How to access the power of the Sensate Signature Soundscapes

We get asked which Soundscape to use for a particular outcome or what frequency is being used and such. Another question that comes up is “Can I use my Sensate while doing other things?”

This article and the associated video will enable you to answer these questions for yourself.

Stefan Chmelik is co-founder of and inventor of the Sensate stress reduction system, which is based on his over three decades of clinical experience working with anxiety, stress and trauma. His mission is now the company's mission - to positively impact the lives of 100 million people by 2025.

Articles page HERE

So how do I know what is right for me and what I need?

Individual personal preference towards something is one of the greatest methods our bodies have for self-regulation, but is difficult to predict and will be different for each person. Personal preference is the most powerful and accurate way to select the right Soundscape for you, guided by your own sense of what you need at this time. Here is how you can do that.

We are complex living organisms of at least mind and body. Meaningful and long lasting health and happiness relies upon our individual ability to self-regulate the many influences that happen millions of times a day, both in body and in mind. The average modern person is exposed to as many impressions in one day as a 17th century person was in a lifetime - so no wonder we are over stimulated!

So there can never be a standardised external influence that will have exactly the same impact on each of us. What we like and dislike is an instinctive inner wisdom that is there to tell us what we most need, if we can train ourselves to listen to it.

This is what accounts for the vast range of choices in food, music, art and anything else that involves personal preference. Now, we need to distinguish between preference and cravings, and this can be hard to do in a world where convenience is everything. Many of us have been ‘knocked off our spot’, as it were, when it comes to truly listening to what we need. But think about it for a moment, nobody ‘needs’ that extra chocolate bar or one drink too many, our cravings just tell us we ‘want’ them. By engaging personal preference, we can learn to distinguish between cravings and real needs. Engaging your individual personal preference wisdom is the most effective way to do this.

“We all possess an internal constitution, that is attracted to some things more so than others. And this constitution applies to all the accouterments of life, from taste in music and movies to style and décor, to writing styles and artwork and to matters of spirituality and religion. This constitution is difficult to articulate and quantity but it is there non the less. Our lives are directed and expressed by that which we are compelled to experience and enjoy.”

Kristoffer Hughes, head of the Anglesey Druid Order

At Sensate, we use a carefully designed process of preference support to enable each Sensate user to ‘find their way’ towards the Soundscapes that are most regulating for their own nervous system, as these will be different for each person. Everything from the Theme, the artwork, the names, description and the ‘Try’ preview activates elements of internal and instinctive preference. Then start on low volume/intensity and work upward to find your own personal comfort zone within your range of preferences. You can allow your own intuitive preference systems to guide you, noticing that this may evolve over time as things change, and that you can check in again as needed.

The Sensate Signature Soundscapes

These are composed as one piece of music, audible sound to the ears and vibration resonance on the body, and are most effective when played in their entirety, with headphones, eyes closed and reclining. The resonance is transmitted through bone conduction and we do this very intentionally, as it is bone, not adrenaline, that drives the fight or flight response.

We have know this for some time, and a new study from researchers at Columbia University suggests that it is the bone-derived hormone osteocalcin which is needed to turn on the fight or flight response.

Gérard Karsenty, the study's senior investigator says:

"In bony vertebrates, the acute stress response is not possible without osteocalcin"

"Can I use my Sensate while doing other things?”

The short answer is yes, you can use your Sensate when doing other things, but perhaps take a moment to consider why you might want to? Having a Sensate is already a highly effective way to enable your bodymind to self-regulate and hugely reduces the amount of time and effort that would otherwise be needed to achieve similar results. A true act of self-care is to allow yourself a period of time each day when your body can be still and your mind can quieten. Think of this as a gift to yourself.

How do I choose the Sensate Soundscape I need?

You choose a Soundscapes from the menu of Themes. We design the choice experience so that you are guided by your own intuitive/instinctive preference towards the Soundscape you will find most engaging for your needs at that time. Personal preference is the most powerful and accurate means to select the right Soundscape, but preference is mysterious and difficult to quantify objectively. For instance, you may have a favourite food or painting say, but it would be very difficult to ‘put in word’ exactly why you like that, you ‘just know that I do’.

We write the compositions and the selection process to be super instinctive and part of the intuitive preference selection process that continues all the way through our content. This is a natural felt sense process that activates deep inner senses including interception, neuroception and proprioception.

The audible part of each Sensate Signature Soundscape is a wonderful piece of music in itself, composed using special tools including psychoacoustic, neuroacoustic and biophilic elements, and are highly immersive. In one sense, we could say that the audible part’s main function is to occupy the brain and keep it content whilst the serious somatic work takes place using Sensate on the body, because emotions are something we feel, not think. This happens most significantly when the whole composition, heard and felt, are experienced together.

Dr Stephen Porges, originator of Polyvagal Theory says:

“Going into low frequencies is a potential trigger, a cue for impending doom and danger!

Adding harmonics, frequency waves and tempo above the infrasound keeps us out of this sense of danger, which is one reason why the heard and felt composition is designed to be experienced as a whole.

For the Connecting & Slowing Down Meditation, watch the end of the related video