published articles by ann Martin

(featured in ENERGY Magazine, page 16 of the Jan/Feb 2021 issue)
 

Invite the magical sound from a metal or crystal singing bowl and you ignite more than a musical note floating around the treatment room. The stealth power of sound and vibration from these instruments can speak to the modern physical and mental complexities of the client in profound ways. Singing bowls are the most therapeutically effective (but often overlooked) tools for “Whole Person Healing." No matter your modality, singing bowls can amplify your healing intention and augment your unique skills; taking an energy session from “typical” to “astonishing” with a tap of a suede mallet.
 

Every singing bowl has special wellness “secrets” to offer you, your client, and the energy in the moment. Once you learn to truly listen to the sound and mindfully receive its vibration, you open to increased intuitive capabilities, creativity, and alignment with source energy.  Clients receive a deeper level of relief, while being ushered into physical resonance, balance, and an enhanced sense of physical and emotional wellbeing. Singing bowls also offer a unique option for assessing areas of energetic compromise, since their sound and vibration will change with the energy biofield of a client.
 

Singing bowls are used all over the world as tools for relaxation, music, meditation, health care, healing work, general well-being, and much more. When played, they emit a powerful, long-lasting harmonic hum that has both invigorating and calming effects. The resonance of the bowls' harmonic vibrations soothes the nervous system and create a balancing synchronization between the left and right brain. Most importantly, a singing bowl can initiate the “relaxation response” in the body; supporting the body’s ability to heal itself. In addition, many practitioners use singing bowls as tools to balance and activate energy flow and elevate the vibrational frequencies of the energetic and physical aspects. Bowls help co-create the complete wellness package: mind/body/spirit/energy.
 

Experiment with your singing bowl in these ways to begin to unlock the mysteries of its musical medicine!
 

Secret #1: The bowl synchronizes the MIND
 

It’s not easy for the modern mind to find peace in our stressed-out, digitally dependent culture. Most people are hyper-connected to their devices to the point where distraction is the pre-eminent condition of our age. Now more than ever before, brains multi-task to survive.  By offering the opportunity for the busy brain to focus on just one thing, (like the beautiful sound from a singing bowl) you are offering an avenue to better mental wellness and overall health to your client.
 

Singing bowls speak the language of the brain: frequency. When clients are introduced to the calming sounds from the healing bowls, their busy “beta” brainwaves slow down to an alpha/theta brainwave state comparable to a meditative mind. In this peaceful state, both hemispheres of the brain can balance, new neural pathways are created, and the constant mind-chatter ceases. This means the client achieves that “post-session” brain at the beginning of your treatment. In this mind-state, your client can receive energy work on a much deeper, more profound level.
 

You can offer these benefits to your client by standing at the head of the treatment table and gently tapping or gonging your bowl at the crown. Instruct the client to follow the sound into silence (while you do the same to center yourself!). Re-ignite the sound and float the bowl slowly from ear to ear across the bridge of the nose to balance the brain. Take a moment to notice the vibration from the bowl traveling down your arm and into the heart. This is a perfect way to open your treatment and set the healing tone for the entire session for both you and your client.
 

Secret #2: The bowl harmonizes the BODY
 

The human body is a natural “resonator” for sound and vibration because it is approximately 70 percent water; sound travels four times faster in water than in air. When metal singing bowls are placed and played on the client’s body, vibration travels systemically through the physical form and manifests as greater pain relief, a profound sense of stillness, and much-needed comfort. Waves of percussive vibration also sink deep into bones, muscles, and organs while offering more productive breathing, stress release, immunity boost, blood detoxification, and muscle softening.
 

These physiological benefits can be deployed by simply placing your bowl (10” or larger works best) on the belly of the client and giving it a strong “gong” with the padded mallet. The weight and vibration from the bowl will deeply relax muscle holding patterns and soothe anxiety while opening all the lower chakras. You can leave the bowl in this location and re-ignite the sound intermittently while initiating other energy protocols.
 

Secret #3: The bowl revitalizes the SPIRIT
 

When both mind and body are calm, you have the perfect container to access something deeper: Spirit, True Self, intuition, wisdom, pure presence, etc. People are drawn to the bowls because they stop the negative, cyclical thinking patterns so connection with authenticity is possible. This state of blissful peace is always available through the singing bowls and is a major gift we can offer our clients and ourselves in every session. To help in this process, slowly float the singing bowl over the client from head to feet and ask them to receive as a “Listening Presence.” Accepting sound and vibration with the whole body, not just the ears, invites the client to take part in their own healing experience while encouraging an open readiness for your energy skills.
 

Secret #4: The bowl elevates ENERGY
 

You will experience your OWN healing work in new ways because the bowl becomes a tool for sensing, diagnosing, breaking up, moving, clearing and balancing energy. You can embrace a new creativity and new approach to your healing routines. You will also find that working with sound and vibration doesn’t wear you out! It elevates your physical energy, so you won’t feel drained post-session. In addition, the circles of sound produced from these instruments expand outward, like a sanitizing energy vortex that carries negativity out to the Universe, keeping you and your space clear of toxic energy.
 

