A singing bowl or standing bell, are mostly crystal or metal alloy bowls where, by rubbing a mallet around the bowl’s outer rim and edges produce sounds. Singing bowls and sometimes gongs, surround the user with tones that offer the goal of relaxation by decreasing stress, anxiety, and depression. These sounds offer an escape from the everyday incessant inner dialogue or chatter of thoughts within one’s mind. Singing bowl techniques can be very mind engaging, similarly to meditation practices and yoga, and are often practiced in tandem.

Standing bells historically were a bowl or gong and struck with a wooden or felted mallet. Use goes back thousands of years, with origins in China and Mongolia. Tibetan Buddhist monasteries used the bowls in this manner to keep time or to signal the end of a meditation.

Theories regarding sound bowls claim that specific sounds can calm the mind by entraining the brain’s electrical impulses to mimic those found while in states of deep concentration, meditation, or relaxation. Theta waves are present when one is in deep concentration or meditation. From listening to singing bowls, one can guide their mind towards theta brain wave activity.

Click on the link to begin a “A Sound Meditation with Quartz Crystal Bowls”.

Once I started the audio file, I took a moment or two to take in the sounds I was hearing. I have practiced other meditation practices using sounds and/or music, so I had an idea of what to expect. This was to be a different “flavor” of a wide palette of meditation techniques.

After a few seconds, I put my focus on my breathing rhythm and body alignments. I find it easier to engage my thoughts by performing a mental inventory of the physical aspects of the meditation practice; kind of a scan from head to toe. I close my eyes lightly while I sit upright, but in a relaxed posture. I also become aware of my head pushing upward as my shoulders relax and sink downward. By gently stretching my neck side to side and forward and backward, I am able to release more tension in my face, neck, upper back and even my shoulders. The sounds continue to change in volume and tones, which is somewhat relaxing to my hearing and consequently, my whole body through my nervous system.

I then become more aware of my breaths by moving my respiratory diaphragm (belly), to further release and relax the muscular tension, especially during my exhales. 4 seconds to inhale, pause for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, pause again for 4 seconds, and then repeat this sequence with another 4 second inhale. This brings my breaths per minute (BPM) down to just below 4 respirations; more than slow enough to get below the 10 BPM that engages the parasympathetic nervous system. I have been practicing this breathing pattern (box breathing) for decades now, so I don’t really count the seconds but rather go by instinct to lengthen my breaths. The sounds continue in the background and are beginning to sound and feel more like vibrations than individual tones. I can slightly feel my body buzzing or vibrating also during this part of the session. It is quite relaxing and comfortable at the same time.

Now I can feel my mouth become moist, my palms and feet become warm, and my stomach begins to gurgle a bit. My brain is telling my body that I am relaxed enough to begin “rest and digest”. I become aware of my thoughts and continue the downward scan and release of muscular tension along the way, all the way down to my feet and toes. I maintain just enough tension to maintain my body posture but not too stiff or too relaxed.

Upon finishing I feel calm, refreshed, at ease and clearer. The room is quieter, but now I can hear the refrigerator and A/C in the background. My emotions feel as if they have been reset, for now at least. The room seems brighter, and my eyes focus a bit sharper for a few minutes thereafter the practice. This is a very satisfying and unique type of practice that I will be adding more into my meditation routines, maybe with or without static stances or posture work.

Reference:

Singing Bowls For Meditation: Deepen Your Practice – Insight Timer Blog

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I write often about topics that affect our health and well-being. Additionally, I teach and offer lectures about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga.

For more info, contact Jim Moltzan at info@mindandbodyexercises.com, 407-234-0119 or through my site at http://www.mindandbodyexercises.com

There needs to be a mental intention behind whatever practice one chooses to pursue. Sometimes people get so hung up with just the word of “meditation” and thinking that to meditate one needs to become more spiritual, metaphysical or adopt some form of religion. I have taught literally hundreds of tai chi and qigong classes where at the end I explain about it being a moving meditation as well as vipassana and body scan meditations all in one. Occasionally, someone will be quite shocked and state something like “I didn’t know this was a religion; I am not interested in changing or doing your religion.” Pretty hard to try to convince someone at this point, being that they felt great while doing the exercises. However, due to some narrow-mindedness or lack of knowledge on the subject, they now feel indifferent towards the techniques. For those still open to learn, I will ask how many enjoy cooking, walking, photography, listening to music, gardening, etc. seeing that these can all be used as various forms of creative or moving meditations. Meditation is not a religion but rather a method to become more self-aware.

Creative meditation requires alert and active engagement of the consciousness, often with the goal of providing an environmental for an inner dialogue within one’s thoughts as opposed to a passive acceptance of whatever thoughts may arise. Creative practices often have a physical element involved that links the body and mind together, such as sketching, journaling, gardening, tai chi, yoga, and others.

This is somewhat different from methods like vipassana or loving kindness meditation methods, where the inner dialogue is mostly isolated from physical movements or engagements. On the other hand, creative meditations can be similar to drumming or ritual body postures in that the practitioner still needs to have an awareness of their physical being holding its space in the 3-dimensional world whether holding a yoga-like posture or a paintbrush in hand.

Another form of creative meditation that I have encountered is that of calligraphy qigong. Qigong is roughly translated to “breath work” and calligraphy is a visual art form of writing. When qigong and calligraphy are combined, practitioners develop their own qi (energy or lifeforce) resources by receiving, circulating, and storing qi while performing each brush stroke of a particular pictogram.

From my own experiences, all of these practices are neither good nor bad, nor absolute but rather fluid and able to be adjusted to an individual’s goals, perspectives and perhaps the mindset towards particular practices. Similarly, to the chef in the kitchen, who can make whatever meal they care to produce because they are in charge of all of their tools and ingredients within their cooking space, the meditator can pick and choose what suits their objectives.

References:

Monaghan, Patricia; Viereck, Eleanor G. (2011) Meditation: The Complete Guide (p. 266). New World Library. Kindle Edition.

Calligraphy Qi Gong | Calligraphy HealthLinks to an external site.

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I write often about topics that affect our health and well-being. Additionally, I teach and offer lectures about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga.

For more info, contact Jim Moltzan at info@mindandbodyexercises.com, 407-234-0119 or through my site at http://www.mindandbodyexercises.com