Healing Music and the Nervous System: How Sound Heals

How Music Regulates the Brain and Body

When you listen to music, your brain lights up in multiple areas at once—emotion, memory, movement, and even hormone regulation.

Research shows that music can:

• Lower cortisol (stress hormone)
• Increase dopamine (feel-good chemical)
• Regulate breathing
• Improve heart rate variability
• Support emotional processing

In simple terms:

Music acts as a regulator for your entire system.

My Handpan Journey: When Sound Healing Became Personal

When I first discovered the handpan, I had never seen an instrument like it. It looked like a spaceship, and the music that ascended from each note sounded otherworldly. I had to have one.

Within a few weeks, I had one on order. At that time, handpans were hard to find — there were only a handful of builders, and you had to submit a request just to be considered. They were also insanely expensive. Not knowing how to proceed, I did what everyone does — I googled “handpans for sale.” I found one online, marked down 40%, and ordered it. A week later it arrived.

I opened it and began to play. I couldn’t tell if it was my lack of experience with the instrument or if it was just poorly made. After a few hours, I couldn’t stand it any longer — it was out of tune and sounded like a trashcan lid with dents in it.

I spent the next two weeks working to get a refund and getting that unflyable spaceship out of my living room. I was so disappointed. I kept searching — long story short, I ended up with a D Kurd by Ayasa. It was beautiful. Within a few short months, the pandemic hit and the world shut down.

This is where my journey with the handpan truly began.

It reminded me of when I first discovered the guitar — fascinated by every sound it could make, especially once I could afford a bigger amp and start adding effects: distortion, delay, a wah-wah pedal. I could feel the music resonate in my body. As my amps grew, the sound resonated in the walls of my bedroom and throughout the house.

The handpan was different. As I sat with it in my lap, the resonant tones permeated my entire body — and something deeper. When I was 15, rock and roll met the energy I was feeling. Music was different then — vinyl records, all-tube stereo amplifiers, big speakers, analog sound. But it was more than just the music. It was the narrative of my generation. There was no YouTube, Apple Music, or Spotify. You had to wait for the DJ to play the song you wanted to hear. That made it special.

I enjoy studying the science of music, but no research will ever replace the lived experience music has given me. And the handpan gave me my love for music back in a way I never could have expected. A strange-looking spaceship that played like a melodic instrument and a drum — I was mesmerized. It was unique. Just like waiting to hear my favorite song as a kid, I was now discovering new sounds on an instrument that sent musical vibrations directly from my fingers through my entire body — and I didn’t need an amp.

The connection between healing music and the nervous system isn’t abstract to me — it’s lived experience. I feel the science. My body has lived the science. My entire life has been one long experiment in sound and the connections it creates — between me as a player and the people listening. Music has been my science class, and the research supports what I’ve known all along.

But the handpan is different. It carries a different vibe and a different message. The guitar was loud — it made my heart beat faster and harder. It made me feel invincible, almost euphoric. The handpan is sound healing — it takes me on an inner journey. Playing it provides a kind of stress relief I didn’t know I needed — it slows my heart rate and brings a sense of peace and calm. When I was 15, peace and calm were what I called boredom. Today, they’re what I long for.

No matter what state we find ourselves in, music meets us there. From birds in the trees to running water, from rivers to waterfalls — the sounds surrounding us in nature are part of the musical landscape. You don’t have to be a seasoned musician to experience this. As someone who has taught music my entire professional career, I believe everyone can learn to play — from drum circles to concert stages. Music is medicine. It has the power to change our state of mind and reconnect us with the world around us.