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July 7, 2025 49 mins

The invisible world of sound profoundly shapes our pets' wellbeing in ways most of us never realize. Dr. Megan Barrett, founder of Muse Holistic Veterinary Care in Hawaii, reveals how our modern soundscapes can trigger chronic stress in animals whose hearing is vastly more sensitive than our own.

"Every behavior issue and stress-related health problem may be connected to this chronic sympathetic overdrive from overstimulation," explains Dr. Barrett, whose practice incorporates sound therapy using harps, flutes, and singing bowls alongside traditional veterinary care. Her approach recognizes that animals were designed for quieter natural environments – not our beeping, buzzing, technology-saturated homes.

Through practical examples and expert guidance, Dr. Barrett walks us through creating healing sound environments for our animal companions. From conducting a "sound inventory" of your home to selecting truly calming music (hint: think lullabies, not your favorite playlist), we learn how simple acoustic adjustments can transform our pets' experience. She shares strategies for sound-masking during stressful events like fireworks and explains how playing gentle music during mealtimes can promote healthier digestion.

Beyond the practical aspects, we explore the deeper spiritual dimensions of sound healing. Sound functions not just through hearing but through vibrational energy that moves through cellular structures, potentially facilitating healing at levels science hasn't fully mapped. Dr. Barrett describes the remarkable transformation she witnesses when pets receive treatments in her quiet, spa-like practice versus traditional veterinary settings where noise and chaos prevail.

The conversation ultimately circles back to our own self-care – how the peace we cultivate within ourselves directly impacts our animal companions who reflect and process our emotional states. "Deep listening" becomes both the challenge and the invitation – to our pets, to ourselves, and to the sacred connections we share. Your self-care is your pet's self-care. Visit Dr. Barrett's YouTube channel to experience her calming sound therapy recordings specifically designed for pets.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr Edward (00:01):
Hello and welcome to the Whole Energy Body Balance
podcast, where we explore allkinds of possibilities in
practice that bring greaterhealing, connection, empowerment
and harmony to pets, people andhorses, and we inspire.
We aim to inspire you and tochallenge you.
If you want to grow and createpositive changes and healing in
your life and the lives of thebeings you care for, you're

(00:24):
definitely in the right place.
So I'm Dr Edward, the HealingVet, your host.
I help deeply caring people,pets and horses unfold profound
healing and healthyrelationships through somatic
awareness, loving touch,intuitive perception, kind
training and energy healing.
I practice as an intuitive vet.
Today we have got a veryspecial guest and I'm very

(00:48):
excited to speak to a colleague,a holistic colleague, dr Megan
Barrett, who is all kinds ofawesome.
I would like to ask you just tointroduce yourself before we
get started and tell us who youare and what you do.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (01:09):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
So I'm Dr Barrett and I live inHawaii.
I'm a veterinarian, I've movedfully into holistic practice for
the past several years and Iwork out of my own practice now,
which is called Muse HolisticVeterinary Care, and here we do

(01:29):
kind of a similar type ofspectrum of modalities and
services that you were justlisting off.
So you know body work andintuitive healing, helping pets
and their animals and theirpeople to feel good, and you
know connect with each other andovercome illnesses and physical

(01:53):
problems through acupuncture,physical therapy, and one of the
modalities that I use that Ithink is a bit more unique is
sound therapy.
So that's what I think, a bitof the focus that we're doing
today.

Dr Edward (02:11):
Yeah, I just had to rescue my kitten because he got
tangled up in all the cables.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (02:15):
Sorry, I disappeared.

Dr Edward (02:17):
But he was kind of all like I'm stuck, I'm stuck in
the cable.
Yeah, sound is a big part of mylife because I'm also a singer,
songwriter, musician, so soundand music is something that is
an everyday beauty and threaddeep, deep thread in my life.
So I'll be very interested togo with that.

(02:37):
But before we dig into that,and I just wanted to ask you,
you know, why do you do what youdo in terms of being one of us
lovely, kind of weird typeveterinarians, a little bit on
the fringes of orthodoxy, shallwe say, and what led you into
your path as a holisticpractitioner?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (03:01):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So I think I've always been alittle bit not like a type A,
but not type A person.
I was raised by two symphonymusicians and so I was a
musician from a young age and Ithought that's what I was going
to do with my life.
But my path kind of led me moredown the you know, studying

(03:25):
sciences and enjoying thataspect of things, and so, you
know, just being a free spiritedperson, I always had two sides
of myself where it wasn't justwanting to study science and
medicine, I also wanted topursue music and dance and these
creative hobbies as well.

