Fancy a holiday in the Blue Mountains, Australia?
For sound bath enthusiasts, we have a Level 1 Foundations of Integral Sound Healing Workshop in Winmalee between January 31 and February 3, 2025 with our wonderful teacher Tracey!
During this Level 1 Workshop you will gain experience with our unique integrative sound healing method, and learn fundamental skills to help others close to you.
Let’s sing for health!
The Singing for Health Network is a global community of healthcare practitioners, researchers and professionals.
It aims to bridge research and practice and support the growing field of singing for health and healing. Membership is as cheap as chips, and there are some excellent resources and connections available!
The Sound Health Network, based in California
Our attention was drawn to their webinars, hosted by renowned soprano and arts and health advocate Renée Fleming.
It’s called Music and Spirit, live with Renée Fleming. We were excited to see experts in areas such as child development, healthy aging, pain and anxiety management and rehabilitation share their findings, and the episodes included live questions and answers from viewers.
How fascinating! Your can cVisit their website for news and updates on the health benefits of music.
The healing potential of Himalayan singing bowls
Many of us have experienced the relaxing effects of Himalayas singing bowls, yet there is little scientific evidence to explain why this works.
This research examined brain wave responses to singing bowls in 17 adults. Although the sample size was small, each individual’s brain waves were measured while playing a Himalayan singing bowl.
It’s fascinating to see that the beat frequency of the scale matched the resulting brainwave frequency. In this case, it is the Theta brain waves that are associated with relaxation and meditation. The frequency of the bowl corresponded to the brain wave frequency!
This is an encouraging result because when the brain waves enter a Theta state, the body can relax and therefore recover and heal.
If you want to dive deeper into the world of Himalayas singing bowls, why not join one of our sound healing courses?
And if you’re looking for high-quality singing bowls at affordable prices, you can buy yours from our Sound Therapy Store!
Academy graduate and student crossing the border to connect!
Jane Staffieri (UK) is an SHA Level 2 Certified Practitioner and She was recently visited by an SHA Level 1 student from Colorado, USA!
It’s amazing to see how this global community supports practitioners and students to connect and share their experiences and love for sound healing. Jane offers individual sessions and regular public sound baths.
She has also developed integrative and multidisciplinary approaches to the use of sound within projects, working with children in special schools, children and young people with mental health problems, and with older people with chronic health conditions. Jane combines her background as a musician and youth and community worker with her training in Trauma-Informed Practice in her work as a Music for Well-being Practitioner and Sound Healing Practitioner.
She works with a charity in Britain that provides services that tackle health inequalities on behalf of the National Health Service. This work is growing and gaining traction, and Jane is at the forefront of this innovative approach to healthcare!
“When I first encountered the power of sound healing, it felt like coming home… it was a profound moment, and my training at The Sound Healing Academy allowed me to combine all my skills and find synergies between my professional experiences. I am witnessed children find connection and joy from states of dissociation or fear, and seen people crippled with pain find ways to move with greater ease. Children and young people with complex needs have found their voices and ways to express themselves and let go.
I see myself as a facilitator of transformation and it is an honor and a privilege to share these journeys with people, some of whom are so vulnerable and desperate. Providing accessible and effective self-management techniques is an important part of therapeutic work, making the impact more sustainable. It is the most rewarding profession and I do everything I can to keep myself informed and develop my skills.
I look forward to a time when healthy healing is a more regulated and recognized profession, integrated into healthcare systems.” ~Jane Staffieri – Sounds like healing and music for good
Gratitude
This month we reflect on gratitude. What happens when we take a moment to listen to the sounds around us with a sense of gratitude?
If you can spend some time tuning into natural sounds, playing your favorite music, or practicing sound meditation and really listening, being fully present and in the moment, what can you notice?
Now focus on the sounds and think about what you are grateful for – it could be something small and simple, a person, an animal, your health… anything that you can feel as a growing sensation.
Listen to the sounds, focus on the feelings of gratitude, and take a moment to think.
Research shows that a daily practice of gratitude can promote health and well-being, so add this to your wellness routine and listen to some favorite sounds. It’s also the perfect exercise for our friends in the US who will be celebrating Thanksgiving later this month!
The instrument of the month: the 128 Hz weighted tuning fork
You may have seen the many advertisements on social media promoting the benefits of this great tuning fork. It’s one of our favorites, so it’s great to see it getting such good press!
Here are our top reasons why we love this instrument!
- It is portable and extremely easy to play
- The vibrations are powerful and easily felt and absorbed into the body
- Its soothing 128Hz vibrations are beneficial for both physical tension and emotional healing, making it a good all-rounder
- It’s an affordable and accessible instrument and we happen to sell it in our Sound Therapy store (and it’s even more magical when paired with a crystal base, as it helps amplify the vibrations produced by tuning forks; when the base of a tuning fork is placed on a crystal, the sound waves from the fork can resonate through the crystal, creating a stronger and more focused vibration that can penetrate deep into the body)
Let’s talk about tuning forks
Most assume that the tuning fork was invented as a tuning instrument, which the modern world repurposed for sound healing. It turns out that’s not the case!
Who invented the tuning fork? In 1550, a physician named Cardano is said to be the first to document the perception of sound through bone conduction (i.e. sound can be experienced as vibrations through the skull).
Capivacci later discovered that this could be a useful tool for diagnosing hearing disorders. It was 1684 when German physician DC Schelhammer reportedly used an ordinary cutlery fork to experiment with these theories!
Later, in 1711, trumpeter and lutenist John Shore is said to have invented the tuning fork as a more reliable method of tuning instruments.
And that concludes our November newsletter!
We hope you enjoyed diving into this month’s updates, stories, and sound healing magic. As always, we are so grateful to have you as part of our vibrant community!
Stay tuned for more exciting content and inspiring features coming your way next month.
Until then, keep those healing vibrations going, and we can’t wait to share more with you soon!
References
Kim SC, Choi MJ (2023) Does the sound of a singing bowl synchronize meditative brain waves in listeners? Int J Environ Public Health Research. 19;20(12):6180. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20126180
Diniz G., Korkes L., Tristão LS, Pelegrini R., Bellodi PL, Bernardo WM (2023) The effects of gratitude interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Einstein (Sao Paulo). doi: 10.31744/einstein_journal/2023RW0371