The peace-inducing effects of a singing bowl on a busy HSP brain

Last weekend, I was at a conference workshop hosted by Leonore Langner, a person-centred and sound therapist from Austria.  And it was a revelation.

Leonore played us different sounds and talked a little about key tones, overtones, undertones, sound waves, frequencies and vibrations.  She showed us graphs of the sounds – some far ‘busier’ than others – and explained how our brains and bodies respond to complex harmonic resonance.

We could take part in a sound exercise if we wanted to.  I closed my eyes as Leonore hit a Tibetan singing bowl with a soft mallet and let each sound build and recede.  She did this in a slow rhythm for 20 minutes.

For the first five minutes my busy brain was antsy, unsettled, untrusting, resistant.  My usual reaction to any sort of meditative offering.

Then something weird happened.  My mind went completely blank.  I sensed an empty screen where it had been: no thoughts, no pictures, no sounds.  Except the singing bowl.

Leonore invited us think about the conference and to express how we felt when we arrived, how we felt now.  My brain said no.  That’s not where it wanted to focus.

Instead, it took me off to a beautiful beach in Donegal that I’d visited earlier in the year.  I blogged about the impact of the place on me here.

But this virtual visit was something else.  Everything about it was magnified – the lapping water, the colours and – above all – the peace.  And in this image, I was barefoot, more in touch with the whole experience somehow.  It inspired me to write a poem.

And it left me quite emotional.  My busy brain had never, ever, been this quiet.  It made me realise how noisy and relentlessly hard-working it usually is.  Processing, processing, always processing.

Is your busy HSP brain in need of a rest?  Might singing bowls and gong or sound baths (as I hear they are sometimes called) be something you’d like to explore for yourself?  Here’s a link to some science on the topic too.

My brain certainly knows it wants to experience that beautiful quiet again.