What will you get from a sound healing? Why come?
What is a sound healing?
A sound healing can take many forms: acoustic and synthesized i.e. a person can sing, or play bowls or other instruments live, and you will probably be lying down, receiving a slightly ‘blissed out’ state. You may have someone working on your body with tuning forks, striking them as they hold them to different parts of your body. If it is a more synthesized form, you might lie on a massage bed (fully clothed) that has giant speakers attached to its underside or use headphones to listen to recorded music.
So… what’s it doing??
Well, that’s a good question and you will get lots of different responses from sound healing practitioners, ranging from ‘it’s connecting you to the Divine part of yourself’ to, ‘it’s realigning your chakras’, to ‘it’s working on the cellular level’ or even that it’s ‘helping decrystalize old thought forms that are no longer serving you’. The truth is, I think perhaps what may be the common thread between these answers, is that it simply helps you relax, helps you connect to your sense of peacefulness and purpose, and it works on the body and emotions and mind in a way that can help release elements of ourselves that are not really, well, us. Think of it like a spring clean, but with a personal intention.
Why do I need this?
As we walk through each of our days, we are influenced over and over by each encounter, each soundscape, each thought of each person, each emotion… it’s pretty endless. There is no real boundary between us, until we learn to create one. We are swimming in fields of energy, and influence, melding together, inhabiting the space called ‘me’. This changes what we are capable of thinking, feeling and creating – it can also affect our health. So, regularly, we need to clean that energy out, come back to our own space, without any ‘guests’ in there. A sound healing actually does that, it clears out energy, moves it (sound is vibration) around and, how you align with the healing, is something your own body/soul connection knows. Our mind doesn’t have to understand what’s happening for a healing to work. Our bodies are intelligent – we can trust that they know what to do.
What should I expect?
A shift. Connection, calm, a lightness, a new awareness, a good nights sleep, a reduction of physical pain, insights, and an experience of community.
The sound healing events are friendly, and personal. I’ve been doing this for a long time. Because we are at a time of such high stress, many of us carry a sense of urgency for what we must do to even secure a future we can inhabit. To help with that stress, I provide a safe space where we each set an intention through some reflective journaling, and asking some key questions. We share a little with a friendly face, and then we lay back on a yoga mat, perhaps putting a light sari, or blanket, over our body, head on a pillow, and relax and receive. It’s like floating in water. You will hear different kinds of vocal sounds, and my shruti, and piano and bowls. In my sessions, we also practice sounding together after the sound healing, to learn how to self-soothe, to do self-care and to clear our minds (sound does all sorts of things to, and for, us!).
When are they?
Second Wednesday’s of the month, 7-8.30pm, @ BFUU, 1606 Bonita Avenue, Berkeley. If you join the Meetup page you will get updates (important for cancellations, for instance). The next one is listed on Meetup page.
To bring?
A mat to lie on, a light blanket or something to drape over you, a small pillow if you want one, a journal and pen/pencil.
Will there be one in San Francisco soon?
Yes, join the Meetup page for info on when that’s starting.
Final words before you come:
Hear what others are saying:
In addition to the deep, resonant sounds created by Clare’s voice and shruti, sounds which allowed me to receive the gifts of passive cellular restoration, she led us in active participation with exercises to use our voice and co-create our healing. It’s unique and important work that she does and I wish it for everyone. Thank you, Clare! Have a wonderful night transforming people’s experience of healing! Hope to see you soon… Molly Kittle, Storytelling Workshop Host
Clare Hedin is a vocal, tonal, resonance and energy master. She reads the underlying dynamics and aspiration in a group field and brings those hidden dimensions into the most fulfilling and harmonious expression. Clare knows that the evolving edge of healing lies in exploring our collective emergence…and she knows how to bring us to that edge. Maybe you have never heard the sound of our collective longing, our collective sorrow or our collective joy but you will in the presence of her work! James O’Dea. Shift Network Peace Ambassador, former: Dir. Amnesty International & Pres. IONS
Clare’s voice and playing literally felt like an all-over brain and body massage. My mind felt calmer and my nervous system automatically followed. I also appreciate her ability to be honest and connected to each moment as she is playing, and her encouragement for us all to listen to our own bodies. Alice Dote
Your music took me to the 7th dimension. Thank you Miss Clare, you definitely brought delightful clarity to the web of all feelings, thoughts, emotions, ideas, etc. The sedative sound of what you played brought on mucho tranquility. Efren Celaya
In our busy modern work, finding the sacred and the mystical can be quite elusive—that is until Clare Hedin’s stunning vocals transport you to a place that feels foreign and intimately near at the same time. To hear Clare sing is to be moved emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually. Darren Main Yoga Instructor & Author of Yoga and the Path of the Urban Mystic
GOD YOUR VOICE IS GORGEOUS! Thank you for sharing your beautiful voice tonight! I really was so moved by it… I just listened again… It’s really phenomenal. We both have never experienced a voice quite like that ever before. It resonated deeply with both of us. You must be channeling the divine! Kim F.
