Anxiety and Sound Therapy
Great news for those who are plagued by anxiety or panic attacks! Sound Therapy calms and harmonizes the entire nervous system bringing deep and lasting relief.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is a condition where stress worry and dread have built up to the point that they interfere with our daily functioning. Worry about everyday life is exaggerated to the point where it preoccupies the mind. Sufferers tend to worry frequently about health, money, family, work or school. This worrying is often unrealistic or out of proportion to the situation.
Some common symptoms of anxiety include:
- Hot and cold flushes
- Sleeplessness
- Racing heart
- Tightening of the chest
- Ruminative, repetitive worrying
- Obsessive thinking and compulsive behavior
“Since the Sound Therapy has taken effect for me, I no longer know what anxiety is. As a photographer, lecturer and writer, I am traveling continually and am bombarded with more than average demands. E…”
Coutney Milne, Canada – Read More
Noise and anxiety
Research has found that noise-related stress contributes to anxiety and can increase high blood pressure, peptic ulcers, cardiovascular deaths, strokes, suicides, degradation of the immune system, and impairment of learning.
Anxiety may also be linked to certain situations such as social situations, tests or public speaking. This may come from previous associations or bad experiences, a lack of self-confidence, or it may be related to the way we physically process information to help us navigate our world. Subtle processing problems related to vertigo or agoraphobia can sometimes play a role in anxiety without our realizing it.
How Sound Therapy helps reduce anxiety
Discover how quiet yet powerful sounds can wash away stress or anxiety and create emotional balance. But you will also learn that Sound Therapy is much more than just nice music to calm you down. It has been found to work on normalizing many of the automatic functions of our nervous system, by working directly on the ear-brain connection. The ear is intricately linked to our nervous system and in particular effects the functioning of our vagus nerve. The latest scientific discoveries in this field show how our primitive neural pathways affect our feelings of safety and our social and emotional responses.
Brain activity is always either enhanced or depleted by sound, depending on the quality of the sound. This is why Dr. Tomatis said, “Some sounds are as good as two cups of coffee.” Listening to Sound Therapy for three hours a day helps to restore normality to our nervous system, calms the mind and compensates for and counteracts the draining, stressful effect of low-frequency noise.
“For years I’ve lived with a mind filled with almost non-stop, self-abusive thoughts that no amount of counseling or investigation into causes could ease. Within 24 hours of starting Sound Therapy my…”
Coral Waight, VIC – Read More
Insomnia and anxiety
Anxiety is frequently the cause of poor sleep. Insomnia is caused by excessive cortical activity that cannot be stopped. Though Sound Therapy recharges the brain for activity during the day, it also has a calming effect which enables the listener in nearly every case to slip easily and quickly into sleep. While the brain and the nervous system are stimulated by the sound, this results not in a hyperactive state but in a state of active serenity, which allows for deep rest. Sleeplessness due to anxiety can also be resolved.
Survey results indicate that between 70 and 80 percent of Sound Therapy listeners notice an improvement in their sleep. Many insomniacs experience an immediate and dramatic improvement in their sleep.
Make an informed choice—get the eBook
After 26 years in the Sound Therapy field, we really anxiety and what it means to live with this condition. Every week we hear from our listeners thanking us for the relief they have found. Listeners have reported very dramatic changes in their levels of anxiety, which has made a huge difference in their lives.
If you would like to learn more in-depth about how Sound Therapy helps anxiety, order Rafaele Joudry’s FREE eBook here and benefit from her decades of experience helping thousands of listeners with Sound Therapy.
Or call and speak to one of our qualified Sound Therapy consultants right away.
Start listening to Sound Therapy and start feeling better today!
Let the beat drop…your anxiety levels. We’re not talking about any old beats, but ones some therapists are using as a form of sound-wave therapy to help their patients combat anxiety. They’re called binaural beats—and here, Brian Wind, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and the chief clinical officer at addiction treatment center Journey Pure, explains how they work.
What are binaural beats, exactly?
For starters, it’s helpful to know that in everyday life, the left and right ear receive slightly different frequencies of sound, but the brain registers them as a single noise. The difference between those two frequencies is the binaural beat—a pulse in your brain that your conscious mind is unaware of. For example, if your left ear receives a frequency of 100 Hz and your right ear receives 90 Hz, your brain perceives a binaural beat of 10 Hz.
How do binaural beats relate to anxiety?
Some musical tracks are designed to create specific binaural beats in your brain when you listen to them, even though they just sound like calming tunes. These beats create shifts in brain waves that affect mood and cognition, so you can choose an audio track that will result in a frequency that produces an effect like less anxiety, better REM sleep or concentration, more creativity, or greater alertness.
Patients tend to listen to them with earphones in a place without distractions for at least 30 minutes. You don’t have to close your eyes, but many people do. Some folks play binaural beats during meditation or before sleep too.
How do I know what to listen to?
Audio tracks with binaural beats are easy to find online, and there are also CDs available. However, know that sometimes an audio file is compressed to the point that it loses its effect, so you may want to ask your therapist if they can recommend specific binaural beat audio tracks that have worked for other patients. Keep in mind, much is still unknown about this therapy, so binaural beats are not recommended for anyone who has suffered seizures or has a pacemaker or other heart problems, pregnant women, kids, or those operating heavy machinery.
What does research say about binaural beats for anxiety?
In one small study, people had a 26% drop in anxiety symptoms after listening to binaural beats for at least 20 minutes daily for two weeks in combination with therapy. Other studies show that binaural beats may benefit patients experiencing anxiety before surgery. However, research is inconclusive about the clinical benefits, so it’s not a replacement for typical anxiety treatments.
How quickly can I expect to feel better?
Some people start to notice their anxiety lessening the first time they listen to binaural beats, while others may need to listen longer. Give it three weeks, and if you don’t notice a change, try a different frequency, a different type of sound, or an audio track created by someone else. People who listen to binaural beats daily for an extended period reap the most benefits.
This article originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Prevention.
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There is no singular “solution” for anxiety, and the medical community has yet to endorse sound meditation. As Buckley makes clear, “living with anxiety can be very difficult and there are things you can try to help but remember, what works for one person may not work for another.” The NHS advises cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), applied relaxation, antidepressants, beta blockers and pregabalin (always consult your GP before beginning any course of medication), along with regular exercise, cutting down on smoking and caffeine, and getting a solid amount of sleep. Anxiety UK offers CBT, counselling and clinical hypnotherapy. “All of these therapies have different benefits to clients and can work to help reduce the feelings of anxiety that individuals experience,” Lidbetter notes. But where many of these pathways to recovery require long waiting times and saintly patience, sound meditation is easy, immediate, and doesn’t come with a long list of side-effects. Who knows, maybe you’ll become a gongvert.
