The Sound Around Us

This week I spent time thinking about sound. It started with seeing this incredible video about cymatics, an exploration of vibrational phenomena. In the video, sand on top of a metal plate is vibrated with various musical instruments or frequencies, which create distinct geometric patterns in the sand. This simple technique makes sound, and how types of sounds impact us differently, visible. Check out the video below for more information.

So we played around with sound and vibration in my classes this week. We broke down the sacred sound of AUM into its components and vocalized them on suspended exhales. We noticed how the adjustments in sound changed the vibration in the body and altered the pressure above and below the glottis. First exhaling with an OHHHH sound, where the back of the throat is open but lips are shaped into a tight O. Then exhaling AHHHHH where the throat and mouth are both open and the back of the throat is relaxed. Then humming MMMMM through closed lips. And finally combining them back into AUM.

After class, a student approached me to say that they felt a real emotional difference in their body with each letter vocalized. The words we say, the timbre we use, the frequency at which we speak change how our body is vibrating and the contrast in pressure between us and the outside world.

How you speak matters - to your body and to the bodies around you. We are much more interconnected than we realize.