Most sound bath intentions are to-dos in disguise. Be less anxious. Clear the mind. Fix this. Then the sound bath starts and your jaw clamps down and your mind chatter goes wild, because you just handed a braced body more to-dos: breathe and settle the mind.
Everyone does full moon sound baths. Seldom do I hear about new moon sound journeys. Here’s the thing about a new moon: nothing is missing. The moon still exists in its fullness. It just isn’t lit from where we’re standing. Full and unseen.
That’s shadow. Just ambiguous. Ambiguity seems to create an urgency, an overwhelm of needing to consume and understand MORE in a time that doesn’t provide any further detail. Caring that becomes codependency. Kindness that becomes fawning. Productive that becomes overwork. You feel it as a held breath…the pause at the top or bottom of a full breath when you’re trying to do it right.
Slow breathing, under ten breaths a minute, measurably moves the nervous system out of that hold and toward the state that can rest (Zaccaro et al., 2018). That’s why we breathe before a single bowl is struck. The hold lets go, and the sound has somewhere to land.
That’s why I started setting Flow Tides with intentions around the new moon (aka shadow work). Shadow, like the new moon phase, is what we haven’t shed light to. The things we are willing to distract from.
Your intention could be simplified into the physical body so it’s sustainable throughout the sound bath…but what might come up could inspire you rather than hold you back. There’s an openness to a sound bath. What you can allow because of a simple intention, a simple want.
When we don’t see something, we start to have guilt around it. Why didn’t I notice that? I should have seen it coming. We hold on tightly to that. That hold is where guilt, or what we call healthy shame, lives. Not in your head. In the breath.
Which means you don’t have to figure it out. You have to notice where you’re holding, and breathe through it.
1. Try to take a full breath into the diaphragm.
2. Notice whether you actually let it be full, or whether you cut it short.
3. Do you stop? Do you get dizzy?
4. Do you hold on to the breath at the top, or at the bottom?
5. See if you can find the rhythm of the fullness of your breath.
6. Check in. What’s coming up for you?
Then sit with this one, out loud or in your head: “The good thing I keep doing past its dose is ______.” Notice where your breath went while you answered. That’s your intention for the next new moon.
If you’re finding this topic difficult, feeling triggered by the word “shame,” or the exercise felt HARD, that’s ok. Come to the next Flow Tides session to see how you can easefully process your experiences in a community that understands. There’s no need to deep dive on hard topics. These can be easeful experiences to toe into the work.
The next Flow Tides gathers on the next new moon at Somatelligence in Oceanside. One intention, guided breath, then bowls, tuning forks, and gongs. Come with your one thing, or with “I’m here.” You are welcome. Save your spot.
Creating Nervous System Resilience in Waves
