How sound can help increase your resilience to find inner happiness: the restorative power of GONG BATH

Zisana Mirzoev, married and mother of three kids, is a Vienna-based sound-healer. Together with her partner Verena, she founded the yoga Body Concept Vienna to create a safe space and enable everyone to build the ability of choosing to be HAPPY. She wants people to find the kind of happiness that doesn’t derive because of someone or something, but just because of yourself.  At Body Concept Vienna, several yoga styles are offered, as well as gong therapy. The studio is especially known for Verena’s signature class MINDFUL BODY ©, a mixture of yoga, breath work, affirmations and physical work-out which has helped many people in the past few years, to find this HAPPINESS. 

My personal journey of becoming a gong healer

I'd like to tell you, how my journey to sound bath helped me create happiness from within is a very special and personal story.

Many years ago, I had a moment in life where I was just so sad, everything became complicated and hard. I was suffering from severe sleeping difficulties. That’s when I understood staying in this emotional state wouldn’t make things easier and I wanted to change it. And this is when I found a way to become happy again. By myself and with myself. 

It was not an easy path, but I decided to move forward, step by step. I added yoga to my usual work-out routine. And already after the 2nd yoga session, I realised how positively it affected my mental and physical well-being and also the life around me, of the people she loves most. 

This was the moment I understood that I had to share this experience and help others in similar situations to get a smile back into their life’s. 

How I created a space of realm for others

When the idea to create a space, where this all was accessible for everyone to experience, emerged inside of me I understood that I wanted to find the right people to support me on this mission. That’s when I met my business partner Verena. And within a month, we opened Body Concept Vienna. A boutique style studio. Sophisticated, clean, and always a surrounding of best scents, in general a feeling of HOME.

We offered a variety of different classes, but our signature class was and is until now MINDFUL BODY. Mindful Body combines the positive aspects of yoga such as balance, strength, flexibility, and meditation. 

Founding the yoga studio Body Concept together with Verena was a crucial milestone for me. Managing the studio and practicing yoga regularly made me realize I wanted to become even more than just a warm shoulder and “mother to everyone”.  One day, I joined a Gong Bath class. This is where I found such deep relaxation and peace – and I knew, I had also found the way to support others in finding their inner and true happiness.

I became a trained Gong Master and have been offering Gong Baths ever since. In the Gong baths, I connect sound and the Gong’s vibration to adjust and support the wellbeing of the participants. 

When people share their emotions and experience after my Gong Baths, they often express deep relaxation and happiness. They all agree, the experience is unique and extraordinary experience. And therefore, people come back. But some don’t, maybe because they are not ready to practice and feel all that needs to be shifted. To make space and become a happier self. 

What is a Gong Bath?

A Gong Bath is a form of sound healing meditation.  It is referred to as a bath or immersion as those taking part, are bathed in the vibrations of the gongs. Some people also refer to it as sound healing, especially if other instruments than the gong are involved, too. As a healing instrument, the gong is an immensely powerful healing tool. Healing is about change - perhaps changing patterns of behavior or thoughts that create disease within us, which can bring about sickness in our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies. 

What happens during Gong Bath?

As our bodies are made of 70% water, the gong tones vibrate the cells and help to restore harmony from within. The gong sounds tune in with every part of us, bringing us back into harmony. The gong works on many levels, enveloping the participant in a cocoon of sound where it feels as though nothing else exists, a sort of loss of sensory perception where we can feel unaware of our physical body. With the mind also, in a state of deep relaxation, healing can take place much more easily. 

What do you do during a Gong Bath? What clothes do I need to wear?

All that the participant has to do is lie down (fully clothed) and be transported by the multi-layered resonance of the gongs, which has an effect on one's consciousness and physical body.

 

Can Gong Bath/Sound Meditation help with stress?

Stress is one of the major causes of disease. We put ourselves under so much pressure in our society, always striving and never arriving, always doing and rarely being. Stress causes our immune system to shut down, which means that we are no longer resistant to sickness.  People who live their lives in a constant state of stress are far more susceptible to illness.

What is neuroplasticity? 

The science of neuroplasticity proves that we now know that our brains can be re-wired, including the use of sound. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to modify, change, and adapt both structure and function throughout life and in response to experience.

How do brain waves influence our lives?

There are 5 different brain wave frequencies. Each one of these brain wave frequencies correlates with a specific state of consciousness. Like sound frequencies, brain waves are measured in Hz, or cycles per second. In general, the slower the frequency of your brain waves, the more relaxed you feel. Sound therapy, or sound healing, as it is often called, is an effective tool to help regulate and control your brain waves for better health, higher performance, and an overall more positive experience of life. 

 

What are brain waves actually?

Your brain cells generate electricity to communicate with each other, and this electrical activity forms patterns that are called brain waves. They can be measured by electroencephalography (EEG), a non-invasive method of recording electrical activity using sensors on the scalp.
Scientists have found five main patterns of brain waves: alpha, beta, delta, gamma and theta. Those are the 5 brain waves. Each brain wave state corresponds to a different state of awareness, as shown below.

Gamma brain waves– Frequency: 32 – 100 Hz

Associated state: Heightened perception, learning, problem-solving tasks.
Gamma brainwaves are the fastest measurable EEG brainwaves and have been equated to ‘heightened perception’, or a ‘peak mental state’ when there is simultaneous processing of information from different parts of the brain. Gamma brainwaves have been observed to be much stronger and more regularly observed in very long-term meditators, including Buddhist Monks.

 

Beta brain waves–Frequency: 13-32 Hz

Associated state: normal alert consciousness, active thinking, and “doing mode”
For example, active conversation, making decisions, solving a problem, focusing on a task, and learning a new concept. We spend most of our awake time in this state. Beta brain waves are easiest to detect when we’re busy thinking actively.

Alpha brain wave –Frequency: 8-13 Hz

Associated state: physically and mentally relaxed.
Alpha brain waves can also often be measured during activities such as: yoga, just before falling asleep and when being creative and artistic. During a sound bath, you will shift first into this state before moving into the theta brain wave state. Alpha brain waves are some of the most easily observed and were the first to be discovered. They become detectable when your eyes are closed, and your mind is relaxed.

Theta brain waves–Frequency: 4-8 Hz

Associated state: creativity, insight, deep meditation, healing, reduced consciousness.
This is the state where the magic happens and I’m trying to guide people during my sound baths. Most frequently, theta brainwaves are strongly detectable when we’re dreaming in our sleep, but they can also be seen during deep meditation and daydreaming.

Delta brain waves-Frequency: 0,5-4 Hz

Associated state: deep, dreamless sleep. These are the slowest of all brainwaves and are strongest when we are enjoying restorative sleep in a dreamless state. This is also the state where healing and rejuvenation are stimulated, which is why it’s so crucial to get enough sleep each night.

Now it is for you to decide how the myth becomes reality. And how deep you want to go. To start to create change, from within.

You can join a Gong Bath with Zisana at the Body Concept studio in Vienna or online with a recorded class. 

 

www.bodyconceptstudio.com