Sounding as an act of liberation
Sound can liberate you in your embodiment and turn up the heat of your pleasure! Let's look at how.
At the beginning of our lives, we have an embodied knowing of the importance of sounding.
When we are born, one of the first signs of life is we cry. Sounding is instinctual.
As we grow, when we’re hungry, tired, or want to be held, we voice this request through sounding. It’s a primal, non-verbal way that we interact with our caretakers.
As adults, we aren’t always in tune with how we feel in the body. It may take having to turn up the volume to be heard. It may be hard to acknowledge and advocate for what we need.
How liberated is your sounding?
Do you laugh out loud?
Do you sound your pleasure?
Or do you feel blocked? Is something in the way?
Back in 2017, I went to a yoga retreat at a lavender farm on an island in the Pacific Northwest. There were about ten of us women and it was the first night of us getting to know each other.
Led by two therapists, we were in an intimate container, sharing how the patriarchy had impacted our relationship with our sexuality. It was potent!
The conversation was rich with women sharing their stories with such vulnerability. That evening, my story had been bubbling inside me, ready to be released. I was just about to open my mouth to share when one of the facilitators said, “Alright, we're going to transition into our yoga session now.”
The share that was so ready to be released and witnessed in this healing circle froze and became a rock in my throat. I could feel the tears welling in my eyes.
With this heavyness in my throat, we began a candlelit yoga session. There was so much intense feeling in me that needed somewhere to go. It was the most profound yoga session I’ve ever had.
Instead of coming out through my voice, the story released through the movement. I cried through the session and felt purged lying in savasanah at the end.
If your sounding is blocked, you may need to bring in embodied movement to facilitate the release. Ask what your body craves and give it to yourself.
Sounding is a one of the holistic sex tools that I work with. It's a powerful way to augment your embodied experience.
Let's look at ways your voice can be used as a tool for liberation.
Sounding is healing. Vocalizing is a practice is a way to release residue and trauma. This can be as gentle as sighing or exhaling audible, or as audacious as screaming. As you release this stagnant energy that is trapped in the body, you'll experience more freedom. You'll feel more like yourself.
(Sidebar: I just learned about underwater screaming therapy and tested it out with my partner. You can scream underwater in a pool at the top of your lungs and no one around you will know!)Sounding is a way that you signal what you like. Maybe asking your lover by using words in the bedroom is hard to access for you. When in an intimate space with another, try to use your sounding as a response.
When a lesbian friend of mine was embarking on a sexual relationship with another woman for the first time, she asked her best male friend for sex advice.