My wonderful singing bowl

Some tools don't just make you feel better, they bring you home to yourself. For me, that tool has always been the singing bowl.

In this short, soulful episode,  recorded on the beautiful day of Vaisakhi,  I share  about how this ancient instrument has quietly held my life together. Through something much simpler, vibration. Sound. Presence.

I am sharing how the singing bowl helps me stay centred when my mind is scattered, my heart is heavy, or my day feels like it's pulling me in ten directions at once. The deep, round hum. The gentle vibration that travels from my palm through my bones. The way everything else falls quiet, not because the world changed, but because I did.

I share my personal journey with chakra balancing, the way different tones seem to touch different parts of my body. Root. Heart. Throat. And how, when those centres feel balanced, something shifts. Not a dramatic explosion of healing, but a quiet rain. A garden after drought. Healing that isn't about being fixed, it's about feeling whole.

And from that healing comes the most unexpected gift, compassion. Not the forced, "I should be kind" kind. The natural kind. The kind that flows because you're not running on empty anymore. I talk about how being centred doesn't just serve me, it serves everyone around me. My family feels it. My friends feel it. My students feel it. That calm ripples outward in ways I'll never fully see, but I trust.

This is ancient technology. Thousands of years old. No electricity. No screens. Just metal, a wooden mallet, and your own willingness to stop for a moment. Every time I play the bowl, I feel connected and we are still remembering, sound can heal. Vibration can restore.

Today is Vaisakhi,  a time of  new beginnings, and gratitude, a very special day for me I wanted to share this practice with you. Not as an expert. Just as someone who has been held by this sound more times than I can count.

So if you're feeling scattered, tired, or just hungry for a moment of calm… close your eyes. Breathe. Let the sound find you. I hope you enjoy this feeling. I hope you feel centred. Calm. Healed.

And from that healed place, I hope you're able to share. To give. To pour compassion into the world, not because you have to, but because it flows naturally from a full heart.

