Daily Alchemy 005: Use Sound to Shift Your State

Let vibration give your mind somewhere else to go.

Sound is one of my favorite ways to shift the energy of a space and reconnect with my body. You do not need to understand music, own expensive instruments, or know anything about sound healing to begin. You simply need to listen.

Sound is vibration. When something vibrates, it creates pressure waves that travel through a medium such as air and are interpreted by our auditory system as sound. Frequency, measured in hertz (Hz), tells us how quickly those vibrations are occurring. Lower and higher frequencies create different tones, while rhythm, volume, harmony, tempo, and repetition all contribute to how we experience what we hear.

This is where sound becomes interesting for mind-body practices. Music and intentional sound can influence attention, emotion, breathing, arousal, and relaxation. Research into music therapy and sound-based interventions has found potential benefits for stress, anxiety, mood, pain perception, and relaxation. Sound does not need to be treated as a cure for the body to genuinely respond to it.

Sometimes you can actually feel sound before you have words for what it is doing to you.

Why Sound Can Feel So Powerful

Think about what happens when your favorite song comes on. Your mood can shift almost immediately. Your body starts moving. A memory appears. You breathe differently. You may cry, smile, dance, or suddenly feel something you had been holding beneath the surface.

This is part of why I love sound as a Daily Alchemy practice. It gives the thinking mind something to soften into while giving the body something to experience.

You can explore singing bowls, tuning forks, drums, chimes, a handpan, keyboard, guitar, or your own voice. You can hum. You can put on headphones and listen to instrumental music. You can also simply search for sound baths, singing bowls, nature sounds, ambient music, or meditative music online and allow yourself to zone out for a few minutes. You don’t have to own anything to begin.

3 Ways to Practice With Sound

1. LISTEN

Choose a sound or piece of music that matches what your body needs. If you feel overstimulated, you may prefer something slow and spacious. If you feel heavy or disconnected, rhythm may help you feel more engaged.

Close your eyes if it feels comfortable and listen without doing anything else.

2. FEEL

Move beyond simply hearing the sound and notice how your body experiences it.

Where can you feel the vibration? Does your breathing change? Does your jaw soften? Do you want to move? Does an emotion arise?

Instead of analyzing the experience, let yourself experience it.

3. CREATE

Make sound yourself.

Strike a singing bowl. Play a tuning fork according to its instructions. Tap a drum. Play a few notes on a keyboard or guitar. Hum with your hand over your chest. Sing even if you don’t think you can sing.

You aren’t performing. You’re exploring vibration.

A Note About “Healing Frequencies”

You will often see specific frequencies online described as frequencies for healing, DNA repair, manifestation, chakra activation, or particular organs. I think it is important to remain curious without turning every spiritual idea into scientific fact.

There is good reason to explore sound itself as a supportive mind-body practice. There is much less evidence that listening to one particular number of hertz produces the specific medical or metaphysical outcomes often advertised online.

You don’t have to find the “perfect frequency.” Find the sound that helps you become present.

Try It Today

• Give yourself five or ten minutes.

• Choose your sound.

• Put your phone down.

• Close your eyes.

• Listen.

• Feel where the sound meets your body and notice what changes without trying to make anything happen.

Sometimes Daily Alchemy is not about adding another thought. Sometimes it is about becoming quiet enough to feel the vibration underneath all the noise.