Like Mindfulness Bell Volume 1, Mindfulness Bell Volume 2 is a powerful meditation tool that was created for people who want to practice mindfulness meditation. It features the sound of a specially selected meditation bell that is played at periodic intervals to help clear your mind and guide you into a deep state of meditation.

This recording contains nothing but the pure sound of a Tibetan singing bowl being repeatedly struck with a soft mallet. Each time the bowl is struck, it rings for about 1 minute and 45 seconds. Yes - the singing bowl we used for Mindfulness Bell Volume 2 is quite large and it has an incredible sustain. During the first 10 minutes of this meditation, the sound never completely fades away; the bowl is struck again before it fades to silence. This is your settling in period.

Slowly but surely the gap between each strike is increased, allowing you to gradually experience longer and longer moments of complete silence. As time goes by, the bowl is also struck a little more softly, resulting in a more mellow sound. By the 15 minute mark, silent spaces of around 20 seconds have opened up between each bowl strike. By the 30 minute mark, these silent spaces have increased to 45 seconds.

If you choose to continue meditating for more than 30 minutes, these silent spaces continue to increase in duration, from one minute to just over two minutes towards the end of the hour. In this way, Mindfulness Bell Volume 2 trains you to become more and more comfortable with the sound of silence, and more and more capable of achieving mental stillness on your own.

So what is your role to play in all of this? Just sit quietly and listen. If your mind wanders, simply return your attention to the sound of the bell - your reliable anchor to the present moment.

For Meditation

The calming sound of the bell is your focal point for meditation. Simply absorb your attention in the sound of the mindfulness bell. No mantra is required, no special breathing techniques are needed, just let your awareness be consumed by the sound of the bell.

Your mind will become clearer and more calm with each and every bell strike, and as the bells fade into silence, your mind is given the opportunity to experience a very natural state of stillness. This bell actually encourages your mind to become still and silent, but alert. This is mindfulness training at its best!

For General Relaxation

puWhile this recording was designed as a meditation aid, you can still listen to this recording for general relaxation purposes. Lying down while listening may help you to drift off to sleep. Playing the recording while you are performing simple tasks at home will also imbue your surroundings with a gentle, calming atmosphere.

No matter how you choose to use this recording, please be sure to play it at a quiet, comfortable volume.

After recording Mindfulness Bell Volume 1, two years passed before I found the perfect bell for Volume 2. Just for fun, I decided to call this bell "Emily".

Meet "Emily", the star of Mindfulness Bell Volume 2.

Meet "Emily", the star of Mindfulness Bell Volume 2

Emily is almost one foot wide and she weighs over 6 pounds. She is deep and complex creature with an exceptionally resonant, healing voice. Emily is the star of Mindfulness Bell Volume 2 and she just loves being the centre of attention.

Emily is a magnificent Tibetan Singing Bowl. Her two most prominent tones oscillate with a low delta frequency of 0.7 Hertz, and a delta frequency of 4.5 Hertz. (You can hear these oscillations pulsing away in the audio sample). Higher harmonics also pulse with frequencies  of 3.6 and 2.1 Hertz. Much like the effect of binaural beats, this cluster of delta frequencies are deeply relaxing and can actually help to guide your brainwave activity into a state of deep meditation. Emily's higher harmonics add a metallic tinge to her sound, adding complexity and richness to her voice.

I have many antique singing bowls in my collection, but Emily is quite young. She happens to be one of the highest quality modern hand-beaten singing bowls in the world.

Twenty years of research and development has been invested in refining the shape, thickness, and metal combination to create beautiful bowls like Emily. The tone of a premium sound bowl like this is very pure and incredibly long lasting. As a bronze signing bowl, this bowl is comprised mainly of copper and tin but also contains a fusion of the seven metals and components of a genuine 400 year old antique bowl. These sacred elements are imbued into the metal alloy enhancing their vibrational effects when used in a therapeutic context or during a meditation ritual. Additionally, the bowls are hammered to perfection to create evenness in the shape for smoothness and quality of tone. After the hammering process the bowls are massaged to bring out the golden hues and the radiant colours of the metals. 

Q: Hi Christopher. I am wondering if I am able to listen to the mindfulness bell when I am not meditating? Like for example if I am at my desk with my iPod headphones on? Can I still do that? 

Gareth

A: Hi Gareth. Yes you sure can do that. I’ve been doing that with Mindfulness Bell Volume 1 for ages. I just find that the sound keeps me feeling more balanced. The sound vibrations quietly fill the room around me and give it a great atmosphere.

Your question actually reminds me of a trick you can use to enhance the way these Mindfulness Bell recordings work. Consider trying this:

For one month, only ever listen to them while you are meditating. After a month you will have a formed a really strong association between the sound of the bell and the feeling of being in a very relaxed state of meditation. Then after a month you can start playing the bells while you are doing other things. When you hear the sound of the bells, they can have a very relaxing effect on you that comes on very quickly and they’ll help you to feel a deeper sense of stillness while you are doing everyday things other than meditating. But for this to work you’ll have to show some restraint in that first month and only listen while you are meditating. 

