You’ve welcomed a Little Ohmie Singing Bowl into your world. The idea to bring this item into your home was wrapped with warm intentions and a desire to give a Little a head start on their mindfulness practice.
A singing bowl has many use cases; everything from simply striking it once on it’s side to create a peaceful moment, to intricately played sound baths facilitated by a master over the course of hours.
The purpose of this short piece is to help you and your Little create a Foundational Practice that will set everyone up for getting the most of their new tool.
To explainThe Ohm Store’s philosophy on the best way to establish a new ritual (applies to you and your little), I’d like to share a story from a book called Good To Great, by Jim Collins.
“Imagine you’re standing with your feet in the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, California, looking inland. You’re about to embark on a three-thousand-mile walk, from San Diego to the tip of Maine. On the first day, you march 20 miles, making it out of town. On the second day, you march 20 miles. And again, on the third day, you march 20 miles, heading into the heat of the desert. It’s hot, more than a hundred degrees, and you want to rest in the cool of your tent. But you don’t. You get up and you march 20 miles. You keep the pace, 20 miles a day.
Then the weather cools, and you’re in comfortable conditions with the wind at your back, and you could go much farther. But you hold back, modulating your effort. You stick with your 20 miles. Then you reach the Colorado high mountains and get hit by snow, wind, and temperatures below zero—and all you want to do is stay in your tent. But you get up. You get dressed. You march your 20 miles. You keep up the effort—20 miles, 20 miles, 20 miles—then you cross into the plains, and it’s glorious springtime, and you can go 40 or 50 miles in a day. But you don’t. You sustain your pace, marching 20 miles. And eventually, you get to Maine.
Now, imagine another person who starts out with you on the same day in San Diego. He gets all excited by the journey and logs 40 miles the first day. Exhausted from his first gigantic day, he wakes up to hundred-degree temperatures. He decides to hang out until the weather cools, thinking, “I’ll make it up when conditions improve.” He maintains this pattern—big days with good conditions, whining and waiting in his tent on bad days—as he moves across the western United States. Just before the Colorado high mountains, he gets a spate of great weather and he goes all out, logging 40-to 50-mile days to make up lost ground. But then he hits a huge winter storm when utterly exhausted. It nearly kills him and he hunkers down in his tent, waiting for spring. When spring finally comes, he emerges, weakened, and stumbles off toward Maine.
By the time he enters Kansas City, you, with your relentless 20 mile march, have already reached the tip of Maine. You win, by a huge margin.”
The idea here can be restated more simply – a ritual that is “doable” each time you practice will allow you to continue to practice it for a very long time.
This is what we will aim for. A daily, doable practice that feels great. We will work to create positive associations by introducing very short, very easy practices that will create a pavlovian effect of: play singing bowl, feel good. And we will create a self-perpetuating cycle.
We will build on this practice, for now we will begin with this practice for 7 days.
To begin, rather than allowing your Little to begin by “playing around the rim” let’s create a 1 minute ritual to be attended to each morning and evening.
1. Hold the singing bowl in the palm of your left hand, with the striker in your right hand. And repeat the mantra “Hello bowl, Hello me. I will invite you to sing, on the count of three. For the time you play, my mind will be free. While you sing your song, I will just be. Counting to three outloud, “One, two three”
2. On the count of three, strike the outside of the bowl
3. While the bowl resonates, encourage a listening to the sound and only the sound. See if you can notice the exact moment when the sound is totally and completely gone.
4. When the sound is complete, we can say “Thank you bowl, thank you me.
Our invitation is to attend to this practice every day, for 7 days. When you begin this practice you might think of yourself as a “not meditator.”
By attending to this each day for 7 days, you will literally become “One who meditates.” (not in theory but in practice!)
The identity shift is a powerful and necessary component of evolution in your life - and the life of your little’s.
