From Ledgers to Lotus: Crystal Bowls, Brainwaves, and a Life Rewritten with Ryan Stanley

What if stillness didn’t demand more effort, but arrived because sound held the room for you? That’s the quiet revolution at the heart of our conversation with Ryan Stanley—a former corporate leader who traded spreadsheets for singing bowls and built a community where frequency becomes a practical tool for clarity, rest, and creative flow.

We trace Ryan’s turning point from intense, high-performing work to a sabbatical that led him to purchase a yoga studio and train teachers in both movement and sound. He arrived a sceptic of crystal singing bowls and left a convert after a samadhi-like experience that rewired his assumptions. From there, we unpack why certain tones can calm the nervous system, how repeated sequences signal safety and reduce pain, and where brainwave entrainment and vagus nerve pathways might explain the deep rest so many report. We also look at the energetic lens—notes linked with energy centres, bowls infused with alchemical materials like ocean gold, abalone, and greenheart—and how personal resonance often decides your “bowl mate” long before logic does.

You’ll hear the difference between Tibetan metal bowls and alchemy crystal bowls—one inviting reverent stillness, the other sparking creativity and synthesis—and why matching the instrument to your current state matters. Ryan shares how he curates bowl sets from hundreds of unique pieces, supporting healers, vocalists, massage therapists, and even finance professionals who reach for a bowl between decisions to reset and refocus. Along the way, we talk about the rise of sound baths in search trends and studios worldwide, and the simple courage it takes to integrate a five-minute practice into office life without apologising for it.

Stay to the end for a live demo of ocean-themed bowls and a reminder that practice can be playful. If this conversation resonates, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs gentler focus, and leave a review to help others find the show. Your feedback keeps these frequencies flowing.

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My new novel The Red Magus has recently been published in conjunction with the Unbound Press.  An entralling mystical adventure set across time and space, where past and current lives converge.  Find it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Chapters

• 4:58 Meet Ryan: From Corporate to Calm
• 6:48 The Turning Point: Personal Mastery
• 8:18 Buying a Yoga Studio
• 9:13 Discovering Sound Baths’ Stillness
• 10:43 Crystal Bowls Skeptic to Convert
• 13:26 Finding Your “Bowl Mate”
• 15:43 Intuition vs Left-Brain Picking
• 17:28 Do Bowls Carry Crystal Properties?
• 19:43 How Sound Heals: Science & Spirit
• 22:38 Matching Modalities to Your State
• 24:43 Crystal vs Tibetan: Different Effects
• 26:43 Ocean-Themed Bowls Explained
• 28:18 Building Sets and Global Clients
• 29:53 Bringing Sound into Work Lives
• 31:33 The Rise of Sound Healing
• 32:53 Daily Practices: Yoga and Ayurveda

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 2:30

So, welcome everybody to another edition of Balm to the Soul. And um, today we have a new guest. Um before I say that, I should introduce myself as well. I'm Natasha Joy Price, and I'm your host. So I'm a lawyer, an energy therapist, a writer, and of course a podcaster. And today we have a new guest, and his name is Ryan Stanley. So welcome, Ryan. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 2:58

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01: 3:00

It's a pleasure. So Ryan is a yoga teacher and owns his own yoga studio. He's a sound healer and he's the owner of Sacred Sound of the Soul, based in California. Um, but you used to work in corporate accounting and executive leadership, didn't you? So that's quite a shift. Yeah. How did you get from corporate to to owning to into the wellness sort of space that you're in now?

