Image by Fanny Muller 

In This Article:

• What are body listening techniques, and how can they benefit you?
• How does sacred sound healing foster connection with the body?
• Why is listening to nature key to understanding yourself?
• How can innate wisdom guide your healing journey?
• What steps can you take to practice mindful, meditative listening?

Discover Sound Healing and Body Listening Techniques

by Vickie Dodd.

“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

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 do the same with a human body.

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 a notepad with me, so I can jot down impressions.

Listening with All Our Senses

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.

Listening to the Body's Language

We must practice learning to read the body’s language and permit its expression. We interpret from all our senses. We “act as if” it is possible to be in communication. Our journey is to recognize how the body wants to communicate with us. We become students of our bodies.

We want to be in relationship with that which we desire to know, with that to which we are listening. Sounding ourselves, or our students and clients, we trust that each hears what they need to hear within the sounds, frequencies, and rhythms of our sounding.

Each of us receives and perceives what we need for our own release, healing, and integration. This potent life story and many other stories through the years taught me that Sacred Sound sessions are not about my singing skills, or my perception skills, or even about me.

We are not teaching techniques. We are teaching being in relationship. We are teaching ourselves to listen and perceive. Sessions are about the power of listening to the body and following and trusting something greater than ourselves.

Trusting the Innate Wisdom of the Body

When we listen to what wishes and desires to be expressed, we touch the inner needs and the well of wisdom. Our intention is to access the innate wisdom of the body.

As I sincerely want to listen and communicate, and truly want to be in relationship to this soul, I will express what is there. I need not embellish, enhance, protect, or judge what is being expressed. What is sounded is gold for the person receiving the sounding. The body knows if it is being listened to and accepted and loved for all that it is.

Essential Tools for Listening

• Love what is.
• Respect what is.
• Appreciate and accept what is.
• Ask permission to enter and listen—each time.
• Let the body know your intention to touch, listen, and sound.
• “Act as if” it is completely natural, reasonable, and possible to have a direct relationship with the bodies of others and ourselves.

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.

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 an Audiobook and 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. 

Article Recap:

Body listening techniques and sacred sound healing emphasize mindful communication with nature and the body. This ancient practice involves listening with all your senses, observing the language of your body, and trusting its innate wisdom. By fostering a relationship with plants, nature, and sacred sound, the practice nurtures healing, self-awareness, and connection to something greater. Listening involves love, respect, and intention, unlocking the body’s potential for expression and integration.

#BodyListening #SacredSoundHealing #InnateWisdom #NaturalHealing #MindfulListening