Community Sound Healing: Building Connections to Combat Loneliness

You might wonder why my first blog topic is about such a heavy topic as loneliness. It's not the easiest subject nor the easiest way to step into when offering a meditation experience that is meant to bring a sense of peace and tranquility.

Often we try and skirt around the heavier subjects and even though I could write a post that is full of positivity and trying hard to sell all the benefits of sound therapy that post would not reflect well on me as a person and what I want to achieve with my business.

Before we delve into how a weekly or bi-weekly or monthly group sound bath could help to fight feelings of loneliness, I should introduce and explain a bit about me first.

Hello and thank you so much for reading this blog post. I'm Simone and I am the principal Sound therapist at The Sound Sanitorium. Almost five decades ago, I was born in the small country of the Netherlands, often better known as Holland. It's not far away, although it might seem so as you would have to cross the North Sea to get there from England.

Eventhough life in the Netherlands wasn't easy for me, I never stopped to search for a better one. Some part of me, was always convinced there was something better or easier just around the corner. I just had to keep exploring and one day I would find it. That better life would start with the meeting of an Englishman in Holland, who made me feel absolutely amazing and cherished. It was only three months after that faithful meeting that I moved country to move in with him. Today, we have been married 16 years and love exporing worlds, both imaginary and the real one, as well as making each other laugh.

It has been quite recently that I experienced my first Sound Bath with Edyta (@YogawithEdyta, https://www.yogawithedyta.com/). I had heard often that meditation has benefits but I struggled to make it a habit at home, so this group meditation guided with sound, seemed worth a try. It has been an eye-opening experience and brought positivy and calm to my life. Edyta was also kind enough to allow me after the session to use the mallets on the bowls and it really intrigued me how a note from what is actually an upside down bell, could make me feel so calm and peaceful. She mentioned to me that she took the course with Thyme with Charlie (thymewithcharlie.com) and after several months of consideration, I decided to take the courses that would help me get qualified to practition Sound Therapy and here we are now, where I am running my own Sound Baths and hope to bring a sense of belonging and connection to the people of Surrey and beyond.

So how can Sound Therapy help with loneliness? Well, technically sound therapy on it's own cannot create connections for you but it can help boost your mood which can lead to an improved chance to make connections and also a better outlook on life in general. The Campaign to End Loneliness has several suggestions from exploring new hobbies to focusing on the good things in your life (https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/feeling-lonely/). Here at The Sound Sanitorium we hope to build meaningful relationships with anyone that attends.

Let me know in the comments, what you do to fight loneliness or boost your mood. Or maybe you have an idea for a topic for the next blog post. I would love to hear from you.

Sealed with a hug,

Simone.

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Simone Seymour is a free-spirited, born Dutch, British Citizen who dreams of Australia. She is Neurodiverse (ADHD), a self-proclaimed Geek & Gamer, a polyglot, autodidact and forever curious. Verocious reader and book collector (read addict). She loves good food and deflating her husband's ego.