Spotlight Series
Spotlight Series topic: Why You Would Benefit from a Sound Bath
Guest Name: April Wheeler
Discussion Details: Many folks have never heard of a sound bath. April demystifies the experience, and maybe adds mystery to the experience! However there are benefits for our health and our nervous systems, and this is some of what we are learning about today.
Benefit of Watching: Learn about how a sound bath could benefit your mood and health!
Address of guest’s business:
https://www.echoandart.com
April Wheeler: y December 10 next Tuesday from 7 o’ to 8:00
Natalie Johnston: um registration is required but I wanted April to come and just do a brief interview just to kind of give us a little bit of a snapshot of how you got into this what even is a sound bath because I know there’s people out there who are like sound bath I don’t understand that what is that yeah um and some of us kind of think we know what it is and others know exactly what it is so um April is here and I’m just going to kind of hand it over to you and say if you don’t mind start off by telling us a little bit about yourself and how you got into doing sound therapy sound healing sound baths
April Wheeler: so hello I’m April Wheeler um I am internationally accredited through the sound healing Academy which is based in the UK um I have been interested in sound healing for a few years like I knew there was something more I wanted to do so I’m also reiki certified and go to different kinds of workshops and stuff that are kind of considered woowoo or whatever but um so um I’ve gone to sound healing sessions where I could do a deep meditation and felt the benefits for myself just relaxation and stress relief and like being able to get out of my head like you know your monkey mind kind of thing and just really relax um so that was really interesting to me and then I saw the opportunity for a class in Cedar Rapids like a level one through the sound healing Academy and I was like oh that looks interesting and it’s really close to home so why not give it a whirl and then it just kind of bloomed from there like I just was like okay this is it this is what I want to do I want to I’ve had a variety of different jobs in the background over the past but like for a long time my main focus was stay-at-home mom and taking care of children and then caregiver being paid as a caregiver and everything and so there was I’ve always had that kind of helping spirit I guess you would say um but uh the last few years I have been working more in retail part-time just for something to do uh because I like people and I like to interact with people and I like to be helpful um but when I went to this class it just like all of a sudden was like oh that’s what I’ve been looking for like it was just like like that like I went back to work and um told the boutique owner I was like Hey and she was like yeah I think that’s really yeah I can see that in you so it’s just kind kind of Bloom since there and I’ve been working on growing my business really this second half of this year um sound healing with April just trying to keep it simple on my name
Natalie Johnston: that’s so sound healing with April like if we go on Facebook and put that in or we go on Google and put that in
April Wheeler: so Facebook Facebook is where I have a business page right now um website coming in the works okay um not fully there yet but yeah so Facebook um soundhealingwithapril@gmail.com if you want to send me an email but um Facebook and then on Instagram just under April Wheeler I do my advertisement as well
Natalie Johnston: okay and you do popup kind of classes here or there
April Wheeler: yeah so I yes so like I’ll do the popup here I have this weekend a popup in West Branch I have classes in Coralville um and that’s what the type of thing I’ll advertise and put out on Facebook normally um if I do a class it’s usually 60 minutes and $25 a person but I also do individual and you can come to my home or I come to you which is what I prefer it’s just more personal if I come to you um and then I can do all kinds of things that are tailored just for you
Natalie Johnston: so wow I feel like I learned a lot in that one little little section um so I think my favorite part about that whole story was the part about how where you just felt like you wanted to go to the class didn’t really you know it wasn’t like you had to but then when you were there it’s just like it lit a light bulb for you that would that be kind of a fair accurate I love that so and you listened and you followed that pathway um so tell us a little bit about what sound healing is what is a sound bath you also threw out the word reiki okay and I I think that some people you know more people are are getting to know what that word is but I I think let’s just if you don’t mind tell us what that is too
