Image by Pete Linforth

“You can only listen when the mind is quiet, when there is an interval between your reaction and what is being said. There is a silence in which alone there is a comprehension which is not intellectual understanding. In that interval, there comes clarity. It is the interval that is the new brain.The new brain allows understanding and a new listening.”  ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, philosopher and educator

In Sacred Sound sessions, we do not know the formula until the body reveals it to us. Our work with sound is an emerging composition comprised of mixed elements. The body is exquisitely intelligent and knows exactly what is needed—the timing, sequence, and tonal qualities. We are listening and trusting and following the innate wisdom of the body.

Listening from love, and with love, takes time and trust and patience. We do not know beforehand what the body will reveal, because listening is an evolving formula, never a pre-planned formula. Mind wants to know ahead of time; body reveals what is in the moment.

I come to the body willing to listen and observe, breathe and move. Together we experience what arises. We only know what different approaches were used by observing the outcome. The body unravels and unwinds in its most accurate integrity for itself.

If You Love Something Enough

Respect is truly the first and foremost important ingredient for accessing trust and listening. We can get lost in our zest for healing and doing what needs to be done. It is essential to pause and remember that possibly not all parts of this being may be on the same page—not all parts of the body are eagerly awaiting our touch and sound. We wait and listen, for that which wants to be addressed will indeed bubble up to meet us. Whether we are caring for ourselves, or as a practitioner caring for others, we support the practice of listening by noticing the rhythm of our own breath and allowing it to center us.

The essential teachings of listening are an ancient system of directly cultivating relationships and communication with the mineral, plant, animal, and human world. Find your own words, but the essence is always an invitation filled with love and respect.

Body Listening Prayer

Body, I pray to be your student.
I pray to be teachable.
I come to you, my body, from a place of not knowing.
I come to you with a sincere desire
to know how to be in relationship with you.
I come wanting to know how you wish to communicate.
I’m here to learn from you.

Body, I come to you with love and respect,
How would you have me listen?
How would you have me perceive?
Body, I come to listen with all my senses.
I pause in silence and give you space to reveal your teachings.
I give thanks for the opportunity to begin this listening relationship.
I observe and am a witness, not a judge.
I enter meditative listening.

If I love something enough, it will reveal itself to me.
I come to you willing to listen.
How can I best serve you?
How can I better know you?
How would you have me be?
How would you have me listen?
What would you have me know?
Be respectful.
Give thanks.
Pause in the silence.
Listen with all your senses.

Trusting the Innate Wisdom of the Body

Listening is the ancient art of communication. We can be in direct communication with the life that is around us and with our bodies. Consider how our ancestors knew which plant to pick and what was its nature and remedy. We go to a plant we want to know and ask permission from the plant to learn from it. Receiving permission, we express our intention.

We say to the plant, “I desire to know you better.” We observe its color, flowers, number of petals, leaf structure, and stem. Is it round,  square, fuzzy? We observe how we feel by truly being with the plant. We taste it and spit it out. Is it sour, sweet, bitter, drying to the tongue? What is its smell? Let us listen.

Like coming to know the plant we can also come to know our body. Where in my body has my attention been drawn? Interestingly, I’ll start noticing my liver or my stomach or my knees. In this moment, the plant is teaching me. I am aware of my body area because the plant is communicating with me there.

The yellow flower of the dandelion brings an awareness of my liver and kidney area as I taste the bitter of its leaves and it tells me. “I am your first cleanser in the spring.” Or the willow may bring my awareness to my knees or bony structure and suggest, “I can help your limbs become more resilient and flexible.” These are suggestions to allow ourselves to trust our listening. The roses often teach through the sense of smell and color. The fragrance of rose fills our being with love. Wait, observe, and listen.

I like to have an otepad with me, so I can jot down impressions. I have had the privilege of living in beautiful places where one can find fields of yarrow or arnica. My herbalist teachers took us on journeys to sacred spots, and we would lie in these fields and listen with all our senses.

Even in our smaller gardens, we can sit by the plant and note what we sense. This is a lovely way to begin acknowledging we can be in communicative relationship with the plant life around us. There are many reasons we enjoy sitting with our backs resting against or hugging a tree: We receive much needed connection.

Being with nature reconnects us with our own innate nature. We are developing our acuity with plants. Once we can listen to nature, we can listen to bodies more easily. We are nature.

Keys to Perception

We all perceive in different ways. We may perceive through words, colors, sound, felt sense, shapes, and images. When we listen, we are inquiring as to what the body wishes to reveal.

The body is always communicating with you. What is your form of  listening? What is your preferred way of perceiving? You may have many diverse forms. Simply observe.

Wake up to your possibilities of listening. Listen from the place of “not knowing,” the beginner's mind. Simply notice.

Exercise: Perception

• Close your eyes, and become quiet and still. Purposely tune in by focusing your attention on grounding—plugging in, being present and respectful. “Being where your feet are.”

• Visualize your whole body in the form of an ear, from the top of your head to your toes.

• Allow your body’s “felt sense” (See Focusing by Eugene Gendlin, 1982) to be an antenna that can perceive frequency and vibration from every crevice and molecule of your physical form.

• Slowly, gently, you feel your way around the field.

• Be mindful. There is no need to reach out to listen; the direction is always inward.

• You may ask a question to guide your listening or wait to see if your body wants to give you a message unasked.

• Allow the body to reveal what it wishes to communicate.

Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Adapted with permission of Findhorn Press,
an imprint of Inner Traditions International.

Article Source:

BOOK: Healing through Sound

Healing through Sound: Awakening Your Audible Body
by Vickie Dodd.

Heal and align the body layer by layer through sound healing. This book: 

• Shows how sound, even humming, can change the body’s tissues, rearrange posture, and release long-held emotional trauma and stress;
• Explains how to listen deeply to the body and discover the rhythms of the areas to be treated as well as how to intuit the sounds required for healing;
• Offers practices to help you immediately release tension and explains how to use your voice to release emotional conflicts so your body can naturally heal.

For more info and/or to order this book, click here.  Also available as a Kindle edition. 

About the Author

Vickie Dodd, M.A., has been a sound healing therapist, bodyworker, workshop leader, musician, and internationally recognized pioneer of healing through sound for more than 50 years. She has collaborated with Don Campbell and is an adjunct faculty member at the Globe Institute in San Francisco.