Sound bathing - be like a bat!

After a rough night’s sleep I woke to a gift of a day, mild and sunny in mid-December. I made a quick cup of coffee for my daily caffeine boost—then mosesyed outside to soak up some sun and do some sound bathing for a reboot.

Be like a Bat

I think of sound bathing as a form of echo location, except instead of sending out sonar waves, we expand our attention and attune to our surroundings by listening. This allows us to be more fully aware of where WE are without using sight or the thinking mind.

When bats go hunting at night they send out sonar vibrations that bounce off objects and return to the animal—creating a kind of sonic map of its surroundings for the purpose of moving through the environment unimpeded and to locate a tasty bat snack.

Like our friend the bat (some people get creeped out—I think they are so cool and cute!), we locate ourselves in relation to the soundscape around us. We expand our attention to receive sounds and allow them to travel back to us. This grounds us in the body by letting us know where we are in a direct and visceral way.

Let’s Try

I find this practice very powerful and it usually only lasts a few minutes. It can be done with your eyes open or closed. Sitting, standing or walking. If you try it with your eyes closed, but find that it disorients rather than focuses you, feel free to open your eyes. If you are walking, try to soften your gaze a bit. Become curious and absorbed in the sounds around you.

Let’s try right now. Close your eyes and tune into the sounds closest to you…take your time. Next, listen to sounds in the middle distance. Finally, notice those furthest away. Note how our focus tends to move away from the body and out towards whatever we are focusing on. Sometimes we do this by picturing what we are hearing.

Try not to reach out to the sounds, but to become a passive instrument of listening. Let sounds come to you, like sonar waves returning and locating you in a three dimensional landscape.

You may find that you focus on particular sounds, especially those that feel intrusive—an airplane in the far distance, a car or conversation closer by. Your partner innocently wishing you good morning (that actually happened, sorry Anthony). See if you can give all the sounds the same passive attention. Noting your irritation and allowing it to pass through is also part of the practice. Eventually, the annoying sounds will become just another component of the soundscape. Likes and dislikes become less prominent.

You become more like the sky that contains all the sounds. A backdrop in which sounds are contained, and in which they come and go. Intensify and fade. Move and stay still. All the while you are at the center. Grounded and clear.

Back to my sunny December morning

Standing on my deck and closing my eyes I hear…small flies that sound like kamikaze pilots dive bombing one another. A multitude of birdsong in the middle distance surrounds me. Suddenly I am more in my body. I not only feel the breeze but hear how it rustles the leaves clinging to the oaks, the quiet sway of the branches. I hear the wind itself rushing past my ears, close and intimate. I hear my breath, even closer. Ahhh…

Nice.

Time to finish my coffee, feed the dog, and oh, yeah—say good morning to my patient husband. Reboot complete.