If you’re like many people, you hear the words zen and meditation, and you think hippies and pseudoscience. You can hear how you should go do relaxation and deep breathing exercises over and over: you may consider it a good idea, and you may not, but you likely won’t take the time out of your busy day to actually implement it. But what if we told you the same mechanism that makes buildings collapse in earthquakes could be used to improve the function of your brain?
One of the best things you can do for your stress, your sleep, and your overall health has been preached for thousands of years at this point. The fact is that lowering your cortisol through deep relaxation or meditation can have profound effects on your sleep and risk for disease (1).
And what may be even more interesting is that people identified a tool centuries ago that can make your guided relaxation even more effective at doing so: it’s called a Himalayan Singing Bowl.
What can humming to a bowl do for you? Well as someone who has intimately studied earthquakes for a living, I found this to be very interesting. Both your brain and earthquakes operate at a dominant frequency, depending on their state and characteristics. In fact, most everything in the world has what’s called a “natural frequency,” which is the one that is most dominant.
Earthquake engineers typically focus on something called resonance between the earthquake motion and buildings, which is when the natural frequency of the earthquake motion is similar in nature to that of the natural frequency of the building. This is because the building gets excited by that frequency the most, and that’s when the most damage can happen.
So how does that apply to your brain? Well scientists have dialed in the dominant wave states depending on what function your brain is performing. So for example, your brain operates at a higher frequency when you’re alert and focused (beta brain state), and your brain operates at a lower frequency when you’re in a meditative state (theta brain state).
This is where the Himalayan singing bowl comes in, as you can use resonance to quickly and more fully put your brain in a theta brain state. And studies have shown the direct implications of such a phenomenon. For example, this study showed your blood pressure can be brought down more after using a singing bowl and practicing deep relaxation than deep relaxation alone.
So there you have it: some of those ancient pseudosciency concepts that have been practiced for hundreds of years may in fact have some basis to them!
Let us know how you’ve applied these concepts in your life! We coach our clients on similar simple methods to optimize stress and overall health goals on a regular basis. Join THE PLATFORM today to learn how to elevate your health and physique and be kept accountable for achieving your goals.