BLOG 95: THE BENEFITS OF SOUND HEALING AND HOW TO USE IT WITH YOUR FACE YOGA

I’ve been to several sound healing sessions in the past. And every time, I am surprised at just how powerful sound can be. It has a potent effect on our energy, unlocking our emotions and taking us deeper within ourselves.

Like yoga, sound healing brings us out of our busy thinking brains, connecting us with our intuitive wisdom. This makes it a perfect complement to your daily Face Yoga or body Yoga practice.

I was thrilled to welcome Holly Husler onto the Face Yoga Expert Podcast recently. Holly’s journey has taken her from a career as a pop star in a girl band to finding her soul alignment as a sound healer and wellness teacher.

We talked about the benefits of sound healing and how you can make it a part of your daily Face Yoga practice. We also discussed the importance of intuition, the power of Yoga and Meditation, and how we can find space to make wellness a part of our everyday lives.

THE BENEFITS OF SOUND HEALING

I first encountered Holly via the Self Care Space, run by Phoebe Greenacre. I did one of her sound healing sessions. It was a beautiful experience, combining Holly’s lovely voice with the crystal singing bowls she used to take listeners on a journey of sound.

Attending a sound bath is a wonderful and relaxing experience. But I always underestimate just how powerful the effects of sound healing can be, despite everything I know about how sound vibrations affect our energy.

While the sessions themselves can be impactful, it is in the days afterwards that I feel the true effects. Sometimes this can be an almost immediate sense of peace and happiness. At other times, it can feel quite uncomfortable, bringing headaches or bouts of crying as blocked emotions are released.

Holly came to sound healing via Yoga. After her career as a pop star ended, she found herself at a low point. Her relationship had ended too, and she felt like she was out of alignment with her true self.

Being in the limelight as part of a girl band had been fun. But Holly says the focus on appearances and external approval left her feeling lost and disconnected from who she really was. By turning her focus inwards, Yoga started her on a journey of self-discovery.

Eventually, yoga would bring her back to work with music and sound, but in a way that looks very different from her earlier career. After doing her Yoga teacher training, she attended a sound bath for the first time. The next day, she felt an overwhelming sense of peace and clarity, as though all the things that had been weighing her down had lifted.

When the same thing happened after her next session, Holly knew she wanted to share the benefits of sound healing with others. She sought training and now offers guided sound journeys to women around the world.

In Holly’s case, sound healing was so powerful that it brought her a new career – one that aligns fully with her soul purpose. While that won’t be the case for everyone, it is a deeply healing practice that helps connect us with our innermost selves.

HOW CAN YOU USE SOUND HEALING IN YOUR DAILY FACE YOGA / YOGA PRACTICE?

Sound healing works on its own, but combining it with meditation, yoga, and Face Yoga can help you go deeper into the inner journey.

By preparing the body and mind, meditation and Yoga open us to receiving sound healing. It is easier to surrender to the sound when we are already relaxed and focused inwards.

Holly recommends bringing in sound healing at the end of your Yoga and Face Yoga routine as a form of extended Savasana.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO USE SOUND HEALING AT HOME?

Sound healing sessions are offered both in-person and online, so you can easily find online live or recorded sessions to follow at home. When you are receiving the healing, you will concentrate on lying down, relaxing, and entering a meditative state.

However, you can also use instruments and your own voice as part of an at-home sound healing practice. It is different from receiving healing from someone else but can also be a form of meditation.

If you are using sound healing for your own sake, Holly recommends choosing the instrument you are most drawn to for use at home. For example, many people love gongs, but she personally finds the experience too potent and overwhelming. Her preferred instruments are crystal singing bowls.

Attending a few sound baths with practitioners who use different instruments can help you discover which resonate best with you. 

Metal Tibetan singing bowls are a good choice for home use and can be a more budget-friendly option. The crystal singing bowls Holly uses are also available online and will bring you the benefits of crystal healing too.

Of course, our own voices are the most powerful healing instrument of all, so you won’t necessarily need to buy any equipment to practice sound healing at home.

There’s no one-size-fits-all with sound healing (or any other wellness practice). It is a very intuitive process. You can learn some basic techniques and perhaps consider booking onto a course. But it is also important to get out of your own head, feel into your body, and follow your innate sense of what you need that day.

WORKING WITH YOUR INTUITION

I’ve talked before about how I have learnt to tune into my intuition. I now use it to guide me in both my business and my personal life.

One of the benefits of sound healing is that it helps you turn inwards and connect with that innate wisdom at your centre.

We’re all born with a strong connection to our intuition. As we grow up, we lose this because we are exposed to the expectations of society and worries about what others will think of us. We need to find our way back to this heart-led knowing.

Sometimes, it can take reaching rock bottom to reconnect with your intuition again. For me, it was being diagnosed with a chronic illness that started me on the journey to find my soul purpose. For Holly, it was a toxic relationship where she ignored the little voice inside telling her that things weren’t right.

When we feel the effects of being divorced from our intuition, we learn how to recognise when we are living in tune with it. Hard lessons, but often necessary to set us on the right path.

In many ways, tuning into your intuition is like using your muscles. The more you practice, the easier it gets. 

Consistently choosing to set time aside each day to focus on your inner self helps you learn to trust your gut instincts. This could be through face yoga, meditation, journaling, sound healing, or a combination.

To help you develop your own daily wellness rituals, I’ve recently published my second book, The Face Yoga Journal. It is a year-long undated guide to Face Yoga, facial massage, and wellness. It also includes space for you to make notes and record your progress as you work through the book.

You can also follow me on Instagram for regular Face Yoga tips and find Holly there too for more information on the benefits of sound healing.