(03:46):
So when I was in vet school itwas trying to find a balance
between those two things.
But I was teaching dance,pretty high level, like aerial
type contortiony stuff, and Igot all sorts of injuries with
my neck and back through doingthat.
So one of my professors, drNarda Robinson, you may be

(04:09):
familiar with her.
She had started the integrativemedicine department at the
university that I was at, theColorado State.

Dr Edward (04:18):
University.
Oh wow, Did you like have anintegrative medicine department
at your university.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (04:24):
That is so cool.
Yeah, Colorado State is apretty innovative vet school,
you know.
I would say I still wish theyhad more in their curriculum,
but we did have a lecture aboutacupuncture during our neuro
class, and so you know, they'recoming along.
But anyhow, she started workingon me because she was a human

(04:44):
practitioner for pain managementand acupuncture and then she
became a vet as well.
So, through having sessionswith her and other people to try
to deal with these issues I washaving, I started doing yoga
and I started working with likea shamanic practitioner to heal

(05:04):
the energetic problem of myshoulder pain and just really
kind of went into this wholenother realm of medical care.
That's not conventional at all.
You know, my experience too isthat the conventional treatment
I received was, you know, justreferrals for surgery and pain

(05:28):
medication, and then the surgeonsaid I couldn't even have
surgery because it wasn't badenough, even though I was in
pain all the time.
So you know, it's like whenthose are the options you're
given, you really have no choicebut to look elsewhere.
And so, through my ownexperience of that, that's the I
wanted to be the kind of doctorthat had tools that could go
beyond the conventional toolbox,which can be pretty limited

(05:52):
sometimes years.

Dr Edward (06:05):
Western medicine helped with some of the spectrum
of symptoms early on, and thenthey kind of said, well, take
these antidepressants.
And the doctor said it's all inyour head.
And, um, only time I've evercome close to having a panic
attack was in that doctor'ssurgery.
Um, some a few visits afterthat.
So, and and it's reallyinteresting to me too that you
have this deep thread of somaticawareness and movement with

(06:27):
dance, which I had, not throughdance but through competing on
horses, oh, yeah, I was doingthat too Were you yeah that was
my first activity that got meall injured.
Oh God, the horses are very goodat helping us break bits of our

(06:48):
bodies With music.
Are you still musically active?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (06:54):
Yeah, I'm actually more musically active
than ever because I grew upplaying violin and flute and
then in high school I was reallyinto jazz and I played bass in
a jazz band.
So that's what I thought Iwanted to move to New York City
and be a jazz musician.
But, um, things kind of tookdifferent turns and I ended up

(07:16):
focusing more on school and got,you know, decided to want to go
to vet school and, um, I wasgoing to a lot of concerts but
not playing a lot of music.
And then, since I've been donewith school the past several
years, I've been more into folkmusic and so now I play the harp
and flutes in the Irishtraditional Irish bands, and

(07:40):
then I also learned to producemusic and do some DJing as well.
So you know just a little bitof everything.
That's pretty cool.

Dr Edward (07:52):
Yeah, a harp is a beautiful instrument.
So let's dig into today,because we've got some
interesting juicy topics to talkabout and we're going to
probably get a little bit woohere.
I suspect here or you know, Idon't actually think it's woo, I
think it is spiritual andhealing science that the
scientific orthodoxy just gets areal bad headache and wants to

(08:15):
go and sulk in a corner when youshow them evidence that it
works.
But that's, that's anotherstory.
So we are exploring sound andmusic therapy for pets today and
I think we're also reallyexploring healing and energy.
Is the sense I get from fromwhat you've talked about in your
responses.
Yeah, absolutely so then, whatare the most important things

(08:40):
about bringing sound intoanimals lives as a profoundly
healing modality?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (08:48):
Yeah, definitely, so you know, before
we talk about bringing it intotheir lives.
One of the things I like tostart with is, you know,
becoming aware, as a petguardian or animal guardian, of
the sounds that are alreadyhappening and the environments
that our pets live in in ourhomes.

(09:09):
You know they're there 24 hoursa day for the most part, unless
they go out with us, and theneven then, um, there can be
noises that they experience.
You go out for a walk andthere's a siren going by, and
you know traffic and all sortsof things that we could call
noise pollution.

(09:30):
And so, with animals, you knowthey're very sensitive and it's
scientifically known that theyhave a broader range of hearing
frequencies than we do, andtheir hearing sensitivity to the
volume is much more sensitivethan ours as well.
So, as their guardians, one ofthe important things that we

(09:51):
need to pay attention to is thetypes of sounds they're exposed
to, either on a regular basis oron those times, like you know,
new Year's Eve, when it's superloud and there's fireworks and
they're having a meltdownbecause of how loud it is, and
yeah, so I think like a soundinventory is a good starting

(10:12):
point for people to do is justspend some time sitting at home
and, you know, even write downthe sounds that you're hearing.
So is there like constructionnext door or is there?
Your appliances are beepingevery five minutes and you know
the phone notifications and somepeople you know they'll leave
the TV or radio on for theirpets and just really like

(10:35):
getting into your pet's mind andthinking like would I want to
listen to noise of like someonetalking in a language I don't
understand, you know, for eighthours while my person is gone
when I'm just trying to sleep.

