By Jahsah Ananda

Yes, we are all able to heal with energy and sound.  The first step in realizing your potential to heal with sound is to take a deep breath and let it out with a relaxed jaw and let it out with a sound.  You should hear an Ahhh sound.  The is the primal sound of creation and can be very powerful in shifting consciousness, which is what brings healing. 

Any tone you create can be healing if your intention is to express yourself, express the pains in yourself, express the emotions or totally surrender to the sounds that come.  When we give expression to suppressed and painful parts of our lives, we are able to release the energies involved and bring in new authentic expression to those parts of our selves.  You may find that an energy begins to express it's self as painful sounds and shifts to more pleasing vibrations as the energy is released. 

Instruments of all kinds can be used to enhance your sound healing experiences.  A drum can be played in a simple rhythm and it can be toned along with.  Drums create tones as well as a rhythm and it feels nice to harmonize and chant with the drum.  You can chant mantra's, affirmations, songs, poems, and spontaneous intuitive sounds.  Sound Healing can also enhance our intuitive nature and our intuitive nature can enhance the Sound Healing.  Finding our intuition is like finding our harmonic resonance with the continuous song of creation.  When we find that place, what seems to be miraculous happens.

I find that simple instruments that create pleasing sounds are great for Sound Healing.  When we can let go into the sound, we sink into our selves more deeply, where we find our intuition easy to comprehend.  Crystal bowls, Tibetan bowls, hoop drum, ting-shas, native American flutes, rattles, chimes and the wing are all great instruments that can be learned easily to make nice sounds.  Remember, this is Sound Healing, not music healing, though music healing fits into sound healing.  You can make songs, but that is not what is important.  Making pleasing tones that we can relax deeper into our self or into certain issues is what will hold the space for us to heal. 

Anybody can do energy healing who is able to come into a nice place within them selves and think uplifting thoughts or not think at all.  I was doing energy work for a long time before I was initiated into Reiki and feel after many years that our ability to focus is what is key, not any initiations or symbols planted in our body, though there are all kinds of initiations in life that will enhance us in many ways. 

When I started doing energy work, I would visualize the recent rainbow I saw, colors, light and other images that created a good feeling within me.  I would also repeat mantras like "Love and Light" over and over again, or poetic flows of consciousness would steam through my mind.  As my life experiences opened me more I began to visualize white light coming in through my crown and golden light coming up from the earth and meeting in my heart this light would merge in deep love and move down my arms and out my hands.  I then began to visualize the energy moving in spiral motions, and I would visualize sacred symbols or Sacred Places that I had been blessed to visit. 

I have studied and learned many techniques and what I feel is, the more unconditional love you can connect with in your heart for yourself and/or the person you are sharing with is what is the healing agent.  We are the conduits for healing, what heals is love. 

My recommendation is to make sounds in the shower, in bed, while you drive, and create time and space to focus just with the sound.  Your voice IS the most powerful sound healing instrument in the world.  Find instruments that guide you deeper into your voice and are easy to meditate and play with at the same time. Know that at humans we can be hard on  our selves, let go and flow with the sounds. All sound can be healing if we relax into it without judgment.  You can do it, open your heart and make some sounds or if you can't open your heart, make some sounds to open it up.  Ahhh...   Try it.   Ahhh... Each breath.  Ahhh...  You'll feel better eventually.