13 Jul The Healing Power of Sound
Would you be prepared to take 12 minutes a day for 8 weeks to try something new that might just be life-changing?
This year we’ve had an incredible lesson in the power of slowing down and being present. Initially many of us rushed to fill our days with activities and trying to learn new skills at home, trying to keep ourselves and our families busy.
It was hard to adjust to having days stretching out in front of us while we were confined to our homes. So much time to think. The silence was vast. I asked myself if my initial rush to keep busy was due to wanting to keep on being productive and useful? Or was it to avoid thinking and working on myself at a deeper level?
This frantic ‘busyness’ was thankfully hard to keep up and for me it gave way to a less structured daily routine. I was fortunate in not having young children to home school and so the day became mine in a way that I hadn’t experienced since the birth of my first child some 29 years ago.
People are talking much more about work/life balance and are exploring different ways of structuring working and personal lives. Many are looking at their health and reviewing their diets and lifestyles as they aim to support themselves with changes to promote and support good, robust health and resilience.
We are, it seems, finally giving ourselves time to slow down and think.
Of course many stresses still exist: health, finances, work and family pressures. So as we return to ‘normal’ or create a different way of living rather than just existing, it’s more important than ever to support our mental and spiritual health.
Would you spare 12 minutes a day to support your physical, mental and spiritual health?
if you could support blood flow to your brain especially to those areas of executive function, memory and mood? Help ease feelings of anxiety and depression? Support neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin? Send energetic signals throughout your body? Positively impact ageing? Support your memory and concentration?
Yes! I thought maybe you would.
Can you commit to 12 minutes a day for 8 weeks? Don’t miss a day. If not you need to restart from day 1 for 8 weeks. How’s that for motivation to be consistent?
A very dear friend of mine sent me a link a couple of weeks ago to a 12 minute daily meditation called Kirtan Kriya which translates as ‘singing exercise’.
Here’s that link:
The guided meditations starts last 3.17 but please listen to the whole short clip before trying it the first time.
Kirtan Kriya is a simple yet complete meditative practice that incorporates:
* Breath
* Posture,
* Mantra/sound
* Hand position
* Focus of concentration
It consists of sitting with your feet flat on the floor or just simply sit in bed, cross legged or not. Keep your spine straight and your head up and looking ahead (although you will have your eyes closed).
You start by inhaling, holding your breath and exhaling a couple of times.
Then you simply recite the syllables SA, TA, NA, MA and while doing so make specific finger movements with every sound. Ok, so you might feel silly or strange the first time you do it. But so what? You can do it on your own.
The mantra (SA, TA, NA, MA) should be said in the following cycle:
2 minutes out loud (the voice of humans)
2 minutes whispering (the voice of lovers)
4 minutes in your head silently (the voice of the divine)
2 minutes whispering
2 minutes out loud
You can find more detailed instructions through this link: (https://www.kundaliniyoga.org/lesson_15)
Here you can see photos of the different finger positions. This might feel awkward and difficult at first but it will soon become very natural.
As Dr. Dharma explains in this link, you don’t even have to be very good at doing it, but just do it! You will see results.
There’s no set time of the day to do it. I started doing it in the morning, but now I do it every night just before I go to sleep.
My sleep has always been pretty good and restorative, but now it’s been taken to another level and I feel as if my body has been gently prepared for sleep and my mind quietened. At the time of writing this I have been practicing it for just 10 days.
It’s a very calming practice for night time but find the time of day that suits you best. You might want to do it more than once a day, especially if you suffer from anxiety or feel you need some grounding.
Check out some of the links I give you below and see if it makes you curious.
It’s free. It’s simple. It takes just 12 minutes a day and requires no special equipment, just an open mind.
What have you got to lose?
Links for further information:
https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/yoga-rx-dementia-alzheimers-memory-loss
https://www.yogajournal.com/meditation/kirtan-kriya-meditation
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