The most important facts in brief
- The perception of sounds is a matter of practice: the more often you try out a sound exercise, the better you will feel the sound with your whole body.
- The exercises are about letting go completely - the sounds help you to do this and guide you inwards.
- You can also do the Singing Bowls exercises wonderfully with children and as an evening ritual.
- Sound exercises in the evening can help you fall asleep and stay asleep.
Singing Bowls Play, listen and perceive
By playing strike or playing a Singing Bowl we arrive at listening. Listening is more than just hearing, it is a perception of the sounds with the whole body. During the following Singing Bowls exercises, allow yourself to become fully involved with the sounds, body sensations, thoughts and feelings. Listening to the sounds leads you inwards and into a soothing silence, while what is happening on the outside fades into the background.
Singing BowlsExercise 1: How to play your Singing Bowl and find inner peace
This exercise is a kind of sound meditation. Make yourself comfortable and place the Peter Hess® Universal Bowl or another high-quality Singing Bowl directly in front of you on a cushion or other vibrating surface.
strike and nuances of sound
Now strike your Singing Bowl gently and listen to the sound. Perhaps close your eyes while you do this to fully immerse yourself in the sounds. Can you hear the different nuances? The different high and low tones together create a wonderful sound that is rich in overtones.
Feel the sound
Listen to the sound with your whole body and become one with it. You may feel how your body is touched by the sound vibrations. Can you feel the sound?
Let your breath become calmer
After a while, you can play your Singing Bowl again. As you listen to the sounds rise and fall, your breathing will become calmer, deeper and more relaxed. If you like, consciously take a few deep breaths. The silence after each sound creates a pleasant calm within you. Enjoy the sounds for as long as you like and take in the relaxing, harmonizing effect.
Tracing
Now put Singing Bowl and mallets aside and listen for a moment with your eyes closed. Perhaps you can still feel the sounds even though they have faded away - they continue to resonate within you. How do you feel now, what is going on inside you, how do you perceive your body? Take your time and simply observe without judging.
Conclusion
Finally, take a few more deep breaths and stretch.
Good to know
If you don't feel the sounds in all areas of your body when you first start practicing, that's completely fine. Like so many things in life, the perception of sounds is a matter of practice. We therefore recommend practicing the sound exercises regularly - preferably daily, but for less time.
Singing BowlsExercise 2: Experience the sounds of Singing Bowl via the hand reflex zones
During this exercise, try to focus your attention entirely on the area of your body that is being addressed. This will allow you to experience how the sound vibrations gradually spread through your body. Used regularly, this short sound meditation can be a valuable companion in everyday life. The entire body is stimulated via the reflex zones. This Singing Bowls exercise is therefore particularly good at preventing stress and overload at an early stage or reducing them regularly and strengthening your own health.
Preparation
Make yourself comfortable in a seated position. Open the palm of your right hand with the palm facing upwards. If it is more comfortable for you, you can also place your hand on a cushion. Now position the Singing Bowl on the palm of your hand.
Singing Bowl strike
Hit your Singing Bowl gently from the outside at the top edge. At first, simply listen to the sounds. In the next step, expand your perception to include feeling. Consciously perceive the vibrations of Singing Bowl in the palm of your hand. Feel the gentle vibrations of the ringing bowl on the palm of your hand and focus all your attention on it. The vibrations move gently over the skin and through the palm of your hand.
Feel the vibrations throughout your body
Now expand your attention to your entire body: allow the sounds to flow through it. Feel how the sound vibrations spread from your palm to the right wrist and then to the right forearm, the right elbow joint, the right upper arm, the right shoulder joint, the neck area and finally to the whole body.
Change page
Take enough time to perceive the sounds in your body. When you are ready, position the Singing Bowl on your left hand and repeat the process for the right hand.
Tracing
Now put Singing Bowl and mallets aside and feel for a moment with your eyes closed. If you like, consciously take a few deep breaths. Be completely with yourself: how do you feel, what is going on inside you, how do you perceive your body?
Conclusion
To finish, take a few deep breaths and stretch. Return to everyday life at your own pace.