Dr Edward (10:54):
What about the sounds that are outside our band of
hearing, so infrasonics andsubsonics?
How do you audit them for youranimals?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (11:04):
That's a good question and I think you
know you may.
There may be some devices thatyou could get to detect, um,
those types of frequencies, butI think it's also just watching
your pet and paying attention toif they seem disrupted by
something that you don'tperceive.

(11:25):
I've heard that some of thoseplug-in smart devices actually
emit those types of frequenciesthat we can't hear, and I've
heard stories of people whointroduce something like that
and immediately the pets areacting very agitated and then
they remove it and things goback to normal.

Dr Edward (11:46):
so you know our technology is a big source of
some of these frequencies, likeyou mentioned yeah, um, I know
I've got a friend who's anelectrical engineer and a lot of
the power supplies,particularly for cheaper things,
uh have a lot of noisepollution that because humans

(12:06):
can't hear it, they don't worryabout controlling.
Yeah, it's a.
It's a real thing definitelyyeah that's not.
That's not even getting intothe emfs and that other kind of
right.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (12:19):
I just popped into my head too
vibrational pollution, which canalso profoundly cause yeah,
yeah, I mean I think it's justpart of being a holistic pet
owner is just trying to thinkoutside of the box of, like, how
to make this home environmentas comfortable as we can for our
pets who are living here.

(12:40):
So, um, you know, making surethat they have environmental
enrichment and you know, I don'twant to go on too much of a
tangent, but that's one aspectof it is being aware of the
soundscape that your pets livein and, um, making sure that
it's seems like the things thatare happening don't seem
bothersome to them look, and wespecialize in tangents here on

(13:04):
this podcast.

Dr Edward (13:04):
By the way, if anything interesting comes up,
we'll be like a I don't know,like a foxhound after a fox
going, exploring little sidebars.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (13:13):
I like doing that yeah, yeah, there's a lot
of those, yeah so soundawareness.

Dr Edward (13:18):
So that's the first key thing is really tuning in to
your home and your environment.
Um, and some of these soundsthat you find you will be able
to do something about and someyou won't.
So what do you do about soundsthat are impacting on your pets
in a negative way but they'reoutside your power to control?
Do you have any tips or hintsfor people to deal with that

(13:40):
sort of thing?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (13:41):
Yeah, and I think, like what you're saying,
there's kind of a spectrum ofcontrol.
So, um, you know, maybe onething you could control would be
trying to take your dog out forwalks when there's it's not
rush hour and there's not likeeveryone on the road.
You know you may want to takethem on a shorter walk so they
can use the bathroom and then doyour big neighborhood walk when

(14:01):
it quiets down.
Um, for example, and you knowit's going to be hard to control
certain things like New Year'sand fireworks, but planning
ahead for those times, whetherusing like, a CBD product or
going on a little vacation tosomewhere else where it might be
quieter, and just being awareof the impact that those events

(14:25):
have yeah, it can mess the dog'snervous system up for weeks to
have.

Dr Edward (14:31):
I know and it can also exacerbate and generalize
all sorts of anxieties andthings like that.
Have you ever had any clientsuse the pornix sound cancelling
headphones for dogs?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (14:44):
I haven't had anyone try them, but I've
seen them.
Yeah, I've suggested them to afew people and I haven't
actually had any direct feedback, but that's one possible kind
of avenue shell, if you lookfrom the top down, and I've been

(15:15):
reaching out to see if they'llship worldwide yet and I don't
think they're at that point.
It's still like doing akickstarter campaign.
But you know, that's a coolconcept is just to have a place
that's semi soundproof so thatthe dog can be in there during
the loud event and you can tryto do some almost like a crate
training so that they knowthat's a safe, good place to go,
where it's not going to be soloud hey, that's cool.

Dr Edward (15:35):
I hadn't really thought of that so much.
But that is um definitely, andthere's a few other options out
there too.
I'm just having a quick google,but there's a few others yeah
sound levels.
Little, little kind of cubbyhouses that are sound insulated
for your pets yeah, I mean inhorses they'll put the um
earplugs in.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (15:54):
You may have seen that yeah sometimes, like
at horse shows, you know they'lland you know I don't know if
that's really practical with adog.
Uh, I haven't honestly triedputting earplugs into a dog even
if you tried it, yeah, or theheadphones, and you know, just
trying like doing what you can,because it really does make a

(16:18):
big difference.
Holding your Sony soundcancelling here for the adult
ears that's right, but yeah, youknow other types of like noises
you can't control.
This might be a time where,then, you would bring in some
type of music or sound to try tomask outside noises, so even

(16:39):
like a air conditioner or awhite noise machine or just
putting on some calming music,which we can discuss.
What would constitute calmingmusic for a dog or cat?