To clear a healing space using sound from a singing bowl, simply walk to all four corners of the room and gently tap the metal bowl with the wooden end of the mallet. The bright, sharp sound produced is effective for cutting through negative energy and replacing it with a brilliant, shimmering sound. You can also sing the bowl counterclockwise to release unwanted energy in a space, and then play clockwise to invite a new energy into the space.
 

Secret #5: The bowl revives sessions
 

Using a singing bowl with energy work makes for a memorable session that sets you apart from the competition, with potential to increase your business considerably. Most people have probably heard of singing bowls but haven’t experienced them in a therapeutic way. Therefore, combining the effectiveness of a bowl with your unique healing gifts, is a great way to re-invigorate former clients, excite existing clients, and attract new clients.  

 

Learning specialized energy-bowl techniques will help unleash the full potential of your singing bowl and allow you to integrate it seamlessly into sessions. Without a doubt, your singing bowl provides a deeper level of relief to your clients with less effort, while supporting them to come into an enhanced sense of physical and emotional wellbeing. All ages, body types, and medical conditions can benefit from energy work and the transformative powers of sound and vibration.
 

The secret is out; when you hold a singing bowl, you hold the potential for wellness in palm of your hand!
 

BLISSbowls™ Amplify Healing Techniques
 

Therapists and healers of all kinds are learning specialized techniques that incorporate the therapeutic benefits of singing bowls. Ann Martin, Creator/Instructor of BLISSbowls™ Sound Healing Methods, provides online training and practical skills using crystal and Tibetan bowls for Healing Arts Practitioners all over the world. Ms. Martin states, “The BLISSbowls™ program offers a contemporary approach to sound healing while providing a platform to integrate the unique talents of each participant.” Those who complete the 4 levels of instruction will have the creativity and confidence to craft singing bowls into their existing practices as a BLISSbowls™ Practitioner. For more information on BLISSbowls™ online training, click HERE.

(featured in YOGA+life Magazine, August 2019 issue) 

Want to supercharge your yoga practice? You can capture the interest of old and new students while boosting the effectiveness of your yoga classes by adding one simple tool: singing bowls! Tibetan/Himalayan or quartz crystal bowls bring the healing power of sound and vibration to a yoga practice and help you stand out in the ocean of other practitioners out there.

Bowls and yoga strive for the same goals: a rich mind/body/spirit experience. Singing bowls are a scientifically-based calming tool for the mind proven to produce frequencies that easily change beta brainwaves into the alpha/theta meditative state (through a process called “entrainment”). In addition, since the body is primarily water, vibrations produced from the bowls can travel through the physical form to relax into muscles, bones and organs. Every yogi knows that with a calm mind and relaxed body, you have the perfect container to access something deeper: spirit, voice of True Self, intuition, wisdom.

When you add singing bowls to your practice, your students can receive your yoga instruction on a deeper level, increasing their ability to move through weakness, fatigue, pain, mind-chatter and emotional tension.

Singing bowls can be seamlessly integrated into every aspect of your yoga practice from start to finish. You’ll find that bowls inspire flow and create a unique, memorable element to your class. Singing bowls blend with all yoga modalities and styles and let you decide how to integrate them into a practice…a lot or a little. Try these ideas:

1. Instructors can experience their own yoga practice in new ways. Invert a bowl on the head to help clear and balance the brain before class begins. Place a singing bowl in the palm to ignite the palm chakras or hold it on the fingertips to energize mudras.
2. Walking the bowl around the class will produce soothing sounds to clear the space and create vibration to raise the resonance within each person.
3. OM, chant, recite mantra or tone a chakra with a singing bowl. Combining voice in concert with the tones from the bowl offers extra internal vibration for mind and body while grounding students into the present moment.
4. Float the bowl close to bodies that are holding a pose to dissolve blockages, move energy and offer each participant a personal experience with the sound and vibration.
5. Playing a bowl during savasana can actually improve health and wellbeing. Physiologically, bowls initiate detoxification and the relaxation response in the body to help it heal itself. In addition, bowls can restore healthy harmonic patterns in the body and encourage healing on a cellular level.

The singing bowls are precious and powerful tools to be used BY you and THROUGH you. How remarkable that you will enjoy using them as much as your students will enjoy receiving them. Bringing joy, restoration and transformation into the world is the purpose of singing bowls. They are here to help the human condition. In your skilled hands, combined with your unique yoga practice, the singing bowls will amplify your healing intentions for helping your students.

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 Ann Martin, Sound Energy Practitioner, combines a 30-year career in the healing arts with a 40-year profession as a skilled musician to manifest her passion for helping people through an innovative approach to sound healing. She is a pioneer in the use of therapeutic techniques with singing bowls to help a modern society find transformation, stress-relief and pure presence. She is Founder and Creator of the “BLISSbowls™ Healing Method,” teaching people all over the world how to integrate singing bowls into their professional practices. For more information on how to choose a bowl, play a bowl correctly and integrate singing bowls into your yoga practice, check out “Singing Bowls and Yoga: Amplify Your Practice with Modern BLISSbowls™ Techniques,” available HERE.