Here’s What Singing Bowls Really Do For Your Body

As more people search for remedies to provide relief from common mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, sound healing has taken center stage as a viable addition to people’s self-care practices. Various cultures from all over the world have used singing bowls in celebrations and ceremonies — with good reason. Indeed, Good HouseKeeping notes, many cultures used singing bowls in capacities other than strictly for healing.

Brooklyn-based certified sound healer Nate Martinez explained to the outlet, “[Singing bowls] are typically made up of a blend of various metals found throughout the Himalayan region. Initially, they served, and still do, as practical functioning bowls for food, seeds and water.” He continued, “But they’ve also been used for as long as an instrument to create sounds, as well as a tool for meditation, ceremonies and in certain instances, healing.”

Today, you may have seen practitioners playing their soft tones on Instagram, offering relaxing frequencies to their followers. Especially since they help enhance your meditation practice, singing bowls can impact your body and mind in positive ways. Made with various alloys, each singing bowl can offer a different benefit. The outlet notes that most are made from bronze, but other naturally occurring substances, such as quartz and gold are also molded into bowls.

“What they are designed to do is cancel out the mind chatter, and allow you to really just experience these very soft, tonal wavelengths of vibration that allow you to ease the mind,” sound healer, Guy Douglas, offers to the outlet.

Those soft, sometimes high-pitched tones that many recognize as healing sounds do more than quiet the mind, however. The wavelength of these vibrations can prove deeply healing for your entire system. Susy Markoe Schiefflen explains to Shape, “Some of the science behind what takes place during a sound bath is that the healing frequencies of sound entrain with your brainwaves and can effortlessly shift you into brainwave states associated with deep rest, healing, and meditation. All you need to do is lie back, relax, and let the sound vibrations wash over you.”

This, in turn, calms the nervous system into a state of deep relaxation where cell repair regeneration can take place within your body and your mind. The outlet notes that these sounds can lower blood pressure and immediately reduce feelings of anger, depression and fatigue.

If you purchase a sound healing instrument of your own, there are plenty of ways to use it to your benefit. “You can use it to set an intention in the morning at the start of your day, to take a digital detox break to relax and center, to enhance meditation, to commemorate a ceremony or celebration, to clear the energy of a space, and before bed to achieve deep, mindful sleep,” Markoe explains.

People suffering from neurological issues such as epilepsy or seizures should speak with their doctors before frequently using sound bowls in their healing practices, however. Good HouseKeeping reports that the vibrations from the instruments may negatively interact with brain waves.

What’s A Sound Bath And What Are Its Benefits?

After a stressful day, there’s nothing more relaxing than a soak in the tub. A good ol’ bubble bath is a must when it comes to self-care, but if you’re looking for something a little less traditional that doesn’t require a bath bomb or fancy salts, you may want to consider a sound bath. Perhaps you’ve heard already the term “sound bath” drift in and out of conversations, especially for those surrounding by holistically-minded folks. It sounds pretty futuristic, but the name itself is a touch misleading, as this bath has nothing to do with water or bubbles, but it can be just as relaxing and rejuvenating as the former.

A sound bath usually takes place in a studio with a small group of people. It’s led by an instructor who uses a multitude of instruments and tools to create the sound and atmosphere — this can involve singing bowls, tuning forks, gongs, and drums among others (via Verywell Mind). The experience is meant to be meditative, and you typically lie on your back while being “bathed” in the sound waves created by the music. While there are supposed benefits, this kind of alternative concert is oftentimes just viewed as a method of relaxation, like a meditation class or massage would be.

One study from 2017 that was published in the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine found that sound baths reduced tension and physical pain for some of the participants. It’s also said the sound baths can be beneficial in reducing anxiety, insomnia, and stress. According to Nate Martinez, a certified sound therapy practitioner, who spoke with Everyday Health, “[Sound baths] can be very helpful with anxiety and stress, which manifest in so many ways, affecting sleep, digestion, and memory. By experiencing a sound bath, you can provide your whole body with a reset.”

While there isn’t too much scientific proof yet covering the benefits of a these musical meditations, there are a lot of qualitative reviews and firsthand experiences where people claim they’ve been positively effected by a sound bath. So if you’re interested in alternative therapies for reducing things like stress or anxiety, there’s really no harm in trying it for yourself, as long as you speak with your doctor before jumping in to this new experience.

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Vibrational sound therapy can retune your body, mind and spirit, encouraging relaxation, healing and wellness.

This one-on-one service uses therapeutic singing bowls placed on the body to create a combination of tones and vibrations that produce a state of tranquility and act as a massage for the nervous system.

How it works
When relaxing through soothing sound and vibration, your body is affected on a cellular level, opening energy flow to move you back toward healthy alignment. Stress creates an unhealthy flow of energy, first appearing as low energy in your aura, and, later, as ill health, mentally and physically.

Placing the therapeutic singing bowls directly on the body and creating a therapeutic sound wave vibration allows a practitioner to engage with the client physically and energetically. The practitioner generates a vibration on the singing bowls, which creates physical vibration throughout your body. As the bowls focus on the physical connection, the practitioner focuses on spiritual and energetic connections.

How it helps
The benefits of vibrational sound therapy are numerous. Vibrational sound therapy can:

Reduce stress
Reduce pain
Ease blockages and tension
Reduce depression
Improve sleep
Boost creativity
Improve concentration
Balance energy fields (aura) and chakras
Lower blood pressure

Research

Effects of singing bowl sound meditation on mood tension and wellbeing: An observational study | T. Goldsby, M. Goldsby, M. McWalters and P. Mills (2016)

The human health effects of singing bowls: A systematic review (Abstract) | J. Stanhope and P. Weinstein (2020)

Learn More

Are There Health Benefits To Tibetan Singing Bowls? | Healthline

Can Tibetan Singing Bowls Help Relieve Stress? | Very Well Mind

Dangers Of Singing Bowls | Healthline
Dangers Of Singing Bowls | Shanti Bowl
How To Use A Singing Bowl | Singing Bowl Museum
Singing Bowl Playing Instructions | Bells Of Bliss
Sound Research | Stanford Medicine

https://openaccesspub.org/jbtm/article/1181
A Comparative Study of the Impact of Himalayan Singing Bowls and Supine Silence on Stress Index and Heart Rate Variability
G. Trivedi and B. Saboo (2019)

https://openaccesspub.org/ijpr/article/1282
Impact of Himalayan Singing Bowls Meditation Session on Mood and Heart Rate Variability
S. Panchal, F. Irani and G. Trivedi (2020)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5871151/
Effects of Singing Bowl Sound Meditation on Mood, Tension, and Well-being: An Observational Study
T. Goldsby, M. Goldsby, M. McWalters and P. Mills (2017)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9144189/
Neurophysiological Effects of a Singing Bowl Massage
N. Walter and T. Hinterberger (2022)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S096522991931756X

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1550830723001660

https://soundslikeadream.com/about-sound-therapy

https://www.verywellmind.com/tibetan-singing-bowls-for-healing-89828