SPEAKER_00: 3:32

Um I I had an inner knowing kind of a um corporate cliche midlife crisis um that a lot of people I think actually experience this calling or inner knowing that they might have some regrets if they continue their journey. So I don't consider it unique that I that I went through it, but it was calling to me strongly that I would have some deathbed regrets if I didn't change some things. And I was very happy in my work. And I I got a lot out of it from um from a lot of different dimensions of community and satisfaction of problem solving and lots of different things and abundance of financial abundance. It was very, I think my family was very happy with it too, but I was not happy with my situation because I was absolutely addicted to my pattern of work and I couldn't step away from it. And I um I did a workshop in California called Personal Mastery that opened some things up for me. And it was not uh designed to be any type of new age or spiritual experience, but I did have a very spiritual experience as I was going through it, and I saw a path of freedom and changes that I wanted to make that I thought before would be like jumping off a cliff that now felt like stepping off a sidewalk instead of that big jump. And um that freedom was just overwhelming. And at that point, I decided I was going to take a sabbatical and um just do a little bit of journaling and take some time, practice a lot of yoga. And before I knew it, um my local yoga studio was going out of business that I was practicing at quite a bit. I um decided to get involved and purchase that yoga studio. And after that, I started to participate and just my hope was that I was gonna get something through osmosis by owning a yoga studio. And sound baths were one of the most interesting things to me going on. And um, watching people in all the different yoga experiences, it was very um interesting because they're all different relaxation modalities, all different ways people get into stillness. And what I was noticing, especially with men, is that men could not be still when they wanted to come in and sit. Um, sometimes it's a and I shouldn't um, you know, really just go into one gender like that, because it's definitely applicable to both. But because I'm a man, I noticed it as a personal, sort of a personal take on it as well. And I noticed when people played bowls that the men would suddenly become were able to be still, like the frequency was holding something. And this made me really want to pursue it to the point that we we trained yoga teachers at the yoga studio, um, but we also launched a sound healing program where we started training those same yoga teachers to do sound healing. And we were bringing in master teachers from all over the world, and it allowed me to experience all the training, and I really um got quite involved until the time I met the crystal bowls, one of the manufacturers of the crystal bowls, came along, and I thought I really had a big thought reversal. I thought the crystal bulls were um kind of like Emperor's New Clothes where everyone was going along with it, saying, saying, Oh, these things are so beautiful. And I did, I wasn't seeing it. And I was thinking, you just like it because they look pretty. And um, I really was drawn to more masculine items like the metal bulls and Tibetan bulls and classical Indian music. But after spending a day with these bulls in that training, um, I had one of the biggest samadhi-like experiences of my life. And it was another calling where I I felt like I had to be surrounded by the bulls. And at that point, um, was the point that we jumped into it and opened a store at the same time.

SPEAKER_01: 7:17

Wow. And they are beautiful. I should explain that you are sitting in front of this whole array of different colored crystal bowls, and they are beautiful, but presumably everyone has a specific use and a, you know, it and you gel with a certain one. Is that right?

SPEAKER_00: 7:39

Yeah, there are some that you may find, we call it your finding your bowl mate when you find one that does gel with you as and gives you that same feeling when you're playing it or when someone's playing it for you, that you have that same feeling, like a little bit of a crush, like a little bit of a love sense and a little bit of euphoria when you hear it, a little bit of excitement. So that um that that experience is usually what identifies the right one for you. Now, you you may go into it from a left brain perspective and say, I need an F because I want to, because generally that's accepted that that relates to the heart chakra. And you may say, I really want to work on my heart chakra, I want something that feeds my heart chakra. And so then you might have a particular note in mind, or you might have a gemstone that you relate to already that has certain properties that you've heard about or that you believe in, that you say, I want a bowl that incorporates that because I believe in that. Um, but really, when when we look at crossing over of all the infinite overtones and then the infinite properties of all the different, if you get several combinations of alchemies, you end up with covering so many dimensions that it's very likely that almost every bowl would have some significance to you in one way or another.

SPEAKER_01: 8:57

So do people choose them sort of intuitively? Do they sort of say, there's too many factors here, I can't work out which is the best for me, and just pick one that they intuitively are guided towards?

SPEAKER_00: 9:12

That is the best, I believe. Um, when that process happens, there are some people I can't talk into that process that they they've established what they need, and they they and sometimes they may know better than that process. So I'll give credit to maybe maybe they're intuitively drawn to whatever um you know, sort of quantification or qualification that they can they can say, I absolutely need this. But but um most of the time when people even look from outside the store through the windows, it's funny, they can pick up on the one that's for them, even before they play it. And I used to think, well, it's a visual connection, but now something more in some sort of extrasensory or something that they can visualize in their participation with it that makes them that makes it possible for them to identify this is the one for me. So I believe intuitively is the way, but but um you know, if you have like if you're a musician, you might be buying something for a certain need to accompany a certain instrument or something like that. And so we get people or a vocalist that want to, and so then there's a very specific um bowl that might be for them, especially in the note and the in the tuning of the instrument itself.

SPEAKER_01: 11:18

So all the bowls, I'm fascinated by the different colors array of colours behind you. So all the bowls have a different color, which is brought about by different crystals. So do they have the properties of the actual crystal? Does the sound, the vibration, the frequency have that property? Is it like sort of allowing that crystal vibration to go through you as if you were holding the crystal, if you see? Is it is it the same effect?

