If you have had the experience of listening to one of my Sound Bath recordings by this point, you have probably heard me say to use earbuds or headphones for best results. But what if you are sensitive to the use of electronics touching your body and those aren’t options. What then?
I don’t want you to think you can’t take advantage of those frequencies because you can’t use ear listening devices. YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN!!
Let’s first look at the reasons why I suggest listening with earbuds or headphones. Once you understand some of this rationale, it helps to understand listening without them and your options.
- Cut down on ambient sounds – The world is a noisy place. There are nature sounds, which is good for you but there are also cars, airplanes, TVs, dogs barking, kids playing, and a host of other things around you. Your ears can’t filter one sound from another, it all comes into your brain and competes for attention. When listening to a frequency for meditation, the quieter and less competition your brain has for attention-grabbing things, the easier it will be for you to stay present. Staying present is your goal during your listening session.
- Whole brain coherence – Not that you or anyone would notice but as you live daily you don’t use all parts of your brain equally much like your body. Listening to these frequencies begins to engage all parts of the brain and the benefits of this include improved cognitive functioning, increased memory abilities, and enhanced creativity and decision making. Which, I think makes it very worthwhile. The more you do your listening in this manner the more coherent your brain, and the more of these benefits you can enjoy.
- Vagus Nerve Activation – The Vagus Nerve is the longest and most significant nerve in our body. It regulates a laundry list of things but the most noteworthy are heart rate, digestion, breathing, organ function, and immunity. When wearing headphones, the Vagus nerve can be activated because it runs in front of the ear opening, and the sound and vibration stimulate it which gives us an additional relaxation opportunity.
What do you do if you can’t wear earbuds or headphones?
- Don’t let it stop you from taking in those frequencies – I used to sleep to Schumann’s frequency until YouTube started rudely playing ads at 3am. I did it to soak both my husband and me in that frequency while we slept – without any ear apparatus. Go ahead and listen without.
- Cut down ambient noise – When you are ready to listen and meditate you are most likely creating as much quiet as possible. You might need to be more diligent, but it is important to give your brain as few things to distract attention as possible.
- It’s ok to skip whole brain coherence – I’m the kind of person who likes to double up on benefits if possible. When I discovered this benefit, it simply reinforced the reason to use ear devices, but you can do without them.
- Vagus Nerve & added relaxation – Again, you are going to find a great deal of relaxation benefits by both taking in recorded frequencies and meditation. If you want to activate your Vagus nerve, there are many experts you can find who will share techniques that you can use either prior to or during your meditation with recorded frequencies to take the place of headphones.
One last point I do want to make which is important. When listening to binaural beats, you do need to use some audio listening devices like earbuds or headphones. You must take the two sounds into your ear channel separately and the only way to do that is with a device. If you listen to the audio dispersed in a room, it doesn’t enter the brain correctly for the binaural to occur.
The most important thing is to listen to the frequencies however and whenever possible.
#sound bath #sound healing #sound therapy