Would you like even more detailed instructions for a sound exercise? In this video we show you step by step how to give yourself a sound massage for your hands at home.
Singing Bowls-Exercise 3: Sound relaxation for the abdomen
The abdomen is a particularly sensitive area of the body that can react to stressful situations with digestive problems, abdominal or stomach pain. Playing Singing Bowls produces sounds that are a wonderful way to gently relax the stomach.
The sound relaxation exercise for the abdomen has also proven particularly effective for menstrual cramps.
Preparation
Lie loosely on your back and make yourself as comfortable as possible. Position the Singing Bowl on the solar plexus chakra. This is about a hand's width above your navel. Make sure that your head and the arm with which you want to do the Singing Bowl strike are well supported so that there is no unnecessary strain or tension.
Singing Bowl strike and play
Now gently play the Singing Bowl from the outside at the upper edge. If you wish, close your eyes and focus your attention entirely on your solar plexus chakra. Notice how the sounds gently massage this area and how pleasant relaxation gradually spreads from there. Breathe deeply and repeat this process several times.
Singing Bowl relocate
After you have struck the Singing Bowl a few times on your solar plexus chakra, push it a little further down onto your abdomen so that the Singing Bowl touches your pubic bone. Now gently strike the bowl here a few times. Take your time between the strokes and feel the spreading vibration. Then push the Singing Bowl back onto the solar plexus chakra and hit it there again about three to five times.
Tracing
What are you feeling now and how are you feeling? Simply notice without judging. Put Singing Bowl and mallets aside and reflect for a moment with your eyes closed. If you like, consciously take a few deep breaths. Perhaps you can still feel the sounds, even though the audible sound has already faded.
Conclusion
Finally, stretch extensively before opening your eyes and bringing your attention back to the here and now.
Note
The abdomen usually reacts particularly sensitively to the sounds. The gentle sound vibrations spread through the skin, organs, tissue, body fluids and body cavities. These experience a gentle massage and (re)begin to move.
It is therefore possible that this Singing Bowls exercise stimulates digestion and alleviates cramp-like symptoms, such as menstrual cramps. Stress, which often physically feels like a stone in the stomach, can be gradually reduced.
Singing BowlsExercise 4: Play Singing Bowl in the evening - ritual and sleep aid
The sounds of Singing Bowl always have a holistic effect on the body, mind and soul and help you to calm your spinning thoughts. After a stressful day, sound relaxation for the stomach - as in exercise 3 - is a good way to fall asleep and stay asleep. As you listen to the sounds and perceive the vibrations, the burden of everyday life gradually falls away from you.
You can use this evening ritual to let the images of the day pass by without holding on to them. Playing Singing Bowl helps you to do this as a neutral observer. This allows you to see what went particularly well and was enjoyable - and also what was not so enjoyable and what you might want to do differently next time. Then slowly let your thoughts calm down so that your body relaxes more and more. It may well happen that you drift off into a deep sleep immediately after the exercise.
The sounds of Singing Bowl always have a holistic effect on the body, mind and soul and help you to calm your spinning thoughts. After a stressful day, sound relaxation for the stomach - as in exercise 3 - is a good way to fall asleep and stay asleep. As you listen to the sounds and perceive the vibrations, the burden of everyday life gradually falls away from you.
You can use this evening ritual to let the images of the day pass by without holding on to them. Playing Singing Bowl helps you to do this as a neutral observer. This allows you to see what went particularly well and was enjoyable - and also what was not so enjoyable and what you might want to do differently next time. Then slowly let your thoughts calm down so that your body relaxes more and more. It may well happen that you drift off into a deep sleep immediately after the exercise.
The sounds in the evening can also be used as an excellent bedtime ritual with children. You can look back on the day with them or accompany the bedtime story with the sounds. There are many possibilities here.
Singing Bowls-Exercise 5: Foot bath with Singing Bowl
A footbath with sound can be a very special experience. The vibrations of the Singing Bowl spread evenly through the water and flow from there into your feet and legs. For this very gentle way of absorbing the sounds, you will need a tub large enough to hold both your feet and a Singing Bowl .
