Let’s Get You Into Your Guru Lifestyle Now With Meditation Bowls
Let’s face it. You have been influenced by the Instagram gurus and now want to know what these Instagrammers are talking about when they say bowls. You must have had your favorite celebrity post about those, or seen an aesthetic retreat reel and been intrigued, or maybe on a lesser note, had your parents influenced by these.
Either way, let me do my job and give you a quick and informative description of these Meditation Bowls.
Meditation using singing bowls has been an ancient culture in eastern countries, and as time passed, just like everything else, it has been adopted by the west. Meditation bowls are also called singing bowls or Tibetan singing bowls. They have different origins. Some are born in Nepal, some in Bengal, Bhutan, some in eastern China or Tibet, and so on.
They use the element of music to release stress and the negative energies from your bodies. They do not even come with annoying ‘get your premium subscription now’ ads. They can be compared with idiophones, the musical instruments which produce sound through vibration on stimulating.
They are usually used in temples and those spiritual centers which you have a visit planned to in your to-do in 30s bucket lists. As the human body is its best healer, these bowls heal the body with vibrations that flow through your mind and give you a sense of calmness. They don’t even need to be crushed or chewed on like those ASMR videos you watch for falling asleep.
How Exactly Do These Singing Bowls Work?
These bowls emit sound and vibrations when hit with a mallet or stickler. The singing bowls are usually bought in sets of different bowls of different sizes along with their strikers. Singing bowls can be used by holding them in your hands or placing them in front of you on a mat or cushion.
While holding them in your hands, be sure to not tip or hold them off balance, so they fall off. These need not be filled to give you a sound healing experience. And in no instance should they be filled with food just because they are bowls.
Now place your hand in front of you and make sure that you are relaxed and ready to become more relaxed. No more of that boss’s-email-is-waiting-in-my-inbox thoughts.
After holding the bowl in your palm, tap the broadest portion of the bowl with the stickler. You do not want to hit too hard and make the whole room look at you, nor do you want to hit them too lightly. Although, you can create a louder sound that can resonates for a longer time.
After tapping, run the mallet along the walls of the bowl in slow motion. This will create tension within the bowl which will be released as vibrations once the bowl is tapped. Now focus intently on the sound and block every other thought trying to enter your head. Easier said than done, I know.
These sounds and vibrations produced in harmony can put your mind and body at ease. Many spiritual healing methods are based on sounds. Be it the Sound of the Universe OM or the resonating sound that stays after you ring the bell in a temple or church. These sounds travel through your mind and work to get your thoughts and the sounds inside your mind to a similar wavelength. Now you have your mind, body, surroundings, and the singing bowl on an equal frequency. The pleasant frequency.
As the human body is mainly made of water, some preachers say that these vibrations move through your body with water as the medium and relieve stress, blood pressure and balance out your senses and thoughts. Some say that the brain waves, which transmit neurotransmitters, contact the frequencies of these singing bowls and release the happy hormone serotonin. Thus these give both spiritual and medical healing. You do not even need to have your insurance for this.
The Best Types Of Singing Bowls For Meditation
The original singing bowls are made of metal. The newer ones are made of quartz crystals.
There are many types of singing bowls, some of which names are:
Jambati singing bowl
Manipuri singing bowls
Mani
Naga
Thadobati singing bowl
Remuna singing bowls
Lingam
Ultabati
Crystal singing bowls
Each of these bowls has walls of different thicknesses. Some have shallow depths, and some have deep depths. Some have metal protruding into the bowls from the bottom. All these meditation bowls produce sound on different notes and octaves. Meditating with a collection of all these give you the best healing experience as the sound frequencies vary from the lesser note to the higher note.
There are different types of strikers and mallets too. Round Tibetan mallets are heavy and cylindrical. They are the most commonly used ones. Gong mallets have large heads and produce heavy sounds. Some people also just use wooden sticks that produce a clean and clear sound. Rounded mallets are used for crystal meditation bowls.
Different Meditation Bowls Based On Their Origin
We have Japanese singing bowls called ‘Rin’ which are used in temples. ‘Butsudan’ are Japanese meditation bowls that can be seen in every household placed on a cushion.
There are Afghan meditation bowls seen mostly in Islamic communities. These have excellent metalwork and are studded with Jewels.
Chinese meditation bowls are pretty famous in the western regions. They come with their characteristic round cushion and embroidered red satin.
Himalayan meditation bowls are said to be the original ones. Monks used to practice bowl meditation in the serenity of the mountains and forest areas. They chant loud prayers and mantras such that people around can’t enter their bubble. Sounds like a dream to you, right?
Meditation bowls are used in yoga also. They offer a yoga teacher the means to operate a steady rhythm of sound in the room, and everyone in the room will subconsciously be tuned to the rhythm and thus have a sense of calmness overtake them. Some people even record the sound of these meditation bowls and play them to get the feeling of serenity. But nothing can beat the live experience of meditating with a meditation bowl.
Your Turn
Now that you know what these are, imagine yourself in an open room or near a stream of water. There are the sounds of birds chirping in the air. No annoying honks and screeches. Only the smell of nature and the incense.
Then there comes the sound of the mallet hitting the meditation bowl, and just like that, with those vibrations released from the bowl, the negative energy flows out of you. By the end of a session with the meditation bowls, you will feel calmer and more relaxed than ever.