Singing bowls, are beautifully crafted instruments that are perfectly proportioned and extremely resonant. You simply strike the bowl with a mallet or run a mallet around the outer rim. Either method will produce a steady tone that can resonate for quite a long time. The tone of a singing bowl is mesmerizing and instantly changes the way you feel. If you let it enter your body and your mind, you are in for a truly amazing experience.
Teaching Tool
Some monks will tell you that you are getting lessons, that the singing bowls are teaching lessons on the 4 Noble Truths. In being open to the resonance of the bowls, we are learning about broadness and emptiness, among other things. But what does this mean? It is a pretty abstract concept. Here’s how I see it.
The bowls are empty, they contain nothing, but they contain themselves. The bowl itself is an entity, complete with the materials that have come together to create it. A singing bowl is empty and yet so full. Strike it and it produces a sound that resonates gently and profoundly. It inspires thought, healing and change. Now apply this idea to yourself. Even when we feel empty and think we have nothing to offer, we still have our character. Who we are has the ability to resonate far and wide.
Relaxation Tool
Who doesn’t need to relax from time to time? Singing bowls offer a gentle way to ease into relaxation. Whether you’re looking to relax with meditation or a simple nap, singing bowls are excellent when used in this way. Holding a bowl in your hand and striking it or running your mallet around its rim and allowing its song to vibrate through your being is almost ethereal. Singing bowls help to put our brains into Theta brainwave frequencies that can increase feelings of peace, focus, clarity and intuition. If you’re looking for ways to expand your meditation practice, singing bowls are a great addition.
Healing Tool
When singing bowls are used to promote physical healing, they are operating on the principle that disease is simply a result of blocked energy flow. This interruption of energy causes organs and systems no longer vibrate on a healthy frequency. Specific tones are said to have the ability to unblock the flow of energy in certain areas, allowing your body to restore balance and dispel disease more easily and quickly. Often, the practitioner will place one or more bowls on a person’s body to increase the effectiveness of the singing bowl therapy.
Singing bowls also help to improve blood pressure. In 2014, the American Journal of Health Promotion published a study that found a link in lower systolic pressure in participants exposed to a 12 minute singing bowl session. Its ability to slow brain activity and calm the inner voice, slows down our heart rate and respiration.
Tibetan singing bowls are a very useful tool to have in your self-care arsenal. Not only does it promote relaxation, at the very least, it can also change the way feel about yourself and others. I have found that singing bowls have made a subtle shift in my own consciousness and how I interact with myself. They remind me to slow down and mellow out. These little elements of vibrational magic are sure worth a try, so the next time you go to a yoga class, spa or healing center, seek them out and ask if you can have an experience.
