You can use your voice to soothe and calm your heart, to focus your mind, to process emotions, to connect to spirit, to bring direct healing vibrations into your body. Your voice is a powerful energetic healing tool, with the ability to shift vibrations from low and slow to high and fast, and respond to the needs of the body. You can do this by toning or humming.

I learned much of this from reading books about sound healing by Jonathan Goldman. See below for several book titles.

How to Tone

Anyone who can create sound with their voice can do this. You don’t need to be a trained singer or even know how to carry a tune. No special equipment is necessary. If you’re feeling a bit self conscious, do this when you’re alone. Please don’t censor yourself or your voice.

To begin, find a comfortable position that will support you and allow your breath to move easily. Now make a sustained AH or similar sound on a long out breath. Let it dissolve into the air around you when your breath is spent. Now try it again and tune in – where do you feel the vibrations or resonance of this sound in your body? Did you feel it in your belly, your heart, your throat? Maybe you felt it in your jaw, or forehead, your tailbone, or shoulders. Take some time to repeat the AH sound, paying attention to your body as the sound moves through you.

As a general rule, the lower the sound you make, the lower in your body you will feel it, (root chakra, sacral chakra, hips…and the higher the pitch you tone, the higher in your body you will feel it.(throat, jaw, forehead, eyes, crown)

Now fine tune your pitch (make it higher or lower) of the AH sound to make it resonate in your chest and heart. Experiment with your voice, the pitch, the loudness or softness, and pay attention to where you are feeling it in your body. If it feels like it’s vibrating below your heart, in your solar plexus or sacral area, for example, make the pitch a bit higher incrementally until it feels right.

Practice changing the pitch and sound of your voice so it resonates in a different area of your body, say your lower abdomen. You can try other sounds besides AH, such as OH, UH, NNN, MM, OOO, VUUU, etc. Experiment with different pitches and sounds in areas of discomfort in your body. Tune your voice trying different sounds to resonate in these areas.

Humming

You might also try humming at different pitches, matching your pitch to areas of your body you want to soothe and give loving attention to.

Tone or Hum as you work with emotions

When you feel strong emotions, toning or humming can help you get in touch with them, process, and release them. It helps to be alone in a quiet space to do this healing for yourself. Let yourself feel the emotions in your body. Tune your pitch and tone into that area to acknowledge, feel, be with, and release the emotions. Let the sound waves created by your humming or toning carry them away.

The sounds you make as you process your emotions might not be pretty. Keep going until the feelings shift and you feel differently. This is not easy, but it might help. If you feel overwhelmed by strong emotions, please seek help from a therapist or healer.

Humming and toning can become a mindfulness meditation – a time of focused attention on the sounds you make and the feelings and vibrations they create in your body. Children like to do this too! They might like to match your pitch and feel it in their bodies, or make a sound that soothes and distracts from hurt feelings or a skinned knee.

Toning and humming for all their simplicity, can become a satisfying and calming practice, always available.

Resources

To learn more about sound healing, Look up Jonathan Goldman, a sound healer, who has written many books on this topic. Among them are “Vocal Toning the Chakras; Your Voice is a Healing Force”; “The 7 Secrets of Sound Healing”; “The Divine Name: The Sound that Can Change the World”.