April Wheeler: so reiki is like an energy that um you can have activated within yourself there’s a couple different kinds and basically you know if you rub your hand and sometimes you can do this and you can feel the heat between it’s the energy so sound healing also goes into it’s energy work they’re both energy work and so for everything is vibration if you break it down to the basic level everything is vibration matter energy and so with reiki and both sound healing you’re working with the energy to move maybe stagnant or stuck energy out and bring in good energy more productive energy so for me the basic like my nut for sound healing is it’s an ancient technique think about drumming circles way back when before there was any modern technology we had drumming circles we had chanting we had singing all the natural things I just gave myself chills like um you had just all that Natural Energy and natural healing and so it’s just becoming more and more in the mainstream now to seek out alternative ways other than medicating so with a sound bath so for a group um everybody comes in they get comfortable you could bring a yoga mat blankets pillow whatever I say to make yourself a nice cozy Nest um and then you just snuggle up I do a guided meditation at the beginning where I just talk you through like releasing the stress and all your muscles like imagine a ball of light and then it just Rains Down healing energy on you and if you can’t imagine that that’s fine still think about releasing your scalp muscles and your jaw and your shoulder so I do that at the beginning and then uh most of the time I’ve started doing it like while I strike a drum really slow or a Himalayan the metal bowls just so you have like a rhythm kind of almost to like a nice Cadence
Natalie Johnston: um so it’s kind of like what you’re sorry to interrupt but what you’ve done told me so far really makes me feel like you’re combining this idea of progressive muscle relaxation and almost some Yoga Nidra deep sleep uh um kind of stuff along with your sound and vibration is that fair to say
April Wheeler: okay because the vibrations um if people can let go of their everyday worries you can get you can change your brain waves you can get down into theta and do all this work and um so through the program I went through we learn how to like set it up so you get people in relaxation and then you do different instruments and sounds to get people to release and so and we also talk about intention so a lot of people come in to their first sound bath with the intention of relaxation or stress relief but then as they progress they’re more like okay now I really understand and I want to work individual or maybe at this one I want to release the anger I have towards so and so and so they can think about that and think about releasing while they’re listening to the music and then just hopefully the goal is that they’ve released that anger towards whatever so or if you’re doing individual and you’re like oh my gosh my wrist has really been bothering me then I can do specific things to help release pain in your wrist and it might take you know it might take a few sessions or whatever but yeah so it’s much more in depth than just oh playing some gongs and stuff
Natalie Johnston: so I have so many questions so maybe next Tuesday we have more time um yes okay I got the hint but um I I’ll sneak in a few so I I work with chronic pain as a chronic pain specialist and pain is a very complex um experience and um it can be a real experience and that is a and it can be a perceived experience and involves multiple systems in the body and so the stuff that you just described with regard to not only the vibration but the mood that you’re setting and the intention and the thought process um behind all of this is really like like I said you you threw in concepts of Yoga Nidra you threw in concepts of progressive muscle relaxation and you threw in concepts of cognitive behavioral therapy without the Talk part and um you know so when we look at best evidence-based treatment for CR for pain it’s multidisciplinary in nature and what you just told me was multidisciplinary nature it gets all gets things from multiple angles right um and I love that we need more of that intervention and maybe yes medication maybe no medication either way you can add this to that exact healing effect and that’s brilliant what you do
April Wheeler: so thank you thank you I like
Natalie Johnston: yes and you know I I think there’s probably still some people who are going to listen to this and be like Oh energy oh vibration okay we’re turning this off but stay with us because there there’s science behind this there’s science behind this so there are um I can’t cite you any I’m not good at memorizing that kind of stuff we can look at but um there are studies with um Sound and Music therapy with brain waves and think about like uh we’ve all seen like in a movie or something where they play Somebody’s favorite song and they come out of a coma well there is actually science behind that like playing that different music so playing the different vibrations can stimulate relaxation it can stimulate um cell regeneration it can like all the different levels can do all that thing so what I do at a basic soundbath though is like I mostly going with the intention of relaxation unless somebody unless we have a specific group of people that are here for whatever like alcohol recovery or something and then we can you know all have the same intention um but like for our general just getting started I will play Everything Is relaxing and there are some releasing and everybody’s usually just all curled up in a pile of mush at the end of the session and I’m I’m like okay you can wiggle your toes and fingers whenever and nobody moves and I’m like yes we all need relaxation therapy so that’s a great purpose to kind of focus on right
April Wheeler: yeah and then there’s people that will um you know want to keep coming and stuff and that’s what I love but I love also the people that are just curious and want to just dip their toe in but they don’t know what to do but they know okay so like I’ll play a drum and I play singing bowls and I play gong songs and so some people sing I’m not that brave yet but yeah so it’s so I have a question about all the the different things it’s all safe there you go that’s a good all safe and and and the you’re in a safe space you’re in a safe space and even the last one I did was at um the Williamsburg library and I did when I started my muscle relaxation since it was a different type of group um you know I was I did include that in my beginning speech of you’re in the library everybody is safe and I talked about you know this is the library is always a safe place like that’s a safe haven super
