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The need for each person to find a way to relax in their recovery is just as important as instilling new therapeutic practices. Without finding a way that someone can safely detach themselves from their stressors, the constant, stressful nature of addiction and the recovery process can become overwhelming. Each person will need to find their own way to expel many of the pent-up energy and anxiety that they may be feeling in a safe and productive way. While some people may benefit from yoga, others will instead employ the benefits of other approaches, such as fishing or various other kinds of meditation. Sound baths are another helpful way for someone to engage in this kind of detachment and attain a relaxed state of mind in order to safely express their emotions and continue on their journey through sobriety.
What is a Sound Bath?
Sound baths are a meditative process that utilizes the healing properties of various musical instruments in order to achieve a relaxing and meditative atmosphere. They can be achieved by using anything from gongs, tuning forks, bells, chimes, rattles, or various other soothing instruments in order to achieve this relaxing, atmospheric effect. Sound bath appointments can be set up so that someone can attend them regularly. The intention of a sound bath is to help someone detach from their stresses by providing a calming place where they can relax and break down their own walls and emotions in a safe and therapeutic environment.
The use of sound in a sound bath is more than just listening to music for meditative purposes. The instruments selected are intended to create a resonating space for someone to also feel the vibrations and soundwaves through their body. This ensures that someone can completely lose themselves in the sound bath, and can utilize the sound in order to experience mental and physical effects allowing them to relax and detach from their stresses in recovery and provide a time where someone can feel and experience the sound in a meditative process.
However, sound baths are not meant to have the same effect as attending concerts. In fact, they are intended to do the exact opposite, while still utilizing sound as a tool. It is not intended to stimulate someone to the point of action. Rather, it is meant to stimulate an introspective process and bring someone into a trance-like state.
The Intended Effects of a Successful Sound Bath
Not everyone will respond to a sound bath in the same way, but those who find their benefits can truly get lost in the experience. The sounds and meditative atmosphere can help someone begin to placate their own minds and let go of built up stress and anxiety from within. The effect of a sound bath will assist in breaking down walls in their minds that one may not know that they have built. The experiences that someone has during a sound bath can vary from session to session, depending on someone’s internal emotional state. Sound baths are intended to help people safely express whatever emotion that they may be denying themselves, and instead find a way to express such emotions in a genuine manner. This means that each session will differ, as someone allows themselves either to laugh, cry, or otherwise express their emotions. This expression of emotion helps each person acknowledge and begin to transform their emotional state while becoming more in-tune with themselves and the stresses of the world around them.
Available to Anyone
The nature of this meditative practice is intended to help anyone who is willing to give this transformational practice a try and doesn’t require that any one person have any experience in meditation beforehand. Rather, each person only needs to be willing to be guided through the process when sound baths are being conducted and open to the relaxing mindset that it is intended to create. This means it can be both a new experience for those looking to explore more meditative practices or for someone to begin their exploration of the benefits of various types of mediation in their recovery journey.
Being able to tune out one’s thoughts and genuinely find relaxation and detachment in the recovery process can be incredibly important. Without a safe and genuine expression of one’s emotions, it is possible that someone can continue to build and harbor their own anxieties over time, and throughout the recovery process. Letting go of some of these emotions in order to begin the complicated process of moving through their impact is important not just from a mental health perspective, but can also provide someone with a starting point for them to understand their emotions as they relate to their recovery plan. Sound baths can provide a powerful feeling and an all-encompassing atmosphere that allows each person to begin to break down their own defenses and reservations in order to pursue a moment in time that is genuine and relaxing, amidst the most transformative and stressful times in one’s life.
Sound baths are just one of the many therapeutic approaches offered in the communities established by START UP Recovery. If you or a loved one are struggling with your own addiction or mental health issues and looking to start your journey to a personalized, transformative mindset for the future, the sense of fellowship instilled at START UP can help you take the first step towards your own future. Each program can be personalized to fit your own needs and goals in recovery, and professionals and personal mentors will work alongside you to both instill needed coping mechanisms and life skills while also helping each person explore their own identity and agency they have in their own future. For more information on the various different ways that START UP Recovery can help you, or to speak to a caring professional about your personal needs and goals in recovery, call us today at (310) 773-3809.