Dr Edward (16:52):
well, I suppose that kind of segues us into what's
the good things, what are thegood sounds?
What are sounds that makepositive, beneficial, healing,
calming impacts for our animals?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (17:05):
Yeah, the way I see it is, pets are kind
of like infants, like babies,where music that would be, where
they like a lullaby, where youcould actually fall asleep to it
, or the types of things that,yeah, actually put you to sleep,
which is not the type of musicthat a lot of people enjoy
listening to for fun, because itmight be a little considered

(17:28):
boring.
But that's the whole point isthat if it's boring, then it
won't be stimulating yournervous system to pay attention
and listen.
You know a lot of the musicgenres that are popular.
They have a lot of differentfrequencies going on, a lot of
percussion elements, and they'revery busy.

(17:49):
You know there's a lot ofelements to the sound and
they're very busy.
You know there's a lot ofelements to the sound, which is
amazing as a human, where we caninterpret what that noise means
, but it's not doesn't seem that, um, animals can understand
music the way that we can interms of maybe, um, you know,
like knowing, oh, this is rockand roll, like this is awesome,

(18:11):
like I love this.
To them it may be more of liketypes of collections of
frequencies or sounds.

Dr Edward (18:18):
Yeah, or it's stimulating or calming would be
kind of the spectrum of wherethey fall so I did see a thing
on facebook the other day wherethere's this um farm that had
kind of punk punk concerts andstuff and there was one goat
that came to every concert andwas right at the front.
It loved it.
That's great.
Yeah, I mean it's the.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (18:39):
That's the cool thing about life and
animals is like there's alwaysanomalies and that's one of the
fun things you get to learn toknow your pet and I've had a
client where they said theyswear that their dog loves jazz
music.
They put it on and he justseems like he's in a great mood
and so, yeah, it's good to havefun and experiment and not

(19:01):
assume.

Dr Edward (19:03):
But what it seems to be.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (19:04):
The general thing is almost like a lullaby
type of quiet, calm, slow musicmight be the one that would help
to be calming kind of lowerfrequencies, slower tempos,
simpler kind of melodies, thatsort of thing.

Dr Edward (19:20):
But just, I had a beautiful cat called pavadi who
unfortunately escaped from ourhouse not long after moved here
and got run over on the road.
But she loved me whistling.
She would come running andpurring and wrap herself around
my legs.
Every time I whistled it was.
I've never had another animalthat showed that kind of
response.
So yeah, animals haveindividual kind of tastes and

(19:43):
predilections.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (19:44):
Yeah, sounds yeah yeah, and I'm sure you
know people who have birds mightlike certain types of music,
like flute music or somethinglike that.
So it's good to just experimentwith your pet and like put on
different music and see whatthey seem to fall asleep.
To what do they seem waggingtheir tail or purring?

Dr Edward (20:07):
you might find out something very unexpected, like
how you did with the whistlingdo you, do you, what are your
thoughts about sound as a ashealing vibration and actually
affecting the, the energysystems and consciousness, not
just through hearing and kind ofthe, the relaxing lullaby type

(20:31):
thing, but as a about, you know,as a real healing modality that
shifts energy and frequency?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (20:38):
yeah, I think that's a whole nother
awesome topic to explore,because I think they there's a
quote that's like in thebeginning there was sound and so
sound is one of the mostfundamental things in the
universe I'm just gonna pausefor a second and see if I can
ask this builder with a machineoutside to stop being loud for a

(21:00):
bit.

Dr Edward (21:01):
okay, everybody, we're just back here after a
little break for sound pollutionand having to manage sound
pollution and ask some buildersto turn off their loud digger
machines, and my little kittenjust jumped up and ran away with
all of that too.
So this is really interestingand like oh, here we are, but we
were talking about sound andvibration in affecting energy

(21:26):
systems and healing at deeperlevels.
I'd love to hear what you thinkabout that and anything you
might be able to share with ourlisteners.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (21:37):
Yeah, so sound is one of the fundamental
elements of our universe andit's something that anything
with a nervous system that's.
One of the first things thathas evolved is the ability to
perceive vibrations, maybe nothaving an auditory system to
hear, but if you can feelvibrations then you can detect

(22:02):
something, things around you.
You know, if you're like anearthworm with a very simple
nervous system, they canprobably feel vibrations, so
that they can, you know, orientthemselves to get closer to
things they want to and moveaway from things that seem
threatening.
And so you know, from a veryprimitive standpoint, the

(22:24):
detection of sound and throughvibration and that sensory
experience is going to be veryprimitive and primal type of
thing.
And so I think, given that it'snot just that you hear music
and sound, you also feel it inyour body.
And so you know, and that's likeon many levels.

