Sound Bath: Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness, There Is Peace
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
A Sound Bath Reflection on the Pursuit of Happiness
There’s something quietly exhausting about chasing happiness.
Not because happiness is wrong.
Not because joy is a problem.
But because when happiness becomes the goal, peace becomes conditional.
In this week’s Sound Bath, I want to explore something that runs most of our lives without us even noticing — the constant movement toward what feels good and away from what doesn’t.
And what might exist beyond both.
Sound Bath Insight: The Two Sides of the Coin
Happiness and unhappiness feel like opposites.
But if we look closely, they’re two sides of the same coin.
One moment you’re high as a kite — optimistic, energised, creative, flowing.
The next moment something shifts.
Plans change. Expectations collapse.
The mood drops.
The external world is always changing. That’s its only real constant — change.
And the mind doesn’t like that.
The mind is a survival mechanism. It looks at the past and tries to predict the future. It scans for danger. It builds patterns. It creates stories.
But when we live through those stories, we stop meeting this moment freshly.
We superimpose yesterday onto today.
A brand-new moment becomes a recycled one.
Sound Bath Awareness: The Habit of Chasing
If I’m honest — and this is where the Sound Bath becomes a mirror — I notice how often I run toward happiness and away from unhappiness.
But what makes me “happy” is usually preference.
And what makes me “unhappy” is also preference.
One day I love tomatoes.
The next day they’re too acidic.
Nothing wrong with tomatoes.
Just preference shifting.
Everything moves. Everything changes.
Yet the mind wants stability. It wants yesterday’s happiness repeated today.
Life doesn’t work like that.
Sound Bath Reflection: The Comparison Game
Happiness often comes from comparison.
New house.
New gear.
New project.
New conversation.
And for a while, it feels fresh.
But eventually even the new becomes familiar.
Even the exciting becomes ordinary.
And the search begins again.
Running from boredom toward excitement.
From unhappiness toward happiness.
It’s not wrong. It’s just a cycle.
And the Sound Bath invites us to step outside the cycle — even briefly.
Sound Bath and Relationships: Seeing Each Other Anew
This pattern shows up in relationships too.
You can deeply love someone… and still grow tired of repeating the same conversations.
Shared history is powerful. Beautiful even.
But history can become a script.
You may interact with someone not as they are now, but as they were years ago.
And they may do the same to you.
Presence interrupts that pattern.
A Sound Bath is, in many ways, practice for this — listening freshly, without dragging the past into the vibration of now.
When you’re deeply present, you might catch yourself repeating an old pattern — and choose differently.
You allow the other person to be new.
You allow yourself to be new.
Sound Bath Teaching: Preference Is Not the Problem
There’s nothing wrong with preference.
You can like coffee in the morning. That’s fine.
But if coffee isn’t available and your peace collapses — that’s suffering.
It’s not the coffee.
It’s attachment.
If you sit with discomfort — fully present — breathing into it…
You may find it’s manageable.
Discomfort rises.
And it passes.
Everything passes.
This is one of the quiet lessons of a Sound Bath.
A tone swells. It lingers. It fades.
You don’t cling to the note.
You let it dissolve.
Sound Bath Freedom: Flexibility Is Peace
The present moment is like a blank canvas.
But when we complain that today isn’t like yesterday, we limit what today can be.
True flexibility is the ability to enjoy what’s here without demanding it stay.
To prefer something without clinging to it.
To experience pleasure without fearing its end.
To experience discomfort without assuming it will last forever.
This is where the Sound Bath becomes more than relaxation.
It becomes training in allowing.
Sound Bath Realisation: Beyond the Game
Eventually you begin to see that happiness and unhappiness are part of a game the mind plays.
When the game is pleasant, we want to keep playing.
When it becomes painful, we want to escape.
But beyond both is something deeper.
Peace.
Peace isn’t excitement.
Peace isn’t dullness.
Peace is acceptance.
A quiet allowing of what is unfolding — inside and outside.
When you relax your inner world through presence, the outer world becomes easier to navigate.
Pleasure is still there.
Pain is still there.
But neither owns you.
Sound Bath Integration: What Remains
When you stop chasing happiness and stop running from unhappiness, something surprising happens.
You discover a steadiness that was there the whole time.
Not dramatic.
Not flashy.
Just deeply okay.
From that place, you can enjoy happiness fully when it comes —
and meet unhappiness gently when it appears.
Both are temporary.
Peace remains.
Sound Bath Experience: One Hour of Presence
Below you’ll find this week’s one-hour Sound Bath.
Let it be less about achieving a state and more about noticing what arises.
Lie down or sit comfortably.
Allow the body to soften.
Allow the breath to settle.
Let the tones move through you without preference.
No chasing.
No resisting.
Just listening.
And perhaps — somewhere between the fading of one note and the arrival of the next — you’ll discover that peace was never hiding.
It was simply waiting for you to stop running.
Full one-hour Sound Bath is available here:
This extended Sound Bath is ideal for deeper rest, integration, or quiet evening listening.
After the Sound Fades — A Sound Bath Reflection
After the Sound Bath ends, notice what remains.
Perhaps a sense of ease.
Perhaps nothing at all.
Stillness doesn’t always announce itself. Sometimes it’s only recognised in hindsight — in the way the body feels lighter, or the mind feels less urgent.
Afterbath is about these moments after the sound fades — when something quiet continues on its own.
Be gentle with yourself.
Return whenever you need.
— Mat
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It helps this sound medicine reach the people who may need it most.
With gratitude,
— Mat Creedon 🌀
