With burnout at an all-time high, many people are looking for new ways to counteract the sense of overwhelm they feel. Earlier this year, Indeed shared a survey on employee burnout that revealed that 52 percent of respondents felt burned out. Another 67 percent believed their burnout had worsened during the pandemic.
Wanting to help alleviate some of the stress and anxiety that are plaguing people, ONEYOGAHOUSE recently introduced a monthly workshop, Sound + Breath Meditation with Brittany Simone Anderson. The 90-minute immersive sonic journey is designed to help participants deepen their connection to themselves.
Anderson, a wellness educator, speaker, and mentor specializing in breathwork, yogic movement, sound therapy, and plant rituals, studied sound healing and breathwork at New York City’s Woom Center. Growing up in a musical family, she learned early on about the healing power of sound.
Research shows that sound frequencies can help slow down brain waves, putting the body in a more meditative state. The sounds can introduce people to a deeper state of consciousness. The experience incorporates a host of instruments, including two gongs, a sansula, a wing, and a chime, to elicit a release in the body. “We’re creating a space—a little cocoon of sound—to help people with their stress so they can come back to a place of homeostasis,” says Anderson.
As people continue to struggle in this uncertain time, they’re looking to healing experiences to help them cope with the all-consuming anxiety that many are experiencing. According to Anna Haddad, founder of OneYogaHouse, people are gravitating toward the studio’s restorative yoga classes for that very reason.
As for the Sound + Breath Meditation, it’s yet another way to encourage a release of stress and inspire change. Providing a host of benefits, Anderson notes that sound is especially helpful in helping people to down regulate or reduce their response to outside forces. It also turns on the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps the body return to a state of normal. The sympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, prepares the body for a fight or flight response. Unfortunately, that is a state many of us find ourselves in more often these days.
“We constantly live in this space of anxiety, stress, hypervigilance, and fear,” says Anderson. “We are in an environment where that space is heavily nurtured in our world, especially in New York and other big cities. You’re told that if you live in that space, you’re more productive, you’re more valuable. If you’re not living in that space, you’re doing something wrong. This sound experience is for people like that, which is all of us in some form or another. It’s for people who need a minute to come back to themselves.”
