slowing the breathing, which in turn helps stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, especially when listening to long tones with higher frequencies (light and bright tones).
The opposite is also true; when listening to more discordant and intense music it can stimulate the amygdala, the part of the brain that controls our fight, flight, freeze response and can release stress hormones.
Music therapy can be incredibly sophisticated and nuanced to the patient and condition it is treating and is backed up by solid scientific research.
MOVEMENT: DANCE
Music makes up a big part of the sounds we listen to. And when we hear music that we enjoy it’s almost impossible to stop our bodies from moving along with the beat, even if it’s just a slight nod of the head or tap of a finger. Of course, moving your body to music can also be expressed as dancing!
Humans have always danced, from ancient tribal rituals to formal ballroom dances and nowadays, at clubs and festivals. It is well known that having a good dance can make you feel great. Moving your body, loosing yourself in the music and connecting with others are all fantastic for our health and wellbeing.
So, what sorts of dance could you be doing? There are the more formal structured dances such as ballet, ballroom dancing, or street dance. And then the more informal freeform dancing – where you simply move your body to the music in a way that feels good to you.
In practices such as ecstatic dance you release yourself to the rhythm of the music and move freely to it – to explore the exhilaration of unleashing the free expression of emotions and expanding through movement and music.
Whatever you listen to and however you move your body – a shoulder shimmy, a tap of the toe, or a full body rock – let yourself go, smile and lose yourself in the experience.
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