Published by: Digital Schools
Prescription Sound - an immersive sound healing activity.
What To Do
Our inaccessibility to nature makes us all really sick, and the less time we spend in the natural world, the worse things are getting for us.
To counter the effects of a world not so well, I am prescribing you – one dose of natural sound to be taken daily until you have access to your own patch of nature (or you tire of listening to this track and request I make a new one). There are others available on Youtube and Vimeo for free; follow the links.
These sounds and samples are collected from the natural world and transported to you with love. And the narrative is a collection of stories that will be threaded through this content series – Prescription Nature.
You will need
- Headphones on both ears.
- Find somewhere quiet to go while you listen, or lay down before bedtime.
- Try listening and relaxing to this track for one whole week
- We will love to hear from you if you notice anything unique happening.
Prescription Sound – An immersive sound healing activity
Our society has officially become an urban species, and by 2050 it is estimated that 75% of the entire world will live in an urban environment. The implications of life being removed from nature, and the remnants of the real world (the one we are actually from and not the one we are creating), being sectioned off into carefully manicured squares of lawn, smattered here and there amidst the empire of doom we are creating, is to be a harrowing thought.
But it’s the truth, and I am worried. I think of these things as I walk along the sullied banks of the very dirty Yarra River in Melbourne. Almost every day for the last three months, I have walled the overridden path that follows the curve of the Yarra to its bend. This tiny scrap of wilderness that clings to the cliffside below the busy road above has become my own little wonderland and a place I have found healing.
Hidden Treasures
High enough where people and dogs can not reach are hidden treasures tucked away in long weepy grasses. Spiders with silky doorways spot the cliff sides and hide underneath the exposed roots of old trees. Colourful fungi spring to life in little families hugged closely together after enough rain, and good green moss coats the high side of the hill, and it’s always wet. That’s because there is water coming out of the rock, and I don’t think anyone even notices that there is a natural spring right there?.
On the other side of the river is the backside of the brewery, and tank sized industrial machines rumble all day. The giant world of industry and manufacturing topple the sweet sounds made by tiny animals hiding in this minuscule corridor of green and the thick, sickly smell from the brewery coats the whole forest. Any scintilla of eucalyptus or blossom is stained by industry and filth, and it’s only after deep rain and public holidays that the air gets cleared enough to let the plants and animals breathe.
And yet, amidst the disfunction from one side of the river to the other, harmony can still be met between two distinctly different worlds. Here on the opposing bank to the doom and gloom of the polluted world, there is life: important tiny life, and if you listen closely and patiently, sounds and songs of native animals and insects emerge. The joy and wonderment this tiny fractured landscape has given me can not be really measured; it’s an experience. And to give you a window in, I collected the sounds that I hear as I walk alone in the forest.
Knowing that the sounds and songs made in nature have the capacity to heal and transform the human mind and body, I hope that spending time listening to these carefully selected sounds will help you to feel a sense of wellbeing and sanctuary-like I do on my walks alone.