SPEAKER_00: 11:48

Well, it could be even more than just holding it because you're you're viscerally experiencing it. Um that vibration is transmitted through the air to your skin, to the hairs on your body, to your outer ear, to your inner ear. Um, there may be entrainment going on, there may be um different brainwave entrainment or different resonance with the cells. There's lots of different theories for what's happening. But yes, being in the being just with the crystal may have some impact. And um, it's very important how the crystal is harvested and and um you know what what type of conscious creation process is going on because the crystal, we do believe the crystal has a memory, and that they we we look at these um these bowls as like their own beings going on a journey that we're an ally with instead of instead of kind of a a material thing that we're gonna bend to our will.

SPEAKER_01: 12:44

Absolutely. So tell tell us what happens, what to the how does sound affect you for somebody who's never experienced any sound healing? How does that work? What does it do to you?

SPEAKER_00: 12:59

Well, we know it works as a relaxation modality just through the steady frequency, or any sound, just about any sound, works as a re- relaxation modality. So this is kind of the very left-brain research-based. Um, even static noise has pain reduction properties, for instance. Um, but the more beautiful the sound is, and the more you resonate with it from an emotional connection or a memory connection or other things, the more impact it's going to have. And so, you know, sound baths try to take all different sorts of sounds that could have all sorts of different impact on you, from harmony that can bring about positive and euphoric emotions and to other things that are just very steady monotone sounds that might bring about bring about um relaxation. And then there's also um things like chimes and things like that that often bring back memories. So they impact you in psychologically in so many different ways, but a few physical ways that they impact you, we know that um, for instance, the parasympathetic nervous system is triggered by these relaxing and sometimes more monotone sounds, even repeated sounds in sequence give the person a feeling of safety. Now, I'm talking really about all these um sort of very left-brain research-based things, but on more of the new age spirituality side, there are all sorts of possibilities of how they might impact your subtle energy, how they might relate to energy centers within your body, how different notes might play with those energy centers, and also, you know, just a lot also about um manifestation and many things that people believe that if I have this practice and I do this, it may be a totem that anchors a shift for me. And so there's all sorts of theories on how it can impact you. There's one more that's also pretty interesting, which is the ability to have a somatic experience that brings processes that normally run in the background because we're so disconnected from the mind, sort of our mind-body connection is so disconnected all the time. That sound healing and sound baths can trigger, and especially playing the bowls for yourself, can trigger this ability to reconnect the mind-body access, especially through the vagus nerve. And this reconnection where you start listening to the body brings processes that you're normally numb to to the forefront again. And when you bring those processes to the forefront, they are very euphoric and very pleasurable because they are things that are naturally miracles and wonders that are happening in your body all the time. Your body is an absolute miracle. And just tuning in and being able to listen again to your body brings an experience of awe, connection. It's those things where the breath feels sweeter, colors look more vivid. All those things start to happen when we bring that sort of background process forward and we start listening again.

SPEAKER_01: 16:01

Yeah. That's fascinating. So really so any sound, you know, sound healing experience will help somebody, could help somebody come into balance, mind, body, and spirit. And that in itself can really have um a reaction in how they live their lives, can't you know, and how they interact in their lives and their family.

SPEAKER_00: 16:29

And I believe that. I believe um, like many other relaxation modalities, that it absolutely does. And um, but it's important that you have the right experience for you. Some people might need a gong that breaks up things because things are stuck in them. And so they need to be right next to a gong and they love it, and they love feeling the vibration and they love the intensity of it. While another person um that's processing trauma might need to run out of the room in that same case. So, a lot of times, you know, we when sound healings for groups are designed for the the group that's there and they're as palatable as possible for the average person. Um, but you really want to try to find sound healing that is is for the state that you need at that time.

SPEAKER_01: 17:15

And presumably crystal um bowls are are they quite gentle sounds? They're quite um it's not like a gong, it's not got that strong.

SPEAKER_00: 17:27

There's a spectrum. Yeah, that's right. Um, so I like to compare crystal bowls with Tibetan bowls, because Tibetan bulls are on one end of the spectrum where they are really an instrument that encourages um stillness and listening and quiet. There's something, even maybe it's something feels like it's almost ancestral within our genes, where when we hear the sound of a Tibetan bull played, there's like a command of respect right away when we hear it. It's like, okay, there's something sacred about this. We intuitively know. The crystal singing bulls, and especially alchemy crystal singing bulls, are kind of on the other dimension of that, in my experience. And people experience them, you know, all different ways. They have relaxation properties in the middle and stillness properties, but they also have more of the benefits around creativity, um, inspiration, euphoria, and sometimes um kind of synthesizing stray thoughts into something where you have clarity. So there's all different, you know, instruments for all different, but these are my favorite because they relate to my disposition of this excitement that comes out of experiencing them when I'm when I'm around them and playing them. And my ideas get more clear and I get more um excited about taking a path that I'm I'm more clear on.

