This post provides an introduction to sound healing.
“People say that the soul, on hearing the song of creation, entered the body, but in reality the soul itself was the song.” Hafiz (1320-1390)
Table of Contents
Who is Betsy Leighton?
I’m a writer, blogger, and healer dedicated to helping individuals reconnect with their innate peace and wholeness by healing nervous system dysregulation. My personal experience with chronic illness called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) shapes my work, and my content offers tools to empower those with chronic illness to improve their well-being and take charge of their health.
I created the Sacred Self-Healing Method and am a trained and certified Safe and Sound Protocol provider, an author, blogger, and A Course in Miracles Teacher. I hold a Master of Divinity in Spiritual Counseling and am a trained spiritual mentor, with certificates in sound healing, aromatherapy, nutrition, and Sacred Deathcare. I offer a self-study certificate program in the Sacred Self-Healing Method, provide spiritual counseling and coaching, courses, and supported subscriptions for the Safe and Sound Protocol.
What is MCAS?
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) is a chronic condition that affects all organ systems. It can cause severe, disabling symptoms every day, including potentially fatal anaphylaxis. MCAS often occurs with other chronic conditions like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Managing MCAS is challenging because many healthcare providers are unaware of it, and diagnostic tests can be unreliable. Treatments include antihistamines and mast cell stabilizers, as well as avoiding triggers. Check out this post on managing MCAS.
Intention
Sacred Self-Healing relies on intention and frequency. Intention directs frequency to bring about healing. The universal formula for healing is:
Intention + Frequency = Healing.
In this expression, “frequency” refers to the specific healing modality being applied. Setting an intention is particularly beneficial when utilizing self-healing methods such as frequency and forgiveness. This post covers more information on the power of intention.
Beneficial Frequency
Beneficial frequency refers to natural vibrations that synchronize biological and Earth systems, to support overall harmony. For instance, visible red and blue light from the sun are beneficial frequencies because they regulate circadian rhythms. Likewise, Earth’s Schumann resonance is a naturally occurring frequency that aligns internal and external rhythms for health. This post discusses beneficial frequency in more depth.
Forgiveness
Forgiveness, like love, is seen as a high-frequency energetic state connected to compassion and gratitude. In contrast, emotions such as resentment and anger are thought to have lower frequencies, constricting rather than elevating well-being. Forgiveness helps elevate energy, promote emotional healing, and support physiological balance. Science hasn’t measured the frequency of forgiveness, but studies show that forgiveness can improve heart and brain patterns and help the body work more smoothly. Forgiveness brings balance, healing, and peace—both emotionally and physically. This post delves deeper into forgiveness.
Sound healing is universal
“What makes us feel drawn to music is that our whole being is music: our mind and body, the nature in which we live, the nature which has made us, all that is beneath and around us, it is all music.” – Hazrat Inyat Khan (Sufi Master, 1882-1927)
Making sound is a universal part of many faith traditions:
African tribal chant
Buddhist chant
Byzantine chant
Coptic chant
Gregorian chant
Jewish sacred chant
Native American chant
Pasaba (Filipino) chant
Plainchant (Hildegard of Bingen)
Plainsong (Eastern Orthodox)
Shamanic chant
Sufi Zikr
Vedic chant
What is sound healing?
- Sound Healing is both an energy healing modality and a spiritual practice.
- You can look at it as “living prayer.”
- You can consider it a way of partnering with the Divine
- Sound healing can be done with the voice (easy, no equipment), humming, singing, chanting, drum, didgeridoo, Tibetan singing bowls, crystal bowls, tuning forks or bells, and more!
- Harmonics add complexity to the sound and increase the healing power
- Sound Healing is even happening when you sing in the shower or play music that makes you feel good!
The science behind sound healing
The physiological and health-giving mechanisms behind the practice of sound healing are universally encoded in humans. We are hard-wired to hear the range of pitches produced by the human voice and to have common emotional responses to those sounds. Ancient musical chant scales produce universal corresponding emotional states. When one hears specific musical scales or harmonic patterns, the brain signals the autonomic nervous system that the body is safe, and the body relaxes the vagal (heart) nerves. By and large, the music that we like to listen to contains the health-giving harmonic combinations our body craves; it’s why listening to music makes us feel good. The practice of sound healing can be done easily with the voice, but also with metal or crystal singing bowls, tuning forks, digeridoo, or other instruments, and can be practiced by itself, or in combination with prayer or other spiritual practices. Sound Healing also has implications for musicology, music therapy, and auditory processing.
Sound healing in action
I have been practicing sound healing daily since 2010. Local sound healer Kay Grace trained me. My daily practice centers around toning or chanting the vowel sounds. I set an intention and then tone one or any number of the vowel sounds which correspond to our chakras.
