Singing Bowls - Magical Sound
Have you ever heard a singing bowl? Felt its vibration moving through your hand into your body? The incredible sense of well-being, of feeling alive after hearing one or playing one yourself? So many people ask me about my singing bowls. I play them for all my yoga classes. Giving people magical sound baths while in savasana or playing them during meditations. Magical? Yes! Haha! I remember the first time I played one. I was at a friend’s for dinner. He had three different sized bowls and I was amazed at how they sounded and felt. I could hardly sit still for dinner, I couldn’t stop thinking about them and wanting to play them more! I was completely in awe and knew I had to get one asap! All I knew then was how I felt playing. Feeling the vibrations move through my body, into my heart. Into my soul. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced.
Singing bowls have been used for healing for over 2500 years. Bronze bowls have been found in Asia dating as early as the 8th-10th centuries. Tibetan oral tradition states that tradition of bowls and teachings of the Buddha came from India to Tibet as early as 560 – 480 BC. Singing bowls are used for ceremony, meditation, music, relaxation, holistic healing, stress reduction, depression, pain, well-being and chakra balancing. The frequency from the bowls being played creates a centering effect, stimulating brain waves and balancing the left and right brain hemispheres. The sounds help to restore the frequencies in the body, optimizing energy flow and helping to remove energy blocks. Healing is coming into a state of balance and harmony with our highest purpose. Everything has a vibration. Therefore everything creates sound on some level. Sound can produce changes in the body, effecting the autonomic, nervous, endocrine and immune systems.
Singing bowls are played by striking the outside rim with a mallet. The mallet, either wooden or covered in a soft fabric, can also be traced along the outside rim of the bowl to create healing sounds and vibration.