This year, I really intend to prioritize wellness and self-care as a way towards healing from not just the the trauma of both my miscarriages, but everything we went through in 2020. I started seeing my therapist (virtually) at the very end of the year, and she had recommended taking a holistic approach to my healing. We talked about yoga, meditation, and even sound therapy, which I had honestly had never heard of. She directed me to a licensed therapist who uses a Mind-Body approach towards healing physical and emotional trauma. I started to do the research and became interested, but before I could sign up for a session, my Pilates/Yoga studio, InBalance Alamo Ranch, announced that they were hosting a New Year’s Day Intentional Yoga session with Sound Bath, so I decided to sign up for it. I had attended a similar workshop at my regular wellness spa, but it was more of a work situation, so I wasn’t able to fully immerse myself into the experience. This time, I was to fully experience it and live in the moment. The group setting was wonderful and I was instantly hooked!
The owner of the studio, my friend, Monica Zapata, texted me as soon as I posted my last blog entry about my miscarriage experience and she felt compelled to offer me a gift of a private session with Certified Vibrational Sound Therapist, Audrey Stevens of Blue Elephant Vibes. Since I decided to do more for myself, I jumped at the opportunity and allowed myself to receive this incredibly thoughtful gift. I scheduled to attend my first in-person, private sound therapy session. Audrey was warm and received me in her home space, that was dedicated to her therapy clients. It was relaxing, warm and so inviting.
We started out session by sitting down to talk. I told her my situation and my experience and with kind eyes she listened intently, asked engaging questions to get to know me more and to understand my main concerns. I explained that I’m very focused on my physical and emotional healing, but wasn’t exactly sure where to start because I felt like I had very little answers as to why this was happening to me. She explained how sound therapy worked. It not only producing soothing sounds that calm and de-stress but the physical vibration of the instruments, when placed on certain parts of the body creates an electrical current that connects with your central nervous system, sending the message to your brain via the sound waves. Benefits of a Sound Healing treatment are numerous including: reduction of stress and anxiety significantly; lower anger and blood pressure; PTSD, Depression, grief, improve circulation and increase blood flow; can help with sleep disturbances; re-balance the chakras (energy centers); increase mental and emotional clarity; stimulate the immune system; create an elevated state of consciousness.; boost overall well-being; boost creativity. Healing Sound has also been shown to be effective in the healing process for cancer patients by reducing stress and aiding in pain management.
My experience was extremely relaxing. Sometimes, I don’t fully relax during a massage or yoga, and other times it takes me a long time to get there. During the sound bath, I think I started to feel relaxed almost immediately as I laid down on the table, which had a warmer infused with quartz. Somewhere along the session I would see images of peaceful places I love in my mind’s eye, and I remember vividly hearing rain and my mind transported to my youth, when I would travel to the Dominican Republic and stayed in my Grandparents house, where part of the roof was tin and we would fall asleep to the raindrops falling on that roof. I must have fallen asleep, because I heard Audrey’s voice in a distance letting me know to start making my way back, instructing me to wiggle my fingers and toes, but it was almost like a dream. I woke up feeling refreshed, as if I had slept through a full night. After that portion of the session, she had me pull a card from a deck and I picked at random. My card was the Vulture, and I was a little scared. She read me the significance of the Vulture spirit animal and it was spot on. We cried together and I felt so hopeful that I will fully recover and my life is in the right direction. One of the lines that touched me the most read, “All that you might wish to deny or discard has value and can be repurposed and reintegrated into the new you that you are becoming and the life that you are dreaming into. No pain was in vain and no experience is wasted, for you have the power to use it to co-create something far better.”
Those words reminded me of a Buddhist passage, where they speak of Winter always turning to Spring and it was a very reassuring moment. As I continue to heal from past traumas, miscarriage, and the disorientation that last year brought us, I’m finding so much peace in regular conventional therapy, while incorporating holistic practices like Yoga, Breath work, and now Sound Therapy. My journey is far from over, and now I’m very much looking forward to Spring.
Blooming Lotus 