I recently became the owner of Tibetan singing bowl. Figured it was time as I start diving into teaching mindfulness to children.  What I didn’t anticipate was how owning a singing bowl would immediate cultivate mindfulness opportunities with my children at home.  For those unfamiliar with the singing bowl, it’s a common tool used for teaching mindfulness. The purpose of these bowls in meditation and healing date back to ancient times.  But in many mindful courses the sound reverberating from just one strike of the bowl is a powerful method for tuning into the sense of listening.  Here’s a video of how the singing bowl works and sounds.  And often the mindfulness activity is to closely listen to the sound of the bowl until you can no longer hear it.

Later that day I was in another room, and heard the sound of the singing bowl again.  My daughter decided it would be  a fun game for her to test it out.  Once she did though, I tuned in and did a thumbs up.  And then it dawned on me that we could both be take mini-breaks at different times to just tune into the sound.

We have started a regular ritual now where she or I will strike the bowl and we both pause, close our eyes to tune in and listen and give a thumbs up.  It doesn’t matter when we strike it, as long as it’s not struck repetitively in a short timespan which can get pretty useless.  Other than that, it doesn’t matter who strikes it or when, but if we hear the singing bowl at home,  we pause, listen and have a moment of mindfulness when we hear it at home!