This exercise with Singing Bowl can help you to ground yourself and relax and recharge your entire body with the power of sound.
Preparation
Fill the tub about halfway with warm water so that the water reaches above your ankles. Optionally, add a few drops of pure natural essential oil. Lavender or peppermint oil, for example, are suitable for relaxing your feet and legs.
Placing the Singing Bowl
Place the tub in front of a chair and make yourself comfortable. You should be able to relax and place your feet in the warm water. Now place the Singing Bowl on the surface of the water, preferably in front of or between your feet.
Creating sound
Take your singing bowl mallet and gently strike the Singing Bowl . Observe for a moment how the sound vibrations spread through the water and reach your legs.
Relaxing and perceiving
Now close your eyes and feel how the sounds reach your body and gently massage it, starting from your feet and moving upwards. Imagine how the sounds flow through you like water and mindfully make their way through your body. Hit the Singing Bowl again as soon as the sound subsides. Repeat this five to six times and enjoy the pleasant relaxation.
Ending the exercise
Allow the vibrations to fade slowly and breathe for a few breaths. When you are ready, open your eyes, stretch, take your feet out of the water and dry them. Take your Singing Bowl out of the water and dry them carefully too.
Play the gong and experience deep relaxation
Similar to the exercises for Singing Bowls , you can also play a gong to achieve deep relaxation. Today, the gong plays an important role in sound and music therapy. This form of therapy has received more and more attention in recent years, as the experience of frequencies enables stress reduction, deep relaxation, overcoming anxiety and harmony with oneself.
Good to know
Like Singing Bowls , the gong has the advantage that the frequencies - especially the overtones - develop and spread slowly and do not subside quickly as with other instruments. This means that these frequencies can be better felt and internalized with the whole body. Those who embrace this can experience balance and inner peace by playing the gong.
Gong bath
Several gongs are usually used for this exercise. It is usually offered as part of a course for several participants or as an individual session. The gong bath is an intensive form of sound therapy. The aim of this meditation is to leave everyday life and its worries and stress behind. The gong bath immerses you in a deeply relaxing sound experience, a sea of sound in which participants are enveloped by the sounds of various gongs and other ancient instruments.
To take a gong bath, lie down on a comfortable mat as centrally as possible between the gongs, close your eyes and let the unique sounds of the gongs work their magic on you. Within a very short time, you will be transported into a space of silence and inspiration. The sound waves of the gongs are so strong that you can feel them all over your body. With each strike of the gong, the resonance of the gong adds up to a sound space that carries the listener away.
Learn to play the gong
It is not only professional musicians in orchestras who learn to play the gong, but also yoga and meditation teachers, alternative practitioners, therapists and private individuals who are interested in this voluminous and fascinating instrument. If you would like to learn to play the gong in a seminar, you will usually also learn a lot about the basic meditative posture, sound qualities and expressive possibilities of the gong. In the Peter Hess® Institute's basic gong course, you will also learn how to play the gong to create a specific sound carpet in sound meditations and sound journeys.
Those who learn to play a gong also learn a lot about the tradition of the gong and are introduced to the playing techniques of different types of gong. You will also learn about the numerous possible applications, especially in the therapeutic field. When playing the gong, it is particularly important to learn how and where the respective tones are produced on the gong and what nuances and facets the sounds have. It is also exciting to find out how to make sounds swell and then gently subside again.
The Peter Hess® Institute offers you numerous opportunities to use your gong, whether as part of a sound massage, a fantasy journey or an experimental gong experience. Take a look at the various (online) seminars and workshops or enter the keyword "Gong" in the seminar search.
The advantages of a seminar to learn to play a gong:
- Get to know the basic meditative posture and history of the gong
- Experience different application possibilities
- Experience how the gong helps you to let go of everyday life and relax
- Listen to and play different gongs
- Approach it yourself and try it out under supervision
- Learn the sound carpet for sound meditations and sound journeys
- Accompaniment of sound massages