Sound Healing & My Sound Bowl Journey
My first experience of sound healing was at the Chopra Center in California as I lay on a massage table and a super large sound bowl was placed at the head of the table. Literal sound waves washed over my body and I experienced a calm like I had never known.
Soon thereafter I acquired my own frosted white crystal sound bowl that often traveled with me to yoga classes and workshops. Years later, I took two in depth trainings with Ashana, my sound bowls teacher, who is a classically trained musician and singer. She taught me the nuances of playing, the energetic qualities of the teacher and eventually guided me to my set of sound bowls. I told her my highest intentions for my students–deep meditative peace and healing– and she then hand selected and harmonized my quartz crystal set. Each bowl features gem stones and pure quartz crystal. These bowls are pure tone bowls and offer the highest sound quality. Whenever I’m able to save up some money, I invest in bringing a new bowl to my set, each with its own specific attributes. It’s a sacred and highly intentional process.
Playing the bowls for groups in sound baths and meditations is one of my favorite offerings. Time disappears, the room gets very still and after a few minutes I can observe everyone dropping into deep states of rest and relaxation - and yes the occasional snoring lets me know I’m headed in the right direction! The playing is intuitive and the sound vibrations flow through the bowls with some sort of divine intelligence! It is always a joy to play the bowls.
When played, the bowls create coherence in the body and our cells. As my teacher Ashana describes it “when you are with the crystal bowls, you are immersed in a sonic world of high frequency pure-tone healing sound. Your auditory system instantly transmits these vibrations to your nervous system and the fluids of your body carry these frequencies to every cell and molecule, literally down to the DNA. Each molecule sets off a vibration in the molecules nearby and within moments, every part of the body is entraining to these powerful, healing sounds. With regular exposure through listening in therapeutic sound baths, the nervous system begins to relax and unwind. At times emotional or physical releases are experienced as chronically congested energetic patterns held in the body begin to release and clear. The mind becomes quiet and calm and the body relaxes.”