UH – root chakra
OOO – sacral chakra
OH – solar plexus – chakra
AH – heart chakra
EYE – throat chakra
AYE – third eye
EEE – crown chakra
By toning each of these vowel sounds, you give each of your chakras an energetic massage. This, in turn, clears out the stagnant energy associated with that chakra and extends that energetic massage to all of the organs, bones, and tissues of the body related to each of the chakras. You can even change the color of your aura by using sound.
Over the years of using Sound Healing, I experienced profound changes in my ability to express myself aloud, in groups, and I “claimed my voice”. As a child, I was too shy to speak in class. Now I’m able to present to groups and lead classes. It would not have been possible without sound healing.
A few years ago, I knew I would be leaving my job, and I wanted help deciding which direction to take next. I set the intention to “Joyfully move toward God’s plan for me.” Over several months, I frequently returned to this intention while I practiced my daily sound healing.
One day in 2016, while on my lunch break, I decided to set an intention to receive guidance on what I should do next in my vocation. I toned the chakras, silently repeating my intention as I slowly walked in a moving meditation. As I turned the corner to return to my workplace, I heard an unmistakable voice say, “Hospice chaplaincy.” Instantly, I was flooded with a sense of the rightness of purpose and returned to work full of gratitude for the message I had been given.
Starting on a path toward hospice chaplaincy was the first step toward my vocation, and over time, I adjusted to what I was being called to do. But even though the message I received didn’t reflect the outcome, it was what I needed to head toward my calling.
The bucket theory
The bucket theory simplifies understanding symptom reactions with MCAS. Imagine your body as an empty bucket you don’t want to overflow. Reactions to various stimuli fill the histamine bucket at different rates, forming the total histamine level (how full your bucket is). More histamine means more symptoms. By managing triggers, reducing exposures, and taking medications and supplements, you can control your bucket’s level.
Know your typical symptom progression
Understanding your symptom progression during a flare is key to developing your rescue plan. This post discusses how to recognize symptom progression so you can be prepared to address them.
Get my free ebook, symptom log, and meal plan!
Want a tool to easily track your symptoms?
Check out these circadian health tools!
I’m an affiliate with Bon Charge, a company that makes tools for circadian health, and you can receive 15% off your order with my coupon code BETSYL.
Bon Charge offers tools such as yellow– and red-tone blue-blocking glasses, red light therapy devices, PEMF mats, infrared saunas, and EMF-blocking products.
Sign up for the SSP!
I’ve found the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) to be the most helpful bottom-up healing strategy if your nervous system has been overloaded with toxic exposures, including mold or non-native EMFs, chronic infections, concussions, stress, or trauma. The SSP is a passive listening therapy based on Polyvagal Theory that helps heal nervous system dysregulation. Many people with MCAS and other chronic conditions have nervous system dysregulation stemming from infections, toxic exposures, concussions, and trauma. The SSP is an easy-to-use app that lets you listen to specially filtered music for 30 minutes each day as part of a 5-hour cycle. Studies show the SSP has a profound effect on mental health and chronic conditions. Here’s a short podcast describing the Safe and Sound Protocol.
You can sign up for the SSP here!
Heal your mind!
While the SSP is a bottom-up, somatic therapy for healing the nervous system, the Sacred Self-Healing Method I offer is a top-down nervous system-healing modality that focuses on cognition, attention, perception, and emotion, using the mind’s higher functions. The SSP and the Sacred Self-Healing Method complement each other and together produce lasting results. Here’s a short podcast on my self-healing practice.
I provide one-on-one in-person and remote chronic illness and caregiver coaching, as well as Sacred Self-Healing Sessions based on the Sacred Self-Healing Method, a proven, novel co-creative healing modality detailed in my Books.
Order my books!
Here’s a short podcast highlighting my five books.
My latest book, Living In The Light: Healing with Forgiveness, Sound, and Light, is all about the tools that have been most helpful for me to heal: forgiveness, sound, through nervous system retraining using the Safe and Sound Protocol, and light, through entraining my circadian rhythm with the energy of the sun. Living In The Light is available here!
Rocks and Roots chronicles my solo backpacking journey on the Superior Hiking Trail and my efforts to overcome nervous system dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome symptoms to complete the 328-mile hike successfully.
The Sacred Self-Healing Method ebook is available here and in most ebook retailers!
The Sacred Self-Healing Workbook is available for purchase here!
Betsy’s first book, Sacred Self-Healing: Finding Peace Through Forgiveness, is available here
Companion Recordings
The companion audio recordings of chants, guided meditations, and sound healing demonstrations that accompany the Sacred Self-Healing Method are available for free on my YouTube channel here
What do you think?
I’d love to have your reply below!
Disclaimer
The preceding material does not constitute medical advice. This information is for information purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, cure, or treatment.
