This "digital caveman" wants to make us relax through sound healing

This past January, sound healer and educator Jared Bistrong decided to do a sunrise challenge: for 30 consecutive days, he would go to the beach (luckily, he lives in Miami) with his 10 year-old son and play music at the break of dawn. Gradually during those 30 days, Bistrong, an avid athlete and musician who builds his own didgeridoos, felt a change in his body and his mind as he delved into this imposed routine: an "overflow of emotions, ideas, reflections and somewhat of a dance, both mental and physical" started occurring, says Bistrong.

Bistrong calls himself a "digital caveman", a musician in the constant search to connect to the elements and to achieve an inner calibration in our increasing digitized, yet alienating world. "We’ve hit a wall with technology, we’re on edge," says Bistrong. "Suddenly there was a big shift, people are open to things like meditation, you see yoga studios everywhere, Eastern medicine, acupuncture, massage. There’s an explosion in these kinds of ancient tools and practices that have been around for ages. "

Through workshops and working with at-risk youth, cancer patients and even integrating the practice into meditation and yoga sessions, Bistrong has been developing his practice for the past decade. A group sound healing session involves 20, 30 and as much as 200 people getting together in a space, relaxing and taking in the sounds from the didgeridoo, the copper bong, and singing bowl made out of quartz (which is used to make computer chips) among other instruments. "When we have a group of people that are relaxing it’s extremely powerful. These instruments start to tune people and the entire room gets connected and we get into a very deep almost meditative dream-like state" says Bistrong, who says the sound healing sessions can help cure ailments and diseases from the body.

These earth toned instruments don't have to be tuned to a certain note, but rather, the musician's body gets tuned to the instruments, whose vibrations induce relaxation. "Today we’re a culture that is disconnected from the cosmic vibration," says Bistrong. "We’re out of tune, we’re stressed, and these instruments help us tune us."

If you are in Miami, Bistrong will be leading two workshops to coincide with Earth Day: A healing exploration shared, group acupuncture and a community Earth Day celebration.