(22:47):
So it's not just a feeling,sensory level, it's also can be
on emotional levels, onspiritual levels and I think, on
a cellular level, where theactual movement of the wave of
vibration can have an effect onthe water that's within each
cell and also on, you know,these mechanisms that we don't

(23:10):
even understand, how theintelligence and the innate.
You know quantum workings ofcells, like how does every cell
know what its job is within thebody?

Dr Edward (23:22):
you know, we don't really fully understand that yet
yeah, and it's this kind ofinstantaneous communication
throughout the body that isfaster than way, faster than
nervous transmission, thatscience doesn't have a handle on
um, the whole biophotonic fieldand charge of living beings.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (23:40):
There's all this more subtle stuff that's
really cool, yeah yeah, I meanbeing like if anyone who's had a
sound bath, where there's thosetypes of instruments like a
sound bowl or a gong and you'rejust bathing in the frequencies
of these sacred instruments thatit like washes not just over

(24:03):
you but also through you, canfeel it and experience that and
you end up feeling kind of likea reset of your nervous system
lot of the times, and you knowit can lead to an experience
where you can drop into like ameditative state and have more
of a, you know, differentawareness, different state of

(24:24):
mind and brain waves, which isreally cool.

Dr Edward (24:28):
It sure is.
So do you do sound baths foranimals?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (24:32):
Yeah, I do that's.
One of the really fun thingsthat we do for some of our
patient client groups is that,you know, the owner can have a
lay down and get the sound bathwhile their pets are
experiencing it with them.
They can cuddle together andexperience that, and it's very

(24:55):
cool to see the shifts thatpeople experience.

Dr Edward (24:59):
What sort of instruments and things are you
using for these sound baths forpeople and animals?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (25:04):
So the ones that I like to use are the sound
bowls and my harp, andsometimes I'll use different
types of flutes.
Flutes are cool.
What?
What kind of flutes do you play?
So the one I use mostly forsound therapy is a Native

(25:26):
American style flute, so it hasa really nice woody, earthy
sound, not so much the metallicconcert flute that just has a
different tone.

Dr Edward (25:38):
Do you play shakuhachis or any of those
enblon type flutes?
No, not that particular typeyeah, they're pretty cool too,
okay, uh, do you have recordedstuff for pets?
Have you recorded?
Yeah, any kind of music?
Awesome.
We better tell everyone wherethat is, so they can go and
start it's yeah, my youtubechannel.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (25:59):
I have some videos.
There's one that's like a ninehour long, um, you know sound
therapy type of thing, wherethat's the type of thing I
encourage people to put on andleave on if you go to work or
you know there's some chaoshappening um, maybe big, you
know group of friends comingover and you have a pet that's

(26:22):
not super, uh, liking strangers.

Dr Edward (26:24):
Then you could put them in another part of the
house with calming music likethat type playing, just to
encourage them to relax and havesome other noises doing a
little note here to put this inthe show notes so that people
can find it if they're listeningor watching, because we also
pop this up on youtube.

(26:45):
It will make sure that the linkthrough to your youtube channel
is there and people can go and,um, you know, start beaming
some positive healing soundsinto the animals lives yeah,
these days, you know it's.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (27:02):
It's great because they're with youtube and
the internet, I think it'sbecoming more popular and known
that you there's all sorts oflike videos that are calming
music for people or pets, orstudying.
It's just.
It's great that it's becomingmore popular to have ambient
music playing.

Dr Edward (27:23):
Absolutely.
Now you know, like any kind ofmedicine, any kind of good
medicine, the more you integrateit into being a part of life, a
consistent, beautiful part oflife, the better and stronger
the effect.
So how do you support people inmaking positive, healing sounds

(27:47):
and music?
You know part of the fabric oftheir everyday life and their
pets.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (27:54):
Yeah Well, whenever I have my appointments,
my practice is basically kindof set up like a spa and so it's
as quiet as I can get it to be.
You know, obviously there'sstreet noise coming in once in a
while, but I have tried to keepit quiet in here and have some

(28:15):
calming music playing during,and it's pretty remarkable to
see how pets can relax whenthey're in this type of
environment.
I know we'll do somearomatherapy as well, but it's
just like the people can see theshift and really the biggest
thing is that there's such ahuge difference between when
they come here and when they goto a normal vet hospital, and

