You’ve tried antidepressants, to no avail. The depression still lingers, and the side effects are unavoidable. Your therapist is great, but for some reason you don’t see any improvement even when you make every meeting. Ignoring your mental plights isn’t an option, but neither is anything else you’ve tried. With anxiety affecting over 40 million adults in the United States, and depression being one of the most common untreated illnesses worldwide, alternative healing methods like sound healing therapy may provide relief where other treatments have failed. In the following paragraphs, we’re going to educate you on 5 different ways sound healing can help with anxiety and depression.
Sound baths create the same brain waves seen in states of relaxation.
Sound baths specifically are a form of healing that have immeasurable positive effects on bouts of anxiety and depression. Sound waves created by different instruments such as gongs and tuning forks activate the same brain waves that are seen after meditation and deep breathing, via the transferring of vibrational energy. In this way, the body is able to heal because it is not in a current state of distress. Sound healing is said to have long lasting effects far after sound baths have taken place. Your nervous system gets a sort of reset, and the anxiety and depression take a break from their malicious attacks.
Singing, a form of sound healing releases feel good hormones
Another way that sound healing has been proven to aid in the healing of anxiety and depression, is through singing. Similar to the sounds received in a sound bath, harmonic singing can increase a being’s energy. There’s newfound evidence that singing releases feel good hormones such as serotonin and dopamine, the same endorphins that make up most antidepressant medications in effort to elevate and control mood. The hormone that signifies stress in the body, cortisol, was measured in a participant’s saliva before and after they sang. Stress levels were lower and cortisol levels had decreased after belting out a tune, just another way that sound has the natural power and ability to heal.
Music therapy encourages positive changes in mood.
One of the most powerful influences on the mind is music. Music is the collection of pitch, tempo, and melody and when combined can have a monumental effect on a person’s mood. When positively triggered by music that moves us, our reward center signifies pleasure in response. Unlike singing, music therapy doesn’t require verbal inputs thus people with certain disabilities can benefit from it as well. Making music can be just as healing as listening to a completed version, in that learning a new instrument or finishing a song encourages mental well being and feelings of accomplishment, which we all can appreciate when phases of depression seem never ending.
Nature based sound therapy hasphysiological benefits to assist with anxiety.
Download nearly any app created to alleviate anxiety symptoms, and there is use of nature based sound therapy. In the form of rain forest sounds, or the therapeutic noise of ocean waves crashing, nature based sound therapy is able to calm anxiety symptoms such as racing heart and increased respirations. Sounds present in nature are soothing in that they deliver constant unthreatening noise at pitches that are pleasant to our minds. Because our brains digest these noises as unthreatening, nature based sounds assist in calming the flight or flight response that is overstimulated in people with anxiety. Nature based sound therapy has also been proven to help with sleep, something that’s not always had with an anxious mind.
Your own voice can heal you.
Unlike the singing as a form of sound therapy mentioned before, this time we aren’t talking about using our voices to carry a tune. Using your voice in efforts to fight anxiety and depression looks like learning your body in a way that allows you to fully express yourself in every aspect of your life. Your voice is your primary mode for connecting with the rest of the world in real time, and this form of healing helps you learn and train that part of yourself so you can confidently show up everyday. Confidence and assurance gained from learning and training your voice have some of the best benefits in people with anxiety and depression.
There are multiple ways sound healing can alleviate mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. There are so many ways, in fact, that if one in particular does not work, we’re confident one of the others will. Sound healing has proved itself to be a cost effective solution to traditional western approaches of healing. We’re here to tell you that if you ever felt hopeless in a life led by mental instability, sound healing is worth a try. You might be just a few sounds away from a better day.
