A sound bath predominantly helps with relaxation as part of helping to manage stress. While sound baths have various benefits for stress management and overall well-being, scientific research on its direct effects on cellular resonance and function is still evolving. Sound baths should be considered as a complementary approach alongside other stress management strategies.

Harvard Medical School is widely considered as the world’s leading research institute on the effects of stress on the human body, sighting stress as the single largest contributor to physical and mental health conditions. 

This link from the Harvard medical school expands on the research in this area, a summary of which is below. Further Information

In summary, the brain has two main nervous system responses, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. 

The sympathetic system controls our ‘fight or flight’ responses in stress situations through the release of adrenaline and cortisol. 

The parasympathetic system regulates our ‘rest and digest’ functions through the release of insulin (controls blood sugars and energy use in the body) and Acetylcholine (produced by the bowel and is a muscle relaxant). 

The term chronic stress describes being in a sympathetic response state on a prolonged basis.

Many Anti-anxiety and antidepressants prescriptive medicines increase the amount of parasympathetic chemicals in the system to counter stress responses. Resulting in both ‘fight or flight’ and ‘rest and digest’ chemical levels in the system being high. 

Rather than increase the parasympathetic response, the ideal would be to reduce the sympathetic response so the system is naturally balanced. 

By inducing relaxation, the way a sound bath can, we seek to lower the fight or flight response, rather than just increasing the rest digest response, thereby bring the overall level of chemicals present in the body down. The aim being to bring about the best balance for the body and help address chronic stress as unobtrusively as possible.  

Addressing stress using sound works very well in partnership with an active lifestyle as well as prescription drugs when and where required. 

It’s the reaction of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems that makes exercise feel good. During a workout, the fight or flight response is activated, and our bodies produce adrenaline which gives the ‘high’.  Post workout, our body produce ‘rest and digest’ chemicals as part of our recovery, which induce relaxation and provide that post workout ‘euphoric’ feeling.  Consistent physical exercise overtime, helps balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, also helping to reduce chronic stress. 

From a more spiritual perspective, a sound bath is thought to help balance the body and chakras. If you picture a flow of energy from the universe through the body to the ground; It would flow through the chakras from the crown, third eye, throat, heart, Solar plexus, sacral, and finally to the root. A depletion, or an excess of energy in any of the chakras affects the flow of energy through the body leading to a feeling of imbalance.  Put another way, an imbalance can manifest itself in an inability to relax.  

What a sound bath does is provide an opportunity to reflect on where in the body may be experiencing a depletion or excess in energy. Then allow time to absorb the softer more nurturing sounds in the areas that need replenished, while expelling excess energies from other areas during the louder moments of crescendo.  Evening out the areas of excess and depletion allows for a better flow of energy through the body, bringing balance, which allows for a greater sense of control and clarity of thought.