Natalie Johnston: so I wanted to go back to some of the instruments that you talked about that you play or the equipment I guess um I’ve been to one full sound bath in my life and it was great but there were definitely some instruments that I was like like oh that’s fingernails on a chalkboard and I I try to be in tune with my body and I was like that’s that makes me nauseated to hear right um but you know it didn’t go on the whole time and then there were other sounds that I was like I’m out um you know that this is so this like like I’m sleeping for hours kind of a feel but I’m not I’m awake but I’m so deeply relaxed that’s a sensation I can’t get to very often in my daily life right so what’s the purpose of the fingers on a chalkboard sounds can’t we just have the put me to sleep the whole time do you know what instrument it was
April Wheeler: I don’t remember don’t remember I think it had a lot of little bells and you were like scrap like jingly Chimes sometimes that’s to breakup energy like if it’s like there’s a chime that’s like yeah that is like to shake things up and releas and stuff um sometimes a Gong can do that for people like if you hit it really loud and it um crescendos you know like you can build up build up build up and then it wobbles and then that’s releasing uhuh so um for me like I can’t do regular tuning Forks the pitch is just too high it literally hurts my brain um and at the very beginning even some of the higher notes of the crystal singing bows but now I can do them so I think this is my theory um that is something that you like it’s something you need to release like it’s like a trigger it’s something you need to release and let go so whatever the high it definitely was a trigger the high pitch Crystal singing bowls were now I’m fine with like I’ve worked with it enough now that I’m I’m like oh that’s good um I have not tried tuning Forks on myself yet I I can do the weighted tuning Forks which are perfect so those are like a tuning fork and then they have weights at the top and you can activate those and then like I can put it on my wrist or you can do um like penpoint vibration and that’s like a one-on-one thing that wouldn’t happen in a group
Natalie Johnston: okay um as you talking made me think of you you mentioned pitch so what about people who have hearing aids and so they’re going to have amplification of certain I would think now I don’t I’m not the expert in hearings but I think some of those pitches are going to be Amplified in in the ranges that they can’t hear and then what how does that affect them
April Wheeler: so it’s not even um so it’d be up to the individual if they wanted to turn their hearing aid up or down or whatever but it’s really on the vibration level so it’s not necessarily like you have to hear the sound but it’s the vibration so if someone falls asleep
Natalie Johnston: yeah you’re still getting the benefits of the vibrations all in and like I’ve had people who are like afterwards they’re like way across the room and they’re like how could I feel that what you were doing oh 20 feet away how could I feel that way over here like you were standing over me but I wasn’t like I was still over here I do walk around a lot during my group sound baths but not with the bowls
April Wheeler: okay with the drum and sometimes with the uh little wind gong but yeah and it’s they’re always like what how did that happen so even if you’re asleep or if you have a hearing aid or hearing impairment you can still most of those people can still feel vibrations and so they would still get the benefit in that way and if it was something if they know that their hearing aid squeals like with a high pitch then I would probably just ask them to turn it down beforehand or whatever
Natalie Johnston: okay so yeah fascinating so um another question for you and um you know no no pressure on this one but if you wanted the general public to know one thing about sound healing what would it be
April Wheeler: my one thing would be don’t be afraid Don’t Be Afraid Don’t Be Afraid try something new everything like for me the biggest thing right now is everything is energy everything is vibration like you can like even now you know like people are like um it’s giving whatever happiness or The Vibes in here are not right like that’s slang now it’s vibration everything is vibration
Natalie Johnston: I love it so so I I’m I’m thinking now we need to have you back so next Tuesday the 10th um register if you want to come because space will be limited bring a blanket and pillows in your nest so you can just set up a nice little nest and um I I think you know for that one April has graciously offered to kind of do a demo and we’ll answer questions and kind of do stuff like that but then I think we’re going to probably schedule her to come back for an actual full session um and that will have a fee associated with it but it will be well worth that fee for your um nervous system and for relaxation and all the benefits that that you can get from The Sound healing um experience so I’m excited we’ll have have to have you we’ll have to schedule um thank you so much for your time today for me and I hope you guys enjoy listening to this short interview and we’ll see you next Tuesday night
April Wheeler: thank you so much