Christopher

Q: Dear Christopher, I love your Mindfulness Bell 2 album. It takes me to a wonderfully deep and relaxed state quite quickly, which I really appreciate. I'm an experienced meditator, but I've been very stressed lately and I've had trouble stilling my mind. Listening to your Mindfulness Bell has worked like a charm and for the first time in a while I feel focussed again. I do have one question though...does the effect lessen if you listen to it a lot? I listen to it for meditation obviously, but I also enjoy just having it as background relaxation when I'm doing other stuff. Do you think I should only use it for meditation? 

Dee

A: Hi Dee,

Fantastic! So glad to hear that MBV2 is having such a good effect on you.

Does the effect lessen if you listen to it a lot? I have two theories on that, and they disagree with each other!

One one hand, if you listen to it a lot then you're more likely to feel relaxed during every day life. Over the last 2 years I have been listening to MBV1 a lot while I work and I just love the relaxation effect. Guess what I'm listening to now while I type this? 

On the other hand, one could argue that if you save it only for meditation then it will have a more significant effect on you while you are meditating. I'm sure that's true to some degree.

What to do? What to do?

My vote goes for playing it whenever you like. It really is a great tool for enhancing meditation, but it's too enjoyable to reserve for only those times. Besides, if I stay relaxed during my daily life then I have less stress to unravel when I sit for meditation, so my meditations end up going deeper more easily.

Have your cake and eat it too. Mindfulness Bell yourself silly. I do.

Christopher

Q: Dear Christopher,
Yesterday I have downloaded your wonderful “Mindfulness Bell Volume 1&2 Value Bundle”. Thank you so much. The sound of these mindfulness bells are so relaxing and calming. With “Emily” and its deep, warm, long-lasting sound I can slip faster in a wonderful state of relaxation. I am new to mindfulness meditation and I am suffering from depression and anxiety. How can I combine meditating to “Mindfulness Bell Volume 1&2” and to " Easy Mindfulness Meditation in Three Steps”, to achieve the greatest effect for my daily emotional wellbeing? What do you recommend me?

Kind regards
Ina 

A: Hi Ina,

Thanks for your feedback. It's great to hear that "Emily" is helping you with your meditation. Easy Mindfulness Meditation is more of an instructional series. Once you've taken it in, you probably only need to listen to it only when you need a refresher or to get some encouragement by revisiting the concepts of mindfulness. The concepts covered in Easy Minfulness Meditation also apply to daily life (when you are not meditating). Your Mindfulness Bells are more experiential. They are a mind training tool that you can use on a daily basis to enhance your practice of mindfulness.

I also think that Mindfulness Bell Volume 2 (MBV2) will be quite good at soothing the symptoms of anxiety. Those deep tones and the soft, enveloping sound of the bell can help you to settle your nerves if you are experiencing an increase in anxiety. I hope that the 5 minute mindfulness track on the album will come in handy in this regard. Use it whenever you need it.

Christopher

Q: Hello Christopher,
I'm new to meditation in general. I'm planning to purchase the mindfulness bells bundle pack. I have two questions:
1. How long should I use mindfulness bells volume 1 before I graduate to volume 2?
2. Is it better to listen to the mindfulness bells through headphones / earbuds, or listen to it playing in the background (i.e. from a laptop in the same room that you are meditating)?
Thanks in advance for your response!

Tim 

A: Hi Tim. Two excellent questions.

1. There is no absolute rule, but as a rough guideline I recommend one month if you are new to meditation. Don't be in a rush to move on to MBV2, but don't be afraid to try it out either. Feel free to examine how Volume 2 makes you feel in comparison to Volume 1 at any time. The spacing between the bell tones is much longer in Volume 2, and this is likely to be a bit more challenging. Your mind might be more inclined to wander given the extra space between bell tones. Volume 2 also has a deeper tone that might even put you to sleep if your concentration is waning.

Side note: Don't forget that mental wanderings are a normal part of meditation, so go easy on yourself. You don't need to achieve perfect mental stillness before you move on to Volume 2. But if your mind is all over the place and you need a stronger focal point to concentrate on, then the periodicity of bell tones in MBV1 will be a better option.

2. I think that headphones and earbuds are preferable. They present the sound in a more intimate way and they also make it easier to hear the bell fade right out to the tail end of its sound. There's no great disadvantage to using open stereo speakers, but the tiny speakers in most laptops are low quality and too small to reproduce the deeper tones of mindfulness bells - especially the very deep tones in Volume 2. I personally use earbuds with my iPhone and love the sound.

Christopher