attune to the waves
discharge your nervous system
release all tension
Have you ever been in an accident or another highly tense danger situation, and felt the surge of adrenaline flood your system?
This is sympathetic activation — also known as fight-or-flight mode. It happens automatically, part of the wiring that help keep us safe. When your nervous system perceives itself to be in danger it turns on the “ignition” so you can flee to safety.
You may have noticed in these situations that your body maintains the “charge” even after it’s clear that you are safe. It’s like an after-effect. The rapid heart rate or sweaty palms linger.
A clear danger situation creates a big charge in the body. But often we get charged in this way even without an obvious danger signal.
Every day, in subtle ways your nervous system kicks into sympathetic activation. This happens automatically; without your conscious involvement and often without your conscious awareness, unless you’re attuned to it.
The world we live in is filled with sights, sounds, and experiences that activate the charge, and then we hold onto the charge for longer than is necessary.
When we are holding this charge, we can’t rest and recharge effectively. Also, holding onto this charge creates a host of physical symptoms including inflammation, rashes, headaches, and heightened pain signals.
Discharge Before Recharge
We often use the metaphor of a battery to talk about our mind/body systems.
It’s a common sentiment that we need to “recharge our batteries” after a long and draining week. This recharge is important, but we can’t recharge effectively until we first discharge the activation that we are holding.
Think about your phone or computer: when you have open apps that are running in the background it slows down the speed and drains the battery.
Recharging the battery won’t help the performance of the computer if the open apps are still running in the background.
Once you close the open apps, your device will start working more effectively, and the battery recharge will last longer.
The same is true with us. For rest to be an effective recharge, we must first discharge the sympathetic activation.
How to Discharge
We must engage in regular practice and rituals that activate the parasympathetic nervous system — the “rest and digest” mode.
One of the most effective ways to discharge is to attune to waves — the sound waves.
Sound healing is one of the most effective ways to reset the nervous system. If you struggle with traditional meditation you might find sound healing more effective in releasing thoughts. Sound healing entrains your brain to the frequencies of the sounds. This includes frequencies we can’t hear.
All sound is vibration, we take it in through our whole body, not just through our hearing.
There are many sound healing sessions available on YouTube or through meditation apps like Insight Timer.
But you don’t need any apps or even special instruments.
3 Ways to Create Your Own Sound Healing
You can create your own sound healing from within. Here are 3 methods to try.
(1) Audible Exhale:
Take a deep breath in through the nose, filling the belly and chest. Exhale with an audible sigh.
(2) Ocean Breathing:
Known in yoga as the Ujai breath. Inhale and exhale through the nose while keeping a constriction in the back of your throat. The breath sounds like ocean waves.
(3) Humming:
Inhale through the nose then hum on the exhale.
Love it? Hate it? What do you think? Don't hold back...