Find Your Bliss With a Meditation Sound Bath
I rarely meet anyone that does not express some symptoms or feelings of stress. Stress comes with the pace and structure of our lives, especially in Northern Virginia where I live. Studies that examined the effects of sound meditation showed significant improvements in mood, anxiety, pain, and spiritual well-being. Poor mood and elevated anxiety are linked to increased incidence of disease, so sound bath meditation can have health benefits beyond just relaxation. This Sunday, Mindful is bringing the gongs and crystal bowls to the lovely setting of YogaShak's aerial yoga silks for a unique sound bath meditation experience. No yoga postures required -- just sit sit or lay comfortably and be cradled in silk and sound. Remember, there is no "right way" to do a sound bath meditation. For people who are stressed out, depressed, or in physical pain, Sound “Baths” are a powerful and increasingly popular way to shift your being from stressed and ‘surviving’ into thriving. Plus, you get to enjoy a state of blissful meditative mindfulness too.
Register here.
Sound and music have been used for millennia to focus the mind in a blissful state, calm the emotions, and even relieve pain and promote healing. Different cultures have used chanting, drums, gongs, singing bowls, bells, and all kinds of instruments to bring harmony and balance to body and mind. We can enjoy the same benefits today and take a break from the bedlam around us by simply getting comfortable and letting the sounds created by a skilled practitioner wash over us. And no, you don’t need a bathing suit or towel…
Your Brain On Gongs...
During a sound healing or gong bath, which typically lasts about an hour, you simply lie down in comfortable clothes on a mat, close your eyes, and relax, letting the sounds wash over you. Instruments including gongs, crystal bowls, chimes, and voice are used to create a sound-scape that is deeply relaxing and healing. The gong sound is changed frequently to avoid producing a fixed, monotonous rhythm and instead complex washes of sound create relaxing and healing effects. The auditory stimuli of the gong bath process lead to entrainment, a way that sound waves synchronize brainwaves into specific patterns and frequencies. For example, Alpha brainwaves are associated with creativity and feelings of relaxation and are associated with mental clarity, focus, and meditation. In this state, people experience daydreams, associative thinking and an animated imagination. This state is often followed by an influx of theta brainwaves. Normally, the theta brainwave state is associated with deep meditation, hypnosis and REM sleep (dreaming). In a gong bath, your brain will find it difficult to organize conscious thoughts around the sounds of the gongs and bowls, and most people will go into a deep meditative state at least once during the session.
The Easy Way to Meditate - Let Go and Let Gong
Unlike other forms of meditation you may have tried, the Sound Bath requires no particular mental effort or methodology. The listener only has to relax, breathe, and let the sound of the gong do the work. The experience is virtually effortless. A Sound Bath is a unique and highly personal experience. The gong speaks to each one of us individually, meeting us wherever we are on our life journey. Many people find benefits such as physical relaxation, stress reduction, emotional release or insight, along with other well-established benefits of deep meditation.
If you are unable to participate in this week's Arial Sound Bath Experience, you can stay up to date on future offerings by following
Mindful and
Paige Fishel, LCSW on Facebook.
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