Experiencing A Gong Bath For The First Time
… Sound healing at its finest.
. . .
I have to admit, even after reading all of the benefits of sound healing and researching its origin, I was still entirely skeptical of how my first gong bath was going to go. I mean, could hitting multiple different size bowls really help to heal the body?
Sound healing is a Himalayan folk medicine tradition that aims to give relief to the body through vibration techniques using seven hand-crafted metal singing bowls. Each bowl is hammered in every space of its making, covering it with good wishes and enlightenment.
I attended my first gong bath this past Thursday, February 22, 2018.
Walking into The Imaginarium, I was surrounded by the smell of essential oils and various potted plants which had created a humidity that frosted the front windows
{it was as if the toxins were running away from this place}.
I was gifted a cup of homemade Lavender Honeysuckle Tea, which I escorted to my very own mattress covered in an assortment of comfortable blankets and pillows. It was the perfect sleeping environment. However, we were not there to sleep, we were there to cleanse our bodies and stabilize its natural vibrations.
Even as the lights went out.
As she began striking individual bowls to create a harmony, I relaxed into my mattress with a deep interest in feeling a difference. Our intention was to explore the mind in corpse pose. As the class continued, our instructor carried specific bowls to those in need and placed them on our bellies and backs to strike from a closer proximity.
And that's when I felt it.
As the bowl was placed on my stomach and struck, I felt a shift in my body.
It was as if my pent-up anxiety was being reframed to an entirely new feeling... a good feeling. My skepticism started fading after that moment, as I slowly became a believer. The next movement the instructor specified towards me was the placement of another certain metal bowl, smaller, which she sounded close to my head. In that second moment of interaction, I could feel the sound forcing that part of me to release all tension. I felt as though my head was making a fist and once it clang, it released it into complete relaxation.
Incredible, right?
{my mattress was the red one to the left}
As Jevon Dangeli stated, accredited coach and trainer by The International Association of Coaches, Therapists & Mentors (IACTM), “Each bowl coordinates to one energy center of the body. These centers of bundled nerves, also esoterically known as the chakras, vibrate at their own frequency or musical note when in perfect health.”
Maybe there really is something to this healing practice that our Western culture isn’t fully aware of just yet. When science is applied, along with personal experience, I have found Eastern medicine practices become unmistakably known as a healing tool for the human body. Each of the seven different chakras are sections of the body that contain specific organs that function similarly. It makes sense to appeal to each differently, therefore, believing each has its own vibration is a matter of the making of our universe.