The meditative practice uses sounds to aid relaxation
December can feel fast-paced. We all want to finish the year in the best way possible while juggling the holidays with our usual responsibilities.
Our schedules are busy, everywhere we go is busy, and amid the rush of it all we hope perhaps to the present year’s resolutions a final shot.
As a result we tend to feel overwhelmed, finding a particular difficulty in feeling in the present. That is something the meditation practitioner Lucia Poli knows about.
“We have our brain in go-mode, and then your body can’t catch up, leaving us exhausted,” Poli said. “At the end of the year, most people have results and deadlines to hit.”
But the wellness expert believes she has a solution: sound baths, a meditative practice which uses sounds to create a calming, relaxing experience.
“It puts you in the present, having a moment in your body and your brain, showing you where you are at that moment,” Poli said.
Poli has recently brought her sound bath practice to Surbiton for the first time, and as someone with end-of-the-year exam stress and a lot to catch up on, I wanted to check if it might help my brain slow down or switch off for a while.
The sound bath session took place in the Pilates and wellbeing studio The Alcheme in Surbiton. There were six participants and tutor Poli in an ordinary gymnastics room, with candles in the corners and a warm-toned low light. There were five yoga mats, each accompanied by a pillow and a blanket.
In front of us there were seven crystal bowls of varying sizes arranged in a half-moon shape, and a golden meditation gong.
Poli started the session with two minutes of guided meditation. She asked us to relax each part of our bodies in order, from head to toe. “Pretend your body is melted into the ground,” Poli said, as I felt my tense shoulders successfully relax.
The sound bath itself consisted of participants lying down and experiencing the different sounds played by Poli.
The wellness expert said the bath has a specific effect on the body. “It activates the rest and digest states of your nervous system,” she said. “It tells your body it’s safe to relax but also to start processing and healing both physically and emotionally.”
Purported benefits included a lower heart rate, muscle tension reduction, and decreased cortisol, according to Poli.
The bath started with gentle taps on the gong. Poli used mallets to increase the volume repetitively, creating a pattern of sound that made the room vibrate.
I spoke to first-time participant Georgia Whitter. She said: “I felt vibrations in my hand, so I moved them onto my belly and chest and still got them. It was very interesting”.
During the long periods of soothing sound, my body felt like it was being gently swung, creating a feeling that guided meditation or mindfulness has never made me feel.
“It is a full-body experience,” Rachel Miller, a sound bath regular, told me afterwards. “The sound and vibrations help me to let go more than other meditations; I sometimes get visuals going on during the session. Sound baths are more intense,” she added.
Next, we heard the light touch of the crystal bowls, which Poli gently rubbed against their rims, creating a different kind of vibration. She alternated between the bowls without waiting for the previous one to stop vibrating, making the notes overlap harmonically.
“The sound of the bowls was quite surprising. I didn’t know the sound they made. It was very relaxing,” said Elisa Pony, who was so soothed by the sound bath that she fell asleep during the session.
Finally, Poli used a pair of chimes to create a different sound as she walked around the room. She finished the session with the same meditative practice she began with, in order to get us and our bodies firmly back in the room.
Immediately after the session, I felt lighter. Pony said she felt ready to sleep after the practice.
Poli said she expects people to get a knock-on effect after participating in a session. “I just hope they get a moment to connect to themselves,” she said. “To ask yourself, ‘What do I need at this moment?’ Having a moment of stillness is really important.”
My first experience with a sound bath showed me how a simple series of sounds can press pause on stress. After a day, I found it easier to relax at night, and my sleep routine improved.
I found out I do not need much to make myself sit still for a few minutes and how much better I can feel after doing it. It made me realise how important it is to do that regularly. As a result, I’m making my new year’s resolution to take time out like this to make myself feel present, and will definitely give sound baths another shot.
The Alcheme Wellbeing studio, 23-25 Brighton Road Surbiton hosts daily yoga and Pilates classes you can book online. Sound bath session, £25, the first Sunday of the month at 6pm and alternate Friday mornings at 10am.