(28:39):
that's honestly a huge.
Reason why I started my ownpractice was because trying to
do acupuncture and massage onpets in a hospital is almost a
waste of time because they're sofearful and it's so chaotic and
there's noise, pollution andsmells and so much going on that

(29:00):
like they're, they're prettymuch trembling the whole time,
like 80 of the pets, even ifyou're doing what you can in
that environment to have it benice for them.
Whereas here, when it quiet, wehave calming music and lavender
and stuff and you know we'redoing our like tea, touch and
the calming modalities to bringthem down even before we start,

(29:24):
because we have time for thatwith longer appointments.
Then the pets are like asleepduring the treatments and it's
and it's remarkable to see thedifference that it makes.
So, with all that said, I thinkpeople will see that difference
and then I'll explain to themhow you can take these

(29:46):
experience and bring that intoyour home and explore online and
find some ambient music thatyou like and maybe just have it
on sometimes at home.
One of the things I really likeis to have it be quiet and maybe
put some nice music on whenpets are eating, because that's

(30:06):
a time when I think it'simportant for your nervous
system to be regulated so thatthe digestion occurs in a calm
way without so many stresshormones going on.
But sometimes when I'mpreparing their food, you know
I'm like banging around thekitchen making my own food and
making all this noise, when, ifI just put their food down and

(30:29):
step away and put some music onand go do something else, I feel
like it's just nice for them.
You know, it's like going outto dinner and you have this nice
atmosphere, it's quiet, nicemusic playing, instead of like
being in a fast food restaurantwhere it's just like you're just
shoving food in your face andthere's noise and it's not as
relaxing or pleasant of anexperience.

Dr Edward (30:51):
So I got another just thing that's popped into my
head to ask you um, so you cantune your instruments to what we
call concert pitch, and there'swhat's the other yeah so
concert pitch is 440 hertz yeahand then the one that's often
used for sound healing is 432.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (31:15):
Which?

Dr Edward (31:16):
one do you use?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (31:18):
It depends.
So sometimes I have some videosthat are tuned at 432.
I also have some that are at440.
So it's a pretty subtledifference, but it can
supposedly make a difference inthe way that the nervous system
responds to the music so I can,I can actually switch out the

(31:42):
little blocks on it to changethat frequency yeah, but you
know it's a bit of pain.

Dr Edward (31:47):
I'd have to have two different guitars for two
different things and I have Ihave played around in the past,
but also makes it hard then togo and collaborate sometimes
because you gotta yeah there's asmall number of people doing
the 432, but I believe thatthere is a qualitative,
qualitative difference in in howthe vibration affects the body

(32:08):
with the two different kind ofpitches you tune your instrument
to.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (32:13):
For sure, yeah, it's a fun thing to play
around with as a musician.
But uh, yeah, I ran into sometechnical issues when we were
creating a sound bath, like alonger sound bath, and so all
the had some digital synthsadded into it.
But we had to go into the likethe back end of the synth and

(32:35):
change up the tuning and it waskind of challenging.
So if they're not all matchedup, then it's probably not worth
doing it.
Like you said, so do you?

Dr Edward (32:47):
you you do a therapeutic touch is part of
your practice.
Do you do energy healing aswell?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (32:56):
Yeah, I do some energy healing like chakra
balancing and meditations withlike people and their pets so
they can enhance their bondtogether, and maybe do some like
meditative journeying to youknow, get on that level of like
why this animal came into yourlife as a kind of a totem for

(33:20):
you or like a teacher, what kindof lessons they have for you,
because I think they all comeinto our lives for different
reasons and it can be prettyprofound when you explore that
yeah, that's something that I'vebeen writing a bit about the
last few weeks on on my socialsis about the, you know, soul
contracts and telepathiccommunication between humans and

(33:42):
animals, which you know is notnecessarily just thoughts, it's
feelings and all kinds ofexperience of consciousness, and
I've also been um getting intoa bit.

Dr Edward (33:55):
There's a thing called the telepathy tapes which
if you haven't heard thatpodcast, you will will want to
everyone who's listening.
You will all want to go andlisten to this because this is
nonverbal kids who are showingdemonstrably highly telepathic
communication with their parentsand with network.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (34:13):
I just heard about this, like last night,
for the first time.

