Why Bring Sound Healing into Your Yoga Practice?

People turn to sound healing and yoga for similar reasons - to find balance, alignment and a sense of inner peace. They are both holistic practices built on ancient knowledge that tap into the natural responses of the body to induce relaxation, restoration and reconnection with the body and self. So when they come together, wonderful things happen.

What Is Sound Healing and How Can You Use It?

Sound healing uses crystal singing bowls to emit healing vibrations. Our bodies and brains synchronise with these vibrations, sending our brain waves into meditative states and our bodies into the parasympathetic system for rest, digest, restore and repair. 

By using different notes, sound healers can create a therapeutic soundscape of grounding, centring and accelerating vibrations that balance the chakras and can even open the unconscious mind. Listen to the different notes in my sound library. It’s a physical, mental and spiritual reset that releases tension from the body, quietens the mind and clears trapped energy.

As a yoga teacher, there are various ways you can bring sound healing into your practice including:

• A beginning or closing Savasana: As sound healing automatically relaxes the body and quietens the mind, you could use it to start or end yoga sessions. Your clients might benefit from some help switching off from their busy lives and tuning into the session. It also works well at the end of a session as an invitation to take stock and enjoy the rejuvenating feeling of practising yoga. 

• Restorative sessions: Often yoga studios offer a range of different sessions to meet different needs. Sound healing pairs particularly well with restorative sessions where the class focuses on relaxation and recovery. It also works well with Yin Yoga where poses are held for longer to deepen the stretch and improve flexibility. The therapeutic sounds will help them ease into relaxation, release even more tension and feel deeply restored.

• Additional sound baths: When you’re ready, you could expand the sessions you offer to include dedicated sound baths. As well as coming to your studio to practice yoga, your clients can enjoy just letting the sounds wash over them. It’s an appealing option for people who are feeling particularly overwhelmed or focused on really looking after themselves.

However you decide to bring sound healing into your yoga practice, it will enhance the benefits they are already gaining from your sessions.

How Sound Healing Enhances Yoga

Sound healing aligns with many of the positive physical, mental and spiritual outcomes people experience from yoga so it adds another layer to help your clients heal deeper. 

Switch off

For many clients, yoga is one of the few things they do for them. It’s their time to switch off from the rest of the world and focus on their needs. Sound healing aids this because of its innate ability to quiet the mind. It takes the brain into the relaxing state of alpha waves, the meditative state of theta waves and even the healing state of delta waves. It turns off the panicked thoughts of the conscious mind and lets it rest. 

Relaxing

Sound healing also helps to relax the whole body which is great for improving flexibility, deepening the stretch and increasing the feeling of calm during and after yoga sessions. That’s thanks to guiding the body out of fight or flight (sympathetic nervous system) and into rest, digest, restore and repair mode (parasympathetic nervous system). The body is given the signal that it can relax now. 

Restorative

Sound healing helps the body to help itself. The relaxed brain waves and nervous system set off restorative bodily processes that help us complete important bodily functions, regulate hormones and even repair cells. The body can get around to all the maintenance that it can’t do when we’re in a stressed state which is good for our physical health and mental wellbeing.

Meditative

Many people describe sound healing as meditative because you can switch off your thoughts and access your unconscious mind when in deeper brain wave states. So sometimes people come away with new perspectives or realisations. It helps them to reflect on their life and feel more grounded and centred. 

Balancing

There is a spiritual element to sound healing for some people. Sound baths help rebalance the chakras from root to crown and release trapped energy holding them back, leaving them feeling more balanced and in harmony. For those engaging in yoga for spiritual reasons, this will be a big bonus. 

As you can see, there are many benefits to exploring sound healing as a yoga teacher. It’s a way to enhance the client experience without them having to do anything, just enjoy the sound waves washing over them. Adding another string to your bow is good for your clients and for you as it’s another reason to book a session. So it encourages repeat business and referrals and attracts people interested in sound healing and how it can pair with yoga. Most of the time, practitioners make back their investment in my singing bowls in 3-5 sound baths. 

If you’d like to try using a singing bowl in your yoga practice, browse the shop, listen to the sound library and book a consultation for guidance on your first or next purchase. I’d recommend booking an in-person consultation so you can try a few bowls at my showroom as finding the right one for you is an intuitive process. I offer online consultations as well where I use videos to help you pick the bowls. Check out my beginner and advanced workshops for building confidence and refining your technique.