Although yoga and meditation have been a feature of life here at Cedars for several years, we started to mix it up during the pandemic by offering yoga with tai chi. It went down really well with residents and helped calm everyone during a very stressful time.
Since then, residents have been enjoying regular tai chi sessions on a Thursday led by Debbie Day, our head of activities, who’s also currently studying for a qualification in meditation. The many benefits of this ancient Chinese martial art include stress management and relaxation, reduction in blood pressure and bone loss, improvements in lower body and leg strength as well as mental capacity and concentration, better sleep and some relief from pain.
Here at Cedars, we’re always keen to try new things here to further our therapeutic and spiritual journey. So when we learned that our operations manager Caron Sanders-Crook is a certified gong master, we couldn’t wait to ask her to hold a sound bath session with her gong, chimes and Tibetan singing bowls!
Caron, who trained for 18 months to be a sound healing practitioner, guided the residents through the session into a relaxed and mellow afternoon. The sound of a gong helps the brain to achieve a state of deep relaxation, while the Tibetan singing bowls vibrate when played, producing a deep and rich tone. Used by Tibetan monks, these are said to promote relaxation and offer powerful healing properties. Overall, sound therapy is increasingly known for helping to improve physical health as well as mental and emotional wellbeing.
Debbie says: “It really was an incredible experience for us to have as a group, and we each took different things away from it. The peace released by listening to the amazing sound of the gong could be felt all over the body. I did wonder how the group would take to something so new and different, but they loved it, couldn’t stop talking about it and want to do it again! It just proves how life is enriched by new experiences, and age is no barrier to that.”
She adds: “We’re thinking about doing a summer session in the garden and inviting staff and families along.”
“It was a wonderful experience for me, too, and one of my favourite days ever!” says Caron. “To share my passion with people who had never experienced anything like the sound of the gong, Tibetan bowls or chimes was simply magical. We sat for a while afterwards and talked about our individual experience of the session. Their response and interest were unexpected and refreshing. I was delighted that the residents asked me to come back and do it again, but this time I will be bringing all my gongs!”
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