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The sound of music is creating its own spiritual healing in a Bahrain studio helping stress sufferers cope with life.
Meditation practitioner Melanie Sarginson is using crystal singing bowls to drum up support for yoga devotees and others wanting to cool down the pace.
“Each bowl creates a note on the scale from A to G.” she explained. “There are some sharp sounds but the idea is to meditate and to really take in the sound of each bowl individually.
“While doing so, ask yourself if you need to let go of something specific, how you would do that using the sound to help you.
“There may be another sound which may ask you if there is something else you want to manifest. It’s just a great way for the different tones to enter your brain providing balance and harmony.”
British expat grandma Melanie learned the playing technique after taking classes with an expert practitioner from the US state of California, and now offers her version of the healing sounds at Ki Train studio in Seef area.
More than a dozen people attended her first 45-minute class which included an introduction, the setting of a relaxed space for participants, the playing of the serene trance-like sounds and a sharing session at the end to see how everyone felt about the experience.
She said: “I have conducted classes before but mostly in a private setting. Each time I play it is different and that’s because I go into an alternate state myself.”
Melanie is considering holding further public sessions in association the studio depending on the demand.
Singing bowls come in different shapes, colours and sizes and are traditional Tibetan style, made up of a combination of metals or pure quartz crystal.
The playing of the bowls has been used to enhance meditation, intuition, relaxation and bodywork in the Far East for centuries and nowadays is conducted for music therapy and emotional release across the globe. It is sometimes also used alongside traditional medical treatment for spiritual healing as well as an alternative to pain medication.
As attendees rested on yoga mats and giant cushions at the opening session in Bahrain, Melanie weaved around a table moving a mallet around the bowl in a circular fashion to produce different harmonies that grew stronger over time.
Black belt Non-Impact Aerobics (NIA) instructor Iman Galal Fouad, who has Egyptian roots and lives in Riffa Views, put the class to the test and says she is already looking forward to the next session.
“It was a new experience and I enjoyed it,” she said. “I had heard about these metallic bowls and was interested to see how different the crystal ones would be and during the session some of the sounds did resonate with me.”
For details on the next class, contact 36242230 or visit www.kitrain.com
