Utilize Sound Bath Healing to Recover from Heartbreak

Whether it’s the low, breath-like rush of the ocean calming our senses, a piano chord expressing our exact emotional state, or the song of spring birds filling our soul with wonder, sounds reach us and bring spectacular moments of emotional healing in our everyday lives.

Our ability to respond to the musicality of life—and then use our creativity to create our own—is one of the great treasures of the human experience. It’s no wonder, then, that all throughout human history, different cultures have practiced sound healing modalities and the practices remain strong today.

The Healing Power of Sound Bathing

While so many of us have experienced spontaneous moments of healing thanks to the sounds we encounter, sound baths bring intentionality to this phenomenon. Just like being bathed in soothing water, we can have an immersive, full-body listening experience where we allow our body and energy to be bathed and cleansed in sound.

Much like a guided meditation, a sound bath gently helps us connect with the present moment and our place in it. Surrendering to the sound bath experience can leave us feeling relaxed and restored. It can even be a therapeutic experience, as a sound bath empowers us to release that which no longer serves us—even our deepest wounds, such as the ones that stem from heartbreak and loss.

While there is no shortage of healing modalities that promise to help us let go of our heartbreak and let love into the wounded parts of us, there are few modalities that are capable of circumventing our natural defenses quite like sound.

Nico Avella, the Abbey Road Institute-trained musician and sound healing practitioner behind EtherWind Sound Healing, describes the process this way: “Part of the reason that we have so much suffering is because we repress so many different aspects of ourselves. What this music is doing is it's setting a space of intentionality for us to be with our inner landscape.”

Why Sound Healing Supports Healing Heartbreak

In the safe, supportive environment of a sound bath, all of our desires, fears, and insecurities that we normally push away are able to rise to our attention in a nonthreatening way. We can feel the enormity of our suffering—and therefore move through it and release it—in a way that we may never allow ourselves in our waking lives, when our primary goal is to keep ourselves comfortable and protected.

“Once you allow yourself to be more deeply engaged with your own emotions, you can really facilitate amazing healing,” says Avella. “This music is allowing us to access that shadow around these parts of ourselves that have been neglected for so long, giving space for them to come out and to heal and to reintegrate them into consciousness.”

While identifying and feeling our most difficult emotions is central to releasing them, this is not the only reason why sound healing is so transformational.

Sound Healing and Intentions

All matter has energy, and where there’s energy, there is vibration. As human beings, we have energy centers all throughout our bodies that correspond with different nerve bundles and organs. These energy centers are known as the chakras, and each has its own vibration. Since sound waves consist of vibrating particles, they can communicate with our brain and nerves on an energetic level. If one of our chakras—such as the heart chakra—is experiencing an energetic block or a low vibrational frequency due to trapped emotions, the vibrations of a sound bath can bring healing to our bodies on this subtle energetic level.

Despite the complexities of the sound bath’s inner workings, the practice remains accessible to all. While it can be deeply nurturing to receive a sound bath healing session from a professional, one does not have to work with a practitioner to access the benefits of sound healing in their life. As Avella emphasizes, the key to an effective sound healing experience is intentionality. By selecting a piece of your favorite healing music and creating a comfortable, safe listening environment that will allow your body to lay back and relax, you can facilitate a healing experience yourself.

“The nature of the activity of just like, listening to music and saying, ‘Okay, I'm going to be in this relaxing space,’ that's conducive for healing,” says Avella.

When we set that intention and commit to expecting whatever emotions arise for us and give ourselves full permission to receive the energetic benefits of a sound bath, we become our own healers. We create the conditions needed to process our heartbreak, and then, finally, let it go.

What's your solfeggio frequency? Learn here.