SPEAKER_01: 18:50

So just tell us what bowls you've got in front of you.

SPEAKER_00: 18:54

Yeah. Um so these are through, these are three bowls that are all um a little bit focused on ocean properties. So this one is an F sharp, it's an F sharp, and it's basically it's got a alchemy in it, which is called ocean gold. And what they do with gold is they basically, just like you have pink gold and things like that, you see in jewelry and watches, gold gold can turn all different colors, especially when blended with other elements. And so they use a heat and chemical process to make the gold into this green color, this blue-green color. And it's it's known as ocean gold. And so then this one is actually abalone. And so this has basically the abalone shells blended into it, as well as some colors and other things. And then this one, and this one was an A, and this one is a D, and this one is called Greenheart Ocean Gold. And it's another variation of the gold that's a little bit greener than the other one. But all of these carry properties of connecting with the ocean and sea. So if people are interested in that connection where they're envisioning kind of a the connection with the water and the connection with the vastness and the connection with the with the infiniteness of um or being kind of a drop in the ocean, many different properties, or the waves, or the dolphins, or anything else, then these would be bowls that they might connect with.

SPEAKER_01: 20:20

And do you uh at your your studio and your shop, do you offer sound healing and sound baths for people?

SPEAKER_00: 20:29

We do. Um, most of what we do is help people around the world pick the bowls that go together because they're all born the same, they're all they're not born in any one way. They're all born how they're born. And that means whatever note and tone they make, they make. So we have to have hundreds of them to pick ones that go together.

SPEAKER_02: 20:46

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 20:47

So most of what we do is help people around the world to assemble those sets of bowls. Um, but on a weekly basis, we do offer local sound healings here. And we do host people in the store to um to choose bowls, but mostly people now are working online with us because of the distance that they are away from us.

SPEAKER_01: 21:07

So and we've got sorry, I interrupted. So you help other sound healers really to get the bowls that they need to do their sessions.

SPEAKER_00: 21:17

Yeah, the other sound healers, people who are looking to make a career shift into sound healing, but also many people like um, for instance, a massage therapist that would like to do a little bit less of the work um for the full session of the massage itself and end the session for the last 10 minutes with a with a um little bit of a sound bath with a few bowls. Um and also many people who aesthetically like them um for um home design and just because they are a very interesting conversational piece to have in your home. And they yeah, and they're beautiful. Yeah, and then there are people who are buying them for their personal practice, and that's um where they just want to play them. Like you can have a person who uses it at work. Um, you know, we have a story of uh of a person who trades in the stock exchanges, and when they're overwhelmed and need to seek clarity, instead of doing another type of meditation, they like playing the bowls as their little meditation to get some clarity on where to head next.

SPEAKER_01: 22:16

I love that. That's that's sort of incorporating the corporate world with a bit of a bit of wellness, which is lovely. And I love that crossover. Being a lawyer and also being quite spiritual, that I find that crossover really hard to get. You know, yeah in my world.

SPEAKER_00: 22:35

Do you have practices that you do for that when you when you end up feeling like I could use more clarity? I'm just so scattered right now.

SPEAKER_01: 22:42

Oh yes, yes, but I don't I go home and do it. I don't do it in the office or anything like that. Isn't that the hard thing? Maybe I should. Maybe I should get a crystal bowl and say, let's just stop for five minutes and let's just because I love that the idea of that crossover.

SPEAKER_00: 22:59

I left the corporate world and I often fantasize now about the chance to integrate that that I don't have anymore. Yeah. And um, and I always look at and say, gosh, I wish I had the guts to do something like that when I was back. And I didn't. I was terrified at how people would think of me if I if I did a meditation or if I said I want to practice yoga for 15 minutes to get my wits about me again. Um I was terrified about what people would would say about how weird I was. Um but now I wish I could go back and try and integrate a few of those things. So to those out there that have the opportunity, let's go for it.

SPEAKER_01: 23:34

Maybe I should do that. I've got I've got a bit old in the tooth now, and I just don't care whether they think I'm mad, it's fine. That's wonderful. Maybe I should just, you know, offer Reiki sessions and things in the office and see where it takes me. So do you think the sound healing world is because I think it is increasing considerably. People's interest in it. I've seen it. I mean, I've been doing spiritual healing for 20 years. And initially there wasn't much sound, but now you see and you see people vocally making sounds as well, don't you? But do you do you see that really increasing?

