Meditation became something very essential for me. It gives me time to reload my mind and solve more things at once. I try to meditate every day, but it was not always that easy.
How do you meditate? There are some people, who can meditate on the bus or at working place in their office open space, but I normally needed a special atmosphere and a very particular music.
How Steel Tongue Drum Helps Me Meditate
Lately, the situation changed dramatically, as I have found my special music – I’ve discovered a steel tongue drum music for myself when I was on my Greece holidays. It is very mysterious and cosmic like I am taking an outer space trip with my mind.
Generally, the steel tongue drum looks like a metal cylinder with a few holes of different shapes. It looks quite cosmic too. You can play it with your fingers or with special drumsticks, creating unique vibrations. Wikipedia says that it is a drum from the “idiophone class of the percussion family”, which doesn’t mean much for me, though. My favorite type is the HAPI Drum. Its sound is so magical to me.
However what’s really important to me is that a single musical instrument can create a sound of an orchestra and the audience immediately dive into the sound, no matter if it is in a concert hall or a park.
This is how I experienced it for the first time – overheard its sound in the Royal Garden in Athens and stopped stunned by the sound. Moreover, a group of people was doing yoga on the grass. I kindly asked to join and the people didn’t mind. At the end, as a usual thing in yoga, we started to meditate. Normally it used to take me at least 10 minutes just to relax and release all my thoughts, but this time I momentarily dived into an indescribable meditative condition. Fascinated by the results I decided to find out more about the terrific instrument I heard and the techniques the yoga teacher was using.
Thus, I have discovered that by conducting those open lessons teachers promote their yoga company. There are some professional musicians and amateurs who learn to play the steel tongue drums for yoga lessons, meditations, and performances. They also use this music instruments for a play therapy and other alternative things, like drum healing.
Later I’ve found out that steel tongue drum healing procedure may be used in treating behavioral disorders in kids and adults, and even autism.
The gentle and soothing sound of this drum calms down and helps to achieve relaxation faster than usual. Now when I want to meditate even at work I turn the steel tongue drum sounds in my airphones and free my mind even for 5 minutes. These shorts meditation breaks help me to concentrate and work more productively afterward. I have also found a company, which conducts yoga lessons to the live music in my town. Going to my first lesson on Sunday and hope that they have my favorite kind of drum. If not, I will work on it 🙂