THE SIX HEALING SOUNDS, TAOIST PRACTICE FOR EMOTIONAL RESET
The Six Healing Sounds (Liù Zì Jué) is a Taoist practice, dating back to the 5th century AD involves the integration of movement with specific sounds. It is a meditative practice that combines qigong movements, mindfulness, breath and special sounds that help release stagnant energy, promotes harmony and balance our emotional well-being. Balancing the emotions supports the healing of physical symptoms as well, enhancing flow and vitality.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the six healing sounds are associated with specific organs, each of these vocal tones vibrates through the body in a unique frequency that activates a specific Chinese Medicine element and its related organs. These are the liver, heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys, and in addition, the triple warmer.
Qi, the life-force energy), can get blocked from a bad diet, stagnant lifestyle or repressed emotions, causing pain or illness. For example, if qi is stuck in the spleen, bloating, abdominal pain and poor digestion can result. In the liver, bad qi might be felt as pain in the lower right rib cage or having a quick temper (anger causes liver disease, according to TCM). Headaches can arise if stagnant qi is stuck in the head.
We can use the power of intentional vibration, such as sound, to help clear stored negative emotions and make room for new and positive experiences, emotions and thoughts. The Six Healing Sounds create specific internal vibrations of your vocal cords, using specific vowels to open up energetic blocks and stagnation, restoring flow and vitality. This is a powerful practice which requires deep breaths with long exhalations to vocalise the sound. This brings calmness to the entire nervous system, transform unsupportive feelings or thoughts, and enhance our health and wellbeing.
In addition, toning activates our vocal cords and opens up the throat chakra. This energetic center is associated with the communication, expression, creativity, and speaking one’s truth. The throat is also a bridge between the head and the chest. The healing sounds connect our brain with our heart, creating harmonious flow between the body, the emotions, and the mind.
Here are the sounds with their associated element, season, color and emotions (positive/negative). Qi Gong exercises can also be incorporated and When you inhale through your nose, you can visualize a color into a specific organ, and when you exhale through your mouth making the sound, purge and release the emotion from that specific organ.
HEART:
Element: Fire
Season: Summer
Color: Red
Emotions: “Emperor” of all Emotions (Love/Hatred)
Healing Sound: Haaa — ‘yawn’ or ‘laughing sound’ to feel more calm and connected.
Inhale and imagine RED light filling the heart, exhale with the sound Haaa. It vibrates in the chest, heart, pericardium, san jiao, and thyroid. Transforms blocked emotions into creative motions. Toning Haaa helps transform anxiety and self-doubts to excitement, love, inner guidance, and gratitude. Let go of inhibition and trust your intuition!
LUNG:
Element: Metal
Season: Autumn
Color: White
Emotions: Courage vs. Grief
Healing Sound: Sssssss— ‘to rest,’ to reduce colds and lift one’s spirit
Inhale and imagine WHITE light filling up the lungs. As you exhale the SSSSSS sound, release GRIEF & SADNESS from the Lungs. Vibrates in the nose, activates the lungs and lower intestine. Transforms stress and negativity into the vital force of creativity. Toning Ssssss helps transform grief to letting go and the courage to flow with life’s changes.
LIVER:
Element: Wood
Season: Spring
Color: Green
Emotions: Kindness/Anger
Healing Sound: Shhhh — ‘deep sigh’ or ‘hiss’ to reduce irritability
Inhale and imagine GREEN light entering the liver. As you exhale the SHOE sound, imagine releasing ANGER from the liver. Vibrates in the jaw. Opens the liver and gallbladder. Transforms resentful attitude into forgiving gratitude. Toning Shhhh helps transform anger into forgiveness and compassion.
SPLEEN:
Element: Earth
Season: Late Summer
Color: Yellow
Emotions: Trust/Worry
Healing Sound: Whooo — ‘to sigh,’ ‘to exhale,’ or ‘to call,’ to calm anxiety
Inhale golden YELLOW light into the spleen/stomach/pancreas. As you exhale the Whooo sound, release WORRY from the digestive system. Vibrates in the lips; activates the spleen and stomach. Transforms survival tension into abundance and expansion. Toning whooo helps transform worries to fulfilment, contentment, and calmness; a sense of balance, harmony, abundance, prosperity, and clarity regarding the spiritual path.
KIDNEY:
Element: Water
Season: Winter
Color: Dark blue
Emotions: Gratitude/FearHealing
Sound: Chwooo — ‘to blow out,’ ‘to puff,’ to calm anxiety
Inhale and imagine DARK BLUE light into each kidney. As you exhale the YOU sound, release FEAR from the kidneys. Vibrates in the lower abdomen, the spine, bladder, kidneys, adrenals, and reproductive system; transforms fear to freedom. Toning Chwoooo helps transform fears to inner peace, confidence, and trust of oneself and others.
“Triple warmer” (3 danteans)
This is an organ that Chinese Medicine healers saw as a full body organ – most closely related to the lymphatic system and the immune system. This sixth sound is for the "Triple Warmer," which doesn't directly correlate with a specific organ but is closely linked with our neuro-endocrine system and helps regulate the metabolism of water, heat and energy throughout the whole body.
Season: All seasons
Color: Purple
Emotions: Peace/Panic
Healing Sound: Sheee —‘mirthful,’ for digestive issues and relieving anxiety. Vibrates at the waistline and activates the Navel Gate – good for overall healing and wellbeing.
Inhale and imagine CLEAR QI into the whole body. As you exhale the HEEE sound, allow the vibration of love to fill your entire body
Below is a chart with each of the organs and their associated emotions, virtues, affirmations, names of qigong movement, colors, and sounds, which you can reference for your practice. We start with the lungs because this is the primary organ of release and letting go.
The Six Healing Sounds practice is a powerful self-care practice that you can do regularly to connect with the emotions that you may be holding onto in your body and transform and release them. Combining the sounds with positive affirmations (see chart above for sample affirmations), gratitude and intention is soothing and builds up your internal awareness and self-compassion, which boosts your ability to heal from emotional and physical pain. This practice can be integrated with your daily self care or yoga/ workout routine or anytime during the day.
You can use the video below if you would like to practice the qigong movements with this practice.
