What Is a Sound Bath?

A Quick Guide to Your First Sound Meditation in Reading, Berkshire

Sound Meditation (also known as a Sound Bath) is a gentle but powerful practice that uses vibrations from instruments such as gongs, crystal bowls, crystal harp, ocean drums and chimes to help your mind and body drop into deep relaxation.
If you’re looking for sound healing near Reading or Berkshire, this guide will help you understand the science, benefits, and how to prepare for your first session.

What Is a Sound Bath?

A Sound Bath is a meditative experience where you lie down, get comfortable and allow sound frequencies to “bathe” your body and nervous system. No experience is needed — you simply rest and receive.

During my Sound Meditation Journeys, I use instruments such as:

• Gongs (Grotta Sonora, Paiste, Meinl, etc.)

• Crystal singing bowls

• Tibetan singing bowls

• Chimes & ocean drums

• Crystal Harp

• Shamanic percussion

Each instrument creates vibrations that help the brain shift into slower brainwave states — similar to deep meditation.

The Science Behind Sound Healing & the Nervous System

Sound Therapy works with the vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous system, helping your body move out of stress mode and into a state of restoration.

Research suggests that sound can:

• Reduce anxiety and cortisol levels

• Support emotional regulation

• Improve sleep quality

• Calm the fight/flight response

• Activate deep rest

This is why many people report feeling lighter, clearer and emotionally balanced after a session.

How to Prepare for Your First Sound Journey

Here’s how to get the most out of your experience:

✔ What to Bring

• A yoga mat or blanket

• A cushion for under your knees or head

• An eye mask or scarf (optional)

• Water to hydrate afterwards

✔ What to Expect

• You will lie down comfortably

• There is no movement or yoga required

• You may feel tingling, heat or deep emotional release

✔ Intentions Are Powerful

Before arriving, you may wish to set a gentle intention:
✨ “I allow myself to rest.”
✨ “I release what I no longer need.”

Sound Meditation in Reading, Berkshire

I offer Sound Baths, Reiki & Energy sessions in Reading and the Berkshire area — including group journeys, private sessions and retreats.

If you're searching for holistic wellbeing in Reading, sound baths near Caversham, or restorative events for relaxation, I’d love to welcome you to a session.

📧 Bookings & enquiries:
Let’s connect — email me lorenacrodrigo@gmail.com or find upcoming events on Instagram: @lorena.c.rodrigo

🤍 Ready to Experience Your First Sound Bath?
Come as you are. Leave feeling lighter.

Benefits of Sound Meditation

The Benefits of Sound Meditation and Sound Baths

Sound meditation and sound baths are immersive practices that use vibrational tones from instruments like singing bowls, gongs, chimes, and tuning forks to create a deeply calming environment. These practices have gained popularity as effective tools for supporting mental clarity, relaxation, and overall wellbeing.

Promotes Deep Relaxation and Stress Reduction

One of the main benefits of sound meditation is its ability to promote relaxation. The sustained tones help calm the nervous system, reduce stress, and encourage a sense of inner calm. Participants often report feeling lighter, more present, and less burdened by daily tension after a session.

Supports Mindfulness and Focus

Sound baths offer a unique form of mindfulness practice. By tuning into the vibrations and letting the sounds guide attention, participants naturally enhance their focus and concentration. This mindful listening fosters mental clarity and a grounded sense of awareness.

Enhances Sleep and Rest

Regular participation in sound meditation can contribute to better sleep patterns. The calming effect on the nervous system helps prepare the body and mind for rest, making sound baths a supportive addition to evening routines or relaxation practices.

Encourages Emotional Balance

Immersive sound experiences create space for emotional reflection and mental clarity. The vibrational tones can support the processing of emotions, helping participants feel more balanced, centered, and resilient in their daily lives.

Increases Body Awareness

The physical sensations created by sound vibrations encourage a heightened awareness of the body. Participants often notice subtle shifts in tension, posture, and alignment, supporting a deeper connection between mind and body.

Sound meditation and sound baths offer a simple yet powerful way to cultivate presence, mindfulness, and embodied awareness. Whether experienced individually or in group sessions, these practices provide a nurturing space to pause, listen, and reconnect with yourself.

My story - Turning a curse into a blessing…

My name is Lorena and I am a breast cancer survivor

It was November 2011. I was 31, living in Rugby and working in London for a law firm. I had a healthy lifestyle, I was vegetarian, I went to ballet classes. I was generally happy.

But I had constant pain in my left breast. So I decided to replace most of my bras with a more elastic, non-wired type, hoping that would solve it. 
 

I tried to put it to the back of my mind, hoping the pain was temporary and would go away.
 

One night in bed I found a lump and I was scared. 

I went to my GP who very quickly dismissed the possibility of it being cancer, saying that cancer does not hurt. But I had private health insurance through work, so I insisted she write a referral letter for me to see a specialist. 

I contacted my insurer and I got an appointment immediately.

I went to my appointment on my lunch break and had a mammogram and a biopsy, with the nurses promising I'd get the results within hours. I left the clinic and before I made it back to the office they called me and told me to come straight back. 

I thought this was pretty weird and I assumed they'd simply forgotten to do a test. As I walked back into the oncology room I saw there were three people there, all ready to break the big news to me.

We are sorry you have cancer, they said. 

The diagnosis was grade II invasive ductal carcinoma, HER2 positive, in my left breast. I was so frightened, I didn't know what to expect, but no tears were coming out. 

I remember sitting next to another woman in the waiting room who had also been told she had breast cancer and she was asking me how I could be so serene after what they had just told me. 

But I was in absolute denial and there I remained for a long, long time. So much in denial that I even went back to work that day like nothing had happened. It took some time to sink in – so long, in fact, that it has taken me many years to be able to look at my experience and start writing about it.

Being diagnosed with cancer was such a shock but looking back, my life wasn't as serene as I'd imagined. I was stressed at work, I was commuting long hours, and I was tired all the time.

“I started losing my hair a couple of weeks after the first chemo infusion so I asked my partner to completely shave my head. I bought myself a couple of wigs and wore them constantly.”

At week later, my surgeon arranged a lumpectomy. 

When the lump had been removed the results showed I had stage two, oestrogen-positive breast cancer. I asked myself all the typical questions. 
 

Am I going to lose my hair? 
 

Am I going to die?

By the end of November, I had my port inserted in my chest and, shortly after, began my six rounds of chemo. Little did I know that chemo not only would make me lose all my hair, but also give me excruciating pain in my joints and muscles.

On my non-chemo weeks, I still went to work, commuting an hour and a half each way from Rugby to London. I tried to enjoy life and only took a couple of months of sick leave.

I started losing my hair a couple of weeks after the first chemo infusion so I asked my partner to completely shave my head. I bought myself a couple of wigs and wore them constantly. My hair started to grow back in May the following year.

Radiation came next, 35 days of it. 

I did well. I was proud of myself. The worst was behind me. After that I was given hormone treatment. Overall I had 14 months of treatment and was told to take hormone represent tablets for another ten years. 

I was also advised at the start of the treatment to freeze my eggs because the whole process would make me infertile. I didn't do it, but here I am, the proud mother of a beautiful and healthy six-year-old. And I'm now hormone-therapy free.

My illness made me reassess my priorities.

I decided to train as a yoga teacher in 2015 as a result of finding solace and a better lifestyle. I have since done many courses and become a specialised yoga for cancer instructor to help and inspire people affected with cancer and their loved ones.

Cancer does not affect everyone the same way, but in some way we'll all be affected by cancer.