SPEAKER_00: 24:13

Yeah, it's definitely over the past six or seven years has been an increasing trend. Even if you um Google has a platform where you can see search popularity over time, and you can put in terms like sound bath and sound bowls and crystal bowls and things like that. And the graph, the chart goes up and up over the last six or seven years. So the search popularity of these of these terms is definitely there. So that's one bit of evidence. But the other evidence I see is that the experience, like I said, tapping into it at the at the yoga studio, um, the attendance of those events is is always easy to fill. And and um the experiences that people report are always really magnificent. And it's it just seems like it's happening easier for people than the other modalities that they're trying, because they're not having to do as much of a shift themselves in order to get into it. It's something is happening where the frequency is holding the space for their shift, and it's just making it easier. It's some it's an easier relaxation modality for them than trying to learn to meditate or trying to develop a practice of yoga or some other modality.

SPEAKER_01: 25:19

Yeah. And what do you do to sort of stay balanced and centered? Is there do you go and play the crystal bowls for you?

SPEAKER_00: 25:28

For me, that really is that idea um creation or ideal clarity when I like to play the crystal bowls or when I'm looking for inspiration. Um my personal practice, you know, is usually yoga for my day-to-day stability. Um sometimes I'll I'll double it or triple it at times where I need a practice later in the day or something's going on. But um, and then you know, nutrition and and um I'm a big believer in Ayurveda as well. And and yeah, I think my I found my diet actually does more to stabilize me than just about anything. And I think it's just an amazing thing that it's more effective than any pills I've ever tried to stabilize me emotionally and physically and everything else. So yeah, so um, yeah. It's but the the bowls come into play and sound healing comes into play, I think, when I'm playful and I want to have fun and I want to have more clarity or inspiration.

SPEAKER_01: 26:31

Yeah, I love that. I don't can you play the any of the crystal bowls um on Zoom? Will it pick it up?

SPEAKER_00: 26:39

Um it's a little tricky, but we're gonna try it.

SPEAKER_01: 26:42

Okay, lovely.

SPEAKER_00: 26:43

And let me just make sure I've got I've gotta grab a wand really quick.

unknown: 26:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 26:48

Oh, here it is. I've got it. It's just right underneath me. Um so let me know. We'll just do a quick test and we'll see if it's coming through. I don't know how long you want me to go on. I can go on for as long as you'd like.

SPEAKER_01: 27:37

It's beautiful. It's really beautiful. That third one, so on your left, that really resonated with me. Yes, that's lovely. That's a really beautiful tone.

SPEAKER_00: 27:48

So that's that's interesting. We don't know, you know, for sure whether that is some element of the bowl or whether it's a note, but it happens to be a D. And a D would usually resonate with someone's um sacral energy center. And so that would be about playfulness and creativity and everything else coming through with that one.

SPEAKER_01: 28:09

Excellent. Maybe that's what I need, a bit of creativity.

SPEAKER_00: 28:13

Well you're doing this, you must be you must be pretty creative in your heart to be doing something like this.

SPEAKER_01: 28:20

Yeah, no, I think I have. I just think when you you can get lost in daily life, can't you? And that sort of warts it a little bit. So that's when we have to come back to elements like this to just bring us back into balance.

SPEAKER_00: 28:36

Constantly remembering and forgetting in my mind. I always forget the the magic that I discover and then I and I rediscover it again.

SPEAKER_01: 28:44

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you, Ryan. It's been a pleasure talking to you, and it's been a real pleasure hearing the bowls and for me to see the bowls. Our listeners most even, but they are the most beautiful array of colours. Um so thank you so much. Thank you for supporting the podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 29:03

I really appreciate you having me, and I appreciate you doing the podcast and getting the word out to so many people about all the different modalities and guests that you've had. It's just it's a special thing for people to be able to think about things in this way.

SPEAKER_01: 29:15

And I'm very blessed to have had some amazing guests on, you know, and it's created such a knowledge, uh such a library of knowledge that hopefully the listeners can just keep zapping into.

SPEAKER_00: 29:30

Kind of a sacred wisdom keeper.

SPEAKER_01: 29:33

Yeah, yeah. It's just allowing that to ripple out, isn't it? Which is very very apt for our episode. So thank you. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to meet you. And just uh say again, your business is called Sacred Sound of the Soul, which I love that.

SPEAKER_00: 29:50

That's great. Thank you so much for mentioning that.

SPEAKER_01: 29:52

No problem at all. And I will put all your details um below the episode. So thank you all for listening to us. And if you've enjoyed our chat today, please share it around. And you can always subscribe to the podcast, and I will speak to you all soon.