Dr Edward (34:17):
I'm getting tingles all over me here Synchronicity
yeah.
And in one of the later onesthere is a whole podcast on
telepathic um with animals withanimal communication and stuff
like that.
It is cool and you know, Isuppose I I sort of think of a
lot of this is that all of ourcommunication is vibration and

(34:39):
it's all music in a way.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (34:41):
It's just that sometimes we're talking
with our voices but sometimes,when I put my hands on an animal
and then I suddenly getmassively uncomfortable feelings
of trauma or sadness orwhatever, that's music too right
, it's just music that needs tobe tuned up into something more
harmonious yeah, that's a reallynice way to think of it and I

(35:04):
think one of the best thingsthat you can do for your pets
emotionally is just self-careand taking good care of yourself
because, like they're, they'rereflecting all the things that
we feel and I think they try totake it on and process it
because they're justcompassionate, pure beings.

Dr Edward (35:24):
But, um, you know, if we're not taking good care of
ourselves and having good energyhygiene, it can kind of affect
them too yeah, um, I think someanimals do actively take stuff
on, but I'm I also think a lotof people get really guilty when
they think about that.
Um, so I sort of more say, well, if, if you're in a

(35:44):
relationship with anyone, youaffect each other and there's no
way around it.
It doesn't matter.
And the closer and the deeperthe relationship, the more
intimately you affect each other, and I think our relationships
with animals are often theclosest, deepest relationships
that we have in our lives for alot of people out there, Very
much, yeah, especially nowadays,Most people their pets.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (36:06):
They call them their soul animal.
You know, it's like I think theconnections are deeper now than
they ever were in general for alot of people.

Dr Edward (36:16):
Yeah, I agree with that.
Okay, so what do you think ishumanity's biggest blind spot
when it comes to your work inhelping and healing animals and
humans and our ongoing journeyof hopefully evolving into a
planet full of beings that canactually be kind to each other
and care for the planet and stopbeing so destructive?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (36:50):
stop being so destructive.
Well, I think that the blindspot comes with just how busy we
are and how the awareness thatwe sometimes of being aware of
how our human soundscapes andour human routines can affect

(37:11):
them.
You know it's, they're really,I think, experiencing the same
environments, that we are in amuch different level with how
sensitive they are.
And you know they're.
Although they're hearing, theirnervous systems are similar
because they're mammals.
They're also.

(37:31):
You know it's different, and soyou know all the behavior
issues and stress that canmanifest as health problems.
I think comes a lot from thischronic sympathetic overdrive
that can be a result ofoverstimulation.
That's happening, you know, allday, for all of us and

(37:56):
especially for them.
You know all the noises theywere.
They were designed to be livingout in nature where it's pretty
much quiet, besides theoccasional noise which they have
, that orienting response thatthey're always like what was
that?
What was that?
That's part of how they werewired.
And so when there's constantnoise and all of these, things

(38:17):
that are like especially livingin an urban environment or
suburbs constant noise, and allof these things that are like
especially living in an urbanenvironment or suburbs where
there's pretty much noiseconstantly.
It can really lead to like anunderlying chronic stress that
we don't even pick up on.
So I think that's a big blindspot.

Dr Edward (38:39):
And that would be affecting all of us too, right.
Absolutely blind spot, and thatwould be affecting all of us
too.
Right, absolutely humans.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (38:46):
So the more we clean up the soundscape for
animals, that probably thehappier and healthier our
nervous systems are going to beas well yeah, I mean, it makes a
big difference if I start myday by like waking up and
putting on some music and likesitting down and petting my cats
for a few minutes Um, even if Idon't do like a whole
meditation or anything and justlike have that be the beginning.

(39:10):
Instead of oh, you pick up yourphone and like you start making
coffee and banging around.
It's just like instant chaos.
I think it's like we all needto take better care of ourselves
and our households with justlike you have to actively foster
a peaceful environment.
Otherwise, with the inundationof technology and devices and

(39:35):
stuff, it's like it's not thenorm to have a peaceful
environment anymore.
Unless you live out in thecountry, it's not the norm to
have a peaceful environmentanymore, unless you live out in
the country.

Dr Edward (39:47):
And when it comes to self-care, I'd imagine you have
a pretty comprehensive, regular,intensive self-care kind of
practice.
What could you say to peoplethat might inspire them to love
themselves enough to do that?
And it is hard work to do realself-care.
It is ongoing hard work andoften you don't feel like doing

(40:07):
it and you have to do it, nomatter how you feel what.
What would you say to people?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (40:10):
because you know, one of my big things is
your self-care is your petself-care, so you better get on
with it yeah, I think somepeople like what you just said,
they're more motivated to do itif it's for someone that they
love, especially like a pet.
It's like, do it for them, youknow, take good care of yourself
so that, like, you'll be therefor them and you can be the the

(40:35):
pet parent that they need.
Um, but, yeah, I mean, I thinkhaving support systems is really
helpful.
So, so, trying to, if you havegoals like have an
accountability partner, thatyou're doing things, with.
And you know, I think one of thebig things is just sleep and
exercise.
If people could focus on thosetwo things um sleep and exercise

(40:59):
, and just then from there youknow, eating healthy, those
three things really could makethe biggest difference in my
opinion, for most people'swell-being.

