The Secret Behind Sound’s Healing Powers

Typically, you’ll reach for a Band-Aid whenever you get a nick, scrape, or cut.

Obviously, a Band-Aid can’t heal your injury—but it can stop the bleeding and protect your wound so that your body can work to heal itself more efficiently.

But what most people don’t realize is that they already have a “built-in” Band-Aid that can also help improve your body’s ability to heal: the power of sound and vibration.

Clearly, unlike a bandage, sound can’t cover up or protect a wound. But it does help your body stop “wasting” energy so that it can enter a state of healing.

And after your body stops wasting energy, sound helps reallocate your internal resources to heal you more quickly and efficiently. (I’ll share with you exactly how sound does this in just a minute.)

But before we go any further, I want to back up for just a minute, and talk about what causes your body to “waste” this precious energy in the first place—and how you can stop it…

Healing takes a backseat to chronic stress

The biggest energy wasting culprit is chronic stress.

If you feel as if you’re stuck in a vicious cycle where you just can’t shake a looming feeling of worry, have trouble relaxing, or are constantly overwhelmed…you could very well be suffering from chronic stress.

Of course, it’s normal to experience stress every now and then, but if this is a regular occurrence for you, it could have some seriously lethal effects.

For one, chronic stress slows down your body’s natural healing process—specifically your immune system and tissue repair.

That’s because your body tends to focus its energy on tackling the greatest immediate threat to your well-being. And for most people, this is stress.

In other words, the more stressed you are, the LONGER it takes for your body to rebuild and heal itself.

As a result, your body ends up using its energy and resources to address your stressors first. This means that the other maintenance functions your body would normally perform, like healing and repairing, have no choice but to take a backseat.

In short, your immune system plays a crucial role in every one of your body’s healing processes. And psychological and behavioral factors like stress, mood, and sleep patterns all influence this.

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Beware of brain-damaging cortisol

Another way chronic stress hinders your body’s healing processes is with excess build-up of the “stress hormone,” cortisol.

The problem with too much cortisol is that over time, it breaks down organ tissue and kills your brain cells.

Obviously, this can be a huge problem. Especially after you factor in the damaging coping mechanisms most people resort to when in the throes of chronic stress, like:

Alcohol
Comfort food
Excessive eating
Recreational drugs
Vegging out in front of the TV or computer

And guess how much cortisol gets burned off while engaging with those activities or substances?

None.

These coping mechanisms don’t directly address or alleviate the stress at hand, they just merely help you sweep it under the rug and forget about it for a while.

And even though these things might temporarily help you feel better, cortisol is STILL hard at work wreaking havoc in your body. And your body is STILL working to deal with addressing and eliminating this ignored stress.

Chronic stress leads to chronic disease

Now I know for some people, chronic stress may not seem like that big of a deal. In fact, you may even be used to it, or have just accepted it as a part of your everyday life.

But here’s why that’s a real problem: Mounds of research shows that unchecked chronic stress and the ensuing build-up of cortisol leads to serious chronic, deadly diseases. These include stroke, heart attack, and diabetes.

In short, ignoring chronic stress significantly increases your likelihood of cutting YEARS off of your life.

Now that you know the dangers of chronic stress, let’s talk about how you can use sound to manage it—and lower your cortisol levels to redirect the amount of energy once used for handling stress, back into healing you.

Techniques to manage stress levels—naturally

One of the most effective ways to manage chronic stress with sound is to initiate deep relaxation—especially before bedtime, since the body does much of its repair work while you sleep.

To use the power of sound to relax at bedtime, try this easy "brain humming" exercise:

1. Take three very slow breaths. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.

2. Inhale again and then exhale by chanting the sound, “Ahhhm,” softly for the full breath. Do this while holding your hands on your chest so you can feel the vibration.

3. Do 4-6 repetitions or whatever feels best for you.

4. Complete the exercise by thinking of something or someone for whom you are grateful.

The “Ahhhm” sounds stimulate your vagus nerve—the longest cranial nerve that spans from the bottom of your brain stem all the way down through your abdomen—and helps activate your parasympathetic nervous system (our body’s default system when we’re calm and collected).

When you stimulate your vagus nerve, your body produces those “feel good” chemicals that help it to relax—including oxytocin, dopamine, and endorphins.

And the more time we spend engaged with our parasympathetic nervous system, the healthier we are. Our breathing calms, our heart rate slows, we repair muscles, build strength make hormones, and digest our food.

So the next time you’re feeling stressed, I encourage you to activate your inner healing system. And all it takes is a little bit of focus and a few simple breathing and chanting exercises to drift off into a healthier, more balanced state of calm.

Make taking impeccable care of yourself nonnegotiable.

Be Well, Jim

P.S. Explore the natural benefits from music, sound, and rhythm, by joining my Donovan Sound Healing Circle which gives you unlimited access to every single one of sound based wellness methods and courses for less than $9/mo! Simply click here to learn more or give it try today.

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