Gong Bath

[Andunwoody]

Yesterday evening I was invited to a Gong Therapy workshop by a friend and decided to go because it sounded interesting. I brought along my yoga mat as instructed fully expecting there to be a lecture or talk followed by a short meditation session with gongs. How wrong could I be? It was actually an hour long 'Gong Bath'. So there I was laid in a darkened room with about twenty other people listen to gongs reverberating very loudly for a hour....eek! At first it was a far from meditative experience as my brain flooded with negative thoughts 'It's so loud' , 'When I'm on a plane I wear noise cancelling headphones and here I am voluntarily having God knows how many decibels blasted in to my head', 'This is going to damage my hearing' etc etc. Of course I could have got up and left but I'm English and thus genetically programmed not to make a fuss, so leaving wasn't really an option. Not only were the gongs loud but there was a lot of echo, reverberation and vibration. Despite the volume of the gongs I could still hear the T in my left ear which has hearing loss from Otosclerosis. It my right ear was the one that really worried me, the hearing loss isn't as bad in this ear but the T is worse and I also have occasional H due to two bouts of what may or may not be Ménière's disease, at times I couldn't tell if the noise in this ear was from the gongs or just my own in built ear ringing.

Had I known in advance what this evening entailed there is no way would I have gone but I'm so glad I did. Once I calmed down a bit I really enjoyed the meditation experience and where the gongs took my mind. The anxiety of 'how will my ears be after this' did keep resurfacing every now and again. Afterwards my ears where exactly the same as when I had arrived at the hall, yep pretty noisy but then again they always are. Last night I slept incredibly well. I now feel more confident around noise and less fearful. I am so fed up of my life being ruled by 'what ifs' regarding my T. It was a great new experience and one I will definitely be trying again.

Has anyone else tried this?

 

[glynis]

Sounds great fun and would love it .Glad your ears were ok and have some confidence around sounds.
Not all are bad ......lots of love glynis

 

[Steve]

Of course I could have got up and left but I'm English and thus genetically programmed not to make a fuss

That line really tickled me

I was at an exhibition a few years back that had a room full of gongs, the sound was amazing. Something about the way they resonate that really gets to you.

It's a good lesson to just enjoy experiences rather than letting the fear take control and rule your life. Be careful where you need to but don't let life come to a stop.