Why Your Yoga Teacher Training Should Include “Sound Yoga”
Why Your Yoga Teacher Training Should Include “Sound Yoga”
Our senses help us navigate the world, collecting information and reacting to it. The central nervous system relays messages to our brains about sights, touch, smells, and sounds. Modern lifestyles are often overwhelming to the senses, and we seek yoga to restore the body's natural peace. We think about yoga addressing movement, breath, and mindfulness, but what would it be like to weave sounds into your teachings?
Sound Yoga
Sound yoga is sometimes called mantra yoga and developed before hatha yoga. The ancient yogic scripture, the Vedas, passed from teacher to student via oral tradition. Verses were chanted, linking sound to pranayama. Spoken mantras are manifests of the Sanskrit letters and words symbolizing creation.
Traditionally, yogic teachings reference the noises and silence within as the "inner sound," reached by meditation. It's believed that this experience is the sound of the nadis - the body's energy pathways.
In the present day, sound yoga has healing properties. Our worlds, bodies, and minds all operate at particular vibrations. Sound yoga creates changes in those vibrations to realign ourselves by using sound waves. We then become realigned to our true selves.
Instruments for sound yoga
Incorporating balancing sounds is more complex than simply creating a playlist when teaching yoga. Expertly using sound takes knowledge, practice, and a few tools.
Your voice is the most accessible and powerful tool for creating healing sounds within the body. Humming AUM, reciting mantras, and chanting are all options to engage your students.
Singing bowls are another option. Audible vibrations are created when the singing bowls are rubbed or tapped. The sounds continue as the bowl's rim is rubbed, which resonates through the space and all those in it.
Gongs are metal drums, struck with a short-handled mallet to create sounds that vary from piercing to deep. The manner of the strike determines the sound, allowing for complicated vibrations.
Drums are another option to use sound for healing and are particularly adept at creating a meditative state. The coordination and timing of the drum beat lulls the listener into a state of relaxed mindfulness.
Incorporating sound into your yoga teachings
There is ample opportunity to play with sound as you teach. You may also find that many types of sound instruments easily weave into a yoga session.
Mantras, chants, and opening practice with AUM help your students ground themselves and solidify the intention of the practice. These reinforcing sounds also serve to conclude a yoga session.
You may also choose to weave a physical instrument into your teachings, or create an entire yoga class devoted to sound. Part of your students' sound experience is building a bridge between the sound and its meaning, history, and associated mantras and stories.
A sound yoga experience has the distinct advantage of providing your students with an auditory focus, relieving them of any distractions that often accompany pranayama and meditations. There are many reasons to encourage your students to listen to their bodies, and sounds help to guide the way.
Searching for a Registered Yoga School that Provides “Sound Yoga” Teacher Training? Check out Prema Yoga Institute’s Sound Yoga Therapy Training
While you’re here, we’d love to invite you to consider our Online (Accredited) courses at Prema Yoga Institute. Prema Yoga Institute is based in New York City, but is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022. (And this link goes directly to sign up for Sound Yoga Therapy.)
PYI is an accredited program based in New York city, teaching students around the globe through online classes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
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