Today I attended a singing bowl massage for the first time in my life. I have previously heard about the practice and I have been curious to try it out for a while.

I went to see Katja Nikkanen, who practices singing bowl massage in the North of Oulu. She played and placed the different sized singing bowls on my body – first at the back of my body and then on the front. Some resonated with deeper sounds others were higher and lighter. I could feel the vibrations enter right into the core of my body. The experience was deeply relaxing. I could have stayed in that gentle vibrational state for a long time. At the end of the treatment, I had reached a relaxed state similar to that between wake and sleep. It felt comfortably like the state I usually drop into during a cranio-sacral treatment. I loved it.

At times, I tend to collect tension and get stressed. Reaching a deeper state of relaxation during a treatment slows me right down and the challenges in life feel more manageable.

Singing bowl healing is based on ancient healing practices, with roots in India -particularly in the Himalayas.

Some of the benefits of the treatment are considered to be a gentle massage and harmonisation of body cells through sound, relief of tension, re-activation of self-healing processes and letting go of old patterns. In a similar way to cranio-sacral therapy, the singing bowl treatment encourages the internal healing process that can carry on for some time after a treatment – from a few days to weeks. I tend to notice these changes in my dreams. I am looking forward to discovering what might happen over the next few nights.

“The sound of the singing bowl touches our innermost soul and brings it into vibration. The sound breaks tension, mobilizes self healing forces, and sets free creative energies.” — Peter Hess