“Each of the seven chakras vibrates at its own frequency. Music is able to balance the chakras by using the sound vibrations to tune each energy centre. Chakradance music has a lasting effect. The vibrations continue to pulse outward into our energy field long after the sounds have stopped playing. The more we experience these healing sounds, the greater and the more permanent the effect. When the music is combined with spontaneous dance, the healing effect is magnified.”
Natalie Southgate
How does sound balance our chakras?
Everything around us is made up of energy and vibration. The atoms and molecules that make up the earth and the trees, our bodies, and everything in our world, are buzzing with their own unique vibrational frequency.
Everything has a frequency. Inside our bodies, our organs, bones, and cells, all vibrate at their natural frequencies.
We know that the external sounds we hear through our ears, and feel through our body, can affect our central nervous system. Just think of the fright you get when a door is slammed.
On the other end of the spectrum, harmonic sound can facilitate shifts in our brainwave state, synchronising our fluctuating brainwaves by providing a stable frequency which the brainwaves can attune to.
Using specific rhythms and frequencies, we can entrain our brainwaves in order to down-shift our normal brainwaves to a deeply calm level where spontaneous internal healing can occur – as it does when we meditate or sleep.
Particular frequencies of sound resonate with particular chakras, and in a similar way using specific sounds, we can synchronise and attune the chakra system to its optimal frequency, balancing and releasing any discordant energy.
Sound has always been a central element to working with the chakra system. The sounds of the Sanskrit – ancient Indian – language are seen as uniquely powerful vibrations that form part of a practice designed to bring about a spiritual awakening.
The role of the chakra system is to help regulate the human energy field
The human energy field, commonly known as the subtle body or aura, is a dynamic, energetic matrix, which includes the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of our being.
There is a kind of feedback loop which occurs between the energy of the chakras and the physical body. An imbalance in our subtle body can manifest as a physical or emotional issue.
Similarly, when we balance and harmonise our chakra system, it supports physical and emotional healing.
This kind of chakra balancing has traditionally been done using sound, whether chanting, singing bowls, drums or other musical instruments.
Many spiritual traditions see sound as the basic element of all creation. The ancient Indian Vedic texts described elemental sounds that resonated as the universe was in creation. By tapping into these sounds, it is believed that we can tap into these divine vibrations, and in doing so, align and balance our own vibrational subtle energy field.
The most common mantras used with the chakras relate to the element associated with an aspect of that chakra. So LAM is the seed mantra of the earth element, VAM of water, RAM of fire, YAM of air and HAM of space. And OM, is the universal mantra.
Chakradance creator, Natalie Southgate, noticed that certain music carried a unique resonance with different chakra centres.
As she danced to different frequencies of music, her free-flowing movements started to guide her into the inner power ignited within her chakras. The discovery that she could have direct experience with her chakras, through spontaneous movements to specific sounds, was the birth of Chakradance.
In Chakradance, we weave sound and movement in a ‘mantra-dance’ which intensifies our self-expression and creativity
In the throat Chakradance, we intone the mantra HAM as we dance in a world made purely of sound.
It’s a transportive experience, as the vibration of the music and the chanting, with the gentle movement of our bodies, releases us into a deeper state of consciousness and inner spiritual connection.
When the dance is over people are often surprised to learn they were chanting for 20 minutes, it seems like no time at all when we tap into that awareness outside of time and space.
The music in Chakradance is beautifully and artfully layered in sounds.
Beneath the beat and melody are layers of Tibetan and crystal bowls, bells, percussion, chants and other vibrational frequencies designed to activate each chakra. It’s like bathing your senses in sound.
From the deep resonance of Tibetan chanting in the opening meditation and the reverberating base tones of the didgeridoo in the base chakra, the sounds become higher and higher in vibration as we work our way up the chakras.
So Chakradance works on so many levels simultaneously, from the subtlest vibrations of sound to the beats and melody that inspire us to move our body and to make our own sounds.
As I dance, I imagine my body, all of my cells, my bodily systems, my energy body, is like a beautifully free-flowing dance troupe, twirling and leaping around in absolute unbridled joy and harmony.
As all these parts of my being move to these sound vibrations, energy shifts, tension is soothed, emotional blocks are released, stress dissipates. I emerge re-arranged, rejuvenated and transformed. It’s like a whole new me!
The Humming Breath
Try this simple sound healing technique which is a great throat chakra activator…
Sit in a comfortable position with a straight spine.
Begin by exhaling as much air as possible from your lungs before taking in a deep, slow breath through your nose, refilling your lungs. On your next exhalation, make a soft humming sound like a bee.
When you run out of breath, take another deep inhalation, continuing the humming sound as you exhale.
Begin with a few minutes practice, working up to 10-15 minutes at a time. When you have finished your humming breath practice, lie down and relax for a few minutes.
Namaste, Christina
ॐ
Upcoming classes:
Base Chakradance @ Revitalise (Thursday 2 August)
Throat Chakradance Journey (Sunday 5 August)