Lend me your ears
 
"Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything" - Plato
 
Music is a very uplifting and meditative adjunct to any body therapy session. Transcending the intellect, music touches our deepest spiritual essence which is why the Sanskrit term for note (swara) means expression of the soul. Transporting us to a realm of etheric vibrations, music activates the right side of the brain which nurtures creativity, intuition, receptivity, softness, stillness, silence, dreams, relaxation, imagination and regeneration.
 
Sound is simply a vibration eliciting change in the forms it flows through, our atoms literally ‘dancing’ to the beat of the music. Ayurvedic music therapy understands how to use the energetics of sound therapeutically.

An expert Ayurvedic Consultant can prescribe a suitable melody to reduce pain, induce sleep, coax one out of depression and subdue anger amongst many things. For thousands of years Ayurvedic music therapists have utilised the Ragas (72 major melodies) in order to dispel imbalances. These melodies were developed through the recognition of cosmic vibrations emitting from natural forces. Reflecting a particular mood and physical reality the listener’s biorhythms start to resonate with the musical vibration, creating a harmony that removes obstacles to health. Some Ragas commonly used include Raga Bhairavi for arthritis, Raga Hindol for backache, Raga Pooriya for hypertension, Raga Bhageswari for insomnia and Raga Jaijaivanti for general pain.

The use of mantras is sometimes involved during a session but these are usually chanted silently in the therapist’s mind. Mantras are concentrated, specific sound vibrations, which cleanse subtle impurities from the nerves, mind and energy channels. George Harrison described them as "a mystical energy encased in a sound structure, each mantra containing within its vibrations a unique power". They may be used to invoke particular healing energies or to clear specific blockages from the chakras.
              
Dreams are the seedlings of reality
 
A very powerful partner to bodywork, visualisations trigger the right side of the brain’s capacity for renewal and change. Since the mind is exceptionally impressionable and receptive during body therapy, due to the alpha brain wave state induced, it is the perfect time to clear out weed-negative beliefs and plant-positive seed beliefs with conscious intentions. Visualisations are a way of taking advantage of the old adage that anything we conceive and sincerely believe in, we can achieve. Far from just a fleeting new-age concept, the uses of affirmations and visualisations have been used in Ayurveda and Yoga for thousands of years under the guise of samkalpas.