Abstract
Psychosocial stress, tension, and depression are quite common in many parts of the developed world. Integrative medicine techniques which may potentially increase spiritual and emotional well-being may be useful in combating chronic psychosocial stress, as well as challenges with depression and excessive tension. The present observational study examines the effect of singing-bowl sound healing on emotional and spiritual well-being and particularly examines interrelationships between changes in spiritual well-being with changes in tension and depressed mood post-sound healing. Participants experienced a sound healing environment of vibrational musical instruments such as singing bowls (bell-like instruments), gongs, and other vibrational instruments. Sixty-two participants were examined in an observational study using singing-bowl sound healing. Emotional and spiritual well-being were examined by utilizing standardized questionnaires. Results revealed significant correlations between improvements in scores of spiritual well-being and reductions in scores of tension and depression post-sound healing. Moreover, effects varied by age of the study participants. Specifically, the association between spiritual well-being improvement and depression improvement was strongest for ages 31–40, while spiritual well-being improvement and tension improvement associations were strongest for ages 51–60. Implications for applying sound healing meditations as a potential low-cost, low-technology therapeutic technique are discussed for emotional and spiritual well-being.
Highlights
Significant chronic psychosocial stress abounds in the present time in history due to various societal factors, including a global pandemic, as well as political and societal dynamics (Goldsby et al 2021)
Significant differences were observed between pre- and post-sound healing for the following subscale variables: Tension, Anxiety, Depression, Spirituality, and Faith
Effect sizes were shown to be large for Tension, Anxiety, Depression, and Spirituality via Eta squared; Faith demonstrated a moderate to large effect size. (See Table 1)
Summary
Significant chronic psychosocial stress abounds in the present time in history due to various societal factors, including a global pandemic, as well as political and societal dynamics (Goldsby et al 2021). Techniques that lower stress and improve spiritual well-being that do not require participant training may be important to assist individuals in attaining improved feelings of well-being One such technique that has shown promise in improving well-being is music therapy. Sound healing or “sound bath” generally utilizes specific bell-like vibrational musical instruments called singing bowls, as well as gongs and other vibrational musical instruments It has been termed “sound bath” due to the unique sensation participants have described as the sound and vibration “washing” over the body. The present researchers sought to examine the effects of a specific type of therapeutic technique called sound healing that has elements of meditation as well as elements of music or vibrational therapy. This observational study was designed to assess the initial population for the purpose of developing a larger Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)
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