SUBSCRIBE TO ENERGY MATTERS WITH VERA 💌 & GET A FREE MEDITATION ✨
SUBSCRIBE TO ENERGY MATTERS WITH VERA 💌 & GET A FREE MEDITATION ✨
vchapman
Friend, earlier this spring, we unexpectedly had to replace our entire air conditioning system. (I still have big feelings about it because the sticker shock is real 🤢.)
The shiny new unit sits outside our house and connects through the attic, right beside my office. Almost immediately after it was installed, I started noticing I felt off when I was working in there. I was more agitated, more easily distracted, and had a harder time settling into whatever I was doing.
Sometimes I knew exactly why. The new air conditioner was creating a low, rhythmic vibration against the wall that was driving me absolutely craaaaaazy.
Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. All damn day long.
Even noise-cancelling headphones didn’t save me. I wanted to pull my hair out from the noise.
But here’s the interesting part: sometimes I wasn’t consciously hearing it at all. I’d be absorbed in an email or deep in thought, and I’d notice that I felt irritated or unsettled. Curious, I’d focus back into my environment and realize, ohhhh. There it is.
Although my ears sometimes stopped consciously registering the sound, my body couldn’t. It felt every bit of it, and my nervous system was constantly working to contend with it.
Once I noticed that, I couldn’t un-notice it. Eventually I called the HVAC company and basically admitted to being a princess who cannot live under such conditions.
Thankfully, home services are all about comfort, so they happily came back, found the problem, and fixed it (two pool noodles and a prayer later).
The difference was almost immediate. The room felt more peaceful, yes, but more importantly, I felt more peaceful in it.
That’s what fascinated me about the whole experience.
We tend to think about sound as something we experience through our ears, but our nervous systems also continually take in sensory information from the environment around us and respond—even if we aren’t consciously aware of it.
And that sense of agitation isn’t necessarily just in our heads. Research on environmental noise has linked ongoing unwanted sound with stress responses, annoyance, sleep disruption, and other effects on our well-being.
How often does this happen in ordinary life without us realizing it?
We have the television playing in another room, the exhaust fan droning on above the stove, traffic rushing outside the window, phone notifications pinging, and music playing—all while we’re answering emails or scrolling because apparently we’ve decided our nervous systems should be able to process seventeen things at once.
The next time you notice feeling inexplicably edgy, scattered, anxious, or overstimulated, I invite you to take a moment and just listen. Not only to the obvious sounds, but to everything that’s been pushed into the background.
What has your conscious mind stopped noticing that your body might still be responding to? Which of those noises can be silenced to give your nervous system a bit more capacity?
And while you’re listening, notice the sounds that do the opposite, too.
What makes your body soften? What makes you breathe a little deeper?
Maybe it’s rain against the window, birds chirping outside, water moving, your favorite zen music, or the sound of someone you love snoring in the next room.
I’ve been paying more attention to this myself, and I think there’s something really beautiful about learning our own soundscape. Not what someone else tells us should be relaxing (white noise, for example, drives me crazy), but what we actually experience in our bodies when we listen to sounds that soothe our souls.
It’s one of the reasons I love working with sound so much.
For me, sound healing is an energetic practice. It gives us another way to notice ourselves, to become aware of held tension, and to become more present in our bodies. Rather than telling the body what it should feel, we get quiet enough to notice what is already happening within us.
And I think that matters.
Because so much of our lives asks us to tune out. To ignore the noise. Push through the overstimulation. Override the tension. Keep going.
Intentional sound gives us an opportunity to do something different: to listen.
Not just with our ears, but with our whole selves.
If you’re curious about what it feels like to experience sound with that kind of intention, I offer sound baths throughout Western New York, where you can simply lie down, listen, and notice what happens within you in the presence of supportive sound.
Maybe you notice your shoulders softening, or your breath deepening, or your mind getting quieter. Or maybe you experience something else entirely. (You can’t do this wrong.)
And if a group setting isn’t really your thing, I also offer private sound baths and private Reiki with sound healing at Arden Healing, my studio in Lewiston, NY. These sessions allow us to create a quieter, more personal experience around exactly what your body is asking for that day.
But you don’t need to wait for a sound bath or a session to begin listening.
Maybe today, simply pause.
Notice the hums and buzzes you’ve stopped hearing. Notice the sounds that make you brace—and the ones that somehow help you exhale.
Your body might be listening to more than you realize.
What is it hearing?
In Love, Light, and healing,
Vera is a Reiki Master Teacher and Energy Coach who helps women identify, clear, and heal blocked energy so they can move through grief and trauma, and become joyfully present in their lives again. She is a Board Certified Coach, Certified Sound Healer, Certified Yoga Teacher, and proud mama of two living children and one in the stars. She holds a Masters Degree in Counseling and a Ph.D in Education. She has healed from deep grief and sexual trauma using the modalities she now teaches, and has authored a children’s book and healing affirmation cards to support grieving women and their families. Most importantly, she’s on a mission to make energy healing accessible to everyone.