Dr Edward (41:12):
I'd have to say that doing five mornings a week of
resistance exercise and Qigongis probably one of the key
things in my recovery fromchronic fatigue.
And you know, six or sevenyears into that, I'm still
gaining benefits steadily fromdoing that too.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (41:31):
Yeah, that's amazing.
When I wrote my book a coupleyears ago, it was really crazy
because I stopped doing almostall my activities.
It was like in the middle ofCOVID and I was just sitting and
typing and just I would wake upearly and sit in tight for
hours and I started having hippain and I was going to the

(41:55):
doctors.
They couldn't figure out whatwas wrong.
Like nothing seemed to be wrong, but it hurt all the time and
at the end of the day it turnedout that it was just from being
inactive.
So I think it's like inactivitycan be one of the biggest uh
sources of pain, just becausewe're not, we're not doing
enough and if your musclesaren't strong, then they're

(42:17):
going to hurt oh, absolutely,movement and alignment.

Dr Edward (42:22):
You know, a big part of my practices is, is somatic
awareness.
And you know, am I, have Islumped?
Have I slumped?
Have I slumped 50 times a day,have I?
Well, I've, nearly always I'veslumped, at least a little bit
every time I turn into my body.
And just relaxing andstraightening up changes your
day and changes your health.

(42:44):
But, yeah, activity.
Humans are not made to sit ontheir backsides and do nothing.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (42:50):
No, way, yeah, and and our pets can be
one of the most biggestmotivators to get us out.
Like, especially if you have adog, every dog should be going
out on walks, you know, multipletimes a day if can, and so, and
even if you have an indoor cat,like they need playtime and
interaction.
So just remembering that theyneed exercise as much as we do

(43:12):
and using that as like apositive motivators so that you
know you want to get them out sothat they can be strong and
healthy, and that will help toget you out too, and it's just
like it's beneficial foreveryone.

Dr Edward (43:26):
It sure is.
So we're coming to the end ofthis.
It's been a fascinatingconversation.
Thank you so much for your timeand energy today.
I really appreciate it.
So we finish off with a reallybeautiful question what is the
change that you want to be andinspire others to be in this
world that we share?

Dr. Meghan Barrett (43:47):
I think that I would want, after all this uh
, to just inspire people to bemore active with their listening
, and not just to music, butalso to the world around them.
Listening to their pets, payingattention to the signals that
they're giving us you know, thenonverbal signals and, in that

(44:11):
way, trying to foster thatawareness for yourself, really
helps people to nurture theirpets in a way that will honor
their sacred nature andrespecting how sensitive they
are to these things that wetalked about, like sounds and
noise, pollution and vibration,and this can really help to
create a better environment foreveryone well, I can jump on

(44:36):
board with that.

Dr Edward (44:37):
I think deep listening is something that
humanity.
The more they've moved awayfrom the Indigenous
hunter-gatherer type lifestyle,the more we have lost that
capacity for deep body listening.
You know listening and feelingand sensing and knowing the
world and other beings and allthe living energies inside

(44:59):
ourselves.
But I think the good news isthat if you're willing to put in
time and effort in anintelligent way, it's absolutely
possible to reopen these, whatI think are really beautifully
divine human capacities.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (45:18):
Yeah, we don't want our nervous systems
getting numbed out by all theoverstimulation, so it's like it
takes work to regulate that.

Dr Edward (45:26):
It does.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (45:26):
To stay sensitive in a way that's not
harmful.

Dr Edward (45:32):
Stay sensitive, stay regulated, be willing to embrace
, endure and increase yourcapacity for healthy discomfort
all these things that we need todo in this, I don't know
extraordinarily challenging andbeautiful world that we share at
this time in humans' evolution.

Dr. Meghan Barrett (45:50):
Yeah, it's an interesting time, for sure.

Dr Edward (45:52):
Awesome.
Thank you so much for coming onthe podcast.
Everyone check out Megan'sYouTube channel.
I know I will be.
I know I'll be getting in thereand maybe some of my morning
meditations will be for theanimals rather than for me.
I listen to a lot of mantra,mantra, kirtan type stuff in the

(46:15):
mornings which my animals doseem to enjoy.
But thank you so much, um andthanks for having me For all of
you out there.
If you enjoyed the podcast, letus know.
We'd love to hear from you, andif there's any topics that
you'd like to hear from or anyother guests you'd like to
recommend, please let me know.

(46:36):
And for now we'll say goodbye,and from Megan and from me,
please give your pets a lovelypat from us.
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