My healing took a huge leap forward when I discovered that my own sounds could heal. So one of the first skills I teach new sound healers to develop is the ability to sound their feelings. Why?
Sounds express pain in a way that goes beyond what you can state in words. It expresses feelings resulting from physical discomfort, past lives, other realities, and from the full and total experiences of your soul’s journey. Sounding doesn’t necessarily segment into specific circumstances, as you do with other forms of healing. It goes to source feelings that have been experienced in multiple settings. Sound also gets to layers of feelings beneath the surface of what is immediately apparent to you.
With sound you don’t have to understand the reason for the feeling or where it has come from. This is not about the mind figuring anything out. This is about raw emotion being honored and recognized, so you need absolute honesty with yourself.
You must have courage when you sound your feelings. If you want real healing to occur by sounding your feelings, you must be truthful with the sounds that are longing to be expressed. Not all healing sounds are pretty. Some of them sound downright ugly.
A sound is not good or bad because it is hurtful, mournful or angry. It is simply a feeling that is stuck inside you and wants to be acknowledged. You can’t skirt the edges because a certain sound makes you uncomfortable. If a certain sound is your truth, it is your truth.
One of the great gifts that occurs in sounding your feelings truthfully is that a part of you that has been in pain finally gets to be fully understood. The outcome of witnessing yourself at such a deep level is absolute peace.
Imagine for a moment that you are the only person in the world that can truly understand the absolute depths of your pain and joy. Imagine that you become not only the ultimate person expressing that depth, but you are also the ultimate witness. Consider how relieved your subconscious mind becomes when you are witnessed with love at the very core of who you are.
Within moments, years and years of pent-up sorrow and anger can be voiced and released. You do not feed the anger or sorrow–you express its true nature in your loving truth and in doing so, those feelings are free to transform into an honest state of rest and peace.
No longer are you “trying” peace on for size. You are no longer affirming a serene reality that you aren’t feeling on the inside. You actually have released the pent-up emotions so that you can feel peace naturally.
You’ll need a private place in which to sound, unless you want to be witnessed by someone that is willing to hold space for you. I’ve had students that have driven their car to a private place, because that was the best way for them to be away from people and feel safe enough to make their sounds. The shower is another place in which many people feel safe enough to give voice to their true feelings in the moment. And still others choose to muffle their sounds in a pillow (used only for discharging negative feelings).
When you finish discharging your feelings of anger, sorrow and hurt, be sure to linger in sounds of peacefulness. It is best if these sounds come directly from you, but if you are too spent to make another sound, put on some tranquil music and bathe in the restful state it inspires. You need this last step in order to transform the discharged energy in your space and in you into balance before you continue in your day.
Sounding your feelings is one of the simplest ways to honor what you are truly experiencing in the moment, and if the feelings are difficult for you, the discharging will allow you to naturally progress to a state of tranquility and peace.
Misa Hopkins is the author of the best-selling book, “The Root of All Healing: 7 Steps to Healing Anything”, which has been named the first-aid handbook for the new 21st Century consciousness. She is also Spiritual Director and founder of New Dream Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to global spiritual family and honoring the sacred feminine. With over 30 years of teaching and training experience, including teaching hundreds of healers, and now as a spiritual counselor, Hopkins is an astute observer of human motivation and potential. Her observations about the healing progress of her clients, students and friends, and her own miraculous healings led her to ground-breaking conclusions about why people remain ill, even when they are trying to become well. Hopkins recognized that illness may actually meet unconscious needs you aren’t even aware exist. In her book, workshops and articles, she provides insights about how to break through the limits of illness to experience the freedom and joy of wellness.