Results: Sound baths are growing in popularity but what are they?

With rates of anxiety, depression and substance abuse increasing significantly since the beginning of the pandemic, the U.S. National Institutes of Health has declared the current mental health crisis to be "an urgent issue." Do you agree that the current mental health crisis is "an urgent issue"?

Sound baths are one of the most popular emerging relaxation techniques that many people are participating in. During one, "participants typically lay down on a yoga mat and listen to musical instruments such as Tibetan singing bowls, crystal singing bowls, gongs, bells, and other vibrational instruments," says Tamara Goldsby, a public health research psychologis. Sound baths are meditative in nature and focus on feeling the vibrations from each sound throughout the body. Have you ever participated in a sound bath?

In addition to the use of instruments, sound bath sounds and directions "may come from an instructor chanting a repetitive, rhythmic phrase, such as a mantra," says Kulreet Chaudhary, an integrative neurologist and author of "Sound Medicine." Even if you have not participated in a sound bath, have you ever repeated a mantra to help you with anything? Please share below if you are comfortable!