Happy Vaisakhi. Be well. Be centred.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Welcome again and thank you for joining me. Take a deep breath with me. A long deep breath in and out. Today is a beautiful day, Vasakhi. A very, very happy Vasakhi. Today marks a beautiful moment in Sikh history. The birth of the Khalsa. The Khalsa, which is the pure one, established by our Guru Guru Gobind Singhji in 1699 at Ananda Purasap. Today Gurugobin Singhji called upon volunteers where it was a test of faith to give their heads. And they stepped forward the Panjbiare, which means the five loved ones. This was a symbol of courage, sacrifice, compassion, and faith. And it always reminds me how much compassion, faith, and courage there is. How we all together can share this with others. Today is Vasaki, it's a time of harvest, a new beginning, gratitude, compassion, and love. And I wanted to share something really, really close to my heart. Something that has always helped me stay centered. Along with my meditation, with my yoga practice, I also love the singing bull. It is this beautiful, ancient, really amazing thing that I once got. And since then, it has really, really helped me. It has been with me a friend, an anchor, and something that I always share with everyone. My family loves it as well. We always use the singing ball, and it helps us stay calm and focus. I remember the first time when I heard the singing ball, I was just mesmerized by the sound, the vibration. And I've always felt vibration, music, and sound to be a healer. When I was a little child, and I used to mum hear my mom singing and chanting and praying, it used to give me real, real sense of compassion, feeling centered, feeling safe. And as I grew up, I started to join my parents in the meditation, in the prayers. And it always brought to me that sense of comfort. I still remember sometimes in the morning when I had an exam or I was I was young, so I didn't know what anxiety was or stress was, but I used to get those slight butterflies in my stomach or had like a really big exam. And I used to go into a we had a very sweet little prayer room. I used to step into the prayer room and I used to hear some of the music there or the prayers, or if my mom was doing the prayers, I used to feel so safe and comfortable, like I didn't want to get out of the room or go to school or have to give my exam. And that vibration has always stayed with me. It's always brought me home. So when I heard the singing ball, I knew this was something that I needed, that I connected with it, and I brought it home. And whenever I need to, I just pick up my singing bowl and I just play the music and it really, really helps me calm and stay centered and focused. So I just hold the singing bow in my palm, I take the mallet, and then slowly, slowly I run it round the rim. It just draws me towards it, and the sound starts very slowly and then it rises. It's not really loud, but it's full. And suddenly everything else becomes quiet. Not because the world has changed, but because I have. So along with my meditation, along with my yoga, of course, along with a healthy lifestyle and diet, the singing bowl just aids in feeling that balance. In just a few minutes, it makes me feel so calm and it's so lovely that metal, the feeling of that heavy metal on my palm. I can just feel that energy inside the bowl. I can feel the energy in my body just start to settle. The root, the heart, the throat. Each tone seems to touch a different place. And when those centers feel balance, something shifts inside me. I feel healed. Not like a machine or you know, like just where you're just trying to rush through things, but I just feel healed, just like a beautiful garden after it's just rained, and you get that beautiful fragrance. I remember when in school my Hindi teacher she was teaching us poetry, and she said this word in Sanskrit, bini bini sond, and she asked us, she said, What does that mean? And we tried to explain it, and while we were explaining, we spent a whole lesson on talking about the bini bini sand, that beautiful fragrance of the earth, the mud, after it's rained. And we all were from different parts of India, so we all talked about how it's different from wherever we came from. And I was talking about Punjab, and I said, We have beautiful mustard there, which we call saro, and when it rains, you can really, the fragrance of the earth is so amazing, and that's how I feel kind of when I take the singing ball and hold it next to me. I feel that beanie beanie song, I feel that fragrance, I feel earth, I feel connected, I feel like I've come home. And from that healing, it's just a feeling of compassion, not forced compassion, not like I have to be kind or I need to be kind or I should be kind, but more like just a natural, warm, honest compassion. First for myself and then for others. Because after that, I feel so healed and so calm that I am able to give, that I am I am able to get up, I am able to go in the kitchen, cook a lovely meal, even though I'm tired, and I really want to share. That's the part of me I love most. The bowl doesn't make me escape life, it helps me show up better in life. When I feel centered, I feel like I'm a better parent, I feel like I can be a better wife, I can be a better daughter, a better friend, a better teacher, basically a better person. To be honest, I've I've had days where I feel completely drained. And instead of trying to push with force, I just sit back, take a few minutes, relax, meditate, take the bowl, just help me nurture myself. And after that, I just feel amazing, I feel refreshed, I don't feel drained anymore, I feel energized, but most importantly, I feel patient. The calm ripples outward, and sometimes I do get compliments or people saying things like, Oh, you look a lot calm even at the end of the day, and it's probably to do with the practice, it's probably to do with the things in my life that I follow, the things that keep me centered. This amazing ancient technology in our life is so wonderful. I love all these crystals that I have, the singing ball, the beautiful time I spend doing yoga meditation, and it really helps ground me. It's amazing how this lovely, amazing technology is just there for us to have, to hold, and to share. It's just so simple. You don't need a screen, you don't need constant electricity, you don't need petrol, oil, any natural resources, you just need this strong metal bowl, a wooden mallet, and your own presence, and a very simple technique that anyone can follow. Every time I play the singing ball, I feel so connected. I feel like people before me, generations before me, have shared the singing ball and how they have grown, how things have changed, and how sound and vibrations have healed. It always leaves me feeling amazing, not hyped up or distracted, but just calm and just whole. So today, on this lovely day of celebrating the sake, I just wanted to share this with you, not as an expert, but just as a student myself, just as somebody who learns every day, because as Sikhs, Sikhs are students, seek means to learn. So I know for sure that I'm always learning and I always will keep learning. So I hope that you enjoy this feeling. I hope you give yourself permission to relax, to breathe, to feel centered, to feel calm, to find that calmness and that healing within you. And I hope that healing you're able to share, to give, to pour compassion into the world. Not because we have to, but because it flows naturally from a full heart. Thank you for listening. If you have a singing ball, I hope you're able to play it, I hope you're able to close your eyes and just enjoy it. So if this sound, if this vibration has found you, I hope you be centered, be well, be happy, be smiling. And a very happy Vasaki. Take care.